
A Jew neither wants nor is able to be sundered from G‑dliness.
– HaYom Yom, Sivan 21 & Tamuz 25
My father said: Coldness and heresy are separated by so slender a barrier! It is stated, “For the Eternal your G-d is a consuming fire.” G-dliness is a flame of fire. Learning Torah and praying must be with a blazing heart, that “all my bones may utter” the words of G-d in Torah and prayer.
– HaYom Yom, Shevat 16
The sparkle of the arctic ice at sunset
bejeweled and so tantalizingly close
dazzled my eyes enough
to lure me outside.
Now peering through a frosted window
at my family gathered round a crackling fire
I shiver beneath the scrutinizing stars
while my orphaned chair
basks in the frolicking light.
My eyes from a self-portrait
stab at my trembling heart
as it pines for that image.
I shove the creaking door hard enough
for the smoky warmth to tingle my nose
and grace my blue lips
as they silently and solemnly swear
to keep both feet inside
from now on.