Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A ZEMERLY FOR RABBI NACHMAN: 2. THE RABBI IN TOWN, by DAVID RYTMAN SLAVITT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A ZEMERLY FOR RABBI NACHMAN: 2. THE RABBI IN TOWN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: But in town, what? In bratslav or zlatipolia
Last Line: "that penetrates your being. And all being."
Alternate Author Name(s): Sutton, Henry Benjamin; Slavitt, David R.
Subject(s): Clergy; Religion; Towns; Priests; Rabbis; Ministers; Bishops; Theology


But in town, what? In Bratslav or Zlatipolia,
surrounded by crowds? What can one do?
Try
to take some comfort: a single person's prayers
God may reject; but in shul, in a minyan, bound up
with the prayers and the hearts of others, surely, the Lord
will hear your supplication.
And when that idea
fails to comfort?
Then, as the Rebbe said,
"One can dance such a small and delicate dance
that no one can see. And also one can scream
in a still, small voice, making a great scream
that no one else can hear, without a sound,
a scream in the silence, a scream your mind imagines
that penetrates your being. And all being."





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