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      January 23, 2015Signs and WondersTed Eisenberg

      If the dance of a leaf in the wind
      is not a woman in disguise,
      then I am not a man
      and know nothing of holiness.
      If the wind is not a plea
      to change my ways,
      the sap of maple
      not an expression of mother’s milk,
      the autumn rain
      not a lament for Adam;
      if papers dropped by strangers
      are only papers,
      and not reminders,
      and peeling paint not portent;
      if dreams are only dreams,
      and not stories my father neglected,
      what’ll I do.

      from #45 - Fall 2014

      Ted Eisenberg

      “I am the president of a synagogue in New Jersey. My sense is that to believe is less important in Judaism than to sanctify life. Irrespective of belief, do the ‘right thing.’ Help the poor, our doubts notwithstanding. In so doing, we mimic an idea of the divine and perfect the world. Even in a doubt-filled and fragmented cosmos, belief makes its stand. If I feel myself as an isolated part—from what whole am I parted? Poetry grasps disparate bits of experience and joins them in the mind’s light. This interconnectedness resonates with the oneness of an overarching mind. Perhaps our thinking partakes of ‘The Idea.’”

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