THE WOMEN

THE WOMEN

- Joy Krauthammer

In the noon day sun

four friends fill the new grave 

up to the top 

filling all corners, edges, spaces, depth

so the deceased is not left 

uncovered, alone 

in her exposed plain wood coffin

after family and community 

say Kaddish prayer,

add their shovels of rock-filled 

bone-dry heavy earth

and leave cemetery

for mourners’ Meal of Consolation.

Grieving daughter stays behind.

Female friends don't wait

for the grave-digger workmen 

to come later to do their 'job'.

Friends with daughter

do their final mitzvah / good deed

for her beloved mom, Rose,

of blessed memory 

and with their long-handled steel shovels

give her a blanket of love.

Daughter receives the comfort 

given in chesed / loving-kindness

and knows her beloved mother

Raizel bat Mordechai v’ Baila

is cared for

and her soul can soar

to Shamayim / heaven.

May She be Bound in the Bond of Eternal Life.

May Rose's memory be for a blessing.

-  with love from Joy Krauthammer

Friend, I hold you in my heart.

May The Compassionate One comfort you among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

Hamakom y'nachem etkhem b'tokh sh'ar avelei Tziyon v'Yerushalayim.

~

Daughter Hare, with Joy, Barbara and Marianne

Levaya / Funeral April 15, 2011

8 Nissan, 5771

~

Photo (c) Nathan

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TICHEL TYING

Ruthie Fogelman teaches Joy to Tie Tichels

Old City, Jerusalem, October 1997

Ten Years Later ~ Tichel Tying

  dedicated to Ruthie in the Old City

- Joy Krauthammer

  

How your "purple friend," me, laughed with glee

as you taught me to tie and wrap

pretty colorful tichels / scarves

around my uncovered head

and not just wear any old shmatah.

  

So I could be tzniut / modest

because then-- I was a "married woman"

in the Holy Land.

Transformed, I turned into a hip, tichel-tied modest woman

by my friend Ruthie in the Old City.

  

Looking "single" with uncovered head,

and my then dark wavy hair framing my face,

not today's silver locks,

I did not desire

Israeli men's reputed advances.

I would look married!

  

Now I am advised that I have become "single."

I won't use the "w" word

(sounds like a red-belly black spider).

"In transition" sounds good.

  

Studying Torah hours a day,

"married to G*d," is what I safely say

when questioned

about my marital status.

I'm not ready to play.

  

I need to return for another lesson,

"Return to the Land of My Soul,"

as my Rebbes Shlomo and David sang,

both of blessed memory.

But, oh, I am no longer married.

  

I still cover my head in shul,

so will take from you,

my friend, my holy purple-loving soul sister, Ruthie,

another tichel teaching

with multi-layers and creative hippie fringe,

and keep uplifted, to the top of my head,

my kedusha / holiness

as I did when

we first tied tichels
exactly ten years ago.

   ~ ~ ~

THIS MOMENT

    HAIKU

Double Delight
 Joy's garden
© Joy Krauthammer

THIS MOMENT

 - Joy Krauthammer

Love bursting spring bud;
my heart swells to bloom brightly;
in Oneness we are.

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