‘Tzir Kissufim* — Route of Longing’
Translated from the Hebrew by Toby Klein Greenwald
A felled tree.
Nothing more
Will be as it will be
And the ax that has shattered and will bow
Beneath it, His voice is heard
From one end of the world
To the other.
The waysides are shorn and haunted now
To intensify security
If the Lord protect not the route
In vain labored the guard.
Five souls fly heavenward, howling
From one end of the world
To the other
The Route of Longing is blocked
Our heart
Uncircumcised, is cracked,
No more
Will things be as they were
Before.
Why will the headlines cry,
“Where is your G-d?”
And our G-d, who is in our books —
All that He desired, He did
As our strength waned
The slender membrane was torn
In our virginal innocence
The voice strides
From one end of the world
To the other
The remainders of worlds plunged
Without Him
To the depths of an infinite pit
Will this be the last roar?
That which has been cut down
Arise
Maiden of Israel
The sons are distressed
No strength remains for birthing:
When the broken heart will open in the last roar for life
It will transform into a first cry
Of a wonder born,
A twig — from fertile roots
The Route of Longing opens
In the darkness to all who will it
G-d who lives and protects and saves and answers
To all who call upon Him in truth
As the longings howl heavenward from one end of the world
To the other:
And I have betrothed you forever
And you knew the essence of the Lord.
Amen.
The above poem is part of a series by Ruhama Shapira, who lives with her husband and four children in Shirat Hayam (“Song of the sea”), a community located on the seashore of Gush Katif in Gaza. Her husband, Shmuel, is the rabbi of the community and together they direct a regional center for teenagers who, in her words, “are seeking God, and seeking to comfort the child who is broken inside of them.” She wrote this poem in the summer of 2004, following the 30-day memorial service for Tali Hatuel and her four daughters, who were murdered by terrorists on Tzir Kissufim. During the memorial service, Shapira and her husband, their children and other mourners were shot at by Palestinians and had to run for cover.
*Tzir kissufim, literally “route of longing(s),” is the name of the main thoroughfare that leads into Gush Katif. In Hebrew, “tzir” also means “birth contraction” and “emissary.”
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