Rosh Hashonah

Nancy Shiffrin

About Nancy Shiffrin

I’m the author of 3 collections of poetry: The Vast Unknowing, Infinity Publishing, 2012, Game With Variations and Flight, forthcoming from wordpoetrypress.com. My prose writings have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, Shofar, Humanistic Judaism, The Canadian Jewish Outlook and other publications.

About Rosh Hashonah

Shmitah and Rosh Hashonah by Nancy Shiffrin So what does my poem, “Rosh Hashonah”, have to do with shmita, the seventh year, the shabbat of agriculture, the year we let the land lie fallow, the year the earth rests, so that crops may flourish in the future? It is an act of faith, of release, of forgiveness of debts, of public reading of the law. It is an act of proud expression of Jewish life. As was the celebration for Judge Ginsberg. Ruth Bader Ginsberg died, or was released from the life, erev Rosh Hashonah, a millenial year for Jews. As shmita is a pubic event, benefiting t he community, so was this very public celebration of the life of a great Jewish prophet.