This Feels Like a Lifeline Connected

Touching this feels like a lifeline,
Connected.
I hear Barbra singing Poppa.
I see her at the Statue of Liberty in Yentl.
I see my Grandpa Ben,
And
I feel him kissing me on the keppee.
Ah, there’s my grandfather, my namesake,
Louis
Elijah,
Eliyahu
Ayelet.
Connected,
Touching this tallis feels like a lifeline.

This tallis I wrap,
Wrapped and feeling warm.
It is the warmth of a hand.
This hand,
His hand,
As we sat in the pew.
The big hand on his suit pant covered knee,
Fingers ever so slightly moving threads,
Over and under the knots,
Touching the tzitzit,
Counting two by two
While sitting in the pew,
Looking for the thread that’s blue.
The warmth,
Wrapped,
Feelings,
Connected.

The hug with the tinge of Old Spice.
The glow of knowing your tallis.
The one well worn,
In your own religious ways,
And those eight pm Sundays.
Evenings we drove
To minyan,
To count to ten
Men.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
OK? Yes.
Minyan let’s begin.
It was our time.
And though, back then,
I didn’t officially make the quorum.
One day,
They would come to include women.
Counted,
Connected
Wrapped,
Feeling warmth in this tallis and tefillin.

This tallis and now Mom has one, too.
She’s here,
We’re here,
With something new.
“What?”, you ask.
A guardian angel is in our pew.
Believe in,
Believin’
Wrapped in tallit and tefillin, anew.
We sit in the pew,
Le Petite Prince and I,
With our seahorse spirit—
Ah—That’s it!
1. the keypah
2. the atarah
3. the tallis
4. the shel yad
5. the shel rosh
6. the stitzit
7. the knots
8. the betrothal
9. the shema
10. the four corners
Ah, that’s where I’ll begin.
That’s where I belong,
To count this minyan,
That I’ll wrap myself in.

And one day,
I acknowledge,
We’ll be together again.
The lifeline,
That envelopes us,
As this tallis does,
One thread after another,
One generation becomes another,
Connected.

We are one.
One,
Yet not alone.
We’ve shone,
From star to star,
Near and far,
Shining,
Intertwining,
Touching,
Connecting.
This tallis,
This tefillin,
This angel,
Believe In,
Believing.
Because one day, I know,
Come rain, sun or snow,
My kids will touch these too,
While counting threads
In a pew
With you.

Dedication: Dr. Hope Blecher Croney is an author, artist, educational consultant, and the founder of a nonprofit. She weaves together her many facets and interests throughout her work and volunteer days and nights. This poem is dedicated to her mom, Helen Dorothy Gilman Blecher who continues to defy the odds and has a wonderful guardian angel. She dedicates this to her children, Loren and Colin, and her father, Louis Blecher of blessed memory, who sat among the generations in the pews. Hope thanks Josh Ull who patiently taught her about wrapping tefillin. She acknowledges Sharon Landecker who took her concept and created the beautiful tallis for Hope to wrap herself in. To the ones to come, may you smile, pray, and stay awhile. L’dor v’ dor!