Ben Yehuda Press is proud to present:
Three new books of Jewish poetry
The House at the Center of the World:
Poetic Midrash on Sacred Space
In his piercing debut collection, The House at the Center of the World, poet and scholar Abe Mezrich offers a series of beautifully composed short insights on some of the most elusive passages of the Torah: the second half of Exodus, the entirety of Leviticus, and the beginning of Numbers. At once powerful close readings of the text and deeply spiritual literature, these roughly seventy short pieces “carry ethical implications all the way from the ancient era right to the present day” (Dan Friedman, Managing Editor of The Forward). “Direct and accessible,” these poems “remind us that our Creator is forgiving, that the spiritual and physical can inform one another, and that the supernatural can be carried into the everyday.” (Yehoshua November, author of God’s Optimism)
More information….
we who desire
Poems and Torah riffs
From Genesis to Deuteronomy, from Bereshit to Zot Haberacha, from Eden to Gaza, from Eve to Emma Goldman, we who desire interweaves the mythic and the mundane as it follows the arc of the Torah with carefully chosen words, astute observations, and deep emotion.
“we who desire began as daily writing practice, a poem on the weekly Torah portion. I refined, edited, slashed, leaving only those words that tell a story, the real story of creation and covenant, liberation and desire. Especially desire. I have turned it and turned it for decades, this manual of instruction, this text that called me into forever. Turned it until the words felt right, until I was able to admit its hold on me. Fire and splendor. Fire and splendor.” —Sue Swartz
More information….
Open My Lips
Prayers and Poems
“Rachel Barenblat’s latest offering is truly beautiful – moving, ethereal, grounded, accessible and profound. Her words will nourish the journeys of anyone who opens the book’s pages, connecting the deeply personal to the larger currents of time and life to the Source Within and Beyond Us All.”
— Rabbi Wendi Geffen, North Shore Congregation Israel, Chicago IL
