About this item
The Jewish High Holidays -- the ten days beginning with the New Year Festival of Rosh Hashanah and culminating with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement -- constitute the most sacred period of the Jewish year. During this season, religious as well as nonaffiliated Jews attend synagogue services in unparalleled numbers. Yet much of what they find there can be unwelcoming in its patriarchal imagery, leaving many worshipers unsatisfied. For those seeking to connect more deeply with their Judaism, and for all readers in search of a contemplative approach to the themes of the fall season, poet and scholar Marcia Falk re-creates the holidays key prayers and rituals from an inclusive perspective. Among the offerings in The Days Between are Hebrew and English blessings for festive meals, prayers for synagogue services, and poems and meditations for quiet reflection. Emphasizing introspection as well as relationship to others, Falk evokes her vision of the High Holidays as "ten days of striving to keep the heart open to change." Accessible and welcoming to modern readers, The Days Between is steeped in traditional sources and grounded in liturgical and biblical scholarship. It will serve as a meaningful alternative or supplement to the traditional liturgy for individuals, families, synagogues, and communities small and large -- that is, for all who seek fresh meaning in the High Holidays.
About the Author
Marcia Falk was born in New York City and grew up in a traditional Jewish home on Long Island, where she was immersed in Jewish learning and Hebrew language from an early age. As a teenager, Marcia fled the suburbs for Manhattan, to take classes at the Art Students League and the Jewish Theological Seminary. She graduated Brandeis University, magna cum laude, in Philosophy, and went on to Stanford, where she earned a doctorate in English and Comparative Literature, translating the biblical Song of Songs into English poetry for her dissertation. Along the way, she studied Hebrew language and literature as a Fulbright scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, to which she returned, five years later, as a Postdoctoral Fellow. Marcia was a professor of literature, Jewish studies, and creative writing for many years at the State University of New York at Binghamton and the Claremont Colleges. Today she is a popular public speaker, giving readings, talks, and workshops on subjects ranging from Jewish women's voices to the love poetry of the Bible. She has published several books of poetry and translations Hebrew and Yiddish, as well as a groundbreaking re-creation of Jewish liturgy, The Book of Blessings, which has garnered international attention. The Days Between is that book's long-awaited sequel. In the past two decades, Marcia has returned to her first love, painting. Among her recent projects is a series of mizrachs??wall hangings that bring together visual images with blessings and poems. Marcia lives in Berkeley with her spouse, the poet Steve Rood. They are the parents of a twenty-five year-old, Abraham Gilead Falk-Rood (aka Abby) .
