By admin | Published:
June 14, 2009
End The Game
“Everyone has times of expanded and constricted consciousness,” said the Baal Shem Tov, “but one can also reach levels from which one does not fall. When a father wants to play with his little child, he hides his face with his hand, and then shows his face to him– doing this again and again. But the father’s pleasure is even greater when the child is clever enough to push his father’s hand away, so that it no longer conceals his face. God’s glory fills the earth and there is no place where He is not present. When it seems that He is absent, He is merely hiding His face from you. But if you know that He is hiding, there is no more concealment. If you truly want the game to end, and to see Him always, push your Father’s hand away to see His face.”
From my book The Light and Fire of the Baal Shem Tov
What does it mean to “push away God’s hand”?
By admin | Published:
June 11, 2009
Eternal Rest
Eternal rest is not idleness; for idleness occasions a languor, listlessness, stupor, and drowsiness of the mind and thence of the whole body; and these things are death and not life, still less eternal life in which the angels of heaven are.
Emanuel Swedenborg in Swedenborg: His Life and Teaching, 177
Yitzhak Buxbaum is an inspired and inspiring teacher and storyteller, one of those reviving the honorable calling of the Maggid (preacher), who in times past travelled from community to community to awaken Jews to the beauty of their tradition.
Author of numerous publications Yitzhak has lectured and told stories at synagogues, JCC’s, Y’s, Hillels, and retreats, producing enthusiastic responses. He has taught at CAJE conferences, Havurah Movement Summer Institutes, the Elat Chayyim Jewish Retreat Center, the New York Open Center, the New Age Center (Nyack, N.Y.) and the renowned New School for Social Research (New York, N.Y.).
In his Multifaith Maggids, Rev. Buxbaum shares teachings and stories recorded in his spiritual notebooks over the course of twenty years from extensive reading about most of the world’s religions.
http://www.jewishspirit.com/
By admin | Published:
June 2, 2009

J.P. Dancing Bear, author of such acclaimed works as Gacela of Narcissus City, Billy Last Crow, and What Language, has written a new book of poetry, entitled Conflicted Light. The collection, noted as showcasing “the vitality of contemporary American verse”, will be available soon.
By admin | Published:
May 21, 2009
Orpheus and Company: Contemporary Poems on Greek Mythology
is a poetry anthology edited by Deborah DeNicola that includes celebrated poems by Mark Strand, Jorie Graham, Louise Gluck, Sherod Santos, Jack Gilbert, Linda Gregg, Stephen Dobyns, Rita Dove, as well as a number of emerging poets.
“There are many beautiful and deeply moving poems in this fine anthology, thanks to DeNicola’s careful editorial practice. It is indicative of how far archaic and classical Greek literature has permeated American poetry that this book can reach such a high level at success: at times the poems almost have an Augustan ring to them, pace modernism, such is their poignance and allusion. It is an important volume.”
—The Harvard Review
By admin | Published:
May 15, 2009
TIFERET Journal will only read submissions September through June.
All submissions must be made electronically through website.
Hard copy submissions will not be read or returned.
For more information please visit our Submissions page.
By admin | Published:
April 28, 2009
“When And Why Did Poetry Lose Its Mass Appeal?”
(Or did it? Or, for that matter, did it ever have one?)

Paul Muldoon. Photo by Frank Wojciechowski
For the last two days I attended the inaugural “Princeton Poetry Festival,” organized by Paul Muldoon (Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, poetry editor of The New Yorker, Princeton professor). It featured a feast of world-renowned poets, including Seamus Heaney, John Ashbery, Galway Kinnell, Lucille Clifton, Tina Chang, Durs Grunbein, Michael Hoffmann, Naomi Shihab Nye, and several other wonderful poets. Take a look at the
festival web site
and you’ll see the full array of poets who treated us to a surprisingly powerful experience.
Read More »
By admin | Published:
April 9, 2009
Poets from around the world will read and share their work during the inaugural “Princeton Poetry Festival” Monday and Tuesday, April 27-28 in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall, Princeton University. The event is free and open to the public but pre-registration is required. Readings and discussions will run from 2 to 10 p.m. each day.
World-acclaimed poets participating include Durs Grünbein of Germany, Michael Hofmann of the United Kingdom, and Seamus Heaney of Ireland. American poets taking part are John Ashbery, Tina Chang, Lucille Clifton, Michael Dickman, Matthea Harvey, Naomi Shihab Nye, Gerald Stern, Ellen Doré Watson, Kevin Young, and C.K. Williams, as well as three distinguished poets who are graduates of Princeton’s world-renowned Program in Creative Writing, Galway Kinnell ‘48, Sally Van Doren ‘84, and Troy Jollimore, ‘99.
By admin | Published:
April 9, 2009
Submit your entry today! Writing Awards Doubled to $500 Each.
More information here>>
By admin | Published:
April 9, 2009
Please check the calendar for new posted upcoming events for this month.
Featuring:
* Through 4/11: The Annual Poets House Showcase
* 4/13: Celebrating Constantine P. Cavafy
* 4/17: Radical Precision: The Poetry of Stephen Dunn
* 4/23: From the Dark Spring of Language: The Poetry and Prose of Unica Zürn
See you there!
www.poetshouse.org
By admin | Published:
March 27, 2009