Temptations by Zelda

פיתויים / זלדה

Tonight I want to meditate about a poem by Zelda, the princess Sheina Zelda Schneerson Mishkovsky. In addition to being a first cousin of Ramash she was a granddaughter of Peretz Chein.

First the background: “In 1935, 21-year-old Zelda was plunged into an arid desert with no visible borders. She feels her life passing empty, without meaning and without the joy of creation. Zelda knew she had an extraordinary talent for drawing and writing because her high school friends and teachers supported and encouraged her. But Zelda's mother, a traditional woman, concerned about her daughter, worried about modesty, the exposure that would come with publicity. She didn’t encourage Zelda to draw or write.

During those years, Zelda lived with her mother in Jerusalem, worked as a teacher, and, despite her devotion to her students, felt she was not in the right place. “The teaching is killing me,” she wrote in a letter. Zelda had to give up painting studies at Bezalel that were so enchanting to her, and she wrote poems on scraps of paper, as a refuge. At this stage of her life, a book of poetry is out of the question. Her first book was published decades later, in 1967, two years after her mother passed away.”

The poem 'Temptations' was written in her twenties and was only recently discovered in the archive of Zelda writings.

פיתויים / זלדה (1938)
לַיְלָה־לַיְלָה מְפַתֶּה אוֹתִי-
הָאַיִן.
לַיְלָה־לַיְלָה פּוֹתֵחַ הַמָּוֶת
לְפָנַי אֶת גַּנָּיו.
לַיְלָה־לַיְלָה נָסִים חַיַּי
כַּנָּהָר
מֵעֵדֶן הָאֲבַדּוֹן
אֶל יְשִׁימוֹן הַיֵּשׁ.

In this poem, Zelda contemplates יֵשׁ and אַיִן

Night after night אַיִן is tempting (seducing) me.
Night after night, death opens in front of me its gardens.
Night after night, my life escapes out like the river
From the Eden of devastation
To the wilderness of יֵשׁ

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Often people are allowed to be themselves only after the death of their parents…