70 faces: Torah Poems - Rachel Barenblat (Phoenicia)

The poems in 70 faces are written in response to the weekly Torah portions in the Jewish lectionary. One by one they converse with the texts in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy -- the legal material alongside the narrative parts of the Torah, the texts which are easy for moderns to relate to alongside the texts which may challenge us and our theologies. An excerpt of the collection is available online: 70 faces.

"Rachel Barenblat’s Torah poems open the doorway into sacred text so that we can walk in and make it our home. She invites us to bring all of our passion, doubt, humor, humility and chutzpah as we encounter these ancient words and bring them to Life.” - Rabbi Shefa Gold, author of Torah Journeys

Rachel Barenblat holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She is a Jewish Renewal rabbi, ordained in January of 2011. Since 2003 she has blogged as The Velveteen Rabbi; in 2008, her blog was named one of the top 25 blogs on the internet by TIME. This is her first full-length poetry collection.

About Phoenicia Publishing
Phoenicia Publishing, located in Montreal, publishes poetry, non-fiction, fiction, and photography, and is interested in "words and images that illuminate culture, spirit, and the human experience." The press's founder, Elizabeth Adams, says that a particular interest is on writing about travel between cultures — whether literally or more metaphorically — with the goal of enlarging our understanding of one another through experiences of change, displacement, disconnection, assimilation, sorrow, gratitude, longing and hope.

Rachel Barenblat: 70 Faces: Torah Poems
100 pages; $13.95

related links: human condition, philosophical, poetry