Book Review: LaKol Z’man
Katja Grynberg reviews LaKol Z’man – A Time For Everything by Yossi Huttler. This tiny book of tiny poems takes the reader through the year, month by month, on a journey of changing emotions and spirituality.
Words reflect anxieties and prayers, joy and hope, with gem-like simplicity. It is a religious young man’s journey, through the Jewish calendar; also a mosaic of the time he dealt with cancer. His words meditate on differently lived months. They celebrate Jewish holydays and observance. Some poems written earlier, have been added to more recent ones. They are condensed into a year’s thoughts, beginning with the first Jewish month, Nissan and the poem, Bedikas Chametz where he ‘trains a light on those places he’d been wanting not to know.’ Each month reflects textures of that time year; earlier times are revisited, re-expressed. The poems reflect changing perspectives; reality shifts over time. Religious festivities, part of a predictable continuum, celebrate life and perhaps make it easier dealing with unpredictability. He hopes his words will inspire and allow others to appreciate and explore a Jewish life – ‘bring good tidings, exhortations to self-defence… extinguish all my enemies with but one breath.’
