Netanel Miles-Yépez
after the death of his son
reb levi yitzhak they say
prayed from ‘a small siddur’*
he was known for his long prayers
taking his time to warm them up slowly
to make a fire bold out of old dry wood
but in the year of his grief he could not
hold that dense book of profound gratitude
too heavy for so heavy a heart broken
perhaps he wound them up quickly that year
or maybe he didn’t even pray to the taking-god
giving in return only a small ungrateful siddur
but i think he merely forgot his prayers
forgot how to pray for anything in the absence
of the one thing that made them worthwhile
lost in a lethean river-wash of sorrow
there were no prayers to be said because
there was no reb levi yitzhak to say them
not as he had ever been or known himself to be
lost to himself afloat on a bark in that river known
only to the living who’ve known the death of a love
the ones who make the silent prayer of the dead
* Netanel Miles-Yépez is a poet, artist, and Sufi spiritual teacher residing in Boulder, Colorado.Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev was one of the most beloved of all the masters of the Hasidic tradition, known for his great compassion and joy, as well as his powerful prayers. But in the year of his son's death, the Hasidim say that "he prayed from a small siddur" or prayerbook.