For the Love of Judaism
Rabbi Michael Pont, Senior Rabbi at Marlboro Jewish Center, shares his message of love, inspiration and Torah.
For the Love of Judaism
Sleeping As Fast As I Can
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Richard Michelson is an award-winning author, poet and artist who is well known for his contributions to the cannon of Jewish writing. His newest collection, Sleeping As Fast As I Can is a four-part book of poetry that is equal parts political and personal as it explores everything from gun violence and social justice, to his relationship with Judaism and the struggle of an aging parent.
In this week's episode, Rich and Rabbi Pont talk about everything from this amazing new collection, his Jewish journey, a surprise phone call from Maurice Sendak and an inspiring dinner with Leonard Nimoy. Don't miss it!
D'Aloam, I am Rabbi Michael Pont, and this is For the Love of Judaism, and I'm thrilled today to have with us on the program the poet and artist Richard Michelson. Richard's poetry collections include More Money Than God, Battles and Lullabies, and Tap Dancing for the Relatives. He wrote the libretto for the off-Broadway musical theater piece, Dear Edward, and his children's books have been on the top 10 lists of the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and The New Yorker. Richard has received a National Jewish Book Award and two Sidney Taylor Gold Medals from the Association of Jewish Libraries. He is the owner of our Michelson Galleries in Northampton, Massachusetts. So, Rich, welcome to the program. It is great to have you on.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you, Rabbi. I've been looking forward to meeting you even online and chatting a little bit.
SPEAKER_00All right. So let's uh let's get into it. So you have a brand new collection of poems entitled Sleeping as Fast as I Can. And it literally just came out a few weeks ago. So congratulations on that achievement. Thank you so much. What are the themes and issues that inspired you that you address in this new collection?
SPEAKER_01Well, the collection actually came out just purely by happenstance on Yom Hashoa. And uh certainly Jewish history and how it conflates with what we're living through today is a big part of the book. Uh the last five or six years since when I was writing this book, as a from my earlier book, uh, have been difficult times, in my view, for the country, also somewhat difficult times for myself personally. So the book is in four sections. Uh, the first section is really has to do with the political climate today. Uh, I know this is not a political show, uh, but uh my sympathies are quite out there. Um, and uh and frankly, I was astounded by the spike in anti-Semitism rhetoric and action, things that I did not think would come about again in my lifetime. Uh so the first section is um about Jewish history, how it compares to what we are going through today, certainly the uh numerous gun murders. Basically, every day we wake up to a new gun massacre. The second section of the book goes from there into my own personal history. Uh, I grew up in East New York, Brooklyn. When I was born, it was probably 95% Jewish. Uh, we were one of the last white families in the neighborhood. And my dad, over 40 years ago now, uh was a victim of gun violence back there in the neighborhood. He did not survive. And I have dedicated my life to helping to heal racial wounds and also trying to curb gun violence and fight for gun safety. It is certainly a battle that I am losing every day, but there's nothing we can do to keep on going. So, in the second section of the book, I talk about my mom and my dad, uh, their history, their life. Uh, my mother also, during this uh last period of time, was diagnosed with dementia and passed away. Um, certainly not alone. So many people in this country are dealing with parents uh who are suffering with dementia. And it's both hard and fascinating in some ways to see the person that you love become a different person. And yet, my mom and I were very close. Uh, I still loved her very much, uh, but she was not the mother I grew up with. For me, it's interesting. Who are the people we are deep inside? And when we lose that, how do we still keep those relationships? There's a section uh that has to do much more with uh Jewish history itself. And uh also I re-tackle the Passover Agada um with my own prayers, rewriting some of those that we visit every year. And there's one more section. I'm not supposed to say this probably, but it's a section where all the poems are that didn't fit in the other sections. Right. So miscellaneous.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, miscellaneous. We don't call it that, but that's what it is. Well, Richard, there's a lot to unpack there. I mean, I guess every poet put some of his or her own feeling and experience into their work. And you've shared with us something intimate that you're no exception. I'm sorry for your losses, both of your father, you know, I guess that was decades ago, and then of your mother more recently from dementia. I guess so you said that your father was a victim of gun violence. And, you know, you could have become embittered from that experience, but instead it inspired you to try and address the problems and to improve race relations and specifically to try and improve this awful scourge of gun violence in our country. Um, I know it does seem like a losing battle, but I agree with you. We have to try. If we don't try, then certainly nothing will improve. But you are trying, and that inspires me. So I'm so glad to hear that that tragedy early in your life moved you to try and do good, try and make the world a better place.
SPEAKER_01That is what we do in this world. You know, nobody's untouched. Everybody has their own issues, you know, just as in this country, I forget the statistics, I do know them, but they've gone out of my head now. There's barely a family that isn't touched in some way. Um, you know, a cousin, a relative, a close member, a friend who um has been a victim of gun violence. Uh we all, you know, deal with various illnesses, you know, whether it's dementia or other. So I'm hoping, you know, that exactly what you said, I'm hoping that through my work, you know, that people will both be moved and hopefully moved to get involved. Uh writing poetry is uh for me my profession almost. I mean, I do it every day, but I don't think of it as a special in any way. You know, to me, sometimes I feel guilty. I remember when there was the hurricanes in New Orleans years ago, you know, and I I sat and uh and wrote some poetry and I was interviewed by numerous newspapers. Uh my wife went down and helped with the drywalling, and uh nobody spoke to her. You know, so uh, you know, as a writer, you're sometimes in funny places. You know, it's a craft for me. I'm no different than somebody who's a fine carpenter who's trying to do the best they can do. Uh, but uh, you know, when I look at the teachers every day who are on the front lines of trying to hard knowledge to future generations, and nowadays they're worrying about their own safety and uh not getting paid nearly what they should and are overlooked. So, you know, I do my small part, my pebble in the stream that hopefully will ripple, and we all need to do what we can do, what we're good at.
SPEAKER_00Agreed. And you know, you mentioned your mother and her dementia diagnosis. I'm sure as a as a writer, that impacts you as well because it seems to me that memory is really foundational. It's the essence of what makes us human. If we can't remember who we are, if we can't remember our past, um we feel totally disconnected. And that's why I think that in Judaism, there are so many prayers that focus on memory. Whenever we say the mourner's kaddish, we're remembering our loved one. We're remembering what was important about them, what inspires us about them. That's just one example. And I think there's so much emphasis on memory in the Jewish tradition.
SPEAKER_01And and I think it's uh it's rightfully so. Uh certainly something that you know has influenced my life. We all want to be remembered in our own way in some way or another. And there are a number of poems in this book that directly address that. You know, at one point, uh my mom sat down to write her own obituary. And, you know, another line, if I can find it quickly, where uh she says, My life story is missing, my mother says, Who will tell it? So, you know, there's there's that sort of thing. There's a number of poems called Remembering. It's it's what we do, it's how we live, and uh and I think it's important.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. So you definitely tackle some troubling societal problems, but there's also a lot of humor. Tell us about that. How do you balance that contrast?
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, this is how Jews have survived, right? For millennia. There is something called Jewish humor, you know, and it's necessary. I don't want this book to sound, you know, I'm tackling hard subjects, but had a few reviews where also people say it's funny as hell. Um, if it's depressing one after another, you lose your readers. I mean, it's that simple. People need to laugh. That that's you know, that's what Jews have been. That's that's how we've gotten through everything from time immemorial. It's almost baked into our DNA. Uh, and I think it's healthy. I think it's healthy. Um, you know, I I I joke in one of my interviews, you know, what's the difference between a Jewish optimist and a Jewish pessimist? You know, a Jewish pessimist says things can't get any worse, and a Jewish optimist says yes, they can. Uh, you know, uh so I think that even in dark times, the humor in your situation, uh, if you can stand outside and look, is there? We're human, our bodies, how we're put together, how we live. And I think that to ignore that, uh, and to also ignore the beauty. I mean, so much of what my poems try to address is how do we live in a world that is both dangerous, unnerving, and not the world we hope for, and yet not overlook the beauty of this world. It's full of kindness. Uh, even in the darkest hours, uh, it's full of kindness, it's full of beauty. Look around, walk outside. For me, one of the great paradoxes is it's full of great literature and plays and theater and music. My daughter's a composer. Uh, obviously, writing is important to me. What's fascinating to me, and I still don't know why, is you can read a poem or a book about somebody's death. And yet, if it's written well, there's an intrinsic pleasure in just the reading of it, just the telling of it. I don't think anyone would write if they didn't have hope. You know, even in the camps, people found ways to write poetry on a crust of bread or draw a picture. And that gave them hope, it gave them beauty, it gave them life. And we can look at, you know, some of the paintings and poems uh that came out of the direst of circumstances. Um when you read or see, there's a feeling of beauty and hope if it's well constructed. It's why it's you know, it's what we try to do as artists, I think. There's just something to be said for the aspiration that humans have. And with all we've been through uh and all the darkness, we're survivors.
SPEAKER_00That's what we do. Right. And I was thinking that also the idea of hope, that your humor maybe is like injections of hope into your work. I mean, you're addressing these you know really dark, difficult themes. But if if you don't give your readers any hope, then you know, then what kind of a message is that? That's what you're saying. That's also very Jewish. I mean, I've always thought that to be Jewish is to always have hope, to never give up. That as awful as one day can be, there's always the potential to make things better. Wearing my Jewish glasses, I see that, you know, all the time.
SPEAKER_01I like that. I like I like that Jewish glasses. I'm gonna use that. Thank you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Or viewing things through my Jewish prism, any metaphor you want. Now, uh, Rich, you knew the famous children's author, Maurice Sendak. Can you tell us about that? This is actually uh it's a good time for the question.
SPEAKER_01This is actually a segue from the last question, so it's very nice. Um, Maurice was a friend of mine. You know, I write children's books, as you mentioned. Many, many years ago, I wrote a children's book called Too Young for Yiddish. I'm happy to say my dear friend Leonard Nimoy recorded it uh later. But um, when the book was coming out, my publisher asked me, Who would you like to write a blurb? And I said, Well, it's too young for Yiddish. Uh, there's no one I could think of better to write a blurb than Maurice Sendak. And uh they said, Well, Maurice Sendak doesn't write blurbs. And I said, Well, I'm gonna send them the book anyways, because maybe he'll write me back a letter that says I don't write blurbs and I'll have an original Maurice Sendak uh signature. You know, I mean, why not? Uh Maurice, for people who don't know, was famously cantankerous. Um, you know, unlike many children's illustrators, he didn't particularly love children. It could be difficult and uh short. Uh but one day I was sitting in my office uh back uh and uh the phone rang and the caller ID said m sender. Now, if it were today, I would have snapped a uh a quick photo with my smartphone, but it was back then when we still had answering machines and the whole bit. And uh I picked up and I there wasn't even a hello. There was just, I don't write blurbs. And I said, Mr. Sendak. He said, Yes, he said, I liked your story, but I don't write blurbs. And I said, maybe you could write that down and mail it to me. You know, I can't tape this. Anyways, as we were getting off the conversation, as people do, he said, Well, I hope to meet you someday. I figured, uh, I've got chutzpah. Uh, when in life again is my answering machine gonna say M Sendak? I said, How about tomorrow? There was dead silence on the other line. And, you know, I put him in, he said, Well, I guess. So I drove down to meet him. Uh, but let's go back to the last question here. So when I met Maurice, he was working on the picture book Brundebar. For those in your audience who do not know, Brundebar was the opera that was performed at the Terizen concentration camps, which was the camp which uh was set up for the Red Cross, which the Nazis used to prove how well they were treating the Jews. Right. And the people who were sent there were often the artists, the musicians, the uh, you know, writers. And when the Red Cross would come, they would get tours of the terrorism concentration camp, and um the Nazis would show how well the Jews were treated, all the arts that they had, and they would put on a uh Brundabar, which was an opera. And what, of course, the Red Cross folks didn't know is after they left, the cast would be sent on to the concentration camps. It would be a new cast. Uh, my daughter, when she was young, she was asked to do a national tour of Brundebar, and and I remember that I would go to the, you know, the last performance, I think, was in Lincoln Center in New York City. And the woman, Ella Weisberg, I believe was her name, was the woman who played the what the lead in the last performance of Terra Zombie before it was liberated. And it made me feel very shallow because normally I would go to my daughter's play and say, Oh, I hope she sounds good, I hope she remembers the lines. And then suddenly I was going to meet a woman who performed in this literally for her life. Wow. And you realize, you know, the uh, you know, I realized the weight of it. So when I met Maurice, he was working on Brundabar. So I told him the story I just told you. And this was the story he told me. So he was having a hard time working on Brundabar, and it just wasn't gelling. And he didn't know why, he didn't know how to bring it together. And one day he got a call from Ella, and she said, I hear you're working on the book Brundabar. I was the lead in the last performance, et cetera. If you'd like to meet, uh, I can talk to you about it. And Maurice was very excited to do so. A few weeks later, he got a call from somebody else who was in that final performance. And they said, I heard you're working on a book, Brundebar. Uh and uh if you would like to talk to me, I'm happy to come and meet you. And Maurice said, I'd love to meet you. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, I had a meeting with Ella. And the woman said, Oh, Ella, well, now you won't want to talk to me. She was the big fancy star. I was just in the chorus. And at that moment, Maurice said to me, that was my entree into the book. I realized that no matter what the subject is, people are people with their gripes, with their loves, with their ups, with their downs. And if you treat anything like a museum piece or like, you know, uh are afraid to approach it without the humanity, you don't have anything. And so he said that gave him license to go back and realize it was people doing this. That's uh that was an interesting, um, interesting story, which you know, uh, when I write about uh things, if you write about sacred things, if you write about, you know, anything, you have to realize, or if you're reading that, we're all human. That's what brings us together, that's the base. And if you lose that human quality, if you're looking to create a work of art that does not involve everything, people in their good, in their bad, in their wise, in their uh silliness, you're not going to capture anything.
SPEAKER_00Right. Agreed. I love it. I love it. Speaking of Maurice Sendak, in addition to poetry, you also write children's books. So how is that different from writing for adults?
SPEAKER_01Well, unlike what most people think, uh, it's often more difficult. You know, your audience has a smaller frame of reference uh than adults do generally. You know, children are mostly uh interested in core emotions. Uh the other thing I think that people don't often realize, I also do try to tackle difficult subjects in my books. Uh, they're often used in you know, third and fourth grade classrooms to start conversations about racial issues, social justice issues. Sometimes, you know, people will say to me, Why are you talking about these problems with young children? Let them be children. And I think to myself that these people don't remember what school was like. They don't remember their own childhood. In a sense, children every day when they go to school are dealing with questions that are more important than most adults are. Uh, you know, children know right from wrong, uh, and they need to figure out, you know, how to fit in with their peers, when to speak out, when not to, uh, you know, uh who they are. Children are philosophers if you give them the chance and you actually talk to them about things. And children are not unaware of the problems that are going on in the world. Uh, as young as, you know, first, second graders, uh, you know, they know who they are, they know if people have different skin colors in their classrooms. The earlier you bring this stuff up and make it normal, the better it is. Children are entitled, I think, to the best writing and the best poetry and the best illustration because they're forming their visual vocabulary.
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SPEAKER_01And the things that they're encounter as a young age are things that they are going to bring throughout their lifetime.
SPEAKER_00Right. And you know, um, art and poetry, these are just these are other important ways through which we can express ourselves. Um, and you're you're especially in in your work with children, you're encouraging them um to do that. Absolutely. And what you said that, you know, there's more than one way to look at any given issue, um, that's also very Jewish. You know, after the Torah and the Bible, the idea of interpretation and debate is absolutely at the heart of you know, of Jewish identity. We're not supposed to accept, you know, the Torah as dogma. We're supposed to debate and try our best to interpret it. And those interpretations evolve over time. Our tradition can compares the Torah to flowing waters, and it's meant to be looked at again and again and again to try and really understand its essence and its meanings and how we should apply it to our lives. Rich, I have one last question for you. You know, many of your poems grapple with faith. So I was wondering, how does Judaism inform your work? Um, or does it?
SPEAKER_01You know, it's it's a it's an interesting question. Um, I grew up with no Jewish education of any kind whatsoever. I my mother was a avowed atheist. She uh was rebelling against an Orthodox father. I did not go to temple. In fact, when I married, uh I married a Methodist. Later on, my wife informed me when she was pregnant with our first child, that she was converting to Judaism. Wow. I thought she was out of her mind. She grew up, as I said, uh in a Methodist family with a strong faith uh and had wonderful memories of growing up. And she was attracted, you know, she's I should say now she's an interfaith minister. Um, but she was attracted to the faith, and she went and met with uh Rabbi Yahya Lander, uh who was at the time uh the rabbi at both Smith Amherst College uh and the Jewish community of Amherst. Uh there was such a small Jewish community in this town then that he was shared among everyone. Um and uh when my wife was one of the things, of course, that she had to do, and as part of her studying, was go to services. And uh she told me that I had to go with her at one point, and we went, and it just so happened that uh my wife was studying uh with Yachel in a class of two, herself and the other, Julius Lester. Oh wow. So Julius Lester, for those who don't know, started life as a black militant. Well, he was part of the civil rights movement. When I went in uh and saw Julius up there, Davening under his prayer shawl. I knew him only as, you know, a black militant fellow. What I didn't realize is what a wonderful sense of humor he has. Um, we ended up becoming dear, dear friends. And I also became friends with Yakya Lander. And the two of them, you know, as my wife was studying, I started reading. She kept asking me, What is why did you do this? What I would say, how do I know? Then uh, you know, I realized at one point that I considered myself an educated man. I knew Russian literature, I knew English literature, didn't know anything about where my own grandparents came from. I didn't know anything about who they were. And so I'm a writer. When I want to learn something, uh I start writing about it. That's how I learn something. I learned through my pen. My wife did end up, this is her story to tell, but she actually went into labor while in the mikveh. Wow. How's that for just in the nick of time? Right. But I started studying and I found uh that the tradition was incredibly varied, incredibly interested. Uh, as you said, we have a tradition of arguing with the holy books, uh, which fit into my personality very, very well. We have a uh tradition of arguing with God. Uh so I started, I started writing. And at one point I was asked, uh I was still writing about my life, uh, and I was asked by a publisher to write a book, a children's book called A Is for Abraham, a Jewish family alphabet. And I turned them down because while I was now interested, I, you know, I was not the person to write for the next generation of children to teach them about Judaism. And uh I was having dinner with Leonard, Leonard Nimoy was one of my closest friends, and uh I told him I had just turned this down, and he said to me, Rich, when I decide whether to take a job, I decide, does it scare me? And if it scares me, I do it. If it doesn't, I don't, because I'm not gonna learn anything. And uh he convinced me that in fact I was the perfect person to write this book because I had the same questions that children would have about Judaism. Why do you do this? Why do you do that? Where does this come from? I didn't know. So I um I started on a year's study and I wrote uh the book and uh and got deeper and deeper. And now, of course, I'm known primarily as a Jewish writer. I speak in synagogues all over. So I think that uh I will say to you to children when I speak to them and I say to your audience, you never know what life has in store for you. You follow the path and uh and you learn along the way, you know, and that's what we do. That's what we're here for.
SPEAKER_00Yes, absolutely. The idea of journey is very, very Jewish. So, Rich, thank you so much for taking the time to uh to have this conversation. It is a pleasure to get to know you again, Mazl Tov, for uh for the new book. Yes, absolutely. So, Richard Michelson, thank you so much. His new collection is called Sleeping as Fast as I Can. Um, Rich, again, thank you so much uh for being on the program.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much. I appreciate it, and it's a pleasure to get to know you. And I look forward to our paths crossing in person. I'm sure it will one of these days.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Amen. So that was such an enlightening, inspiring conversation with Richard Michelson. I just wanted to highlight a couple of the themes that that we discussed. Um, you know, poetry is the language of the Psalms, it's the language of the Hebrew prophets, and much of our prayer service derives from these sources. We just think about the iconic Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. You can think about Isaiah's meaningful uh chapter 40 and other chapters where he comforts a defeated people. And I also want to read one poetic passage. This is from Jeremiah chapter 17. Uh, it happens to be part of this Shabbat's haftarah, so it'll be chanted in synagogues worldwide this Saturday. The prophet Jeremiah wrote the following Blessed is the person who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord alone. He shall be like a tree planted by waters, sending forth its roots by a stream. It does not sense the coming of heat, its leaves are ever fresh, it has no care in a year of drought, it does not cease to yield fruit. That's a beautiful passage, but the prophet isn't done, and his call actually takes a somewhat dark turn. He continues most devious is the heart, it is perverse. Who can fathom it? For I, the Lord, probe the heart, search the mind, to repay every man according to his ways with the proper fruit of his deeds. Like a partridge hatching what she did not lay, so is one who amasses wealth by unjust means. In the middle of his life, it will leave him, and in the end, he will be proved a fool. The poet's use of metaphor helps us to comprehend his intentions, his joy, and his sorrow. Now, I also want to mention that rich's passion for social justice is also very Jewish. The Torah says specifically when God creates human beings that we are all created in the image of God. In Hebrew, that's Bitzelem Elochim. We're all created in God's image, every person. And consider this teaching from the Talmud that explores the question well, why did God start humanity with a single individual, Adam? And the rabbis of the Talmud answer as follows Adam was created alone due to the importance of maintaining peace among people, so that one person will not say to another, My Father is greater than your father. And this serves to tell of the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be he. As when a person stamps several coins with one seal, they are all similar to each other. But the supreme King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be he, stamped all people with the seal of Adam, the first man, and not one of them is similar to another. Therefore, since all humanity descends from one person, each and every person is obligated to say, the world was created for me, as one person can be the source of all humanity and recognize the significance of his or her actions. I love both of those uh passages and all of these ideas that are expressed poetically and through metaphor. And it seems to me that that's exactly the kind of work that Rich does. He uses his art and his poetry to inspire us to try our best to make this world the place it is supposed to be. And that is very Jewish as well. Everybody, this wraps up this episode. I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Rich Michelson. Thanks for being here and peace out.