After Havdaleh

Aaron Zeitlin

ca. 1920

“ . . . And all those who are on the left side go and wander in the world and seek to dress themselves in the body.”—From Zohar Beraishit

When the Havdoleh candle is extinguished,
In Gehenna, the old fire ignites
A full, new week.
From abysmal crevices, black and narrow,
Swim the multitudes-from-the-left, topsy-turvy,
And again it’s the weekdays…
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Creator Bio

Aaron Zeitlin

1898–1973
A poet, writer, playwright, essayist, and editor Aaron Zeitlin (Arn Tseytlin) was the eldest son of Hillel Zeitlin and the brother of Elkhonen Zeitlin (1902–1942). Born in Homel (then Russian Gomel, now in Belarus), Zeitlin lived in Warsaw between 1907 and 1938. Beginning to write lyrical poetry as a child, Zeitlin was most prolific in interwar Warsaw. He participated in the debate over the role of Yiddish literature, attacking the politicization of Yiddish literature and developing an aesthetic of combining historical events with existential and mystical themes. He was the chair of the Yiddish PEN club from 1930 to 1934, and founded, with the help of Isaac Bashevis Singer, the literary monthly Globus. Zeitlin happened to be in New York at the outbreak of World War II. He was powerless to save the family he had left behind. He continued to write and teach in New York City. His postwar writing was preoccupied with the Holocaust and parapsychology.

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