My Sister Ruḥamah

Judah Leib Gordon

1881

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This entry contains content that some may find disturbing.

In honor of Jacob’s daughter who was raped by Ben Ḥamor1

Why should you weep my sister Ruḥamah,2
Why are you downcast, why does your spirit quiver,
And why have your rosy cheeks wilted?
Because raiders came and stained your honor?
Although the fists have triumphed, the villains’ hand has prevailed,
Is the guilt upon you, my sister Ruḥamah?!
“What shall I do with my disgrace?”—Where is your disgrace?
Your heart was not dishonored, your purity was not lost;
So rise up and show your flawless face,
The shame is not yours but the abusers’,
Your purity was not stained by their defilement;
You are as pure as chaste soap, my sister Ruḥamah.
Abel’s blood is the sign on the forehead of Cain!
And by your blood you too will be recognized by every eye.
The mark of Cain, a sign of disgrace and eternal shame
Is on the brow of every villainous murderer;
It will be seen by every inhabitant of the world, both east and west,
Your abuse will be known, my sister Ruḥamah.
It’s good that you were humiliated:3 for my soul has borne
Every trial and trouble that found it;
I bore and suffered every cruelty and plunder
I didn’t abandon my homeland, I hoped for better,
But your dishonor I was unable to bear,
Let us rise up and go,4 my sister Ruḥamah!
Let us rise up and go—Oh, to a loving mother’s home
I cannot bring you there to safety:
We have no mother, and in her home we cannot dwell—
We must be off to another sanctuary to stay,
Until our fathers take pity on us—there
We shall sit and wait, my sister Ruḥamah.
Let us rise up and go! To where the light of freedom
Will shine on all flesh, will illuminate every soul,
In a place that delights at all created in God’s image,
And none shall be ashamed of his people and his Lord—
There you too shall neither be wronged by the wicked;
Nor shall you feel dishonored, my sister Ruḥamah.

 

Translated by

Karen
Alkalay-Gut

.

 

Notes

[cf. Genesis 34:1–2.—Eds.]

[Ruḥamah, lit. “pitied,” an allusion to Hosea 1–2.—Eds.]

[Psalm 119:71.—Eds.]

[Judges 19:28. —Eds.]

Credits

Judah Leib Gordon, “Aḥoti Ruḥamah” [My Sister Ruḥamah], Ha-melits (1883). Republished in Kol shire Yehuda Leib Gordon, vol 1: Shire higayon (Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1929), pp. 87–88.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 7.

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Creator Bio

Judah Leib Gordon

1831–1892

Judah (Yehudah) Leib Gordon, the most renowned Hebrew-language poet of the nineteenth century, was born and educated in Vilna. After working as a teacher, he moved to St. Petersburg in 1872 to serve as secretary of the Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia. A proponent of Jewish modernization and enhanced status for women, he was denounced for radicalism and briefly imprisoned. Once exonerated, he became the editor of the Hebrew paper Ha-melits, continuing to critique Orthodoxy through his writing. Though his mother tongue was Yiddish, he advocated for Jewish acceptance of Hebrew and Russian as a means of Jewish cultural rebirth and emancipation.

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