On the first yahrzeit
(In memory of my dear father, R' Moshe-Pinchas HaKohen, of blessed memory, who died on the 5th of Nisan 5695.)
Has my year of mourning really passed already? My black year, which turned my hair white!? Has that last day really come, which has brought me here my orphan's lament!?
O God, how fast your days and years die — I lost my father, it seems, only yesterday! I feel my wounds still burning in my heart; must I really light a yahrzeit candle already?
There, the 5th of Nisan looks down from the wall calendar; today is Sabbath and I may not shed tears: I may not, alas, say anything at all, write anything at all, and my grief must remain mute and hidden within me!...
Y. Stawski.
Tel Aviv.