I wanted to bring something to this group that I think speaks directly to what we discuss here.
Wordsongs of Jewish Thought by Martin Bidney is a collection of 108 poems written in 13 extraordinary days — each one a personal creative response to a passage in Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz's commentary on the Tanya, the foundational work of Hasidic mystical thought.
What makes it distinctive is the poet himself. Martin Bidney is a lifelong violinist, klezmer fiddler, and classical chorister who treats every poem as a wordsong — a musical composition where words take the place of pitches. The collection was born from a period of uninterrupted spiritual and creative fervor that he describes as unlike anything else in his life.
The Steinsaltz family received the manuscript warmly. Rivkah Slonim of the Rohr Chabad Center wrote that Bidney didn't merely study the Tanya but absorbed its teachings so deeply he was able to generate something entirely his own from within them. It currently holds a 4.91 average on Goodreads with 19 written reviews.
For anyone here who engages seriously with sacred texts, spiritual literature, or the intersection of art and theology — has anyone encountered poetry that responds to a religious text at this level of depth?
Wordsongs of Jewish Thought by Martin Bidney is a collection of 108 poems written in 13 extraordinary days — each one a personal creative response to a passage in Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz's commentary on the Tanya, the foundational work of Hasidic mystical thought.
What makes it distinctive is the poet himself. Martin Bidney is a lifelong violinist, klezmer fiddler, and classical chorister who treats every poem as a wordsong — a musical composition where words take the place of pitches. The collection was born from a period of uninterrupted spiritual and creative fervor that he describes as unlike anything else in his life.
The Steinsaltz family received the manuscript warmly. Rivkah Slonim of the Rohr Chabad Center wrote that Bidney didn't merely study the Tanya but absorbed its teachings so deeply he was able to generate something entirely his own from within them. It currently holds a 4.91 average on Goodreads with 19 written reviews.
For anyone here who engages seriously with sacred texts, spiritual literature, or the intersection of art and theology — has anyone encountered poetry that responds to a religious text at this level of depth?