Poetry. Jewish Studies. Women's Studies. The broken Aleph—first letter of the Hebrew alphabet—represents the chasm between the author, a secular Jew, and her cultural and religious heritage. The poems in this collection explore her efforts to repair that breach and to find her footing in the world, negotiating the path of history and tradition while fully alive to the present. Though her journey is personal, the reverberations of the work are universal, doing what the best poetry always does, permeating boundaries and opening up a space for wonder to enter the world.