“Can You Change the Past?” Biblical Figures, Narrative Therapy, and Faith in the Poetry of Israeli Poet Zelda

The poet Zelda (Mishkovsky), who was raised in the Chabad Hasidic tradition and was once perceived as an exceptional and “other” figure in the Israeli literary landscape, is now regarded as one of the central and most influential voices in modern Hebrew poetry. This article examines how her deep affinity for the Bible enabled her to transpose intimate psychological experiences into an archetypal-collective space, thereby establishing a defense mechanism against the personal exposure involved in the creative act. The biblical figures in her poems serve as “poetic masks” that provide her with a protective barrier, giving a name, form, and expression to complex and silenced existential content. The dialogue with these figures transforms her poetry into a therapeutic space, allowing for a renewed narrative interpretation of personal rupture. At the center of this inquiry lies the motif of the “pit” as a central metaphor for psychological rupture and trauma. Through a close reading of poems that engage in dialogue with Abraham, Joseph, Hagar, and Mephibosheth, this article delineates a spectrum of coping mechanisms and therapeutic trajectories: ranging from emotional detachment and the refusal of healing—wherein the subject remains trapped within the depths of the pit (Abraham and Hagar)—to emergence from crisis and the attainment of retroactive mending (tikkun), achieved either through the subject’s own internal resilience (Joseph) or through the active moral intervention of the lyrical speaker who rehabilitates the biblical figure’s stature (Mephibosheth). Zelda’s unique use of biblical stories in this therapeutic context draws on the Hasidic worldview in which she was raised—a worldview that remarkably aligns with contemporary psychological and bibliotherapeutic theories (such as Narrative Therapy and Logotherapy). Ultimately, the article demonstrates how the therapeutic process reflected in her poetry is intrinsically bound to faith in God—thereby presenting both a continuity of Jewish tradition and a creative contestation with biblical narratives.