Book of Mercy #1-5

[tomsakic]

Hey Joe, nice to see you, I was sure you're following us:-)

About number of psalms, I am sure that Leonard decided to publish 50 because the book marked his 50th birthday. It was the time to see who he is and where he is ("... I am a singer in the lower choirs, born fifty years ago to raise my voice this high, and no higher").


I am little off the discussion because I am lost these days in the midst of my essay about Favourite Game (based on my one year old afterword to Croatian edition), because I added few pages in the middle which deals mostly with Book of Longing, so I ruined the composition. Anyhow, what I wanted to say, is that there on the end of Favourite Game there's a crucial moment of decision for Breavman (and we can read it like Cohen's autopoetical statement), when he chooses God and writing instead of Shell (although in same paragraph he has realised that Shell is Shell, real woman with the adress, not a concept - so much about feminist critique of Cohen's machism). What I find very interesting is that there's piece of text, paragrapgh, actually the prayer very similar to Book of Mercy's psalms, written 20 years later.

Now we must take a closer look at Breavman's journal:


Friday night. Sabbath. Ritual music on the PA. Holy, holy,
holy, Lord God of Hosts. The earth is full of your glory. If I
could only end my hate. If I could believe what they wrote and
wrapped in silk and crowned with gold. I want to write the
word.

All our bodies are brown. All the children are dressed in
white. Make us able to worship.

Take me home again. Build up my house again. Make me a
dweller in thee. Take my pain. I can't use it any longer. It makes
nothing beautiful. It makes the leaves into cinders. It makes
the water foul. It makes your body into a stone. Holy life. Let
me lead it. I don't want to hate. Let me flourish. Let the dream
of you flourish in me.

Brother, give me your new car. I want to ride to my love. In
return I offer you this wheelchair. Brother, give me all your
money. I want to buy everything my love wants. In return I
offer you blindness so you may live the rest of your days in
absolute control over everyone. Brother, give me your wife. It
is she whom I love. In return I have commanded all the whores
of the city to give you infinite credit.

Thou. Help me to work. All the works of my hand belong to
you. Do not let me make my offering so paltry. Do not make
me insane. Do not let me descend raving your name.

I have no taste for flesh but my own.

Lead me away from safety. There is no safety where I am.

How shall I dedicate my days to thee? Now I have finally
said it. How shall I dedicate my days to thee?

In any case, on the very beginning of Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man he mumbles "I was born in chains, I was taken" on unknown melody. What we actually hear is actually - I believe - the unfinished song titled Born In Chains and Taken Out of Egypt, which was later developed into a mundane song I Can't Forget. This is not so unconnected to Book of Mercy - it actually has been written over the same period. What he "can't forget" is actually Holocaust, Exodus. "That song [I Can't Forget] started off as a song about the exodus of the Hebrew people from Egypt. As a metaphor for the journey of the soul from bondage into freedom. It started out, I was born in chains but I was taken out of Egypt / I was bound to a burden but the burden it was raised / Lord I can no longer keep this secret / Blessed is the name, the name be praised. It went on like that for a long, long time, and I went into the studio and tried to sing this song about how I was born in chains and I was taken... But I wasn't born in chains and I wasn't taken out of Egypt, and not only that, but I was on the edge of what was going to become a very serious nervous breakdown. So I hadn't had the burden lifted and the whole thing was a lie! It was wishful thinking. And this song, "Taken Out of Egypt," took months and months to write. Nobody believes me when I say these things but I have the notebooks and I don't fill them in an evening. And there were many of them. So it wasn't as if I had an endless supply of songs: I had to start over. And I was saying to myself, 'What is my life?' and that's when I started writing that lyric: I stumble out of bed / I got ready for the struggle / I smoked a cigarette / And I tightened up my gut / I said this can't be me / Must be my double / And I can't forget / I can't forget / But I don't remember what. That was really true." (http://www.leonardcohenlive.com/storero ... ttakes.htm)

[Simon]

Well Tom, it seems that we’re in sync. Last night I was juggling with the idea that there might be some mirror effect between BoM and BoL, volontary or not on his part. So I opened 'Book of Longing' in search of some possible parallels.

Here are a few finds :

First in support of Joe’s observation on beast and angel:

…
My animal howls
My angel’s upset
…
From page 1 of BoL, in 'The Book of Longing'.

To clarify psalm I.1 we find this about Roshi and the throne

Roshi at 89

Roshi’s very tired.
.......... he’s lying on his bed
He’s been living with the living
.......... and dying with the dead
But now he wants another drink
.......... (will wonders never cease?)
He’s making war on war
.......... and he’s making war on peace
He’s sitting in the throne-room
.......... on his great Original Face
…

From page 4 of BoL, in 'Roshi at 89'.

The 'singer in the lower choirs' from psalm I.1 could maybe be put in parallel with :

You’d Sing Too

You’d sing too
if you found yourself
in a place like this
You wouldn’t worry about
whether you were as good
as Ray Charles or Edith Piaf
You’d sing
You’d sing
not for yourself
but to make a self
out of the old food
…

From page 6 of BoL, in 'You’d Sing Too'.

About the ‘golden symmetry’, or golden rule ( and maybe about ‘angels have no will’) :

True Self

True Self, True Self
Has no will –
It’s free from ‘Kill’
or ‘ Do not kill’
But while I am a novice still
I do embrace
with all my will
the First Commitment
‘Do not kill’

From page 18 of BoL, in 'True Self'

.

We will have to come back later to'The Will' when we look at the later psalms.

Tom, you've read everything on, about and around Book of Longing. Has LC mentioned anywhere any direct relation between BoM and BoL?

-------------

Maybe 'My animal howls' will attrack Diane to the thread...

[Joe Way]

Hi Tom,
I've been reminicing about our great times together in warm Berlin here in the midst of our frozen Wisconsin winter!

Thanks for bringing your spot-on observations-I was really puzzled by the "Born in Chains" lines from "I'm Your Man"-didn't know where that was from. What has always been so appealing about Leonard is his extreme honesty about his personal condition.

I think that it is safe to say that the period surrounding the composition of "Book of Mercy" represents the descent into that lowest realm-the dead floor of hell-as Dante described it. Literary parallels might be the moment in MacBeth when he descibes life as "a tale told by an idiot-full of sound and fury-signifying nothing," or perhaps, when Captain Ahab is confronted by the whiteness of the whale or Kurtz, screaming, "The horror, the horror."

Now, Leonard doesn't describe the horror-he goes on in his literary career to describe aspects of it very well and continues to do so to this day as Simon has astutely pointed out in BoL-his heart, "the shape of a begging bowl." But, nonetheless, he's said many times that he had lost his way. Many elements had come together in a perfect storm which pushed him to the bottom;-his separation from Suzanne, doubts about his voice and work, critics doing what they do well-criticizing. As an aside, I recently started to appreciate the line in "Hallelujah"-"You say I took the name in vain, I don't even know the name" as an answer to those critics who accused him of blasphamy in "Beautiful Losers" and other works. But, in my mind, the crucial aspect of this is that he uses the form of prayer (and probably Zen techniques) to help get himself out of this awful place.

As Frye points out, all literature is a movement between realms-higher and lower. And since BoM is a prayer, I think we can say that it is an answered prayer. Leonard has gone on to write and sing some of the best songs of his career, he seems to have found a degree of personal happiness with Anjani and his children that was probably unimaginable to him while he was going through this. The question that we must ask is did Leonard climb his way out of the abyss or did the Absolute descend to rescue him? Leonard probably asks himself this question each time he lights the candles and pours the Sabbath wine.

Simon, I, too hope Diane joins this discussion. If I'm not mistaken, she is well-versed in psychology and could bring its language and explanations to further explicate this text.

Joe

[tomsakic]

Hey Simon, we're really on synch, I just was to talk about Book of Mercy's echoes in Book of Longing, but first I had to finish my piece on Croatian translation of The Favourite Game (what I just did with the big wandering into BoL, so I retitled it into "First novel in Croatian and new book of poetry" review).

My big advance is that I have PDF print-out of November 2005 version of BoL, sent to local publishers before Leonard made final changes. These changes include not only the new decision about Thousand Kisses Deep (which was published as A Thousand Kisses Deep containing only song lyrics, while the final version under number "I" was on other place in the manuscript, titled "Still Into That", and better structured), and addition of new drawings and poems (with removing few), but the main change was *removing* of signings under poems. Few poems are now dated, like Roshi at 89 ("Mt. Baldy, 1996") or the final poem The Flood ("Sinai, 1973" - so it was written while he was in Yom Kippur War at Sinai!). In 2005 version many poems were signed - so I know that big parts of books were written or started even so early as 1975. There's big portion from 1980s. My explanation is of course this: both of Death of a Lady's Man (1978) and Book of Mercy (1984) were conceptual works, with a writing plan (structure, theme), so all poems (incl. those from the back pages of Stranger Music) written beside the closed, structured conceptual books were put aside for the next publication. Anyhow, Nadel in 1996 wrote (page 273):

"A proposed omnibus collection, encompassing notebooks and poems from his archive, will have a section of new poems tentatively titled 'The Collapse of Zen'. The proposed title of the entire volume, 'The Book of Longing', suggests a possible shift (etc.)"

So, The Collapse of Zen was obviously expanded into Book of Longing, but many poems from 1970s onward to the monastery remained (so, this is not the book written in Mt. Baldy, as it was announced. But later it was corrected to "written mostly on Mt. Bouldy and in Mumbai".)

What I wanted to say, from 2005 print-out I can see the date of most poems. Anyhow, I have strong impression for some poems that there are left-outs or out-takes from Death of a Lady's Man or Book of Mercy, not only by theme, but structurally and even more, stylistically. The poems you quoted are surely connected thematically with BoMercy, and I think that many themes and motifs are reoccurring (surely the religious and spiritual). But I had strong impression that some prose pieces came from Book of Mercy - like "Why I Love France" (BoL, p 115). This is written in rhetorical and prosaic style of Book of Mercy. Of course, Leonard lived in France in 1980s (Suzanne left with children for France, and later there was Dominique Isserman), and most of BoM was written there. Last words are "... never stop talking how to live without G-d." It has the strong feeling of BoMercy. Then "Tired" (p 124), while "Something from the Early Seventies", as the title says, is from the early 70s and it seems like part of Death of a Lady's Man. DOALM was re-written version of Leonard's autobiography My Life in Art (inter-version was Woman Being Born), so this could be part of that manuscript. In 1974 interview he announced that he's writing a NOVEL about the fall of marriage. "Robert Appears Again" is also like it's from 1970s. Robert Hershon is mentioned in Recent Songs booklet in 1979 (he gave Rummi's books to LC), so I think that's him. According to Nadel, Robert Hershorn was one of Cohen's closest friend and Cohen was devastated by his mysterious death in Hong Kong in 1972 (page 189). First version of DOALM included long dedication to him. On the same page Nadel comments this very poem (published first time in 1994).

[Simon]

About the 'throne', (again...)

Maybe I was a bit too quick with the 'throne' parallel between psalm I.1 in BoM and 'Roshi at 89' in BoL. But maybe the parallel still holds , in which case 'Haltingly he moves toward his throne' would take on a totally different, humoristic meaning.

In 'Roshi at 89'

He's sitting in the throne-room
.......... on his great Original Face

should be matched with

His stomach's very happy
.......... The prunes are working well

So 'throne' here means the can, WC, toilet. Throne is used commonly with that meaning in french. I didn't know that it is the case also in english.

In zen, buttocks get special attention and denomination ( here Roshi's 'great Original Face') -- the reason probably being that you spend a lot of time sitting-- Master Deshimaru, when describing the correct posture for zazen and the correct lower back arch, used to say that in zazen your anus should be smiling at the sun...

[Joe Way]

Hi Simon,
Yes, in English the word "throne" definitely has both meanings. So the humor is very subtle in the passage. It reminds me that Leonard quotes Roshi all the time regarding "no bathrooms or restaurants in paradise."

DBC,
I've been thinking about your observation that Roshi plays a multi-role as king and ape, and I believe that it is probably a key to finding a crucial way to understand this. There is an interview somewhere where Leonard speaks about what attracted him to begin the study with Roshi. He says and I'm paraphrasing that Roshi was the only person that he knew who was both completely comfortable with himself and with others and Leonard wanted to learn how he became this way. My mother used to use a term "self-conscious" that was always a rather negative reflection. I would say that Roshi is completely "unself-conscious." He acts and speaks in a very direct manner. I would note that this is a quality that he shares with the lower beings (I can't speak to the issue of whether he shares it with higher beings as I've never met one-except for perhaps, my wife ).

Joe

[lazariuk]

Parenthetical explanation from this woman regarding absence.

~ Lizzy

Well Lizzy I'm going to try to get you to change your mind and if I have to beg I might as well do it while you are still here because we all know that it doesn't help once you are gone.

Here is what is going to happen if you don't stay. A bunch of men from a bunch of different viewpoints i.e. a Christian, a Jew, God willing - a Muslim, maybe a religious Jew, as well as a non religious Jew, a buddhist, a zen guy etc. etc. and if all of us manage to be polite and not get too carried away with trying to demonstrate that our viewpoint is superior what we all accomplish together at best is that we will get a good scholar's viewpoint about the book called "Book of Mercy"
That is not bad but we could go so much further. Leonard himself suggested a way in the interview he gave to the Jewish Book Club, he said:

It is the life that you want to lead. You can be the subject, and poetry can be the object. You can keep the subject/object relationship, and that's completely legitimate. It is the point of view of the scholar. But I wanted to live this world

It's a little hard for me to explain why we need you here and other women like you. I tried to give an example but I think the point was missed. I had to use an example of someone who wasn't in the room because I am a little shy about speaking about the women who give me a hard on when they are around to hear what I am saying.

It has already been suggested here that a book of prayers is not sexy and that made me think to myself "Oh No !!! What are we getting into?"

Anyway I'm beating around the bush and I might as well get right to the point. If you were to look back a few years in the real Leonard Cohen newsgroup you would see that I said my farewell to participating in such groups. But I made a very serious mistake, I said that I was going to go as soon as I wrote what I wanted to write about the song Anthem.
This is proving to be a real problem mainly because I happen to think it is the best song that Leonard has ever written and that maybe it is one of the best songs that has ever been written by anyone. I could just write something simple but my pride seems to insist that I get back a feeling that what I write was understood by someone. To give me the assurance I need it seems important to me that I can make my case that the song "One of us cannot be wrong" is a prayer.
I have tried and I see that understandably there is great resistance to that being accepted. The resistance is there I think because people feel deep inside them that the song is full of sex between a man and a woman and they might think that there isn't room for that kind of stuff in a prayer. I am not so sure that that is so.
There is a tale of the Hasidim that goes something like this.
The holy rabbi was telling his students "When you pray you need to gather all of your limbs and bring them into the prayer"
One of his students responded " What do you mean master? How can all of my limbs fit into a little prayer? and if I managed to get them all in how can there possibly by still room left for my dick which I should point out is very large? "
The holy rabbi answered " If you think that your dick is too large to fit into a prayer that means that you haven't the faintest idea of what it means to pray."

So Lizzy maybe the rabbi is right or maybe he is wrong but we will never really know for sure if we go crawling around someone's prayers while leaving our dicks at the door and if we bring them in what good will it do if there is no one around to make them as big as they can be so that we can see if they fit?

You say that you don't have the time but then you take the time to tell us some of the precious details of your sweet life which is probably a lot more significent contribution than most of mine which were just simple copying and pasting some worn out thoughts.

So come, my Lizzy, be not afraid.
We are so lightly here.
It is in love that we are made;
In love we disappear.
Though all the maps of blood and flesh
Are posted on the door,
There is no one who has shown us yet
what your sweet song is for.

Jack

[lazariuk]

So come, my Lizzy, be not afraid.
We are so lightly here.
It is in love that we are made;
In love we disappear.
Though all the maps of blood and flesh
Are posted on the door,
There is no one who has shown us yet
what your sweet song is for.

I think that needs further editing

So come, all women, be not afraid.
We are so lightly here.
It is in prayers that we are made;
In prayers we disappear.
Though all the maps of blood and flesh
Are posted on the door,
There is no one who has shown us yet
what your sweet song is for.

[Simon]

Joe, the 1986 Matrix interview is maybe the one you are refering to:

Benazon, Michael. Leonard Cohen of Montreal: Interview. Matrix. n.23 (Fall, 1986): p. 54.

MD- Did you take Louis Dudek’s course in modern poetry before you took Hugh MacLennan’s course in the modern novel?

LC- I think I did. I wasn’t so interested in the novel. I liked Hugh MacLennan. I think I met him through Tony Graham and I enrolled in his course.

MD- But the only novels you remember from his class were Portrait of the artist and Brideshead Revisited, though it was a course in the modern novel. It doesn’t sound as if you were turned on by modern fiction.

LC- I’ll tell you. I very much like Hugh MacLennan personally. That's where my life has been mostly. I’ve only gone on those kinds of adventures where there was a personal relationship involved. I’m immensely fond of Hugh MacLennan. I was the moment I met him, and that’s why I took his course. That’s why I’m interested in Layton, because I like Layton. I don’t have any deep interest in Canadian poetry. I like Dudek. Most of my affiliations have been on that level. I have no objective loyalty to the thing; I suppose I do. I could locate one, but it’s nothing that operates outside of the theorical. I mean there are certain men I’ve liked and gotten close to. It’s the same with Roshi. I’ve no interest in Zen Buddhism. I’ve no interest in Buddhism. If Roshi had been a professor of Astrophysics at Heidelberg I would have learned German and studied Astrophysics. I was interested in the man and I still am. That’s what brought me to study Zen; it was that he manifested something that was beautiful to me. I wanted to study it.

[lizzytysh]

Dear Jack ~

As an individual woman, I feel honoured by your verse. As a woman, I feel honoured by your expanded verse and am glad you included all others. Thank you very much for both .

Thanks for your kind words on some of the tedious details of my life . Since you made such a direct call for female perspectives, it seemed at least fitting that I account for the contrast between my initial comment and my following lack of any.

The resistance is there I think because people feel deep inside them that the song is full of sex between a man and a woman and they might think that there isn't room for that kind of stuff in a prayer. I am not so sure that that is so.

Seems to me a most beautiful prayer that includes all the forces of life. In fact, as I sat here thinking about it, my eyes welled. I can't imagine that Leonard really separates them out. I enjoyed your rabbitical example and in some far-flung way, it reminded me of what I heard on the radio this morning [in a segment about "The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf, a new novel by Mohja Kahf, is about a Syrian girl transplanted to the American Midwest in the 1970s. The book delves into the cultural clashes of Muslim life in America."] about the praying position of Muslims, with eight [prostrating in such a way that both the palms of the hands, the forehead, the nasal bone, the knees and the toes of both feet touch the ground] bodily surfaces touching the earth, a very grounding experience, and with the given result of rear in the air, a most vulnerable position. The body, the earth, and prayer. Interesting to me how they link so powerfully there.

I'd say it probably couldn't be clearer that I don't intellectualize Leonard's songs. For me, it's a heart connection, with some mind entering in but never predominating. So, attempting to participate in the intellectual aspects would be both interesting and challenging, yet I have much more to learn by simply listening... and you've already pointed out the wide variety of perspectives that we're blessed with here, so appropos for such a discussion . I truly feel that my contributions would be superfluous [not that this has ever stopped me in the past ]... and, believe me, I wouldn't be saying that if I didn't mean it . However, reciting some realities from my own world takes only minutes of recall and typing... what you guys are doing, well, you know yourself that even if you're copying-and-pasting at this moment, that's not how that material came about to begin with. Pondering, analyzing, linking... a whole different story, save a eureka moment or two.

I love watching someone 'make a case' for their perspective, as I mentioned to you about the Eskimo. I could do some serious Googling and research now, to try to gather some tools for relevant participation, but how much more joyous to just read, and try to understand in these contexts, through what others have accumulated over many years. There's a place for that scholarly approach and this couldn't be any more fitting.

There is no one who has shown us yet
what your sweet song is for.

Process of elimination seems to be the key for me on this one. I'll let you know if I come up with anything .

Meanwhile, please continue in assisting an unstudied, former Christian in understanding Leonard's own book of psalms. Please don't underestimate the pleasure it brings your own quiet audience.

Thanks. Sincerely.


~ Lizzy

[lizzytysh]

Thank you, too, DBCohen, for your own, kind comment . [In fact, I love seeing my avatar, too ~ anywhere ~ because I love my avatar .]

This is all reminding me of the scene in "Pretty Woman" where Richard Gere strictly instructs Julia Roberts to not answer his phone in his absence and then calls her. When she answers, he scolds her for answering... and when he calls her back and does the same, she rightly retorts to the effect of, "Then stop calling me!" Of course, the parallels are only vague ones, but it's still what comes to mind. Every time I enter in to comment on my absence, or someone else does to comment on it or the female absence in general, we're yet another posting away from the original discussion.

I'm beginning to conclude that all those years, these last couple of centuries, when you men retired to the drawing room to smoke your pipes and cigars and engage in male conversation, whilst the women cleared the dinner table, did the dishes, and cleaned the kitchen, you really did miss having us around ... and couldn't wait for the evening to end . Just ask the rabbi... he'll tell you .

One of the things I've really liked in reading some of Roshi's comments is what seems a refusal to try to create guilt feelings. With cigarettes or with brandy or with Leonard's writing songs or with whatever, just accepting you where you're at and letting you be the one to decide whether what you're doing is something you should change... allowing the internal process to flourish without trying to impose, externally, from a condescending, superior perspective; even when one has come ready and prepared to accept the guilt. Of course, if I got whacked at the monastery for falling asleep in postures at 3:00 AM, I might feel differently .

... and now we return to our ongoing discussion of Leonard Cohen's "Book of Mercy" .


~ Lizzy

[DBCohen]

Thank you, Lizzy, for bringing us back into focus. I am going to introduce the third psalm now:

I.3
I heard my soul singing behind a leaf, plucked the leaf, but then I heard it singing behind a veil. I tore the veil, but then I heard it singing behind a wall. I broke the wall, and I heard my soul singing against me. I built up the wall, mended the curtain, but I could not put back the leaf. I held it in my hand and I heard my soul singing mightily against me. This is what it’s like to study without a friend.

This is the shortest psalm in the book, only eight lines, but there is so much to say about it. I’ll limit myself to just a few points, though, knowing full well that there are many other interpretations struggling to jump out of this text.

I’ll start with the last sentence. The admonition against studying the Torah without a friend is well known in Jewish tradition. The Mishnah (Avot 1:6) says: “Find yourself a teacher (rav), and make yourself a friend (i.e., a study companion)”. Both a teacher and a companion are necessary for the process of study. The Talmud (Ta’anit 23a) has a saying: “Death is brought about by lack of companionship” (it sounds much better in the original Aramaic, in which it rhymes). Even famous, veteran rabbis had to have a companion to study with, because study is a dialogical process, and it never ends.

This psalm is talking about loneliness, guilt, and feeling torn from within. A person against his soul; the soul against the person. An attempt to get closer, which goes terribly wrong; something had been broken that cannot be mended. But all the time there is singing, enticement and the wish to get together.

Elsewhere in the Forum I wrote earlier that this psalm also brings to mind a famous story from the Zohar (the Book of Splendor, see my short explanation below). Please check it there: viewtopic.php?t=7755

I know I only scratched the surface, but as more people are joining, I’m sure we’re going to hear some interesting interpretations.

***

I thought I’d explain very briefly a few terms that come up here, for those unfamiliar with them:

Torah – this term refers to (a) the first 5 books of the Bible (Pentateuch or the Books of Moses), containing basic Jewish laws; (b) all other Jewish literature explaining and debating the law; (c) sometimes it refers also generally to Jewish teachings of all kinds. It is often translated as “the Law”.

Mishnah – this is the first major book explaining the laws of the Pentateuch, and applying them to daily life. It was first an oral tradition, and was finally written down and codified around 200 CE. It is written in a very concise Hebrew.

Talmud – is the interpretation of the Mishnah, and the main source of Jewish law. It contains the debates of the rabbis across generations, often expressing conflicting opinions. It too was an oral tradition, codified around 500 CE in Babylonia, and is written mainly in Aramaic (there is another, shorter version written down in Palestine). The study and the interpretation of Talmud has been the main occupation of Jewish scholars throughout the generations.

Kabbalah – is the esoteric, mystical tradition of Judaism. This tradition goes back to biblical times, but the term “Kabbalah” is usually applied to the theosophical tradition developed in Jewish communities in France and Spain since the 12th century, culminating in Sefer HaZohar or The Book of Splendor (which was compiled in Spain, in late 13th century, although it is attributed to a sage of the former millennium, whom we will meet later in BoM, and is written in Aramaic), and further developed in the following centuries throughout the Jewish world. It mainly contains theosophical writings, including deep speculations about God and the universe, rooted in interpretation of the Torah, but it also has some practical sides, including meditative techniques.

[lazariuk]

Dear Jack ~

There is no one who has shown us yet
what your sweet song is for.

Process of elimination seems to be the key for me on this one. I'll let you know if I come up with anything .

~ Lizzy

Hey !! That's my job !!

Since you are obviously most comfortable just standing or sitting in the doorway seeing what is going on in the room maybe you won't mind if I sit here with you and we can whisper to each other our thoughts about what is going on and we won't be in anyone's way.

We can have some fun and since it is a big doorway maybe other women will see how much fun we are having and they too will join in.

I'll start by telling you what I am thinking about. I noticed that the third prayer was introduced after you being thanked for bringing back focus. Then the one who introduced it immediately showed that his focus was also being directed by a tradition with it's rules and regulations about study. So that got me wondering.
With you here in the doorway I wonder if he is going to start to question a tradition that didn't make the effort to have the house of study be a comfortable place for women to be in and for the most part did not allow it?
Lizzy wouldn't it be deliciously funny if the poem proved to be about exactly what is happening right now? The leaf, the veil and the wall being the history of women being seperated from men. Maybe the ultimate friend for a man is a woman and the poet is warning of the dangers of studying without them. Personally I don't think it is a leaf that he is holding in his hand that is making his soul sing mightly against him, and if you pluck away the leaf then what else do you have left? There must have been some reason why he couldn't get the leaf back on.
You certainly don't have to answer and I am perfectly content to just sit quietly here with you and see how these other men approach the poem. I do need to practice sitting quietly as in a short while I will be going on a ten day silent retreat.


Jack

[lazariuk]

Kabbalah – is the esoteric, mystical tradition of Judaism. This tradition goes back to biblical times, but the term “Kabbalah” is usually applied to the theosophical tradition developed in Jewish communities in France and Spain since the 12th century, culminating in Sefer HaZohar or The Book of Splendor (which was compiled in Spain, in late 13th century, although it is attributed to a sage of the former millennium, whom we will meet later in BoM, and is written in Aramaic), and further developed in the following centuries throughout the Jewish world. It mainly contains theosophical writings, including deep speculations about God and the universe, rooted in interpretation of the Torah, but it also has some practical sides, including meditative techniques.

Hi DB
I have a couple of questions for you. When Jews refer to the Bible what books are they referring to?

Also once when I was researching information about Queen Vashti I came across a reference to what was said to be a very ancient Jewish prophecy that in the end times there would be only one book left in the Bible and that would be the Book of Esther and at this time a great cosmic joke will be revealed. Have you ever heard of this?

Jack

[Joe Way]

Quote:

I.3
I heard my soul singing behind a leaf, plucked the leaf, but then I heard it singing behind a veil. I tore the veil, but then I heard it singing behind a wall. I broke the wall, and I heard my soul singing against me. I built up the wall, mended the curtain, but I could not put back the leaf. I held it in my hand and I heard my soul singing mightily against me. This is what it’s like to study without a friend.

Well, I certainly don't have much a clue as to what it means. I do notice the imagery of the leaf, veil, wall seems to progress from less opaque to more opaque and back again, but perhaps opaque is the wrong word since the psalmist is referring to the transfer of sound (soul singing).

I also notice the internal conflict of the soul singing against the psalmist. Even with the clue that you've given us, DB-about the need for study to be a partnership-I'm not very clear of the significance of the imagery.

Joe