Following several pieces written in different styles and keys, here, once again, is a piece clearly written in the key of the Psalms (the last truly “Psalmic” pieces were #20 & 24). It also echoes many themes from the Midrash, the Kabbalah, and other Jewish sources. This is another good example as to how LC absorbed so much of the tradition, and through the alchemy of his poetry created something truly his own (which is, in fact, also the way of the Midrash). It is also a particularly long piece, perhaps the longest in the book, and taking it all in at once is going to be difficult. So what follows are just a few initial observations (although you wouldn’t think so, seeing how long it stretches, for which I apologize).II.29
Bless the Lord, O my soul, who made you a singer in his holy house forever, who has given you a tongue like the wind, and a heart like the sea, who has journeyed you from generation to generation to this impeccable moment of sweet bewilderment. Bless the Lord who has surrounded the traffic of human interest with the majesty of his law, who has given a direction to the falling leaf, and a goal to the green shoot. Tremble, my soul, before the one who creates good and evil, that a man may choose among worlds; and tremble before the furnace of light in which you are formed and to which you return, until the time when he suspends his light and withdraws into himself, and there is no world, and there is no soul anywhere. Bless the one who judges you with his strap and his mercy, who covers with a million years of dust those who say, I have not sinned. Gather me, O my soul, around your longing, and from your eternal place inform my homelessness, that I may bring you forth and husband you, and make the day a throne for your activity, and the night a tower for your watchfulness, and all my time your just dominion. Sing, my soul, to the one who moves like music, who comes down like steps of lightning, who widens space with the thought of his name, who returns like death, deep and intangible, to his own absence and his own glory. Bless the Lord, O my soul, draw down the blessing of authority, that you may invite me to uncover you, and hold you precious till I’m worn away, and we are refreshed, soul and shadow, refreshed and rested like a sundial standing in the night. Bless the Lord, O my soul, cry out toward his mercy, cry out with tears and song and every instrument, stretch yourself toward the undivided glory which he established merely as his footstool, when he created forever, and he made it-is-finished, and he signed the foundations of unity, and polished the atoms of love to shine back beams and paths and gates of return. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless his name forever.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, - These words are quoted from two famous Psalms, 103 & 104, on which this particular piece is based. The theme of the former is God’s forgiveness and mercy, his justice, and his reigning over the heaven and earth. The theme of the latter is God’s glory in creating and sustaining the universe. Both themes are combined in this beautiful piece by LC.
who made you a singer in his holy house forever, - This takes us back to #1, and see our discussion there. I observed at the time that in the temple “the cohen (priest) was in charge of the sacrifices, while the levi was the singer, but they all belonged to the same original tribe, so by stretching a point LC can also count himself among those ancient singers of the Psalms.” From a different angle, the “holy house” may also refer to the body, in which the soul resides.
who has given you a tongue like the wind, and a heart like the sea, - Both the wind and the sea are conspicuous images in Psalms 103 & 104.
who has journeyed you from generation to generation – This can refer to the reincarnation of the soul (an idea that appeared in Judaism relatively late, with the Kabbalah), or simply to the idea of tradition, which is carried on and handed over from one generation to the next. Tradition was also a strong theme in Part I.
to this impeccable moment of sweet bewilderment. – Only LC would end such a long, glorious sentence with sweet…bewilderment. Still, in this piece he seems less bewildered and more reassured than usual.
Bless the Lord who has surrounded the traffic of human interest with the majesty of his law, - The law was another major theme in Part I; see for example #5. And it is also the title of a song in Various Positions, the album which forms a kind of diptych with this book. “I’m not asking for mercy”, he sings there, repeating that “There’s a Law, there’s an Arm, there’s a hand”. In this book, in which mercy is a major theme, the reality of the Law is emphasized again and again, and the two are not put in opposition to each other, but as two aspects of the same thing.
who has given a direction to the falling leaf, and a goal to the green shoot. – In the Midrash it is said that not a green shoot ever grows without an angel telling him to do so.
Tremble, my soul, before the one who creates good and evil, that a man may choose among worlds; - This may be based on Isaiah 45:7 “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things”, and Deuteronomy 30:19 “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live”. Free choice is a major concept in Judaism, although it was recognized that it is in conflict with God’s omniscience. Rabbi Akiva (second century CE) declared in the Mishnah (Avot 3:19): “All is foreseen, but freedom of choice is given. The world is judged in goodness, yet all is proportioned to one's work.” This may have also been in response to some Jewish sects, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls Sect, who believed in predetermination and the election of the just. However, mainstream Judaism realized that this concept usually leads to a dead-end, and that the absence of free choice would make religious life meaningless.
and tremble before the furnace of light in which you are formed and to which you return, - The soul is formed in heaven and returns there.
until the time when he suspends his light and withdraws into himself, and there is no world, and there is no soul anywhere. – Here we come once again upon the Kabbalistic concepts of tsimtsum (contraction), shvira (breaking) and tikkun (mending) (see the discussion in #1, and, recently, in #28). This refers to the grand myth of God having had to contract himself in order to leave a space for the created world, a process that went wrong and requires mending. The logical conclusion of the process is that once the mending is completed, and all the scattered sparkles of light return to their origin, God would withdraw back into himself.
Bless the one who judges you with his strap and his mercy, who covers with a million years of dust those who say, I have not sinned. – God is just, and uses both strap and mercy, not mercy alone. Those who sinned will be punished. Again, the Law is omnipresent.
Gather me, O my soul, around your longing, and from your eternal place inform my homelessness, that I may bring you forth and husband you, and make the day a throne for your activity, and the night a tower for your watchfulness, and all my time your just dominion. – In #28 we found “mercy” and “longing” in the same sentence, as the two ends of a spectrum; here we find these words in consecutive sentences. Here too “longing” – an internal process - seems like the opposite of “mercy” – an external force. This is also evident from the change in tone: earlier, and soon after, the soul is urged to sing the glory of God; here there seems to be an internal process between the speaker and his soul.
Sing, my soul, to the one who moves like music, who comes down like steps of lightning, who widens space with the thought of his name, who returns like death, deep and intangible, to his own absence and his own glory. – This verse, like others in this piece, reads like an alternative version to Ps. 104. As remarked earlier, it is as if the writer had absorbed the Psalm, and he brings it forth again in a new version of his own (it is tempting to write several pages of interpretation on this verse alone).
Bless the Lord, O my soul, draw down the blessing of authority, that you may invite me to uncover you, and hold you precious till I’m worn away, and we are refreshed, soul and shadow, refreshed and rested like a sundial standing in the night. – Soul and shadow – there are always two opposites: good and evil, mercy and longing, and so on (also Yin and Yang, if you wish). Note the beautiful simile (who would have thought that a sundial needs the night to rest?).
Bless the Lord, O my soul, cry out toward his mercy, cry out with tears and song and every instrument, - This also echoes the Psalms (150, for example, also reflected in Various Position: Hallelujah).
stretch yourself toward the undivided glory which he established merely as his footstool, - God’s thrown in heaven is mentioned in Ps. 103:19. The earth as his footstool is in Isaiah 66:1 “Thus says the LORD: Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool”. In other places the temple in Jerusalem, or more specifically the Arch of the Covenant within the temple, is called God’s footstool (Ps. 132:7, I Chronicles 28:2).
when he created forever, and he made it-is-finished, and he signed the foundations of unity, and polished the atoms of love to shine back beams and paths and gates of return. – The imagery here is again taken from Ps. 104: “Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters…” (V. 3), “Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever” (V. 5). As for “gates of return” (in Hebrew sha’arei teshuvah) – these are the gates which are always open for the repentant. See also the importance of the gates in #28, as well as #5.
Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless his name forever. – A fitting ending to this majestic piece of psalmic poetry.
