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The
Song of Songs |
Shabbat, 2002_10_26; last
update: 2005_07_28 --- see a sadly relevant addition on 2009_01_13- at the
end of page 3
This is the day of the lethal liberation
of over 700 Russians and foreigners,
who had been taken hostage in a Moscow theater by 50 Chechen men and women,
who wanted to end the "Russian Vietnam" of 10 years and get their
independence -
a liberation which cost the lives of 50 rebels and 117 hostages.
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We
haven't yet talked about love We
haven't yet talked about family We
haven't yet talked about old age |
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A man shits outside the three fences, but Chagall's
lovers fly above all three, the town, the fences and the shitter.
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While working on converting
my book into web pages,
which means for me to re-read for the first time , what I wrote from 1967-1982,
I was again deeply moved by the "parentalness"
of Israel's
Sages for the catastrophic cataclysm of Israel between 70 and 133 A.D.
The most controversial sage was
Rabbi Aqiba,
who hailed the "Son-of-Deception" (Bar Koziba instead of Bar Kochba)
- seen by his colleagues as the instrument of that holocaust
- as the Messiah,
and - died for it as a martyr,
but who also evolved the image of "God" into THE LOVER
and the relationship between God and Israel into one of LOVE BEYOND DEATH,
thus giving his dejected and humiliated people a reason to be proud and self-loving
in the face of harsh
judgments from their surroundings.
Rabbi Aqiba was an illiterate day laborer until the age of 40,
when his wise wife, Rachel, made him start studying.
Rabbi
Aqiba believed ,
that the Song of Songs was more important even than the Torah.
I vacillate between raging at Aqiba and adoring Aqiba,
between raging at my Jewish people for its potential to destroy itself again
and revering my Jewish people for its potential to be the master of its destiny.
This sculpture was stimulated by both,
R. Aqiba's delight in the Songs of Songs
and my continuous joyous experience on my
Modi'in Hill,
that place, where Jewish rebellion started 300 years earlier.
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