Love your friend* as yourself
That is the whole Torah**
The rest is commentary
How can that be?
We are commanded to love God too
with all our heart, soul, and might***
So how is just loving your friend
to Almighty God not a slight?
The answer, of course, lies in the verse --
Who is the friend you can count on
Through thick and thin, through bad and worse?
~ Why, that friend is God, foremost and first ****
_______________________________________
*Leviticus 19:18: 'Love your friend as yourself,'
The word ' your friend' (Hebrew, rey-eh'cha) is
often mistranslated into English as 'your neighbor.'
In Biblical and Talmudic Hebrew, 'rey'us' always
refers to friendship. 'Shakhen' is 'neighbor.'
**This is how the Sage Hillel responded to a
fellow who wanted to be taught the whole
Torah while standing on one leg. (See Talmud
Shabbos 31a).
***Deuteronomy 6:5
****See Proverbs 27:10: 'Do not forsake your
friend and your father's friend...' (Your father's
friend is God Himself -- Rashi's Commentary).
Categories:
mistranslated, friend, god, love,
Form: Rhyme
Is it from the human nature to cluster?
To form boundaries and flags as identity?
To house their offspring in epic suburbs?
To separate themselves from others?
Have I read a mistranslated dictionary?
Or has the meaning of 'human' changed?
What if we try to flip the coin to its tails?
Will we see another different 'human'?
Or will we choose a word out of a thesaurus?
'Soul' and 'mortal' stated as a synonym?
If mortality was part of this big equation,
Then should we not save lives instead?
Or has this coin betrayed what 'life' is?
Will this coin lead us to infinite power?
If so, then who or what everlasted?
What if this coin fell down the sewage?
What if a child picked it up and cleaned it?
Will this child be corrupted forever?
Or will this coin be cleansed from its past?
Or will another child kill him to grab it?
What are the reasons to invade a country?
What are the reasons to kill another soul?
If this child was raised to defend himself,
Then will the coin point a gun at him?
And if his response was to deny its presence,
Then would the coin leave or annihilate?
The trick question is: "who has the coin?"
Wednesday, 4th of September 2013
Categories:
mistranslated, child, conflict, corruption, money,
Form: Free verse
Pain departed a sacred portion of human flash.
A devout detortion and flamboyant living dash.
Flagrant flaunt impregnate impish liege slash.
Slanderous sleave and pitiable pithecanthrope,
Pishogue sagacious mistranslated pish a girl rash.
Categories:
mistranslated, family
Form: Haiku