Nachman was a revered Sage
The greatest of his age
One day he came to his stand
Armless! What had happened?
The next day, no legs either
His students, now in a fever
On the morrow, his body covered with boils
Panic set in – Was that the reward for all of Nachman's toils?
Asked if to teach, he still could
He replied ~ ‘What happens is all for the good’
~ Adapted from part of the tale in the Talmud
of 'Nachum, Ish Gam-zo,' meaning 'Nachum,
the man who says, "This too is for the good."
Tractate Ta'anis / Fasting - Chapter Three,
page 10b
A few hundred ragtag, rabbinic Maccabees
faced the might of Antiochus’ army
60,000 fighting men strong
The Chanukah story we all know
The rabbis delivered Greece a knockout blow
Rededicated the Temple, and with a small cruise of oil
lit the lamps of the Menorah, eight nights in all
Yet in our prayers, not a single word about
the military prowess of the ‘Mighty Maccabees’
We thank God, and God alone, for routing Greece
Mattathias, the leader, and his sons,
five indomitable priests
we praise instead
~ but only for their spiritual feats
___________________________________________
The Talmud asks: 'What is Chanukah?' The above is
(a much-condensed version of) the answer it gives.
(Tractate 'Shabbos,' 21a - 23b)... Also found in the
'Abridged Book of Jewish Law, Laws of Chanukah,
Solomon Gantzfried, (English version)
His days were hard, his nights were long
The Psalmist woke, six hours 'fore dawn
Awakened by a breeze so slight
His chamber still bereft of light
Some scoff he rose the lyre to play
The record shows he stood and prayed
**********
Notes:
The Psalmist is King David
The record is the Babylonian Talmud:
Tractate Brochos (Blessings), pages 3a & 3b
The lyre functioned as David's alarm clock, its strings
stirred by the breeze that arises in Israel at midnight
David formulated a long prayer service, known as Tikkun Chatzos,
loosely translated as 'Midnight Prayers,' which pious Jews still perform today
Legend of the body
Well, I was gone
it was on the day the mouth widened open in front of
a vacant audience
a hall world, devoid of ears
and started shouting
As it happened
the hearing merits were sealed
and the hall world faded out to mute
and silence was hovering over the face of the earth
such
a white silence
well bleached
You know,
unlike a wedding dress
like Butoh dancers
white linen cloths with a pinch of pure soul within
white washed face
and a drizzling drop of blood that escaped the ear's cave
all of that, in front of a vacant audience
Do you know how it feels to shout in front the hollow hall world
Familiar with the colossal reverberation?
If the hall world does not mute
the eardrum could explode
hence
there is no voice, nor any that answers
you stand alone in the life capsule
open wide within a body
translated by Nadavi Noked
from: Tractate of faces, Ahshav publisher, Israel, 2015
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