בלי קליפות עם קליפות לחיים ולברכה.

עד דלא ידע

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right-doing,

there is a field. I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,

the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase each other

doesn't make any sense.

~Rumi

Perhaps Purim is testimony to that space...beyond the structures of the world, where evil is blessed and good is cursed, where evil and good aren't opposing forces, but are all simply elements of atzmut... and that, there is emet.

And that is why this olam is an olam of sheker, because it is a structure bearing false testimony to its essence, hiding behind dichotomies of good and evil...

On Purim we're encouraged to tap into that emet, to realize that essentially, the dichotomy set up in this world is only one layer of existence, and while that duality is necessary for this world to exist (and even for us to dance with the idea that truth exists)...it is not the essence of what is really at the core of our cosmos. At the core is emet, כחשיכה כאורה...where what we call "good" and "bad" are merely all part of the big, wild, infinite blur of atzmut.

Interesting.. the words עד דלא ידע. It seems that we are being called to lose the יודעת part of us, the self, the conscious, the me that wants to know, in order to understand. We are called to enter a space that is beyond the limited consciousness that relies on structure in order to exist...

to frolic in that grass beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right-doing, where even the phrase each other doesn't make any sense...

ז' אדר

sadness doesn't need to mean heaviness

ode to a Pur sheHu Goral

to nights of mo(u)rning

and missingness of

then

now

tomorrow

lchaim ulivracha

lchaim ulivracha!

שר לבדו

חופים הם לפעמים געגועים לנחל.
ראיתי פעם חוף
שנחל עזבו
עם לב שבור של חול ואבן.
והאדם, והאדם הוא לפעמים גם כן יכול
להישאר נטוש ובלי כוחות
ממש כמו חוף.

גם הצדפים
כמו חופים, כמו הרוח
גם הצדפים הם לפעמים געגועים
לבית שתמיד אהבנו
אשר היה ורק הים
שר לבדו שם את שיריו.

כך בין צדפי ליבו של האדם שרים לו נעוריו.

~נתן יונתן

arik ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMLs_0XgC5I&tracker=False

orig ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZNEBp2_x0Y&tracker=False

achen, hadma'ot bikshu et chava alberstein

a-malek

But the Romans had not reckoned with the sun.

Each morning it rose, brighter and hotter than the day before.

manto.

Yet, she had wanted him - of that he was certain.

In his life he had known dutifulness, remote yearnings, but never, until that afternoon, the full awakening of passion and a gratification which had left him fulfilled yet still avid. Meantime, fragments of epigram and doctrine, the splinters of the hard old morality of his youth pricked at his fevered conscience.

-----------

Then in the fierceness of his need, there came to him from the vanished yesterdays of his youth verses instinct with an understanding softer than the sharp-lined wisdom of the Greeks. And never had he wanted so desperately to believe as in this hour when she leaned upon a faith he did not possess.

Holding her to himself he spoke of the gentle Shepherd Who leads men beside still waters causing them to walk unhurt through the valley of the shadow, Who cannot be fled, not in the grave, not even if one were to take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.

She listened and like a child, insatiable of some marvelous tale and reluctant of slumber, asked for more.

My heart is not haughty he quoted nor mine eyes lofty. Neither do I exercise myself in things too great, too wonderful for me. Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul, like a child with his mother, like a child is my soul within me.

With that Manto's body sagged in his arms and, after a moment, muffled sobs escaped him.

face

straight black hair with a touch of gray, clear blue eyes, good nose, strong chin, tall, slender, and - Pappas paused in his inventory - most important of all, an intellectual face with just enough of a look of suffering to make it interesting.

yes - he concluded as they left the terrace - I would wager that she will like you.