Saturday, March 01, 2014

No violation


We really do want to trust those with badges and guns.

And worthiness would make that trust easier.

Friday, February 28, 2014

HaShem - יהוה


The name

No name.

What is there.

HaShem is the Hebrew word which many pious Jews use instead of the yod-hey-vav-hey (יהוה– YHVH[1]name, in casual conversations, and literally means The Name. When they encounter this name during prayers or when reading from the Torah, they visualize יהוה and say AdonaiHaShem is used 7484 times in the Tanach[2]. Neither HaShem, nor it’s Greek equivalent[3] is ever used in the Nazarean Codicil.[4] The first use, of HaShem, is in: Bereshit (Genesis) 2:4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When HaShem God made the earth and the heavens -- The yod-hay-vav-hay name means “self existent” or “eternal”, according to Strong’s (3068). When HaShem revealed His name to Moses, He added “this is my name forever (leolam)”. The word leolam is written in the Torah without a “vav -ו”, and can be read lealeim which means to hide. The Gemara learns from this that the name of HaShem is not to be read the way it is written.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

comes cosmos


The past, Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest, is prologue.

Word comes before word.

Through silence.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Haiku


Zero, cold outside --
steps on stairs running cats’ feet
circle... of friendship

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

walking stick leans against rear seat

Let these be my final words: I am happy to be here!


Reading student papers in parking lot of Bangor hospital offices.

Really, I’m happy to be anywhere.

Right now I am here.

And yet, if you think about it, only here is what is.

What is here is what I am.

Happy.

About.

Monday, February 24, 2014

why the world is ethically bereft


"A true friend can act like a mirror and show them what their action looks like from the outside.” (CM, ethics student, writing about Enkidu and Gilgamesh)
...

I like this imaging relationship of friend to friend.

In addition, it suggests something about ethics and friendship -- namely -- authentic relationship might be the criteria of authentic ethics.

Does this suggest that without friendship there is no groundwork for ethics?

It suggests to me that to be ethical is to welcome both the stranger and the intimate into a circle of friendship in order to live together a meaningful creative life in the world.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Shema

Good words.

“The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.”  (--Niels Bohr)


Rabbi Jonathan Sacks points out that, “Greek thought is logical, whereas Jewish thought is chronological and dialogical.” (In his Feb.2014 talk at NYU,  “Dignifying Difference: The Next Generation of Multifaith Leadership”) http://www.rabbisacks.org/dignifying-difference-next-generation-multifaith-leadership/

This Sunday afternoon, between practice and practice, listening.

Putting aside the rules of logic.

For hearing.