GC#129 - Sing Low, Wheat Kariot - Perek Shira 60 - The Wheat Sings
It's been almost two months now, and the pain is still there. I do keep thinking that he hasn't really gone. The first words that we learn, or instinctively say - even before we have an understanding of our surroundings, are Mummy or Daddy - Abba or Ima. They are the comfort, the pillows (Kariot in Hebrew - and you just thought it was a tasty Israeli breakfast cereal!) that cushion us from pain. Without them, we are exposed and in pain.
The Gemoro tells us that the child begins to call these words around the time that it begins to 'taste wheat'. This is the beginning of Da'as - knowledge, understanding, connection. It is Da'as which allows us to really live. But it is Da'as that also enables sin, as without it, we are blameless.
This is what brought death to the world - the first 'chet' (etymologically similar to chita - wheat). It is what stopped when the Torah was given, and then abruptly restarted with another 'Chet', of the golden calf. The original three weeks, which should have been weeks of intense happiness were inverted in a moment, to a history of pain and exile.
We look to regain it in the month of Av - literally 'Daddy' - where the pain will dissipate and we will be reunited with our Father.
25 Jun 2021
GC#128 - Original Sing & The Lump in My Throat - Perek Shira 59 - The Apple's Chorus Part 2
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, or so it said. Ah...the ubiquitous apple. This expression is used to denote the way that our behaviours reflect the things that we learned from our home environment. Nature or nurture, we have traits which originate from the previous generation. Like it or lump it, we're stuck with it.
It is no accident, that this same fruit is the one borrowed by certain people - not of the Jewish persuasion - to express the rather depressing notion that we are condemned to be tainted by sin, just by being born in the physical world. The original Adam's 'apple' - stuck in the throat of the first human being (and as expressed through even the purest archetypal fairy-tale characters - think Snow White) means that we are born sinful, they say, redeemable only through a belief in 'he who must not be named', rather than actions. Yes, like it or lump it, it leaves a lump in our throats - literally and metaphorically. It is a distortion of Chazal's understanding of how Adam's error is really manifest and rectifiable.
The Gemoro which identifies that first fruit, mentions four possibilities - none of which is the apple - a probable mistranslation. But the apple still has its place in Midrashic and Talmudic literature. Let's explore some fascinating ideas in this mysterious area.
17 Jun 2021
GC#127 - Apple of My Eye - Perek Shira 58 - The Apple's 'Coreus'
Yes - deliberate misspelling. What is so special about the apple? In the UK, it is seen as a pretty regular fruit. Tasty, but ordinary. According to the translation that we will use today, the Tapuach is the apple. Vilified by many in its identity, yet its song is a sweet recall of the special relationship between Hashem and His beloved nation - taken from Shir Hashirim. When others were not interested in the responsibilities of what the Torah might demand of them, along came a downtrodden nation and embraced it before knowing what was in it.
This apparently impulsive move - criticised by some, is lauded by Hashem as typical of the trust placed in Him. That same depth of relationship is alluded to elsewhere in Shir Hashirim, when talking of the determination of the nascent Jewish nation (in particular the mothers) to ensure continuation and relationship.
Let's see what secrets it may hold at its core.
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