Good vibrations {last as long as they do run run}!


Op de grens van leven & dood bestaat de mens als vraag- & uitroepteken tussen slapen & ontwaken ...


The astounding thing is that we can actually almost catch this transition happening in the texts:
"When Rabbi Akiva died a martyr's death, a verse from the Song of Songs was applied to him,
'Yehoshua ben Yonathan used to say of those executed by the wicked Turnus Rufus.
They have loved thee much more than the former saints,
"sincerely they have loved thee!"'"
 There were, indeed, saints in former times, that is, those who were willing to die for the faith,
so why Rabbi Akiva & his fellows "loved thee much more than the former saints"?
I would claim it is because they died with joy. with a conviction not only that their deaths
were necessary, but that they were the highest of spiritual experiences.
Another way of saying this would be to spotlight the erotocism of these texts.
They are all about love,,
ABOUT DYING FOR 'G D'!

What was new in martyrology was the eroticization of death for "G d",
and it was new for both Christians and Jews.
IT WAS NOT A PARTICULARLY CHRISTIAN FEATURE!
This transition is identifiable as well in the parallel story of Rabbi Akiva's martyrdom
in the Palestinian Talmud:
Rabbi Akiva was being judged before the wicked Tunius Rufus
[another version of the name of "the wicked Turnus Rufus" in the text
quoted in the preceding paragraph!].
The time for the reading of the
"SHEMA"
["Hear O Israel",
which includes the verse,
"THOU SHALT LOVE THE LORD WITH ALL THEY SOUL!"]
arrived.
He began to recite it and smile. He said to him,
"Old man, old man:
either you are deaf, or you make light of suffering!"
He said,
"May the soul of that man expire!
[The third person is used in curses in the Talmud in order to avoid using the second person,
which, when the Talmud is read aloud, could cause a curse to fall on the hearer.]
Neither am I deaf, nor do I make light of suffering, but all of my life I have read the verse,"AND THOU SHALT LOVE THE LORD, THY G D WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOU PROPERTY!"
I have loved him with all my heart, and I have loved him with all my property,
but until now,
I wasn't sure I could
LOVE HIM WITH ALL MY SOUL!
But now that the opportunity of loving him with all my souls has come to me,
and it is the time of the ricital of the
"SHEMA,"
and I was not deterred from it, therefore, I recite, and therefore I smile!

Compare also the following:
Abba Moses the Ethiopian himself would say,
"If we keep the commandments of our fathers, I stand your surety before G d that no barbarians come here. But if we do not keep them, this place must be laid desolate!"
The day came when the brethren were sitting with him, and he said,
"To-day barbarians are coming to Scetis:
but rise up and flee!"
They say,
"Then are you not fleeing Abba?"
He answered,
"For so many years have I been looking forward to this day, that the words of the Master Christ
might be fulfilled which he spake,
'ALL WHO TAKE THE SWORD SHALL DIE BY THE SWORD!'"
Daarom zie ik dan ook de overeenkomsten tussen al die gevallen van onterechte arrestatie, veroordeling, marteling, opsluiting, executie e.d. zoals al eerder en vaker aangehaald:
'als je geweten je ingeeft wat te doen op de grens van recht & onrecht, als je gevaar vergeet
& dood onder ogen ziet, kinderlijk eenvoudig openstaat voor spel & interesse, zang & dans,
het kwade weigert en tot in de uiterste consequentie onze
HOPE
beleeft & die
DOPE
ondergaat,
dan wacht ons bevrijding van 't juk &
& verlichting als gevolg van ons beleven van waarheid,
in liefde, aandacht, mededogen, barmhartigheid en
totale overgave'.

In de jaren zestig & zeventig van de vorige afgelopen eeuw besefte ik dat nog [lang] niet [blijkbaar],
 maar
het 'gebeurde' wel!
De doden van toen zijn niet tevergeefs geweest achteraf gezien:
ooit komt de dag 'der dagen' dat g ds geest zich thuis kan voelen in alle mensen
'in de hemel & op aarde'
...
Tot dan
blijven we bestaan
[zolang we er nog zijn]
op de grens van dood & leven, als uitroep- & vraagteken
tussen ontwaken & weer gaan slapen:
wie
weet waar
't leven zal beginnen & de droom eindelijk
zal ophouden alles te bedekken met de sluiers der vergetelheid?
Ik geef me over in 'g ds handen':
dan zien we morgen wel weer verder,
of niet!
Anyway it's okay,
I love you:
what more can I say
& do right
now?
engel
21 okt 2009 - bewerkt op 22 okt 2009 - meld ongepast verhaal
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Asih, man, 80 jaar
   
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