(י) נָאו֤וּ לְחָיַ֙יִךְ֙ בַּתֹּרִ֔ים צַוָּארֵ֖ךְ בַּחֲרוּזִֽים׃
(10) Your cheeks are comely with plaited wreaths,Your neck with strings of jewels.
(ב) בֶּן עַזַּאי הָיָה יוֹשֵׁב וְדוֹרֵשׁ וְהָאֵשׁ סְבִיבוֹתָיו, אֲזַלוּן וַאֲמַרוּן לְרַבִּי עֲקִיבָא, רַבִּי בֶּן עַזַּאי יוֹשֵׁב וְדוֹרֵשׁ וְהָאֵשׁ מְלַהֶטֶת סְבִיבוֹתָיו, הָלַךְ אֶצְלוֹ וְאָמַר לוֹ שָׁמַעְתִּי שֶׁהָיִיתָ דּוֹרֵשׁ וְהָאֵשׁ מְלַהֶטֶת סְבִיבְךָ. אָמַר לוֹ הֵן. אָמַר לוֹ, שֶׁמָּא בְּחַדְרֵי מֶרְכָּבָה הָיִיתָ עָסוּק, אָמַר לוֹ לָאו, אֶלָּא הָיִיתִי יוֹשֵׁב וְחוֹרֵז בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָה, וּמִתּוֹרָה לִנְבִיאִים, וּמִנְּבִיאִים לִכְתוּבִים, וְהָיוּ הַדְּבָרִים שְׂמֵחִים כִּנְתִינָתָן מִסִּינַי, וְהָיוּ עֲרֵבִים כְּעִקַּר נְתִינָתָן, וְכֵן עִקַּר נְתִינָתָן מִסִּינַי לֹא בָאֵשׁ הָיוּ נִתָּנִין, הֲדָא הוּא דִכְתִיב (דברים ד, יא): וְהָהָר בֹּעֵר בָּאֵשׁ. רַבִּי אַבָּהוּ הָיָה יוֹשֵׁב וְדוֹרֵשׁ וְאֵשׁ מְלַהֶטֶת סְבִיבוֹתָיו, אָמַר שֶׁמָּא אֵינִי חוֹרֵז בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָה כְּתִקְנָן, דְּאָמַר רַבִּי לֵוִי אִית דְּיָדַע לְמִחְרוֹז וְלָא יָדַע לְמִקְדַּח, וְאִית דְּיָדַע לְמִקְדַּח וְלָא יָדַע לְמִחְרוֹז, בְּרַם אֲנָא הֲוֵינָא חָרוֹזָא וַאֲנָא הֲוֵינָא קָדוֹחָא.
Ben Azzai was sitting and learning and there was fire all around him. The other students went to Rabbi Akiva and told him. He came and said to him, “I hear that you were learning and fire was all around you.” He answered, “Yes.” He said, “Perhaps you were dealing with (the secret mystical text) the Chambers of the Chariot?” He answered, “No, I was sitting and threading together words of Torah, and from the Torah to the Prophets, and from the Prophets to the Writings, and the words were as joyous as on the day they were given on Sinai, and as sweet as the very day they were given.
For was not their giving at Sinai with fire? As it is written, “And the mountain was ablaze with flames.” (Deut. 4:11).
Rabbi Abahu was sitting and learning and there was fire all around him. He said, “Perhaps I’m not stringing the words of Torah properly.” For Rabbi Levi said, “There are those who know how to thread but don’t know how to drill, and there are those who know how to drill but don’t know how to thread. But I know how to thread and how to drill.
Bigger tractors do not solve the problem of soil compaction any more than air conditioners solve the problem of air pollution. Nor does the large confinement-feeding operation solve the problem of food production; it is, rather, a way calculated to allow large-scale ambition and greed to profit from food production. The real problem of food production occurs within a complex, mutually influential relationship of soil, plants, animals, and people. A real solution to that problem will therefore be ecologically, agriculturally, and culturally healthful.
Perhaps it is not until health is set down as the aim that we come in sight of the third kind of solution: that which causes a ramifying series of solutions – as when meat animals are fed on the farm where the feed is raised, and where the feed is raised to be fed to the animals that are on the farm. Even so rudimentary a description implies a concern for pattern, for quality, which necessarily complicates the concern for production. The farmer has put plants and animals into a relationship of mutual dependence, and must perforce be concerned for balance or symmetry, a reciprocating connection in the pattern of the farm that is biological, not industrial, and that involves solutions to problems of fertility, soil husbandry, economics, sanitation – the whole complex of problems whose proper solutions add up to health: the health of the soil, of plants and animals, of farm and farmer, of farm family and farm community, all involved in the same interested, interlocking pattern – or pattern of patterns.
A bad solution is bad, then, because it acts destructively upon the larger patterns in which it is contained. It acts destructively upon those patterns, most likely, because it is formed in ignorance or disregard of them. A bad solution solves for a single purpose or goal, such as increased production. And it is typical of such solutions that they achieve stupendous increases in production at exorbitant biological and social costs.
---Wendell Berry, “Solving for Pattern” in The Gift of Good Land, p. 136-7.
... (יט) ... כִּֽי־עָפָ֣ר אַ֔תָּה וְאֶל־עָפָ֖ר תָּשֽׁוּב׃ (כ) וַיִּקְרָ֧א הָֽאָדָ֛ם שֵׁ֥ם אִשְׁתּ֖וֹ חַוָּ֑ה כִּ֛י הִ֥וא הָֽיְתָ֖ה אֵ֥ם כׇּל־חָֽי׃ (כא) וַיַּ֩עַשׂ֩ יהוה אֱלֹהִ֜ים לְאָדָ֧ם וּלְאִשְׁתּ֛וֹ כׇּתְנ֥וֹת ע֖וֹר וַיַּלְבִּשֵֽׁם׃ {פ} (כב) וַיֹּ֣אמֶר ׀ יהוה אֱלֹהִ֗ים הֵ֤ן הָֽאָדָם֙ הָיָה֙ כְּאַחַ֣ד מִמֶּ֔נּוּ לָדַ֖עַת ט֣וֹב וָרָ֑ע וְעַתָּ֣ה ׀ פֶּן־יִשְׁלַ֣ח יָד֗וֹ וְלָקַח֙ גַּ֚ם מֵעֵ֣ץ הַֽחַיִּ֔ים וְאָכַ֖ל וָחַ֥י לְעֹלָֽם׃ (כג) וַֽיְשַׁלְּחֵ֛הוּ יהוה אֱלֹהִ֖ים מִגַּן־עֵ֑דֶן לַֽעֲבֹד֙ אֶת־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֻקַּ֖ח מִשָּֽׁם׃ (כד) וַיְגָ֖רֶשׁ אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֑ם וַיַּשְׁכֵּן֩ מִקֶּ֨דֶם לְגַן־עֵ֜דֶן אֶת־הַכְּרֻבִ֗ים וְאֵ֨ת לַ֤הַט הַחֶ֙רֶב֙ הַמִּתְהַפֶּ֔כֶת לִשְׁמֹ֕ר אֶת־דֶּ֖רֶךְ עֵ֥ץ הַֽחַיִּֽים׃ {ס}
.... For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” (20) The Human named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. (21) And God יהוה made garments of skins for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. (22) And God יהוה said, “Now that humankind has become like any of us, knowing good and bad, what if one should stretch out a hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever!” (23) So God יהוה banished humankind from the garden of Eden, to till the humus from which it was taken: (24) it was driven out; and east of the garden of Eden were stationed the cherubim and the fiery ever-turning sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.
(יב) וַיַּעַשׂ יהוה אֱלֹהִים לְאָדָם וּלְאִשְׁתּוֹ כָּתְנוֹת עוֹר וַיַּלְבִּשֵּׁם (בראשית ג, כא), בְּתוֹרָתוֹ שֶׁל רַבִּי מֵאִיר מָצְאוּ כָּתוּב כָּתְנוֹת אוֹר,
(12) And the LORD God made garments of skins for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21) In the Torah of Rabbi Meir we find it written "garments of light."
Leonard Cohen, If It Be Your Will
If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will
If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well
And to draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will
If it be your will
Stringing more pearls: We also place these texts in a new context when we look at them not just from the perspective of our minds, but when we see them through othre media.
Try looking at either the Ben Azzai / Wendell Berry texts or the Garments / Rags of Light texts through the lens of
Dance /Movement
Drama
Creative Writing
Drawing
Music