A Rare Non-Jewish Post

Over the years as a sleep tech, I’ve had many joking and the rarer non-joking request for a bedtime story. Tonight, my patient read /me/ a bedtime story.
Well, a poem actually, from the 17th century Marathi poet Tukaram. Apparently, she read this right before bed and felt she must share it with another cat person.
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“Landlocked in Fur” by Tukaram

I was meditating with my cat the other day
and all of a sudden she shouted,
“What happened?!”

I knew exactly what she meant,
but encouraged her to say more –
feeling that if she got it all out on the table
she would sleep better that night.

So I responded, “Tell me more, dear,”
and she soulfully meowed:

“Well, I was mingled with the sky.
I was comets whizzing here and there.
I was suns in heat, hell – I was galaxies.
But now look –
I am landlocked in fur.”

To this I said, “I know exactly what you mean.”

What to say about conversation between mystics?

Beruriah and Restorative Justice

I think quite a bit lately about Beruriah and how she gently chided her husband, the renowned Rabbi Meir. When he angrily prayed g-d get rid of some wicked people, she reminded that the line from Psalm 104:36 should be translated “May sins disappear from the earth.” Not sinners, but sins.

It’s become an infuriating phrase “Hate the sin not the sinner,” because those that say it clearly hate so many people. But the true root of that translation stands firm. When the sin, the inequality, the iniquity, is gone … The ‘sinner’ is gone too. Now they’re just another human, not a construct of “bad.”

When I think of restorative justice, I dwell on Beruriah’s words. Retribution won’t stop the system because the system is built on retribution. To truly create a better world, to create the possiblity of olam haba, is to try to remove those systemic blocks that cause us all injury.

For the Full Moon of Iyar

Shekinah comes, a cloud round my heart
Shining through misty fog –
Missed connection cracked.

Sheol sits – a heel neath my head
Stunning in gritty grief:
Murmured connection tat
tered

Full Moon Face
Healer’s month
feel My Self

Through clouded fire
And fiery hail
Through winded suf
And rays high

I see
I feel
I know

I

The Ever Changing, The Always Self
The great grief and longest weep.
The dark spark, the infinite diverse

Full moon face
El na Refa
this finitesimal form

Shekinah care a heart to my head;
Shofar through open ears
Mythic connection complete
d

– For the full moon of Iyar 5781 –

Da’at Moshiach

When Da’at is renewed,
the spiritual stem cells of
Our great human Work
will Repair her with gold
Cracks filled.
Each embodiment reaches
In bodies towards
Teaching Moshiach.

Olam Haba
is there to be tasted
Testing our human ability to
Speak in Synchronous Syncopation
where the head body meet
And vocal chords lie.
Because once you say it out loud.

Da’at.
You Know.