Rewritten Poem & textual comparisons

I've rewritten one of my poems from Intro Post, Part Four:

Once the fence inspired awe
now I run atop the posts.
I could very well fall
but at least I'm alive.
I can tell because the fencetop pricks my feet.

Others see green grass
but I see weeds;
hallowed ground for them,
hollow ground for me
where my feet grow heavy on the old familiar paths.

(I had seder in the House of Rimmon
awash in bitter herbs
where hopes are stillborn
and dwindle into fantasies,
that four cups couldn't drown, but not for want of trying.)

I know the world is hollow
but I fear to touch the sky
lest it shatter
and my family be caught in the wreckage.
So on I run, trying to keep my balance, but at least my feet hurt.
 
Better, I think.
 
I am immensely enjoying reading The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah, parsha (ours) by parsha, and am learning alot (which is why I bought it). Some of the differences appear to be fairly inconsequential (reversed word orders & such) while others are more substantive. Examples of the latter are in Leviticus 17:7 and 18:18. Our English of 17:7 reads:

And they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices unto the satyrs, after whom they go astray.
 

The Israelite Samaritan version reads the first underlined portion as in the gates. Our version of the original Hebrew is l'se'irim; theirs is b'shaa'rim (adjusting the Israelite Samaritan pronunciation to ours). The second underlined portion is zonim in both versions. The z-n-h root is also the root for the word for prostitute/whore, zonah. The Israelite Samaritan read is that we must not offer sacrifices as we were formerly wont to do in profane places such as town gates where prostitutes and whores might gather to trawl for customers.

In 18:18, the read is the same but the interpretation differs.

And you shall not take a woman to her sister, to be a rival to her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her lifetime
 

We take to her sister in its literal sense & rule that a man may not marry two biological sisters. The Israelite Samaritans read it more metaphorically and take to her sister to mean any other Israelite woman, i.e. a sister in faith & rule that a man may not take a second wife at all (unless the first wife is barren and unless she agrees).

I have finished the second section of Samaritan Exegesis, by High Priest Jacob son of Aaron (whom the Wikipedia article on Samaritan High Priests lists as having served from 1874-1916), in which he answers 25 questions that were put to him. Those regarding the Passover were utterly fascinating.

In a latter section, the High Priest writes:

Every word of God as given in the revealed Torah through our lord Moses (upon whom be peace) possesses several allusions which are to be applied in their proper places. This is enough for the man who lays aside his prejudice, and is willing to receive guidance and act piously.

What an elegant refutation of the calumny that the Israelite Samaritans are slaves as it were to the narrow, literal meaning of the Torah. The key phrase above, I think, is in their proper places. Our Sages take such flights (of fancy?) away from the plain sense of the text (see Intro Post, Part Four, the paragraph near the bottom beginning "This past Roah Hashanah...") whereas the Israelite Samaritans take things in their proper places.

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Counting at Rimmon's Table

I decided that since I have to count with our youngest son I will do a barebones count, i.e. the blessing & the erroneous count and none of the afterprayers that are customarily said after counting; I just can't do it.

The Israelite Samaritans will be bringing the Pesach offering on Mt. Gerizim in a few hours. I think I said in a previous post that I will be glad that I'm not there. To see the Israelite Samaritans doing God's work and to know that all I will ever likely be is a spectator would be heartbreaking. So instead I'll drink my four cups of wine at Rimmon's table tomorrow night (maybe I'll drink a fifth or sixth cup) and wish I could be elsewhere. Whee.

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More on counting, Passover & not pointing fingers

Something that I hadn't thought of when I wrote my previous post is that my wife might want me to count the omer with our youngest son as she has in previous years. He's now past bar mitzvah so we'll have to see. I suppose I have to set a Jewish example for him but I wonder what values will I be teaching him exactly? Hypocrisy? Doing things just for the sake of appearances? Wheee. How responsible. What fun. (Not.)

It always freaks me out, this year more than in previous years, how so many o'dox Jews get so neurotic when it comes to Passover. Passover is when the obsessive-compulsives among us come out of the woodwork. There are people who weigh and measure out individual portions of matzah and maror so that everyone eats the exact right precise amount. God forbid that you should eat one gram less! Gevalt!! The seder is not supposed to be a mathematics lesson! Just eat some matza; if you eat under the exact, measured, quantifiable amount, it doesn't make any difference! I go nuts over long hair-splitting debates over what exactly constitutes leaning to the left. What if you're more comfortable leaning to the right/?!! It doesn't make any difference! Just sit and be relaxed & comfortable!  And, of course, our sedarim go on forever (even though the Torah says that the Passover offering is to be eaten in haste, but the Oral Torah explains that away too).

This past Shabbat I (quite spur of the moment) decided to stop pointing at the Torah when it is held up after the reading and saying, "This is the Torah that Moses placed before the Children of Israel according to God, by the hand of Moses" (which is cobbled together from Deuteronomy 4:44 & Numbers 4:37) as I do not believe anymore that the Torah which we Jews have is indeed, "the Torah that Moses placed before the Children of Israel according to God."

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