Dry, Weary, Smiling Bones: Finding a ‘Yes’ through Hebrew Narrative and a Reduced Spirituality

Life can be a difficult phenomenon to acquiesce to, much less embrace. Tragedy is seemingly around every corner, and very many philosophies and faiths both ancient and modern have championed the exit from existence over its entrance. Existentialism and nihilism proclaim the seizure or suicide of one’s undesired birth, moksha and nirvana the blessed non-return of a wandering soul. Yet against these currents the Jewish ideational approach to being, with its ever-old and newness, has consistently given the world a ‘yes’, and this apparently despite having every reason not to; although perhaps “because” is more appropriate to that prior clause than “despite”. In what follows we therefore consider how we might uncover from within Judaism an abstracted “spirituality” for our times, a numinousness that is not necessarily a “belief”: a “faith” that is more in line with a hope. Our objective is to learn how to think differently rather than to convert, and thus towards this more modest goal we set out to explore some images from Hebrew poetry and narrative, attempting to bring forth core conceptualities which could then be applied to an affirming notional framework befitting anyone who would ponder—who would feel—a way through. How might we state this ‘yes’ for our lives?

Karakteristik Mazmur Pujian

The study is titled characteristics Psalm of Praise. This study will seek and discover the characteristics and principles of psalm praise in the Book of Psalms. To discover the characteristics of the Praise Psalm used qualitative rather than experimental research methods. This qualitative method can also be used for reflective speculators. With four steps: analyzing the passage according to its elements, the second step is to recognize the language style of poetry and stories that are historical, the third reveals the original meaning of Hebrew poetry, the fourth looks for the characteristics of the Hebrew satra of the author's motives and goals. So that preserved by this method can be formulated characteristics from the Psalm of Praise. There are three important things to remember in the Psalm of praise is, first the Psalm of praise begins with an invitation to worship The Lord, The second psalm of praise continues by giving a description of the reasons why God is worthy of praise. Third is the psalm praise usually includes and sometimes ends with a further invitation to praise God therefore the proper title is the characteristics Psalm of Praise so that the awkwardness of distinguishing the interpretation of different types of psalm can be well cleared.

Not Quite Exile, Not Quite Home

“Sepharad” was more than simply the Hebrew name for Iberia. Through much of Jewish history it denoted a set of Jewish cultural traits that included a high level of cultural and social integration, a sense of Jewish aristocracy and noble lineage, and unmatched creativity in Hebrew poetry, philosophy, science, mystical thought, rabbinic codification, and biblical exegesis. Spanish Jews lived under both Muslim and Christian rule, sometimes in harmony and mutual enrichment, but often under oppressive conditions of discrimination, forced conversion, and Inquisition. Their history of co-existence (convivencia) included uprootings as well as cultural flowering. The expulsion of 1492 did not spell the end of their deep bonds with Spain. Instead, Sephardim remained one of the main branches of the Jewish people.

Modern Hebrew Poetry

Modern Hebrew poetry, written in a language comprehensible only to parts of its audience, the Yiddish speaking masses, emerged at the end of the 19th century and became canonized by the time of the publication of C. N. Bialik’s second book in 1908. The Jewish generation that grew up in Eastern Europe after the 1880s aspired to create in Hebrew, a language of ancient texts and commentary, modern alternative expression that matched the pedigree of the European poetry from the Renaissance on. Some Hebrew poetry was written throughout the ages (medieval, Haskalah, Hibat Zion), but in the absence of a steady linear evolution (of models, forms, and prosody), modern Hebrew poetry was a pioneering project accumulated from the biblical narrative monologue and poetry; the commentary and the dialogical tension of the Talmud; the contribution of the Drasha (sermon) tradition; elements of history, literature, folklore, and theology extolled in Halakhic books written throughout the ages; and from threads adapted from the neighboring Russian or German cultures. Seen in retrospect, a growing chorus of Hebrew poets gave voice to the transition of Jews into general Western culture (in its unique realization in the Middle East), the human condition and landscapes, the political and social realities, and the traumas of Jewish existence and its triumph. Their renaissance at the turn of the centuries laid the foundations for the mature poetry written in the new major literary center in Ottoman and British Mandate Palestine and Israel for a new growing class of Hebrew readers.

אצחצח דבר גבורות: The Discovery of the Opening Section of Shelomo Suleiman al-Sinjari’s Seder ha-ʿAvodah

This is the first publication of the beginning of one of the sidrei ʿavodah for the Day of Atonement by Shelomo Suleiman al-Sinjari, a prolific Palestinian paytan who lived in the second half of the 9th century. Although well known to researchers, this piyyut was incorrectly attributed to the greatest Palestinian poet: Eleazar b. Qallir. My consultation of a copy of the seder ʿavodah in a Cairo Geniza manuscript and the database of the Ezra Fleischer Geniza Research Project for Hebrew Poetry led to the correct identification of the author of אצחצח דבר גבורות as Shelomo Suleiman. The article contains a critical edition of the beginning of this seder ʿavodah with annotations and variants.