Trigger Warning

Tamed Cynic is a reader-supported publication. If you appreciate the work, consider joining the posse of paid subscribers!

Here is a another conversation I shared with Rabbi Joseph Edelheit.

Your questions and feedback have been helpful to both of us so keep it coming.

Here is the poem, “Trigger Warning,” Rabbi Joseph shares in our conversation:

מיה טבת דיין

אזהרת טריגר: שבת

אזהרת טריגר: קיבוץ

אזהרת טריגר: דשא

אזהרת טריגר: מסיבה

אזהרת טריגר: תינוק

אזהרת טריגר: דלת

אזהרת טריגר: ידית של דלת

אזהרת טריגר: של מקלחת של הילדה בערב,כל קר לי,

כל אני רעבה, כל מה את רוצה לאכול, כל חביתה, כל סוודר,

כל לא רוצה גרביים, כל "אמא" (אזהרת טריגר: אמא) כל

פעם בשעה שאני מתעוררת בלילה (אזהרת טריגר: לילה,

לילה) כל פעם שהשמיכה עולה ויורדת, אלוהים תעשה

שהיא עולה ויורדת, כל פעם שאני לוחשת לעצמי בחושך

היא כאן היא כאן, כל פעם שאני לוחשת לה אמא כאן אמא

כאן.

Maya Tevet Dayan

Trigger warning : Sabbath

Trigger warning : Kibbutz

Trigger warning: Grass

Trigger warning: Party

Trigger warning: Baby

Trigger warning: Door

Trigger warning: Door handle

Trigger warning: Each time my daughter takes  a shower in the evening, each I’m cold,

Each I’m hungry, each what would you like to eat, each omlette, each sweater,

Each I don’t want to wear socks, each “Mommy” (Trigger warning: Mommy) ,  each time

Every hour when I wake up in the middle of the night (Trigger warning: Night,

Night) each time the blanket rises and drops God make it rise and drop

Each time I whisper to myself in the dark

She’s here, she’s here, each time I whisper to her Mommy’s here, Mommy’s

Here.

Finally, here is the essay on “On the Seriousness of Prayer” by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel that we discussed in our time together:

Seriousness is a hallmark of prayer. There is no prayer without seriousness. But what does “seriousness” mean? This concept seems to include four aspects, namely: honesty, commitment, authenticity, and weightiness. When we speak seriously, we are honest; a serious word is committed; a serious word is authentic and weighty. In prayer it is impossible to make false claims or pretenses, or to yield consciously to deception. Rather, everything depends on the measure of equality between intention and expression, on the harmony between conviction and awareness. Prayer without honesty is like scooping up water with a bottomless cup. A person praying means what he says. Prayer is not an impulse, not something frivolous or private, but a highly committed and consequential action. To pray means to engage directly with God, to expose oneself to Him, to His will and His insight. The person who prays intends to change his life: he places his fate in the metaphysical dimension and more or less desists from arrogance. Without that intention, prayer remains a monologue and a private recitation. The recognition of divine rule, yes, His engagement as ruler of the world, and the affirmation of all obligations that entails—these form the daily exoteric mystery of Jewish prayer. Anthems and hymns of praise are not meditations but acts of engagement taken seriously. Prayer is a weighty act. The word doesn’t flow by but applies itself with its full weight from out of the deepest layer of personal life. It forms the Spirit; it determines the fate of the person who prays. Again and again, true prayer is an event in a person’s life. Prayer is not a game, not an illusion, not emulation, not the generation of one’s own reflection, but an original act from which all elements spring, an occurrence that is real and true, in which nothing can be deceptive or manufactured. The use of slogans is the destruction of prayer. Prayer is not an activity that is in itself restorative or pleasurable. It is demanding and strenuous. It does not spring, like play, from an excess of energy, but rather from suffering and humility. It is not an activity that, free and aimless, finds satisfaction in itself, but rather it is directed to a goal and should have consequences. There is no room for nonchalance. A person who prays is aware of his responsibility and concerned about the content of his prayer. A person who prays wants to represent his concerns directly. An ironic stance toward their essential content is unthinkable. The expression of prayer flows forth, as if purely and directly from its intention, without the addition of any thoughts, whether central or ulterior. There is a wariness, a diffidence about praying with words that are not canonized in the fixed prayer texts. Rarely do new prayers arise. For in prayer every word has weight and a mysterious validity, every word is a word of honor before God.

Leave a comment

Share

Give a gift subscription

Get more from Jason Micheli in the Substack appAvailable for iOS and AndroidGet the app