Part 1
Or: Toward
Because the moon is covered, bakesse,* he said, I was sitting with Zohar next to
the tree underneath where he was buried. We were eating garinim [seeds].
Every Rosh Hashanah we draw something entirely new in to the world, he said,
but it’s hidden – bakesse – like the moon. Look up into the sky on the first of
Tishrei – what do you see?
That’s your wisdom, said Zohar, it’s present but inarticulate. That’s the business
between the 1st and the 15th of Tishrei. Your wisdom? He said like a teenager –
it plumps like the moon.
By the full moon of Tishrei, the 15th – fully articulate.
Then, he said smiling and spitting a shell, you will tell me what you know.
*Tiku va-hodesh shofar – bakesse – le-yom hageinu
Make a tekiah on the month with the shofar
when it’s hidden/bakesse
toward – the day of our hag [Sukkot] Ps. 81:4
Part 2
Make a tekiah* on the moon with the shofar
when it’s hidden/bakesse – Ps. 81:4
Through what then will it shine?
Through teshuvah** and the sound of the shofar.
– Zohar
Tekiah – Original unity before exiles – personal, spiritual, tribal.
Tekiah the universal – Teruah – the relative.
Teruah: Wavering, crying, a longing to return.
Shevarim: Broken. We are breaking up.
The Great Tekiah – promise of return.
Sad and beautiful world. Sad; so far away. Beautiful; so hungry we are
to return.
*Tekiah, blast of the shofar
**Teshuvah: transformation, return, a Turning. A response.
Part 3
Or: Toward
The moon is covered, said Zohar, it shines through teshuvah and the sound
of the shofar.
Return that hey, the letter of direction, he said, hey ha-m’gamah. Toward, that’s
the word, or to. Teshuv[ah].
I will turn away from here and toward There,* he said. It’s a matter of turning. Not
arrival, journey. Not goal, process. Not sin based, it’s a matter of change.
Movement.
Unstuck, said Zohar.
*Rashi on Ex. 3:3
