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Deutero-Nomos
Worlds

These are the words
I gobble them up like candy
They have grown legs now
Scampering around the manuscript
Now they have wings
Thirty two hidden paths
Twenty two letters
And ten elements
Principes –

All the passages pass through
Beauty
THESE ARE THE WORDS
The things
Items
The Deal

The deal
Deall.

Root word davar
In three
Ha-de-var-im words
Dibber spoke
Wilderness Midbar –

Sit yourself down on the desert floor
Spend quiet spend
Figure.

Wilderness of the word
Absence of word
Word
Sensitivity to word
Word itself
Thing itself the thing itself
Essence of the thing –

Which words?
All words –
With language
Everything.

Midbar
We are with words –
These are the words.

Is that what we are doing
just giving language to what we know?
Take the just out of the sentence –
We are giving language to what we know.

Know the world
Use your words
Unpack your tools
Power up blessing,
In-te-grate
Seams and Seems
First –
Language.

The Holy One engraved the world
through thirty two hidden paths of wisdom [Sefer Yetzirah 1:1]
– ten principles and twenty two letters
This from the Book of Formation
What God wrote into the world.

These are the words,
Speaks the Midbar –
Enter me.

jsg, usa

O holy Shabbes Inspiration Devarim

Shabbat Chazon the necessity to read the vision of Isaiah
on the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av
God gives us the remedy before the malady
Built in — this curative wisdom is built in before it’s prescribed
the vision before the fall
the hope before the destruction,

I can’t find the blessing in it
he said to me over a cup of Joe
this always the problem in suffering
or in waiting even or in frustration
I can’t find the blessing in it.

On this the Shabbes before the 9th of Av
we recall the destruction of the Temples
even on Tisha B’Av there is a buried holiness and seed for hope.

Shabbat Chazon
Chazon: read the vision of Isaiah
The future Jerusalem — rebuilt, strong,
Built on resolution of the mistakes of the past.

From R. Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev –
The Shabbes of vision –
Third Temple
you can see it.

Feel this: always on the Shabbes just before Tisha B’Av
Black fast
Preceded by Chazon
The holy Temple rebuilt
The redemption we pray for daily.

Feel this: the proximity of what saves and what corrupts
Feel this: the vision of an ascendant future and the losses of the past
Feel this: the proximity of ascent and descent
Feel this: what purifies what defiles
Feel this: for every descent
A hidden ascent –

Something purifying out of exile
Something pure emerging out of suffering
Shabbat Chazon: a vision of ascent out of descent.

I found the blessing in it
Do you feel it?

R. Gamaliel, R. Eliezer b. Azariah, R. Yehoshua, and R. Akiva
came to the Temple Mount
they saw a fox coming out of the Holy of Holies,
they all burst into tears, except Akiva
Akiva laughed. [Makkot 24b]

Akiva said, old men and old women shall dwell again
In the streets of Jerusalem
And the streets of the city shall be full of children
— I know the prophecy.
Akiva saw something his friends did not
He saw the future –
How dark the night, he said, how bright the day to come. [the Maharal]

The harder the fall, the higher the return
Akiva laughing.

In the future
When it is time for the Messiah to come
On what day do you suppose the Messiah will be born?

On the ninth of Av.

jsg, usa

Maqam Hijaz
According to one source, all other instances of maqam hijaz, it is mixed with maqam bayat.

Only Shabbat Devarim, Shabbat Chazon [Shabbat of Vision] does hijaz appear in its pure form.

A maqam is a musical figure. Each Shabbat is associated with a particular maqam.

Maqam Hijaz D E-flat F# G

It’s good to know sh**

In 1927
the week I am writing this
Crying Sam Collins recorded Jail House Blues in
Richmond, Indiana.

Richmond Indiana.
Richmond Indiana is on the border with Ohio,
Wayne County, Indiana.
It sits on the historic National Road 40,
National Road 40 followed the railroad east to west
became part of system called National Auto Trails.
It runs through St. Louis
where I live
later became known as US Highway 40.
Interstate 70 still later built in proximity to National Road 40.
It’s good to know sh**.

Richmond Indiana
also one of early sites of fledgling jazz recording industry.
Automobiles were built in Richmond, Indiana
the Richmond, built by Wayne Works,
also the Rodefeld, the Davis, the Pilot, the Westcott,
the Crosley.

The Crosley was sold on Locust Street in St. Louis
automobile row in the early years of auto business
Ford, Packard,
the Maxwell and Chalmers
acquired by Walter P. Chrysler
to become the Chrysler,
Moon, Cadillac, LaSalle,
Crosley, Stearns-Knight, Stutz, Lexington, Gardner
Jordan, the Hug truck
the Cole, the Standard
Franklin, manufactured in Syracuse New York 1902 to 1934
the only large production car in United States
with air-cooled engine
Holmes
Cunningham, the most luxury car of the time,
the Locomobile, built from 1899 to 1929
in Bridgeport, Connecticut
originally steam-driven
changed to internal combustion in 1903,
Davis Six, Maibohm.
all sold on Locust street in my town.
It’s good to know sh**.

The Locomobile Building on Locust Street
housed the Premier Recording Studios
during World War II
and its successor
the Berzerker Studios
where Bing Crosby,
Miles Davis, Ike and Tina Turner
Chuck Berry recorded.

Locust Street.
Nash, Ajax, Willys,
the Lafayette, the Durant
named after the founder of General Motors
he bought Locomobile, the Flint, and the Rugby
went broke in the Depression
died destitute in New York.

The Packard.
It’s good to know sh**.

The Crosley.

Crosley, the name of old Cincinnati Reds stadium
Findlay Street and Western Avenue in Cincinnati.
Now demolished.
Built in 1912 with Wrigley Field and Fenway Park.
Name changed to Crosley Field in 1934
Powel Crosley, Jr., Crosley motor car company
Richmond, Indiana
he bought the Cincinnati Reds.
Powel Crosley, Jr. made his money with the radio.
During the Twenties, Crosley radio most popular radio
in the world.

Crying Sam Collins recorded his track in Richmond, Indiana,
where my five CDs were produced by a company
the last of that tradition.
Can you dig that?

It’s good to know sh**.

jsg

Blessing

When you enter the land,
go to the holy man,
take baskets of first fruits,
go where God tells you.

Give your baskets to the holy man,
then – tell him what happened, in brief:
we have been lost, we are coming home.
End the story with gratitude
for having been brought to this place.

Bow down and sit together with
the holy ones
and the strangers among you.
Have lunch together.

Set up large stones,
inscribe these teachings,
every word,
on the stones.

Shhh — find your silence.
Today you have become a people of
God.
Live in that for a long time.

Let blessings pour out of you like
a fountain.
After each blessing,
thunder: amen.

You will be blessed in the city and in the suburbs,
through your children yourselves and your ancestors,
blessed will you be in your coming and in your going,
blessed will you be at the top and at the bottom,
the whole journey will be blessed.

You will be blessed among the huts
and other holy places.

jsg, usa

Yom Kippur
Neilah, the closing of gates
I was determined never to look at my retirement account until it was time for me to retire and spend it. I applied for the position of oud player to the Court of the King. I want to teach quiet people to string words together like beads for the sake of heaven.

So – I said to no one in particular – I think I will. That was last year at this time, during the closing of the gates that we call Neilah.
I felt happy. I knew in my bones in my blood that this is the way I am supposed to feel. It was still light as I was returning the tools of my trade back to the Rainbow Village. That was Tuesday, September 30, 2008. That night I went to bed happy and I woke up happy on Wednesday, October 1st, and I’ve gone to bed happy and woke up happy every night and morning since. I am a happy man.

Today is Yom Kippur, Monday, September 28, 2009.
Last year, the guy who lives in the synagogue complex called Rainbow Village who hums and clicks was walking by me and it’s not as if he started talking as I am talking, he hummed and clicked as he always does but this is what I heard:
Isn’t it wonderful to be alive
Aren’t you grateful for this day and all the days of clarity you have been given
Isn’t it a privilege to have done your good work today with your mind and your hands
And to be tired in the sun with the added advantage of returning your tools to their resting places
That’s what he said

Isn’t it good good
To be alive on September 30, 2008 in the afternoon
To be carrying the tools of your trade after having put in a good day of work
To have taken upon yourself the yoke of the kingdom of heaven
To have put on your yoke of service like all working animals and have actualized your power and potential and served well your Creator
To have been rewarded with something loftier than this perfect day in the sun that you will remember not only from recall
But from your intention to put on your poet’s wild yoke and write these stories
Onto the wind
Into the sky
Out to the sea

On Nitzavim

We are standing today
All of us
The big shots
Chumps
Children
Wives and sweethearts
And the stranger
That is within all of us
Before Hashem The Name
Our God
From the hewers of wood
To the carriers of water
All of us
Every busy one of us
Today.

To cut a deal with You
So that You will
Remember the deal
You cut with our ancestors
Good people
Eager covenant cutters.

But not for us alone
Do You keep this agreement
Nah
Not for us who are here
Today
But for those of us
Who are not here
Today —
Everybody.

For this deal that I set before you this day
You know which one I mean
It is not too far from you
That you should say
Who shall go for us
Nor is it too hard for you
That you should say
Who will do this for us
It is not in heaven
And it is not hidden
And it is not distant
But right here
Under your nose
It is in your mouth
And in your heart
It is sitting next to you on the bench
Waiting with you for the bus
It is standing on the corner
In front of Starbuck’s
Waiting for the light to change
Close
That you should do it.

Look
See
Look See
I have placed before you
The life and the good
And the death and the evil
So love Hashem
God
Walk like God
Do the right things
The simple things and the complex things
Figure out what you can for yourself
And be wise together
Then you will multiply
And God will grow you
And bless you.

But if you don’t listen
And fly away
I tell you
I surely tell you
I know that you will be lost
And your days will not be lengthened
On the land.

So I call heaven and earth together
To witness for you and against you
I have placed life and death before you
Blessing and curse.

Choose life
Choose blessing
Love God
Listen
Glue yourself to God

For God is your life
And the length of your days.
God promised your ancestors
God promised them
I swear.

Seven Weeks of Consolation

[From Isaiah 1] Preamble

The vision of Isaiah son of Amotz
The future Isaiah
[Which he saw]
Hear O heavens
Pay attention O earth
Come to me with meaning
Purify yourselves
Remove the mistakes
Learn to do good
Be a seeker of justice
Strengthen those who need strength
Take up causes

Get moving
Let us reason together
And if our sins are like scarlet
They will whiten like snow
If they have reddened like crimson
They will become pure as wool
Turn the darkness into light

The more dark
The more light
Find your willingness

Don’t blame anyone
And all that is impure
Will burn away
In your burn.

[From Isaiah 40] Week 1

Take comfort
Take comfort now
It’s time to come home
Take the straight road home
Time now for the crooked to become
Straight
The rugged
Leveled and low
It’s time
Everybody knows

Get yourself up to a high mountain
Raise yourself up
Everything is in place
Waiting
Waiting for you

Nothing missing
Not one thing.

[From Isaiah 49] Week 2

No one has forgotten you
You are engraved upon
God’s heart
You are written on the palms
Of God’s
Hands

Raise your eyes
And see all about you

You have said
This place is tight for me
No more
It has opened to you

You will be nurtured
And you will be honored
You will know and be
Known

You will be comforted
Even among the ruins
You will hear music
And see beauty
Everywhere.

You will find joy
And music
And gratitude.

[From Isaiah 54] Week 3

And when you feel
Unconsoled
Uncomforted
You will look down
And see yourself walking
On jewels
All your children will be
Students of God
Great will be the peace
Of your children

When you are thirsty
Go and drink
Eat what is good
And let your soul
Enjoy its abundance.

Then no one
Will get in your way
And when you need to
Your soul will
Revive.

[From Isaiah 51] Week 4

It is me
Who comforts you
And when you are scared
You have the words you need
In your own mouth
You will be protected
You may awaken yourself
You may awaken yourself now
And assume your strength
Shake off the dust
Inherit your peace
Turn away from the contaminants
Follow along
Slowly slowly
Cleanse yourself and follow along.

[From Isaiah 54] Week 5

Sing and broaden yourself
Lose your fear
Spread out north
And south
And settle all the desolate
Places

Forget the shame of your past
I give you my kindness
And my covenant of
Peace

[From Isaiah 60] Week 6

Rise
Shine
Your light has arrived
You shall shine
Even in darkness
And God’s way will be seen
By your light.

Lift your eyes
All around you
They are all assembled
To accompany you
Radiant
fearless
And expansive
Shall be your heart

Now you inherit true
Abundance of life

Your light will never
Diminish

All your people are righteous
You are all a branch
Of the planting

God’s handiwork
All of you.

[From Isaiah 61-62] Week 7

My soul
Joyful
Clothes and garments
Robes of justice and salvation
I am like
A bridegroom
His priestly accessories
And a bride
Her jewels
Like the garden
Like the earth
God brings forth
Justice
And praises
Before all nations.

I will not rest
Nor hold my peace
Until we burn
Like a torch
And all the nations will see
You will be called by
A new

Name

Which the mouth of God
Will speak
You will be a jewel
In the open hand
Of God.

The guardians on the walls
They take no rest
Go through the gates
Go through the gates
Clear the way for the people

You are sought
And
Interpreted
expounded
A city not forsaken

Carried
All the days of old.

You sit and stare,
Said the angel.

The light from the candles
is the or ha-ganuz
the hidden light
stored away for the future –