Musics I The cantorial face, jowls distended, intoning the remembrance of past times whose only echo is that never again shall they be, while the dirge-draped congregation hope but say "Why not?" Why should tomorrow in Jerusalem be any different to yesterday or today? Yesterday in Jerusalem, tomorrow in Jerusalem, the litany of remembrance, forgetting, not forgetting. Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Wailing at the wall that is ever broken kissing the book, fiddling with phalacteries, praying to the god who shall be nameless, whose only hope is forgetting, forgetting the messianic presence (the straight gate through wich Shekinah might enter) the immanence of the present kol nidrey ve-esarey va-ha-ramey v'konamey v'hinu-yey v'kinusey u-shavuot the community of wanderers at home, but not home, here but not there. Avinu Malkeynu, honey-nu va-aneyu, ki eyn banu ma-asim asey imanu tz'dakah va-hesed v'ho-shi-eynu. ineffable oneness, nothingness, other-one, book-one, lost one, one of the dispersed, of the fragmented. Cantorial jowl, intoning a book the have beens, might-have-beens, ghosts of has-beens, compose an insertion, the chord of the now. Avinu Malkeynu But Now is your chorus: silent, praying, the congregants mimicing, transcending, transcending: hairdresser, accountant, mother, father, child, sister, rewriting your arcane lilting Avinu Malkeynu me! now! here! tapdancing to their own music - rock, ska, reggae, folk - counter-point to your dismal classics, dancing before the ark. Avinu Malkeynu But you, dear cantor, intone the book! Without it there would be no words. In the grimy tone of your Russian angst hymn the text to be written against, for, instead. Sh'ma Yisrael.
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