Donald Traxler's Poetry

Saturday, January 2, 2021

The Word of the Day (alternate versions)

The Word of the Day

The word of the day is "neo-traditional." It is a river fed by many streams, and flowing into satya-saagar, the Ocean of Truth.

दिन का शब्द "नव-पारंपरिक" है। यह एक नदी है जो कई धाराओं से बहती है और सत्य-सागर, सत्य के महासागर में बहती है।

La vorto de la tago estas "novtradicia." Ĝi estas rivero nutrita de multaj riveretoj, kaj fluanta en satya-saagar, la Oceano de la Vero.

ᎧᏁᎢᏍᏗ ᎢᎦ ᎥᎿᎢ ᎨᏒᎠᏎ "ᎢᏤ-ᎧᏃᎮᎸᎭ". ᎨᏒᎠᏎ ᏌᏊ ᎤᏪᏴ ᎠᏓᏕᎳᏍᏗᏔ ᎤᎪᏗᏗ ᎤᏍᏗ ᎤᏪᏴᏗ ᏗᎬᏩᎶᏒ, ᎠᎴ ᎠᏕᏴᎠᏍᎬᎠᏁᏔ ᎠᎺᏉᎯ ᏚᏳᎪᏛ ᎾᎿᎢ.

Friday, January 1, 2021

They Come From Out Of The Past

Thursday, December 31, 2020

Interior Worlds

Interior worlds are his domains,

where time and space are nothing,

and only Consciousness remains.

102 Thousand Visits, and Many Pirates

Does anything look strange to you about the graphic above? It's a listing of the top sources of visits to this blog in the last twenty-four hours. Thirty-two of the thirty-four visits from the US were by a known pirate. But the 800-plus visits from Sweden were by an even bigger pirate. Only Sweden and Japan appear to have the capability of such rapid harvesting of my work. But I can't worry my head about it, at least not now. I say let them fight it out among themselves and try to make a profit off of what I give away free.

Overnight, total visits to the blog went from 101,613 to 102,484. Normally, two or three hundred visits would be a very big day. This is ridiculous.

My "Upanishad" series ended at ninety-one parts. It could be extended in the future, but at the moment this is all I have to say.

I have started a new series, "Notes on the Zohar," which is currently at four parts. I expect that there will be many more parts. This is writing that I enjoy doing, with some personal touches.

The poem that I posted this morning, came to me between 4:00 and 5:00 a,m,, which is the "witching hour" for such things. I did not include any dedicatory line, thinking that the subject was pretty obvious. It was inspired by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, whom I met and from whom I received "The Rebbe's Kiss" in 1966 or '67. He was the most charismatic man I ever met, and made a huge impression on me, a very positive one. May his memory be for a blessing.

As usual, thanks to all of you for your continued interest and enthusiasm.

Sound the Shofar

Sound the shofar for a

New Year of the Soul.

Dance the Rebbe's dance,

and sing the Rebbe's tune.

Our Father yet lives,

our people live.

Our Rebbe yet lives.

Young again,

he jumps for joy.

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Notes on the Zohar IV

In the Prologue, we are introduced to the rabbinic cast of characters: R. Hizkiah, R. Simeon, R. Eleazar. It starts with some fanciful exposition of Biblical verses, involving verses from the Song of Songs. If you are looking for spiritual eroticism, here is the signal that you are going to find it.

After a tortuous exposition by R. Eleazar, R, Simeon takes over, and his derivation (on p. 6 of my Soncino Press edition, which equates to pp. 1b-2a in the Mantua edition) of Elohim (God) from Eleh (these) and Mi (Who?) will absolutely make your head spin. Afterwards, his companions prostrate themselves before him in admiration. One of them says that if he had been born only to hear this, he would have been satisfied.

In my edition, the Prologue begins on page 3. In talking about it, we have only reached page 6. The Prologue ends on page 62, so we have a lot more of the same ahead of us. Obviously, I cannot provide a blow-by-blow commentary.

What I can do is go back to some material that unfortunately got skipped over in the last instalment of these Notes.

The Zohar was not only a revelation to Christians (as I described last time); it was a revelation to Jews. It was partly to blame for the failed messianism of Sabbatai Zevi, which caused negative connotations to become attached to it. But a new era truly began for the Zohar and for Kabbalah in general with eighteenth-century Chasidism.

Back in 1964, I began my exploration of Jewish mysticism with a truly remarkable book by Martin Buber: HASIDISM AND MODERN MAN. It may have been a fortuitous choice, but I could not have selected a better entry point.

In that book, Buber showed just exactly in what way the Chasidism of the eighteenth and later centuries is still relevant, as a spiritual outlook, today. What I read reminded me of my beloved American Transcendentalism, and I wrote a paper comparing the two. It fired my imagination and my spiritual ardor. I wanted to emulate the Tzaddikim ("Righteous") who had followed, and I guess still follow, in the footsteps of the Baal Shem Tov, the Master of the Good Name.