i was in brooklyn college in 1992, in the spring, after pesach… i was in the stacks section looking for old american Jewish literature review articles about chaim potok. (out of suny albany, this publication had some nice stuff, one with a title "the crucifixion of chaim potok" about "my name is asher lev", including a rebuttal by potok in the next or same issue. i am paraphrasing here, it being some years ago…this name kept on popping up in these fancy periodicals which at first i completely ignored. then it kept on coming up, and the titles appeared to be straight up my alley. so finally one day i took out "the pagan rabbi and other stories" and headed for the overpass on bedford avenue sitting down on the cement table-seats , seats which nobody ever used and have since been torn down.it was a sunny day. i began at noon and remained there until i could no longer read…. i don't remember even going to the bathroom. i was that transfixed. and it has never really left me. the next book i read was "the messiah of stockholm", a fictional account of an auschwitz survivor turned book reviewer for a stockholm newspaper who believes his dad to be bruno schultz, and of rumors swirling that schultz' mythical lost manuscript, "the messiah", which had thought to be written by him and destroyed along with schultz in the holocaust, that this very document had popped up in stockholm.but besides for brilliant  plot and her sheer b'kius in  jewish texts, from the talmud to history to hallacha to yiddish, and her command of many languages, and the fact that she hapens to be a frum woman who puts up the chulent every friday afternoon for her family, all of this, peaked shall i say, my interest.I wish to do a series here on Ozick, her essays and perhaps excerpts from her fiction, both short stories and novels.She is of the Lithuanian persuasion. she is considered to be one of the top living american writers by the international literary establishment… she is right wing on Israel… but very explorative and open about everything in her fiction. this is hardly what some term "charedi fiction".

For a while, i've preferred quietly bowing out to dramatic public announcements, not wanting to endlessly retire like an aging rock band. But now, a solid three years into the exciting creation and invitation of theis forum into being, i'm stepping down formally, from any inolvement with 7fatcow, unconvinced that it exists at all.

No bitterness. Dissapointment would imply expectations, and all my hopes and expectations for this blog where satisfied right away, constantly, along with all my concerns and suspicions, re: the inevitably difficult nature of True Expression and Engagement. That was understood from the beginning to be OK. Sometimes, when you talk with people, a lot of bullshit comes out as cushion for any insight and genuine heart-of-self that might be revealed, and that condition was understood from the beginning: along with the genius in our wider community of not-quite-ex/not-quite-ohs is a multitude of protective layer of ego and dogma; of noise and principle, of assumption and of flawed language, furious at the implication that it must be probed to be understood. That's OK, as much as any of the troublesome nature of our world is to be called OK, it's part of who we have been, and how we have expressed.

All that said, it's boring now, because maybe we've gone as far as any of us wanted to go. One of our founding members has moved beyond interest in the conversation here, as a funner life beckoned where the wit was expresseable and the company close enough that trying to blog in a noise filled room of cheesy links and ironically repressive vulgarity became uncompelling, especially once the Twitter and Facebook Status update was given unto us, to let the impulse sound more immediately, without need for context, or consensus. And so, the chance to say just a few things here was all he needed.

Another founding member has tried to give up so many times, and the clamor of each dramtic farewell, combined with the unelaborated links and occasional disavowels of entire identities for fear of Who May Be Listening, and Who May Be Judged along with him, often prevented the depth of his insight from being expressed. He erased all his posts, psuedonym after psudonym, and tried to convince somebody that he was somebody, and not actually somebody. And in that noise, his genius is silenced, and a certain unconfrontational decadence tried to grow around him; alas, woe unto those who think their sacrifices will provide security, money, or love.

And around that, behind that, so much genius was expressed.  Zoroastro/IslamoYid's and Atgate231's Scholarship, Class and Humor, Shitalpin's withering and ultimately humanist hot/cold sarcasm-masking-authenticity, Hashemsucksdick's marriage of post-religious concience and artistry, Mohammed's strange and shocking form of concience, Anivaho's Mercurial genius to let words permute into sublime association (even as any conceit towards divine synchronicty was despaired of) Yalhak's Majestic magnimamity and wholeness of vision/purity of impurity of perspective (along with the  lucid clarity of Yesod, Aisav, and the other maaminim he brought) and the writers we never even really identified, who bought so much class, genius, and perfect kvetchery to the conversation (who was Hiavrom anyway? he was brilliant! I hope he's OK.)

All the Neo-Nazis who stopped by to let us now what was going on, all the feminists and fetishists, all the excited Chabadskers, all the grieving relatives– so much got circulated, and maybe so little was heard, who knows? who knows. Who knows how much we ever hear from each other that we weren't ready to chap. But I feel like a lot of rare expression and relative taboo was aired here, and i'm really proud of that. As proud as one can be of something that one just let happen.

All the martyrs and all the victims; all the heroes and all the wimps. All the Faggotry and all the ugly, ugly Charedi shock-porn. All the piety and simple faith. Everything but the bullshit, and the noise, and the hiding of ourselves inside of our conceptions. It really has been a great ride, and I can only pray that some of this survivesinto the annals ofHistory, the story of how the Jewish Problem was, if only for a moment, touched upon, if not successfully adressed, from within, rather than just from without. God bless you all, to move on, and see how easy it is just to start up a crazy fucking conversation in this great, wide future of accessible interests, may we one day merit to see it to it's end.

Shana Tov, and i'll see you at the Jubilee

Yoseph Leib,

AKA Yhosephus,

AKA the guy that fucked your sister, back when she was still cute.

Some 7fc New Year's posts:

http://7fatcow.com/2009/08/29/the-letter-of-the-rebbe-reb-bunim-on-rosh-ha-shanah/

http://7fatcow.com/2008/09/24/shofar-concerto-op-1-1885/

http://7fatcow.com/2008/09/29/the-jews-the-jews/

http://7fatcow.com/2008/09/29/time-is-in-the-mind/

http://7fatcow.com/2007/09/13/caught-dipping-his-apple-in-a-honey/

http://7fatcow.com/2006/09/19/day-of-broken-dreams/

This letter was sent by the Rebbe Reb Bunim to one of his Chasidim who couldn’t make to him for the holiday. It was also signed by some of his other Chasidim as well as Reb Bunim’s son Avraham Moshe.

Sunday, Ki Savo, 1826 – here in Pershuschah.

Life, peace and joy to his honor, the friend of my soul and heart, the brilliant and sharp rabbi of renown, the perfect sage, his name is known at the gates, his honored name, our teacher the Rabbi Alexander Ziskind, may his light shine.

Since it is a number of years (until the coming of the Redeemer) that ‘the honor of his torah’ resides within the chamber of my heart, and is a friend in the hidden reaches of my thoughts’ legacy, I will speak this time as to my own heart.

It is written (II Kings, 4:13) “I dwell in the midst of my people” and it is written (Jeremiah 31:3) “God appeared to me from afar” – and this is the secret of Rosh Ha-Shanah. The joy and the anxiety are concealed in fear (ha-simchah ve-ha-da’agah musteres be-pachad) may god grant us both together. The understanding grows from the deed; for the deed is “mystery” and the understanding is “light,” and they resemble each other (ha-binah tigdal me-ha-ma’asah ki ha-ma’asah “raz” (=207) ve-ha-binah “or” (=207) ve-sh’neihem domim).

And bless God, who has preserved and sustained us, that we rise in remembrance before the Lord of all, so that perhaps it arouse mercy to take us from darkness to light. With God’s help, ‘the honor of his torah’ will not be forgotten from our hearts and from the hearts of all the members of our group, for a good remembrance. And may God in His mercy give him joy and life and a “writing and sealing of good” to him and his household and his entire city.

Thus the words of his soul and heart which yearns with love,

Simchah Bunim.

We too, his loved ones and friends, seek his welfare with love and may the blessing of our Rabbi (may he live) be fulfilled and may we merit to hear from him good tidings and rejoice together always, with his soul and the souls of his friends,

The small one, Yitzchak of Zarik (Vorker Rebbe)

The small one, Yitzchak Meir (Chidushey Ha-Rim)

The small one, Menachem Mendel of Tomishov (Kotzker Rebbe)

Meir Kvaller

R. Yaakov Vorker (Radzminer Rebbe) and R. Shlomo Zalshiner indicate his welfare as they are in the middle of praying.

I, the young one, too seek his welfare and I ask of him that he preserve this letter and bring it with him, god willing, when he travels here and then we shall study it together in an in-depth seminar.

The words of his beloved friend, the small one,

Avraham Moshe

-atgate231

I was going to write a poem while walking on Eastern Parkway but chanced upon a Psalm when I suddenly found myself outside the Rebbe's room.Forget the poem, David's way better…

PSALM 88

1 1 A song; a psalm of the Korahites. For the leader; according to Mahalath. For singing; a maskil of Heman the Ezrahite. 2 LORD, my God, I call out by day; at night I cry aloud in your presence. 3 Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry. 4 2 For my soul is filled with troubles; my life draws near to Sheol. 5 I am reckoned with those who go down to the pit; I am weak, without strength. 6 My couch is among the dead, with the slain who lie in the grave. You remember them no more; they are cut off from your care. 7 You plunged me into the bottom of the pit, into the darkness of the abyss. 8 Your wrath lies heavy upon me; all your waves crash over me. Selah 9 Because of you my friends shun me; you make me loathsome to them; Caged in, I cannot escape; 10 my eyes grow dim from trouble. All day I call on you, LORD; I stretch out my hands to you. 11 3 Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades arise and praise you? Selah 12 Is your love proclaimed in the grave, your fidelity in the tomb? 13 Are your marvels declared in the darkness, your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion? 14 But I cry out to you, LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you. 15 Why do you reject me, LORD? Why hide your face from me? 16 I am mortally afflicted since youth; lifeless, I suffer your terrible blows. 17 Your wrath has swept over me; your terrors have reduced me to silence. 18 All the day they surge round like a flood; from every side they close in on me. 19 Because of you companions shun me; my only friend is darkness.

From the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv,

קנאביס חסידיס: על הזיקה העמוקה שבין היהדות והמריחואנה

האם היתה ביהדות העתיקה מסורת שורשית של עישון מריחואנה? יוסף לייב, אחרי מחקר מקיף בישיבות ירושלים והסביבה, טוען בספר חדש שאמנם כך – ושואף (עוד מאז התיכון) להפוך את היהדות להרבה יותר רגועה. תומר פרסיקו שמע ממנו איך עוזר הגראס להתקרב לאלוהים

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תומר פרסיקו | 25/5/2009 8:55

הבעש"ט - דיוקן דמיוני,  עטיפת הספר. תת-תרבות יהודית ענפה של המראה למחוזות שמימיים

המזל, אומרים רבים משומרי המצוות, הוא שהגראס לא אסור על פי ההלכה. הבעיה, יהיה מי שיוסיף, היא שחסרה מסורת יהודית (שלא לומר קבלית) שמנחה את היהודי כיצד להשתמש בסם כדי לקרב בינו ובין הקב"ה. כדי לענות על השאלה האחרונה יצא יוסף לייב, יהודי אמריקאי צעיר וצמא דעת, למסע מעושן ברחבי ירושלים וארץ ישראל, בחיפוש עיקש אחר מקורות עבריים לסוטול.

כעת יצא הספר (באנגלית) שמתעד את מסעו המפותל, תחת השם המרומם "חסידיס קנאביס: תורת הסמים הקדומה והמתחדשת" - Cannabis Chassidis: The Ancient and Emerging Torah of Drugs (הוצאת "עצמוס")

את הגראס פגש לייב לראשונה בתיכון – חברים שאינם יהודים סיפקו לו מעט חומר על פי בקשתו. בתשובה לשאלתי הוא אמר: "שמעתי רק דברים טובים על זה במשך שנים, וזה גם התקשר אצלי לכל האמנים, המשוררים והמוזיקאים שאהבתי". כשהגיע מארה"ב לירושלים, לפני שבע שנים, הוא גילה, לשמחתו, שמי שעישן בעיר הקודש בדרך כלל עשה זאת מתוך התכוונות לממד הרליגיוזי שהגראס יכול לעורר ולעודד.

לייב הצטרף מיד לעבודת השם, אבל לא התכוון להסתפק בכך – הוא חיפש את המסורת היהודית העתיקה, שעל פי דעתו היתה חייבת להתקיים, שהרי "איך ייתכן שלתרבות עתיקה כל כך אין מערכת יחסים עם אחד הצמחים הרפואיים והקסומים שבבריאה?"

וכך יצא לייב לחיפוש עיקש, בין השאר בישיבות שונות בהן למד וכחלק מ"סצנת קרליבך" בירושלים וסביבתה, כאשר את הרפתקאותיו הוא מתעד בבלוג שלו, ששמו כשם הספר. על פי עדותו, מסתבר, ישנה תת-תרבות יהודית ענפה של המראה למחוזות שמימיים בעזרת חומרים פסיכואקטיביים – תרבות שהוא קושר לה גם מסורת יהודית עתיקה. עם צאת ספרו שאלתי אותו כמה שאלות בעניין.

For the continuation & interview & picture, see here:

http://www.nrg.co.il/online/55/ART1/895/137.html

Up through the ashes of Babylon, Cannibus Chassidus shall rise — Jah!

'Tis spring after all….

[On the messianism of the circle of Sefer ha-Meshiv – Castile, Spain c. 1470-1492

Part II - The real story behind the death of R. Joseph della Reina]

Here is the link to Part I: http://7fatcow.com/2009/05/09/if-you%e2%80%99re-going-already-go-all-the-way%e2%80%a6/ 

One of the prominent members of this school of thought was the notorious magician and Kabbalist R. Joseph della Reina. Kabbalisitc as well as more popular stories relate that this band of Kabbalisits, apparently including the anonymous writer himself and della Reina, were visited by a heavenly revelation commanding them to cause the two princes of evil, Ammon of No and Samael, to descend and be tied, subdued, and have their wings clipped, which meant the Kabbalists were destroying the powers of evil. This neutralization of the powers of evil by destroying their princes or, according to a certain version, converting them to Judaism is tantamount to the destruction of Christianity, considered to be a product of evil. Thus, the redemption will be made possible. According to some of these texts, Christianity will have to undergo a total revolution which involves its abolishment only in order to be transformed into an army, namely into some sort of defending body of the now-victorious Judaism. In the apocalyptic Armageddon, Samael’s contemporary embodiment will have to change its spots, forfeit its position as prosecutor and become its enemy’s defender, a revolutionary turn of events. This is the inverse of the Christian view that when the redemption does come in the Second Advent, all the Jews will convert to Christianity. The Kabbalisit who authored the Sefer ha-Meshiv and his followers in the sixteenth century envisioned the exact opposite scenario. Here we have a hitherto nondominant emphasis on the apocalyptic side of Kabbalistic messianism, a side that was not emphasized by Abulafia or the Zohar and only partially by Abulafia’s earlier contemporary R. Yitzhaq ben Jacob ha-Cohen. Thos thirteenth-century Kabbalisitc circles were not so heavily influenced by the popular apocalyptic literature of the seventh and eighth centuries. But now, in the last third of the fifteenth century in some circles of Kabbalists, the apocalyptic element became much more prominent: Armageddon was supposed to include blood baths, the participation of superhuman evil beings – although not so monstrous as their prototype found in the original apocalyptic literature – a novel idea introduced by this circle into Kabbalah. From this perspective, there is a deepening of the use of demonology in discussion of the apocalyptic battles. Besides the magical techniques, which include oneiric devices, incantations, and medical recipes, in this huge corpus there is an attempt to describe the entire span of history. These Kabbalists attempted to describe the whole chain of evil powers and incarnations engaged in perpetual conflict with the Jewish people, only to be resolved by their religious metamorphoses in the end, believed by these Kabbalists to be witnessed in their time. This is an example of a comprehensive messianic historiosophy unlike the Kabbalistic systems discussed earlier. During the sixteenth century this view was embellished in the book called Galia’ Raza’. Despite the fact that the wars themselves are depicted as involving hordes of demonic powers, for these Kabbalists the conflict was real and was due to occur in an historical context.

This messianic theory was not to be realized through inner intellectual or divine perfection explicitly described as gradual processes, but by a group effort to work together toward a national goal, bound to bring about the divine redemption as well as to attempt to bring to a halt an insufferable historical situation. This is the perception of people who see themselves as acting on the stage of history and not exclusively on some inner level. It is appropriate to emphasize the group nature of these activities. The most popular stories found in this literature, concerning magical practices and R. Joseph della Reina, depict the rites as the product of a group of Kabbalists and not as the outcome of one man’s activities, for all have to join forces in order to vanquish evil. There is a wide gap between this magical model and the one developed by Abulafia, in which the individual who has reached his own perfection can then act alone on behalf of the whole nation. The roots of the concept of group effort can be traced back to the Zohar, which stipulates that theurgic activity was accomplished by a group as opposed to individuals acting alone.

Della Reina’s attempt to secure the redemption by magical means, only twenty years or so before the expulsion from Spain, of course failed. Later on the two “events” were inextricably bound in the minds of some Kabbalists, who connected the unorthodox method of magic to hasten the redemption and the ensuing expulsion. The strong messianism of Sefer ha-Meshiv drew mixed reactions from later Kabbalists in Safed, who condemned the use of magic for religious or messianic ends. Accordingly we find after the expulsion that the messianic theories of Sefer ha-Meshiv are continued by a small group of Kabbalists, whereas the great majority of the Kabbalists who had been compelled to leave the Iberian peninsula have rejected this magical model, whether by ignoring it in their writings, as in the case of the famous Kabbalists R. Yehudah Hayyat and R. Meir ibn Gabbay, or by explicitly stating their reservations. Sefer ha-Meshiv is one of the largest Kabbalistic compilations ever written, possessing tremendous scope and expressing a redical position on messianism and magic. It would be logical to expect that after the expulsion, Kabbalisitc-messianic thought and activity would be no less represented than already demonstrated by the apocalyptic concerns of the author or the group of Kabbalists related to Sefer ha-Meshiv. Yet the empirical evidence shows that this vast literary phenomenon remains unduplicated after the expulsion. Therefore, the only realistic way to describe the subsequent development of messianism in Kabbalistic literature in to presuppose a certain tendency to moderate the eschatological elements, in comparison with those found before the expulsion.

(Moshe Idel, Messianic Mystics, 130-32)

Only the delight which is drawn down

After forgetfulness is removed

Enters the unity

While the rest descends below

According to the mystery of

Havdalah. 

- Israel ben Eliezer – The Besht