The Curse of the Israeli Bob Dylan: Do You Know How to Let Go?

Rabbi Mishael Zion | Bronfman Fellowships | Text and the City | Behar 2013

Meir Ariel, 1942-1999

Curses are much more interesting than blessings. Pick any list of Yiddish curses, and take in the glee of a good juicy curse. A good blessing is deeply soothing, inspiring; but a good curse is a rollicking vision so tangible you can feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up... This week's Torah portion reflects this ironic reality. The book of Leviticus ends with a hair-raising description of what will happen if we don't follow God's ways. It starts with the possible blessings, but those are quickly forgotten in the wake of the dystopia:

 If by my laws you walk… I will give-forth your rains in their set-time…
I will give peace throughout the land… a sword shall not cross through your land…But if you do not hearken to me… if my laws you spurn… I in turn will do this to you:I will mete out to you – shock, consumption, and fever. you will flee, with no one pursuing you…I will turn your heavens into iron, and your earth like bronze…You will eat, but you will not be satisfied…You will eat the flesh of your sons, the flesh of your daughters, you will eat! And I will scatter you among the nations... So that your land becomes a desolation and your cities become a wasteland.(Leviticus 26)

Reading this list, with the curses outpacing the blessings threefold in volume and resolution, one feels that the medieval triumphalist Christian reading of the vindictive Old Testament God might have something to it... The Ramban, audacious medieval defender of Judaism against Christian claims, senses this and seeks to quickly disarm the sense that the Jewish God is more about fire and brimstone than cool green pastures. It is the weak human attention span that is to blame for this imbalance:

“The empty headed who remarked in puzzlement that the curses are more numerous than the blessings, have not told the truth. The blessings are stated as generalizations whereas the curses are stated in detail - in order to frighten the hearers.” 

One aspect of the curses in Leviticus is worth dwelling upon: the retribution God will exact from a

Check out Hazon's Shmitaproject.org

disobedient Israel is not just about an accounting between God and His people, but also about the land. By sinning (in Israel) the land (of Israel) itself requires compensation. It is almost as if there are two independent agencies requiring reparation – God and the land. Our acts have the potential to not only defile ourselves, or our God, but first and foremost our land - and the land will not only puke us out into exile, but also demand a time of purging for itself. This connection to the land is explicitly tied in the curses to a lack of fulfillment of the most important land-based commandment, with which our Torah portion opens this week: the Sabbatical year. At the end of the list of curses, it becomes clear that neglect of this most important mitzva is what is behind it all:

 “And I will scatter you among the nations... So that your land becomes a desolation and your cities become a wasteland. Then the land will find-acceptance regarding its Sabbaths, all the days of the desolation – when you are in the land of your enemies – then the land will enjoy-cessation, and find-acceptance regarding its Sabbaths. All the days of desolation it will enjoy-cessation, since it did not enjoy-cessation during its Sabbaths when you were settled on it.” (Lev 26:32-35)

We live in an age in which the idea of the personification of the land has never been more foreign to us (in our modern, mobile, information technology lives) and yet never been more urgent - both universally with regard to the environment, and particularly with regard to the Land of Israel.

Shmitta, the mitzva to let the land lie fallow, as well as remit all financial debts, is the most challenging, the most contentious of mitzvoth, to this day. It challenges all we take as self-evident about our relationship to food, to ownership, to money. Shmitta literally means to let go, to release. But it is not a Diasporist letting go of all land forever, or a Marxist letting go of individual ownership for all time. It is about creating a cycle of grasping and remitting, in order to understand that the grasping serves a larger purpose.
 In the spirit of the scathing admonis

hment that our parsha represents, I want to share what is in my opinion the best midrash/prophetic tirade written in modern times. Ironically - but not unsurprisingly - it was written by a secular Israeli poet, a beatnik troubadour with a pretty dismal career. Meir Ariel, the closest thing Israel had to Bob Dylan, knew something about curses – his career knew many declines, and he tragically died from a misidentified flea bite (that’s a curse our parsha somehow overlooked). His love of the land of Israel was seconded only by his ability to criticize and ask sharp questions when all around him were too giddy to see straight (read his bitter satire of Naomi Shemer's “Jerusalem of Gold”, titled “Jerusalem of Steel”). This week, as we mark 46 years to the Six Day War and "Yom Yerushalayim", his challenge rings in my ears.

A disclaimer - Ariel's Hebrew is impossible to translate, because - like Agnon or the Zohar - he effortlessly glides between layers of Hebrew meaning to create an entire Jewish thought symposium in one rock song.

This song – "Midrash Yonati" - can be read as an unabashed criticism of Israel's expansionist visions. Yet it is such a poignant text that many of my most right wing friends play it constantly in their caravans, perhaps as a reminder of what they too are concerned about... I have not found a  satisfactory English translation - a challenge I hope someone picks up soon. I bolded the section on Shmitta below, but will first, like Ariel, end with a positive note, translating the last verse which calls for Jerusalem to show its most beautiful face: “Sound out your voice, for truth and justice in your gates - That's the secret of your charm! That's the beauty in your voice! That charms your Lover!”

"Midrash Yonati" - The Midrash of My Dove / Meir Ariel – a clip by VideoArt-clip by Mira Arad

Halakhic Shmitta - have you already mastered it, that you rush to take just more and more and more land!? In dubious deceit, smacking of theft, under cover of darkness, with rulers’ immunity? Is this redemption -- is this its honor -- Like a thief in the Judean underground? And to whom shall you sell your field on a Shmita year, Or will you perhaps become a Muslim or a Christian for a year? And before whom will you play innocent Seventh after Seventh year, while the ground under you is ravished like a concubine? And who finds favor in this act? Land you take – But offer no Redemption.

Or perhaps your fingertips so tightly tightly tightly tightly tightly clenched - Trained to release? Skilled at letting go? Practiced in remitting? Oh Mama, mama, motherlandOh mama motherland Oh Mama, mama, mother landLand, my land!ad moti (until my death)until when, my land?

Here's a recent rendition by Meir Ariel's son, with the late Rabbi Menachem Fruman – interestingly he skips the part about Shmitta!

Midrash for My Dove Meir Ariel, 1987 Ask after the heart of Jerusalem Ask how she fares Stones in the heart of Jerusalem The marketplace teems. Enclothed in deceit and injustice For the building of the wall But from behind her veil Her nakedness – exposed: She doesn’t seek justice justice, Doesn’t wish for peace. For there is no peace without justice, So why did we end up here? What was our dream? Will we soon awake? My dove once again in the clefts of the rock While the hawk hovers above And furtively in the cliff, engulfing a snakes mouth gapes wide. There – those lands we left behind,  We are their desire. Here – these lands around us, We are their chorus. That same convoy on the road Headed to the sea, The king pursues it, smeared in blood The desert and its beasts – After us they are. How Jerusalem puts on airs And dances publicly with all Joins, mingles, rubs herself On flocks in ecstasy. Look at her leaders splitting hairs, None are great or tall, A mere match would ignite her courtyards - And every courtyard – a wall. We’ve already been in the oven Now we’re in the pan. Pumped with someone else’s honor, Crackling a little Singed at the ends, Slowly refined. Why do you so eagerly run To rub against the blade? Enough, give the blade a rest too, Yes, let the blade rest in peace What about Halakhic Shmitta - have you already mastered it, that you rush to take just more and more and more land!? In dubious deceit, smacking of theft, under cover of darkness, with rulers’ immunity? Is this redemption -- is this its honor -- Like a thief in the Judean underground? And to whom shall you sell your field on a Shmita year, Or will you perhaps become a Muslim or a Christian for a year? And before whom will you play innocent Seventh after Seventh year, while the ground under you is ravished like a concubine? And who finds favor in this act? Land you take – But offer no Redemption. Or perhaps your fingertips so tightly tightly tightly tightly tightly clenched - Trained to release? Skilled at letting go? Practiced in remitting? Oh Mama, mama, motherland Oh mama motherland Oh Mama, mama, mother land Land, my land! ad moti (until my death) until when, my land? Stir not up nor awaken Hate before its time None can contain it once set free No rabbi, no minister, no leader. Someone will arise upon us As awakening from his dream We’ll be wiped out, Us and our spoils, We shall sink in the abyss If only you let me see your face Let me hear your voice Truth and justice at your gates – That's the secret of your charm! That's the beauty in your voice! That’s pleasing to your Beloved! Translation adapted from Mira Arad, http://youtu.be/PIt6UJhtayY

מדרש יונתי מאיר אריאל, 1987 שאלו על לב ירושלים שאלוה לשלומה אבנים בלב ירושלים כיכר השוק הומה. בשקרים ועוול מתעטפת לרגל מלאכת החומה אך מבעד לצעיף נשקפת עירנו עירומה שלא רודפת צדק צדק לא רוצה שלום כי אין שלום בלי צדק רק למה באנו הלום? מה חלמנו חלום? הניקץ היום? יונתי שוב בחגוי הסלע מרטט הנץ מעל ובסתר מדרגה לבלע נפער פי הנפתל. זה ארצות הים מאחורינו אנחנו תשוקתם זה הארצות שמסביבנו אנחנו זמרתם. זו אותה השירה בדרך הפונה לים דולק בעקבותיה מלך מרוח בדם מדבר חייתו גם עלינו הם כולם איך ירושלים מתייפייפת ורוקדת ברבים משתתפת בטח משתפשפת עוטיה על עדרים. שאלו בפלפולי שריה לא שיעור ולא קומה רק גפרור חסר בחצריה וכל חצר חומה. וכבר היינו בתנור עכשיו על המחבת מתפמפמים כבוד שכור מתפצפצים מעט נשרפים כמעט נצרפים לאט. מה לך כל כך נמרץ שלוח להתגרד על הסכין. די כבר, תן גם לסכין לנוח כן רד מהסכין. שמיטה כהלכה אתה כבר יודע לעשות, שאתה רץ לקחת עוד ועוד אדמות בספק מרמה בחשד גזל ב חסות חשיכה בחסינות מושל הזו גאולה? הזה כבודה? כגנב במחתרת יהודה? ולמי תמכור את שדך בשנת שמיטה, או אולי תתאסלם או תתנצר לשנה? ולפני מי תיתמם שביעית אחר שביעית בעוד האדמה אשר תחתיך כשפחה נשבית? בעיניי מי זה מוצא חן? אדמה אתה לוקח, גאולה לא נותן. או אלי אצבעותיך הדוקות מאוד מאוד מאוד מאוד מאוד מאומנות להרפות? מיומנות לשחרר? מתורגלות לשמוט? הו מאמא מאמא אדמה הו מאמא מאמא אדמה אדמה אדמתי עד מותי! אדמה אד מתי? אל תעוררו ואל תעירו שנאה שלא תחפץ רק תצא אותה כבר לא יחזירו לא רב לא שר לא ש"ץ. מישהו עוד יתעורר עלינו כמקיץ מחלומו נימחה אנחנו ושללנו נשקע בתהומו. לו רק הראיני את מראיך השמיעיני קולך אמת וצדק בשערייך זה נאווה מראך! זה ערב קולך! חן בעיני דודך!