Pesach has been going lovely in sorts. It is always a challenging holiday to see through and i do not pretend otherwise. i thoroughly enjoyed our sedarim. The first is always modeled after bubby's boarding house- with songs, laughter and spontaneous 'dayeinu' verses and originally composed 4 questions [always a game and always fun, and for those of you who do not know i am from a family of rhymers and poets]. the second- at the Krinsky contingent grandparents is usually a bit more intense. that day we sit and try to come up with questions, 'good' questions to pose at the seder. everyone does. it's a family mishegaas of sorts. we do this only the second night where there's no dessert deadline hanging over our heads. I look forward to these times and am currently being somewhat ousted by the family for holding up the festivities until the predawn hours....
so this year the conversation landed somewhere between Egypt, Haran, and Harvard. We were discussing for quite some time the concept of paraoh being 'priya' and lavan 'levan' representing amongst the highest spiritual levels- the concept that golus is essentially greater than redemption- the idea of not being conscious enough to obtain freedom, and what freedom means to those that actually succeed in obtaining it.
turns out my grandfather actually knows noam chomsky [as cousin Yirmie claimed]. he went to harvard [tho now he' s at MIT] to meet him on several occasions. my grandfather wanted to discuss the concept of letters or 'oysios' [chomsky's 'brilliance' is most highly recognized in his theory of abstract linguistics- aka that all languages share the same syntactical properties and fundamental principles]. my grandfather claimed that he kept changing the subject to the industrial revolution and "was just an nisht of a guy". we somehow connected this all to pesach. i told my grandfather that nisan is the month of communication- yehuda, hey, and the five parts of the mouth [ he's not overly into astrologically related things]. to which he responded that what was precisely what was wrong with chomsky. he knew everything about letters adn nothing beyond it.
here's the theory.
if the world was created through speech, as nisan is the first of the year [yes somewhat a jump] speech must reverberate in all creations, in all things, in men, plants, and space. there can be nothing besides words, words, words, the Word repeated over and over again... sustaining it, giving it life, giving it It. then does it not make sense that all languages share sameness? that they are fundamentally alike? that they are abstractedly related?
but what lies beyond The Word. my grandfather explained that pesach is the holiday that the child recognized his father. pre-speech, pre-communication, pre-love. it is when the child receives bread and recognizes father is father, and bread is life. it is the first stages of cognition before communication is acted upon. some call this faith. others call this belief. others, take it for granted and call this what just is...
i'm not sure how exactly to pinpoint this, but its i found it to be fascinating... something that has been playing in my mind as i write and write and write.... what am i saying? what are any of us saying? where are the great abysses of silence and what are they saying? this is a lot to think about thankfully the night is still young and the breeze is roaming the streets looking for company.... and then again, perhaps i am simply under the spell of incessant verbiage.... ;)
goodnight, good morning and peace to you all my friends.
so this year the conversation landed somewhere between Egypt, Haran, and Harvard. We were discussing for quite some time the concept of paraoh being 'priya' and lavan 'levan' representing amongst the highest spiritual levels- the concept that golus is essentially greater than redemption- the idea of not being conscious enough to obtain freedom, and what freedom means to those that actually succeed in obtaining it.
turns out my grandfather actually knows noam chomsky [as cousin Yirmie claimed]. he went to harvard [tho now he' s at MIT] to meet him on several occasions. my grandfather wanted to discuss the concept of letters or 'oysios' [chomsky's 'brilliance' is most highly recognized in his theory of abstract linguistics- aka that all languages share the same syntactical properties and fundamental principles]. my grandfather claimed that he kept changing the subject to the industrial revolution and "was just an nisht of a guy". we somehow connected this all to pesach. i told my grandfather that nisan is the month of communication- yehuda, hey, and the five parts of the mouth [ he's not overly into astrologically related things]. to which he responded that what was precisely what was wrong with chomsky. he knew everything about letters adn nothing beyond it.
here's the theory.
if the world was created through speech, as nisan is the first of the year [yes somewhat a jump] speech must reverberate in all creations, in all things, in men, plants, and space. there can be nothing besides words, words, words, the Word repeated over and over again... sustaining it, giving it life, giving it It. then does it not make sense that all languages share sameness? that they are fundamentally alike? that they are abstractedly related?
but what lies beyond The Word. my grandfather explained that pesach is the holiday that the child recognized his father. pre-speech, pre-communication, pre-love. it is when the child receives bread and recognizes father is father, and bread is life. it is the first stages of cognition before communication is acted upon. some call this faith. others call this belief. others, take it for granted and call this what just is...
i'm not sure how exactly to pinpoint this, but its i found it to be fascinating... something that has been playing in my mind as i write and write and write.... what am i saying? what are any of us saying? where are the great abysses of silence and what are they saying? this is a lot to think about thankfully the night is still young and the breeze is roaming the streets looking for company.... and then again, perhaps i am simply under the spell of incessant verbiage.... ;)
goodnight, good morning and peace to you all my friends.
posted by HindiK at 12:44 PM
6 Comments:
Hindi,
maybe you say it in too many words... maybe you don't say it in enough words.
but thank you.
thank you for enhancing my holiday with that amazing book you gave me before spring break began.
it really made all the difference.
erghhh. unresponsiveness to the call of the Wild is supremely uncool. see me in my office.
on a more civil note, dang all this personal-non personal business in blogging. do it as you like it.
something my father said last night struck me as slightly misnagdish. your uncle shmaya k. said a similar incident occurred at your seder #2. if you picked up your phone, we might talk about it (erghh).
okay i'm getting my damn phone.
sorry i lost track of time.
hon- it's not about the personal and not personal thing on this idiotic blog [believe me i don't know how NOT to be personal] it's just i don't want to make a diary out of this thing.
;) okay okay
i'm not in the mood of detention getting phone device now.
I love your stream of consciousness
Just an idea from tanya (chapter 21) which gives another slant to this idea
Thought (not speech) is what unites all mankind, it is only through the channel of thought that we can achieve any form of cohesiveness, for it is only in this abstract sense that we can ever achieve any form of oneness. Tanya contends that it is through languages, that we are in fact divided, (that’s the whole idea of the curse which ensued from the tower of bavel). That is why it says that “g-d created the world through speech” because it is specifically through speech, through any form of words, language or communication that we can even begin to entertain the concept of individuality, of separatism. This is the case even for the individual; a persons words are separate from him, speech therefore embodies the very phenomena of separation.
So words, language and speech serve to divide us rather than unite us.
I love your thoughts on the “abysses of silence” In the great void of silence there is so much more to be told, so much more to know, so much left to understand- silence is certainly the greatest obscurity of mankind.
Right. Don't we usually call osios "keilim", and the machshovo they contain "oros"? Keilim are chlukim, and oros are pshutim.
well wouldn't that just be the intention or meaning of what you are saying?
i'm not sure i get it.
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