DOT... LETTER... WORD...
Light in a Time of Darkness
In a time of darkness, how does light help?
In a time of shooting worshipers at prayer, how do ideals help?
In a time of bullets and meat cleavers, how do words help?
In a time of beheadings, how do poems help?
In a time of hatred, how does hope help?
Yet we can only intend, with our God-given talents, to increase the good, to try to put a shard of light into the world, and hope that God will help it do good.
The purpose of this website is to try do to that, with literature, poetry, music and with translations of teachings and stories from Jewish sources.
I hope to present material that is entertaining and inspiring, interesting and thought-provoking, challenging and fresh.
I am beginning an experiment: writing a collage-narrative.
The background: for a number of years, I distributed a Torah sheet in my synagogue every Shabbat. I found that the format that suited me best was a combination of short translations of Torah teachings (focusing on teachings of Rav Kook and Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, but including the Piaseszner Rebbe and others), stories (mostly Hasidic tales), and my own poetry.
Now I would like to try this in a more-or-less integrated way, using as the spine of the experiment the travel diary of Benjamin of Tudela, a twelfth century Jewish merchant. Because this is experimental, I don't know what will and won't work, and the direction it will move in.
I hope that it will be interesting and valuable to others, and that it will lift our spirits. This is meant to be, in part, a vehicle for ideas, ideals, spirituality and meaning grounded in Jewishness. But it isn't meant to be a religious tract. It is meant to be self-expressive, original and creative--even, I hope, a model for how for a spiritually-minded person can be self-expressive, original and creative. It is meant to add a smidgen of light--as it were, a smudge of a star in a dark patch of the sky.
In a time of shooting worshipers at prayer, how do ideals help?
In a time of bullets and meat cleavers, how do words help?
In a time of beheadings, how do poems help?
In a time of hatred, how does hope help?
Yet we can only intend, with our God-given talents, to increase the good, to try to put a shard of light into the world, and hope that God will help it do good.
The purpose of this website is to try do to that, with literature, poetry, music and with translations of teachings and stories from Jewish sources.
I hope to present material that is entertaining and inspiring, interesting and thought-provoking, challenging and fresh.
I am beginning an experiment: writing a collage-narrative.
The background: for a number of years, I distributed a Torah sheet in my synagogue every Shabbat. I found that the format that suited me best was a combination of short translations of Torah teachings (focusing on teachings of Rav Kook and Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, but including the Piaseszner Rebbe and others), stories (mostly Hasidic tales), and my own poetry.
Now I would like to try this in a more-or-less integrated way, using as the spine of the experiment the travel diary of Benjamin of Tudela, a twelfth century Jewish merchant. Because this is experimental, I don't know what will and won't work, and the direction it will move in.
I hope that it will be interesting and valuable to others, and that it will lift our spirits. This is meant to be, in part, a vehicle for ideas, ideals, spirituality and meaning grounded in Jewishness. But it isn't meant to be a religious tract. It is meant to be self-expressive, original and creative--even, I hope, a model for how for a spiritually-minded person can be self-expressive, original and creative. It is meant to add a smidgen of light--as it were, a smudge of a star in a dark patch of the sky.
The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela
This is the Book of Travels
Composed by R. Benjamin
The son of Yonah
from the land of Navarre (his soul is in heaven)
This Benjamin set forth from his place,
From the city of Dotilah, and he set forth,
And he proceeded and came
To many distant lands,
As is described in his book.
And wherever he came, he wrote
All that he saw and what he heard
From reliable men,
Which had never been heard in the land
Of Spain
And also,
He mentions briefly
The sages and the princes in each place
And he brought this book with him when he came to the land
Of Castille
In the year 4,933.
And this above-mentioned R. Benjamin
Is a man of understanding, and wise, and a master of Torah and law.
And in all that we investigated about him
In order to ascertain his words, they were found
Correct and exact, and firm in his mouth, for he is a man
Of truth.
And this is the beginning of his book.
At first, I left my city for the city of Sarkasta, and I descended upon the road of Avro to Tartusa.
And from there I went for a passage of two days to the city of Old Tarchunah, and it was [composed] of huge Greek buildings, no such building is found in all the land of Spain and it is located near the sea.
Composed by R. Benjamin
The son of Yonah
from the land of Navarre (his soul is in heaven)
This Benjamin set forth from his place,
From the city of Dotilah, and he set forth,
And he proceeded and came
To many distant lands,
As is described in his book.
And wherever he came, he wrote
All that he saw and what he heard
From reliable men,
Which had never been heard in the land
Of Spain
And also,
He mentions briefly
The sages and the princes in each place
And he brought this book with him when he came to the land
Of Castille
In the year 4,933.
And this above-mentioned R. Benjamin
Is a man of understanding, and wise, and a master of Torah and law.
And in all that we investigated about him
In order to ascertain his words, they were found
Correct and exact, and firm in his mouth, for he is a man
Of truth.
And this is the beginning of his book.
At first, I left my city for the city of Sarkasta, and I descended upon the road of Avro to Tartusa.
And from there I went for a passage of two days to the city of Old Tarchunah, and it was [composed] of huge Greek buildings, no such building is found in all the land of Spain and it is located near the sea.
All material on this site copyright 2020 by Yaacov David Shulman