Redemption Song
Rabbi-Cantor Michael McCloskey
When I took that piece of paper , drenched shirt spilling sweat upon it , crusty with many washes in the hostel sink to the sounds of my soul ’ s language spoken by the religious , the secular , and cats
When I placed it into the wall , With all the hope and love Of a people whose heart has always moved multi-directionally . 18
In Her 19 apricot hookah smoke , In the mysterious heaviness of That prophetic syndrome She spoke to me .
In the arms of mystic-dreamers , and artists , In her niggunim , She beckoned me from my exile , Toward the land of promise , And sovereignty And Jewish pride And guns .
But the Shulamite 20 maiden is taken up with jackals 21
18
See HaLevi ’ s poem “ ח ר ז מ ב י ב ל / My Heart is in the East ”
19
Jerusalem and the Shulamite maiden of Song of Songs , coming from the same verbal root , She ’ s described like “ Pillars of smoke coming out of the wilderness ” [ Song of Songs 3:6 ] and is also compared to a “ tapuach ” which is really an apricot , not an apple , as they hadn ’ t yet been cultivated in the Ancient Near East .
20
See Song of Songs
21
See for example , Lamentations 5:18
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