"You who made the wind blow and the rain fall..."

[bronze_ribbons]

I went to a kabbalah shabbat service earlier this evening, where kaddish was recited and sung in various permutations three or four times and the rabbi delivered a short but impassioned homily on poverty, generosity, and safety nets, and this part of naomichana's post on disasters and belief (and yes, I use "and" instead "vs." deliberately) gets a solid ameyn from this corner:

The handy thing about being Jewish is that you have a convenient and (in some way or other) authoritative record of people describing God; the unfortunate part is that this record frequently describes the sort of God you would cross the street to avoid, which leads you to hope that some of those descriptions were incomplete or just plain wrong. But that, mercifully, is a dilemma outside the scope of this post (it probably belongs to the post in which I do a lot of quoting from the Guide of the Perplexed) and not one I expect to solve anytime soon. Especially not on a day like today when, looking at the news, I suspect that what rescues the Kaddish from inanity is precisely its acceptance of God's utter fucking incomprehensibility.

Last night the choir I sing with rehearsed Michael Horvit's "Even When God Is Silent," a setting of words written on a basement wall in Koln by someone hiding from the Gestapo:

I believe in the sun
Even when it is not shining.

I believe in love
Even when feeling it not.

I believe in God
Even when God is silent.

---

On a far more mundane level, it's been a mixed-ish day with me -- on the one hand, I was rearended on my way downtown, and while the car seems to be okay, it was a solid enough shove that a check-up at the dealer's is called for. Also, I remain frustrated at this, that, and being the slowest writer in Christendom.

That said, the luck of fools and madwomen seems to be holding on other fronts... and, I did the Gleeful Research Dance this afternoon when I realized that much of the information on the web, in assorted reference books, and in the Library of Congress catalog is WRONG when it comes to Shirley Graham's birthdate (mainly because she lied about it), which makes me feel good about having consulted the biography written by a scholar who took the trouble to track down her birth certificate and other documents pointing to the correct year, because it means the encyclopedia for which I'm writing about Graham will have it right.

Every now and then being a fiend for details means I get to help make something better or tell something true.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I misread that as "I did the Gleeful Research Dane." And -- well, my goodness.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Ye gods.

Abby has been doing a bit of Happy Dancing as well, but it has more to do with the can of Sierra Mist that exploded all over the kitchen floor (and me) yesterday night.

[catrinella.livejournal.com]

Curses on the rear-ender! Hope you're okay and that the other guy's insurance will cover it all.

The choral piece sounds lovely. What is the music like?

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

The back was a shade sore from the jolt (it doesn't take much) but everything *looks* fine. I'm mostly annoyed that it will mean another trip across town, but maybe I'll combine it with an excursion for red thread (I've been putting off mending).

The choral piece is contemporary, SATB, with Jewish inflections. I realize that doesn't say much... think Bloch, perhaps.

*Love* the icon, but now it's got me contemplating Snape as an undercover oboist. *reaches for nearest potato-shooter to fling plotbunny back across your moat*

[musigneus.livejournal.com]

Hurrah for research! Sorry to hear about the accident; I hope you're okay.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

I'm fine, thanks. I fancy no real harm was done, but the person in the house who Understands Cars (and is not normally the fussy sort) says it needs to be inspected for under-damage. Sigh.

[swooop.livejournal.com]

And he would be right--a decent jolt from behind can throw a car out of alignment, which causes other problems. And I recommend that you re-evaluate your "I'm fine" today because the last time I got rear-ended, I thought I was fine too and it turns out I wasn't.

That said, I really do hope you're fine. Hot soak and a scotch for you sometime today!