Every year, during the Jewish high holidays brings the time of joy for the new year, the time of deep introspection into each person’s soul, reflection upon our spiritual health during the year just past and hours in synagogue praying, reading, learning, discovering or re discovering ideas so familiar but taking on a different form. It was actually during the interim Shabbat evening service that an alternative interpretation of the wording of prophet Isaiah’s (Isaiah 11.9, 2-4) all too familiar writing, Lo Yisa Goi caught my attention.
It read as follows;
DON’T STOP afer beating words into ploughshares,
don’t stop! Go on beating and make musical instruments out of them.
Whoever wants to make war again will have to turn them into ploughshares first.
Source Citations: these words identify Yehuda Amichai as the author.
In light of the current atmosphere devoted to closing down our borders, denying immigration to this formerly welcoming country,built on the sweat of peoples from every corner of the earth, this rephrasing brought to mind the the many times Amichai’s words came to fruition. The efforts in rescue and re-location of so many desparate people, the failures to meet everyone’s needs and the many tributes in the form of musical events, concerts, compositions and heart renduring testimonials formed a picture in my mind of images of weapons and instruments (ploughshares) in a surrealistic wavering from one form to the other in a constant and dizzying pace. When will the musical forms supercede the caches of weapons, hatred and suffering and
Nation shall not take up sword against nation:
they shall never again know war.
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