Ha'azinu: poetry

Ha'azinu: poetry

This weeks parsha is a poem.  A poem  is something that is  hard to understand.  A poem conveys  the sense that there is something deeper than the ordinary meaning of the words.  It broadcasts the complexity of the issues it deals with. 

I have considered writing the stories of my parents' survival.  When I sat down to write it, I recgnized that it needed to a poem.  Prose implies a simple, linear truth,  The poem implies that the important truth cannot be reached, it is hidden behind the images and in the structure.  It is a truth that has a magical quality , too powerful to be captured in words obeying ordinary grammar.

The poem reveals layers of the world that we sense, but have trouble communicating.  It has an element of music, the ineffable and moving. (Jabberwocky)

When I read a poem, I know that I must wait for the end, return to the beginning, go the end and return again. It is a vortex, the tornado that transports Dorothy.  I have no expectation of  complete understanding.

Haazinu is introduced as something the Israelites will remember and carry with them.  A poem is the conveyor of the tradition, a truth that transcends the present, a prophecy and testament to the prophet

I do not understand  poetry because I do not understand the world.  Part of the reason that I do not understand  is that I do not want to look.