The Place
Or Number Three
From Parshat Terumah
And make of Me A Holy Place
And/But I will dwell Within
Them
Exodus 25:8
Maqam Hosseini
Build that Place please
May HaMakom-the Place Comfort you among the Rest of the Mourners
Where is this place that comforts, is that what it means when we say may the Place give you comfort among the rest of the mourners? It can’t be sloganeering, must be more than a release from small talk as in here is a phrase you will say when leaving mourners you may be released from inconsequential prattle. Just say this: may the Place comfort you among the rest of the mourners of your people.
I’ve been at the receiving end and none of the formulaic language of discourse with mourners is in the least satisfying, especially the formulaic. It’s not helpful because it’s not true. Nor is it poetic.
The closest to truth in this language of grief is the jussive – may it [become], your beloved’s memory, a blessing. That’s true because right now I wouldn’t call my memories blessings. They are sometimes torture, rarely consolation, at best tolerable. Mind is tricky, sometimes the memories in deep grief swing to the unbearable. The jussive is correct, it has no urgency, it is not an exclamation mark, some time into the future when your mind drifts may it drift up, and you may sense those images as blessings. That’s as true as it feels.
It doesn’t work in English, the jussive, I always cringe when I hear it because it’s clergy-speak. May we . . . May you . . . What it means to me is a lack of imagination to end what could have been an honest communication.
But the jussive mood is more common in Hebrew and Arabic, think of the Hebrew Bible y’hi or (first in Genesis 1:3), may there be light but without the urgency of a command, more like a wish, a prayer, may there be light. It’s what necessitates the follow-up phrase, va-y’hi or and there was light, with that distinctive Biblical imperfect form that is read out as a perfect the vav ha-hipuch or vav consecutive that turns everything upside down. The English here becomes tangled up in interpretive fancy, but let there be light leaves us in ellipses until “and there was light” and thus Creation is served though upside down seems correct.
More, that first light of Genesis 1:3, created on Day One, in our tradition some specially created light, attached to Godliness Itself and hidden away for the future or for the righteous or for the artistically gifted to liberate with word with paint with movement with hyper sensitivity to the reality that is contained Within. This is not the sun light (day four) or Edison light, this is some specially created light hidden away deep within the structure of things. Think physics.
In these senses, I understand the jussive and what it signifies but only when my mind shifts into Biblical-thought. It’s subtle that way, not a command, it rolls off the urgency of the imperative and it’s more like a wish a prayer a dream a future sense. Let there be light sounds different understanding that, and there was light a kind of victory that might be elusive without this understanding.
And what about this haMakom, the Place, one of the rabbinic epithets for God but curious this one, the Place? Poetic, leading, ostensive, what Place, I have to ask what Place is it? Where might be my comfort, some Place not sure exactly what-where that Place is but my prayer-wish-dream of peace is that you find that Place and when you do -- you will be comforted.
May that Place, whatever wherever it is for you, intensely individual particularized the universal in the particular that Place for you, may whatever that Place is for you when you find it – I pray bless wish hope it comforts you. Maybe you will let me in on it, it will be our shared secret. Oh – that Place.
What is this a blessing, a wish, a prayer, a dream, a hope, a shared nudge to move along, a suggestion that from where you sit now in your mourn-ful-ness you will either grow or you will collapse.
So as you grow through your grief I offer up this blessing, wish, dream of peace, hope, prayer for you for all of us because everybody suffers loss and look around at the rest of the mourners -- you think you’re unique in your suffering -- then you look around and a moment ago you were hiding under a blanket now you are floating a sea of afflicted souls. The Great Stew as the Greeks used to say. Yes.
Now your awareness of suffering is intense you feel the losses of those you know those you don’t know all the stories of suffering in your perimeter present all stories of the past return you know now every suffering in the John Donne sense; first it overwhelms then it makes the necessary adjustment. You are now one among the rest.
Maybe some of your pain will have washed into blessing. Here’s a jussive in a bottle for you, uncork it, take a whiff when you need to and let your memories rise like a fragrance of rose water into blessing.
HaMakom, Number 3 The Place, that is, What place where is it. We belong Some-where We are both local Michigan Missouri, We are universal too Everywhere with Every- Body; And then HaMakom The Place that contains all places And all of us searching out our Par-ti-cu-lar Place. Hey! Where’s that Place! Within there are Four measures of soul Nefesh Ruach Neshamah Chayah oh Yechidah Five. Local is Everywhere and Every-thing Local is Universal Without Within We’re looking for that Place -- That comforts. Y’hee May it Be. Amen. Something else again: The Holy One is always delighted when we storm the upper worlds and take the Shekhinah to dwell among us. Build your palaces raise all the money you can decorate well; But I will set my spirit in the inner chambers – I want your heart, that’s all I’ve ever wanted. Exodus 25:8 Maqam Hosseini