Friday, November 16, 2007

Guest Posting By Space Cadet - No Despair

(Painting by Ivan Shishkin)

Space Cadet reports that poems of an unknown Breslover recluse have been discovered written in black paint on rocks and walls of caves in the notoriously haunted Grekkov Forest near the city of Uman. Still on vacation from his photographic pursuits, Space Cadet has kindly translated these poems to English for this blog. Bhutanese Judaica expert Dr. Mah Dzong examined the poem with great interest and deduced from the last stanza that it is based on Biur HaLikkutim I, 64:1.

No Despair

When the Unfathomable One
Constricted His Infinite Light
Leaving the cosmic void
All concealment, all division was born.
But do not despair!
God is good – God is hidden there.

The next instant
He restored the lost light
In a measured way, as a line
Or thread of divine fire
Within which all Four Worlds
And all phenomena transpire.

In every human being
On every plane
Genesis happens all over again.
Right now, within you!

The mind is a “portion of God Above.”
The cosmic void is the eclipse of mind.
Within the void, how can God be absent?
Within the void, how can God be present?

Grasp the nature of mind, and behold God’s Face.
Grasp the nature of the void, and behold God’s Hidden Face!

7 Comments:

At November 16, 2007 at 12:37:00 PM EST, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What's the story with the haunted Grekkov Forest?

 
At November 17, 2007 at 7:37:00 AM EST, Blogger Alice said...

Very interesting!

 
At November 19, 2007 at 9:30:00 PM EST, Anonymous Anonymous said...

oy void

 
At November 20, 2007 at 12:55:00 PM EST, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anon:

Sounds like you have "oy-voidance-issues...."

 
At November 20, 2007 at 1:24:00 PM EST, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Smashed Hat

There is a kamaya from Rav Naftoli Katz that was written to protect the wearer from the shin-dalets and spooks of Grekkov; see the hakdamah to Biur HaLikutim, Toras HaNetzach edition. I think it was written by Rabbi Avraham Shimon Burshtein.

The place was said to be full of goblins and heebee-jeebees, and was avoided by the locals. However, Reb Avraham b'Reb Nachman braved these terrors and spent Sunday-to-Friday there for months at a time studying, davenning, and communing with the Eybishter.

I couldn't tell you about the modernist poems on the rocks, though....

 
At May 30, 2011 at 2:03:00 PM EDT, Anonymous Discount Viagra said...

this little paragrapher (The mind is a “portion of God Above.”
The cosmic void is the eclipse of mind.
Within the void, how can God be absent?
Within the void, how can God be present?)..........will change the life of many people!

 
At December 14, 2011 at 1:54:00 PM EST, Anonymous GED said...

I can't believe this is a painting! It looks just like a photo!

 

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