Lee Diamond – That Pintele Yid & Thinking in the Box
That Pintele Yid
Like most American Jews
I felt comfortable growing up,
in my Americanism.
Like most American Jews
I knew that I was different
Different because of my religion
Like most American Jews
I lived In my Jewish family
All our friends were Jews.
I didn’t attend a Jewish school
But a public school
Yet almost all of my school friends
Were Jews.
My parents could not read the Hebrew Alef Bet
They attended
Synagogue rarely
My father only closed his store one day
A year on
Yom Kippur
I asked to be sent to Hebrew school
Because my friends were going.
We complained a lot about Hebrew school
But we kinda liked it secretly.
It was good to be a little different.
I must have been born with a
“Pintele Yid.”
Some kind of “spot” that made me
Who I was.
When In 1948 Israel was born
Our Hebrew school
Switched to Sephardic pronunciation
Over night
We learned HaTikva
Overnight
We collected money in a blue and white
KKL box
Overnight
We planted trees and even bought leaves
Over night
We had our Bar/Bat mitzvah
Seemingly over night.
And we became Jews over night
And that pintele Yid; that in born spark
Kept its control of me
As My chest now swells
As I call it by name
At this very moment.
I didn’t recognize the power
Of this “pint size spark” within me
Then
But It formed me.
I’m a rational person
Not spiritual enough, I fear
But I must surrender to that
Spark
That Inborn primal
Breath
From the deepest part
Of my body and soul
That I was given.
And I express this passion
In my thoughts, my breath, my prayer
In my love for Judaism and
For the life I live
As a Jew in
ISRAEl
To my children and theirs
“Keep that flame burning.”
It’s my life and my gift to you.
Thinking in the Box
Everyone is trying to escape
The box
We have to go with the flow
Seek
Discover
Open up
Experiment
Unstick ourselves
By Thinking out of the BOX
Once upon a time I carried a BOX
It was blue and white
Had 3 words on it
Keren Hayemet Li Yisrael
JNF
I loved it!
I was proud to carry it
I carried it everywhere
And everyone was my prey
Not only Jews
Even people sitting in a bar
Even store owners
Or at a family circle meeting
I really thought that I was building
A State
In a BOX
Actually I was in competition
With my friends
Who could fill the box ?
Who could bring more money?
I loved being In the box
But they made a State
And for some reason
Discontinued the box
Now If you want to return to the box
You have to buy the box
Not easy to get
These boxes are also collector pieces
Once we collected with them
Now they’re collectables!
I Want to to return to the box
To build a Jewish State
Still
It’s NOT done at all. Long way to go!
Everyday is a light unto Us!
Everyday brings us to a better place
When we stop being in and with the
BOX
We stop building the Jewish State,
I for one,
Want to return to the blue and white
JNF /KKL box
I, for one, want to continue to build the
Jewish State
Today
As of old
I want that. BOX back.
