Lee Diamond: The 4,000 Year Old Jew & The Slanted Mezuzah
The 4000-year-old Jew
My father was born on Hester street
In lower Manhattan
His father was Russian born
My father was a Jew but an
Unlettered Jew
Spoke some American Yiddish
But called this language “Jewish”
-not Yiddish but Jewish!
For him —speaking a broken
“Yidlish” was Jewish.
He spoke “Yidlish”
And he lived (when a Jew)
In this language.
Language is not just words
Language is identity
defining
My father lived In English
And in “Yidlish”
Partly Jewish and partly American
Living in two identities
My sons live in Israel as I do
They are Israelis
Hebrew is WHERE they live
Oh—they speak “Hebrish” too
But live in Hebrew
Unlike my father
Hebrew is Jewish
Hebrew is their native culture
Not partly
Not just words
But Their culture.
Their language is Jewish
One son studied in America
But returned
To his home
To his Culture
To his native Culture
To thinking, to laughing
To crying, to celebrating,
To speaking Jewish.
For Hebrew is not just
A language
It is 4,000 years
And 69 years of Jewish expression
All my sons speak Jewish
All Israelis speak Jewish
Secular and religious Israelis
Speak Jewish
And they aren’t even aware,
And they aren’t torn
They live in Jewish skin
And their lips utter Jewish
Oh, They speak English
They wear Western jeans
But their skin
And identity
And inner being
And breath
Is their real being
Which is authenticity
Jewish
In 69 years we’ve re-created
Unaware confident
Non self conscious
Natural
Jews
Speaking Hebrew
Speaking Jewish
Living in Jewish space
In Jewish time
And breathing Jewish
You might attempt to take the Jew
out Of Israel
But you can’t take the
Jew out of the Israeli
The Slanted Mezuzah
Did you ever wonder.
Why the mezuzah on the
Doorpost
Is neither horizontal
Or vertical.
Rashi: Vertical!!
Rabenu Tam: horizontal!!
Yaakov Ben Asher:
“On a slant”
But what about Rashi?
And what about Rabenu Tam?
Both “talmidim chachamim”
Both right and both wrong
For the truth is somewhere
Between vertical and horizontal
The truth is in the content
It all “stands”and “lies”in the words
Shema Yisrael the Lord “our” God, the Lord is ONE
The message is
Not “our” way
But the way of all humankind
All Ways
And always
“Bend” in honor
“Lean” toward
Eternal Truth
Remember
That we are all in the image
Though our languages
May Differ ever since the tower
Though our prayers may differ
And our cultures as well
God is the One
And is only reached by
“Leaning” toward each other
None right
None wrong
None left
None right
Not vertical nor horizontal
But Touching in the middle
Leaning Toward the middle
As the Mezuzah points
Toward the
ONLY
ONE
