{"id":80,"date":"2009-03-07T22:21:34","date_gmt":"2009-03-08T03:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.josephzitt.com\/home\/?page_id=80"},"modified":"2011-10-12T21:46:00","modified_gmt":"2011-10-13T02:46:00","slug":"shekhinah-pesukey-dzimrah-verses-of-song","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.josephzitt.com\/home\/books\/shekhinah-the-presence\/shekhinah-pesukey-dzimrah-verses-of-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Shekhinah: Pesukey D’Zimrah (Verses of Song)"},"content":{"rendered":"

(return to Shekhinah: the Presence)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Click on the image to your right >>
\nto purchase Shekhinah: the Presence. >><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Shekhinah:<\/em><\/em>
Shekhinah: the Presence<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/em>
\nSection 3 of “Shekhinah: The Presence” by Joseph Zitt
\nThis is an unedited scan of the text, courtesy of Josh Ronsen
\n– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

She is spirit\r\nShe is air\r\nShe is earth on fire\r\n  Above, below the waters\r\n\r\nShe is but a fragment\r\nThe least, some say,\r\n  of the shells\r\n  of the Creator\r\n\r\nbut yet\r\nthe least part of the infinite\r\n  is greater than\r\n  the greatest of us,\r\nwe who are defined\r\n  by flesh\r\n  and continuity.\r\n\r\nShe is everywhere\r\n  the creator is;\r\nthat is-\r\nshe is everywhere\r\n\r\nyet she is\r\nmost wonderfully,\r\nhere\r\n\r\nsummoned by prayer\r\nsummoned by our intent\r\nsummoned by our wishes\r\nfrom the silent world of dreams\r\n\r\nArise, most ancient!\r\nArise, our mother!\r\nArise, our bride!\r\nArise, our daughter!\r\n\r\nWe raise our eyes\r\n  our hands\r\n  our hearts\r\n  our voice\r\nunto the hills\r\n\r\nand sing together\r\n\"a song for the dedication of the house\"\r\n\"a psalm for the thanks-offering\"\r\n\"a hymn for praise\"\r\nand psalm after psalm\r\n\"Hallelujah!\" (146)\r\n\"Hallelujah!\" (147)\r\n\"Hallelujah!\" (148, 149, 150)\r\nand from Chronicles, Chronicles,\r\n  Nehemiah, Exodus\r\n\r\nwe praise the Creator\r\n  who may or may not be hearing us\r\n  who may or may not accept us\r\n  who may or may not answer\r\n    our prayers,\r\n    praises,\r\n    supplications\r\nbut even those of us who wonder\r\nif the Creator exists at all\r\n  or ever did\r\n  or ever will\r\njoin in the song\r\nas if our voices\r\n  can will into existence\r\n  the one whose will\r\n  would have caused us to exist\r\n\r\nand from the fervent murmur\r\n  of our voices\r\njoined together,\r\n  once per psalm\r\n  in unison,\r\nthen breaking apart again\r\n  to the true human rhythm\r\n  where the solitary\r\n  simulates the simultaneous\r\n  like the waves,\r\n    joining, peaking,\r\n    then drifting back\r\n    to independent currents\r\n  like the eagles\r\n    soaring in a seemingly\r\n    common spiral\r\n    (yet, if you watch each one,\r\n    flying in a multitude\r\n    of personal air-dances\r\n    of ragged individuality)\r\n\r\narises a more powerful magic\r\n  a common voice\r\n  the syllables we utter\r\n  combining, merging\r\nan incantation of secret names\r\n  that no single voice\r\n  could dare pronounce\r\nas inverse sacred lullaby\r\n\r\nand from the slumber\r\n  of pauses between prayers\r\n  of the passage between planes\r\n  of the journey\r\n    through the spheres\r\n    to this lowest\r\n    (but still needed)\r\n    world\r\n\r\nour ancient\r\n  mother\r\n  bride\r\n  child\r\nwakes!\r\n\r\nand lowering her arms\r\n  opens her eyes\r\n  tests her legs\r\n  (to see whether\r\n    she stands on sky\r\n  or on our far more common\r\n  ground)\r\n\r\nsteps\r\npauses\r\nsteps\r\n\r\nher legs are the legs\r\n  of a colt\r\n  new to gravity\r\nher arms the wings\r\n  of dragonflies\r\nsoft taloned fingers\r\n  those of eagles who\r\n  in unseen gentle moment\r\n  nurture new-hatched young\r\nher body the stem\r\n  of a warm-blooded sunflower\r\n  turning slowly, slowly\r\n  as she\r\n\r\npauses\r\nsteps\r\npauses\r\n\r\nand focuses our intention\r\n  on her Presence\r\n  on the Presence\r\n    of the Creator\r\n    of this manifestation\r\n      of words of love\r\n      of words of law\r\n\r\n(not made flesh, no-\r\nthough we can touch her,\r\n  hold her\r\n  dance with her\r\n  in this extended moment,\r\nstill she has no\r\n  failings of the flesh\r\n  and can not ache\r\n  and can not strain\r\n  and can not,\r\n    even for a moment,\r\n  die\r\nyet will be here, real,\r\nwhile sustained by our intensity,\r\nand little longer\r\ntill she must return\r\n  to the world of dreams\r\n  or another hall of prayer\r\n\r\nand focuses our hearts upon her\r\n\r\nand we circle her like planets\r\n  reflecting her light\r\n  upon each other\r\nechoing her movements\r\n\r\nand as she moves,\r\n  we move\r\nand as she sings,\r\n  we sing,\r\nand as she wakes the morning world\r\n  we step\r\n  pause\r\n  step\r\n\r\nand each in his own manner\r\nevery body, every soul,\r\n  adding the motions we have learned\r\nin the pain and joy\r\n  of our existence\r\nrepeating and embellishing\r\n  her praisedance\r\n  in private ways\r\n\r\nstep Hallelujah! (all the earth)\r\n  Hallelujah! (o my soul)\r\n  Hallelujah! (all the angels)\r\n  Hallelujah! (with a new song)\r\n  Hallelujah! (closer, closer)\r\n\r\ndrawn by joyous gravity\r\n  we circle her,\r\n  we fall in toward her,\r\n  longing for her\r\n  to embrace the Presence\r\n    grasp the heart of prayer\r\n    lay our hands upon the holy\r\n\r\nand our leader calls out,\r\n\"Glorified!\r\nSanctified!\r\nis the Great Name!\"\r\n\r\nand we move to melt into the Presence,\r\n  lose ourselves in her,\r\n  she who loves and comforts\r\n  she whose power is such\r\n  that we forget ourselves and\r\n\r\nmove\r\nto\r\nlose\r\nour\r\nselves\r\n\r\nin\r\n\r\njoy!<\/pre>\n
(return to Shekhinah: the Presence)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(return to Shekhinah: the Presence) Click on the image to your right >> to purchase Shekhinah: the Presence. >> Section 3 of “Shekhinah: The Presence” by Joseph Zitt This is an unedited scan of the text, courtesy of Josh Ronsen – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – … Continue reading “Shekhinah: Pesukey D’Zimrah (Verses of Song)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":35,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-80","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.josephzitt.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/80","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.josephzitt.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.josephzitt.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.josephzitt.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.josephzitt.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.josephzitt.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/80\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":439,"href":"http:\/\/www.josephzitt.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/80\/revisions\/439"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.josephzitt.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.josephzitt.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}