Martin Bidney - The Beloving Imaginer Episode 20 - WORDSONGS OF JEWISH TRADITION

The Be-Loving Imaginer

PODCAST #20: WORDSONGS OF JEWISH TRADITION In this interview book I converse with the commentator (and at times with the original author) who together produced a new, 3-volume version of the Tanya, an 18th century spiritual handbook, so that the modern reader can place the mystical thinking in a wide context of Hasidic anecdotes and legends. Schneur Zalman, the original author, provided what amounts to a runway for the modern interpreter, the late Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, can launch us on a tour of the many parables he knows and retells with wonderful charm and often witty humor. I write wordsongs in reply to 108 songs of the Steinsaltz Tanya, 36 for each of the three volumes. I’ll give a few samples of these entertaining interviews. Dialogue II.23 Unaware of What We Are Doing shows how the storyteller and the wordsong interpreter cooperate as (so it feels to me) a fruitful unity. Dialogue II.3 Without any desire to receive shows how we “take off” from a lively anecdote and together reach a helpful lesson. Dialogue II.1 Lined with Pillows highlights Rabbi Steinsaltz’ quite special fondness for quirky, peculiar stories about real people. Dialogue I.14 Six Mighty Horses features our shared love of a wide range of diverse human beings. My introduction of the theme of children leads us then to Dialogue III.5 Stress on Direct Perception. I love to emphasize the central mood of the book, which is good humor and the love of life. Dialogue I.1 What’s the first is perfect for an opener. Dialogue I.3. The Talmud Relates tells us comedians have reserved seats in heaven. Humor is a kind of energetic vitality, or vital energy, a virtue praised in Dialogue I.4 We find the soul, telling of the delights of vigorous breathing. Dialogue I.9 I do not want shows me replying to the religious teacher’s affirmations with agreement, but from my somewhat different perspective as a poet. Dialogue III.10 The degree of intensity may be the best conclusion, to show an overall impression we get from the whole interview book: intensity of life is happiness.