Monday, October 20, 2014

The monologue - a script

IMG from: http://www.biblewalks.com/Sites/MountGerizim.html

When you hear the word

MONOLOGUE

What do you think of?

Your college history professor?
Your boring uncle Joe?
Mom and Dad lecturing about premarital sex? drugs? clean rooms? leaving the basement?

Or do you, like I, think of Shakespeare, Hillel, and Mount Gerezim? (Strange combination, I suppose, but it goes together...)



SHAKESPEARE's Hamlet

Hamlet's Soliloquy

To be or not to be... ... ...

That is the question

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep--
No more--and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep--
To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.



To BE.
Or NOT to BE
THAT is THE - italics - Question - Capital Q.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE:
Dvarim 30: 19-20

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed;

THAT  IS THE QUESTION:
 to love the LORD thy God, to hearken to His voice, and to cleave unto Him; for that is thy life, and the length of thy days; that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them

LIFE


What is Life? 

Life is GOOD!!! 

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life 

(pause)

But how must one live properly?
How must I live properly?

SALEM

Self Awareness
Self Loving
AND
Endless Self Motivation

SALEM

Self Awareness - being mindful of one's needs, hungers, desires, fears, questions and responsibilities.
Love - self-care - bathing, dressing, eating, resting, playing, learning, laughing, loving ourselves
Endless Motivation - finding meaning, purpose and strength to overcome life's treacheries, life's difficulties, life's challenges


DEATH

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse; 

The curse. 

Death.

Who is more dead than a corpse but the one who lives a life of self-denial, nihilism, self hatred and self immolation?

I have learned from my life that the biggest sin a person can ever commit against oneself is lack of self confidence. 

A life devoid of Salem.

I have lived it.

I made myself live it.

I  have put the needs of others before my own, often against logic. Often without knowledge of logic, but because of the pure wish to seek approval...of other people.

I have been the victim of abuse. 

But I got there because I ignored me. I often ignored all of me.

And then I wandered why others ignored all of me as well.



To be or Not to be, that is the Question:

Hillel the Elder:

אִם אֵין אֲנִי לִי, מִי לִי? וּכְשֶׁאֲנִי לְעַצְמִי, מָה אֲנִי? וְאִם לֹא עַכְשָׁיו, אֵימָתַי?


If I am not for myself, WHO will be for me?

And When I am only for myself, WHAT am I?

And if not now, when?


During the months of Elul and Tishrei we hear over and over again the saying:
Teshuvah
Tefilah
V'Tzedakah mavirin et ro hagazera.

Teshuvah Pennace (Return)
Tefilah Prayer
Tzedakah Charity will remove the bad of the decree.

A person can return to himself, to his source, to the creator of the universe through Teshuvah, which in Hebrew really does mean, literally, RETURN.
One can return to his friends and family and teachers, and love them. And to loving himself and respecting himself and others.
One can pray for others, and for oneself.
One can give charity to oneself and to others, Tzedakah, though is not just mere charity. It is Justice. It is the Justice that God himself ordered, that we love others and ourselves.

The difference between the narcissist and the man who loves people is God. God brings the social and the responsibility and love for ourselves and others into our lives.

WHEN?

Today.

היום

יט  הַעִדֹתִי בָכֶם הַיּוֹם, אֶת-הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת-הָאָרֶץ--הַחַיִּים וְהַמָּוֶת נָתַתִּי לְפָנֶיךָ, הַבְּרָכָה וְהַקְּלָלָה; וּבָחַרְתָּ, בַּחַיִּים--לְמַעַן תִּחְיֶה, אַתָּה וְזַרְעֶךָ.
כ  לְאַהֲבָה אֶת-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, לִשְׁמֹעַ בְּקֹלוֹ וּלְדָבְקָה-בוֹ:  כִּי הוּא חַיֶּיךָ, וְאֹרֶךְ יָמֶיךָ--לָשֶׁבֶת עַל-הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע יְהוָה לַאֲבֹתֶיךָ לְאַבְרָהָם לְיִצְחָק וּלְיַעֲקֹב, לָתֵת לָהֶם.  {פ}
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed; 

to love the LORD thy God, to hearken to His voice, and to cleave unto Him; for that is thy life, and the length of thy days; that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.


And here we are;
here, I stand in Jerusalem today before you.

Before God.

Jerusalem.
Yerushalayim
Yeru shalem
יראו שלם
ירו שלם

Yeru Salem

They will see Peace
They will see 
Self Awareness
Self Love
Endless Motivation

כי מציון תצא תורה ודבר ה' מירושלים

The first time I came to Jerusalem I was 15 years old.
I had not even a skeleton of a Jewish education.

I did not know who I was. I did not know what a Jew is meant to be.

My dad is not Jewish. My mother was born Jewish.

I grew up in a secular household in Suburban Philadelphia. 

My peers were little anti-semites who either beat me or tried to christen me from the age of 7.

When I was 13 I started asking my parents what Judaism was, what it meant to be Jewish. Because I had a computer and a modem I finally started meeting other Jewish teens through our mutual interest in computers.

I didn't understand, really, until then that Israel was even a real place where real people lived.

When I was 15, I pushed my mother to take me to meet rabbis and I chose a Reform Temple to attend confirmation class. There was an essay contest for the confirmation students, and I won that year. And I came to Israel when I was 15.

I wasn't prepared religiously or emotionally to cope with other Jewish teens in such close proximity. I had illogical expectations.

At the end of the summer, I considered taking my own life.

But I got over it, and I went back to my parent's house and I learned Hebrew. I taught myself how to read Hebrew, how to read from a prayer book, and I grew. And I grew.

I promised myself and my parents that when I turned 18 years old and became an adult that I would move to Israel.

And so I did. I came here like Avraham, to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem has been the city in which I have loved, and lost, and learned to love again, and again, and again.



To be or not to be, that is the question.

אִם אֵין אֲנִי לִי, מִי לִי? וּכְשֶׁאֲנִי לְעַצְמִי, מָה אֲנִי? וְאִם לֹא עַכְשָׁיו, אֵימָתַי?

If I am not for myself, WHO will be for me?

And When I am only for myself, WHAT am I?
And if not now, when?



I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed; 

to love the LORD thy God, to hearken to His voice, and to cleave unto Him; for that is thy life, and the length of thy days; that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.












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