Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac ...
January brings me back around to Genesis and Exodus. For a bitterly cold day the Sacrifice of Issac, that awe-full story.
I'm struck, suddenly, by the narrowing here in verse three: "your son, your only son, whom you love, Issac..." It's like hearing a sentence pronounced piece by piece, like hearing only one
side of a conversation.
Because, of course, Abraham has two sons, Issac and Ishmael --
Take now your son
I have two sons
your only son
of beloved Sarai
whom you love
I love--
Issac
Almost a poem ... But not sure I'm up to this material. I've already backed off doing Job. I think I might be better off with the obscure corners.
Footnote: I quote the New American Standard Bible Genesis 22:3. I don't know the Hebrew and don't have my scholarly stuff to hand, so I can't say if this narrowing is in the Masoretic, but I have some hope that it is. One of the NASB's virtues is an understanding of repetion and parallelism in Hebrew verse.
I do have some midrashes and stuff that will spell this out for me. If I dig down to them I'll have to let everyone know -- if there is any truth in this idea the midrashes will have it. Great minds and hearts have travelled this ground, over and over.
BTW, I'm in the market for something along the lines of Midrash for Beginners, if anyone has a recommendation.
6 Comments
For what it’s worth, I think it’s very sweet.
Yes, the story of the sacrifice of Isaac would be tough to do. Scour-the-flesh-off-your-bones kind of writing. Do you know the Leonard Cohen take on this?
After being shown the convenient ram in the thicket and invited to substitute it— “but Abraham did not so, but slew his son/and half the seed of Europe, one by one.”
That’s not Leonard Cohen, it’s Wilfred Owen — it’s called something like “The Parable of the Old Men.”
Wildred Owen, who once said “I lost all my earthly abhorence and fought like an angel.” Who is said to have seen the Angel of Mons — though that is probably a myth.
No, it’s Cohen. “The Sacrifice of Isaac.” Owen did too. I bet a lot of poets did.
I had to see if my memory was tricking me. Wilfred Owen, “The Parable of the Old Man and the Young,” is up here at poetry-x
http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1166/
and it is the poem that ends “and half the seed of Europe, one by one.” Maybe Cohen adapted it?
Oy vey. You’re right. I’m covered with confusion. That was the Owen poem. Cohen did something different. Sorry, I’ll shut up now.