siloam's teeming pool

Saturday, August 11, 2007

"Let us make the human in our image" (Genesis 1:26).

Rabbi Simon said: When the Holy One, the blessed One, came to create Adam, the ministering angels formed themselves into groups and parties, some of them saying, "Let the human be created," while others urged, "Let the human not be created." Thus it is written, Love and truth fought together; righteousness and peace combated each other. (Psalm 85:11) Love said, "Let humans be created, because they will dispense acts of love:; Truth said, "Let humans be created, because they will perform righteous deeds"; Peace said, "Let humans not be created because they are full of strife." What did the Lord do? He took Truth and cast it to the ground... Rabbi Huna, the Elder of Sepphoris, said: While the ministering angels were arguing and disputing with each other, the Holy One, the blessed One, created humans. God said to the angels: "For what purpose do you argue? Humans have already been made!"
Genesis Rabbah 8:4-5

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not diving, so much as splashing --- in (or, "what is this site?")

This site is my attempt to gather together readings which are impacting me on my own spiritual path. Some are wise words from the periphery of my formal learning (the Eastern religions) but which have nonetheless settled in my bones. Some are at the center of my new world of study (the Judeo-Christian texts). Since I have been a student again, some of these thoughts are academic formation. Others are spiritual questing. And some are just gold dust that has collected on the shoes of my reading. It's my hope that the gold will rub off, and provide clues to meaning for others. Bite-sized bits and occasionally my own expressive thinking.

"Siloam's teeming pool" is the title of a series of chapters in a great book by Donald Harman Akenson called "Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds". The phrase is used to describe the explosion of Judahist literature in the late Second Temple era. In a period of seismic upheaval in Judaic culture, the run-up is rich with literary life. Are we in such a time now? I don't know. But the pool as a place of 'fecundity' and cleansing, seems apt as metaphor. So. Wade into the pool. Splash. Swim. Or just put your toe in and test the water. There are no snapping turtles here.