“Eclipse of the light of heaven, eclipse of God-such indeed is the character of the historic hour through which the world is passing. But it is not a process which can be adequately accounted for by instancing the changes that have taken place in man’s spirit.
An eclipse of the sun is somethingthat occurs between the sun and our eyes, not in the sun itself….But when, as in this instance, something is taking place between heaven and earth, one misses everything when one insists on discovering within earthly thought the power that unveils the mystery.
He who refuses to submit himself to the effective reality of the transcendence as such—our vis-à-vis—contributes to the human responsibility for the eclipse.”
Martin Buber
The sun breaks above the razor sharp horizon
A tiny pink sliver at first
Peeking, sheepishly,
As if testing the landscape’s response
The clouds above and below open like a curtain
Welcoming the new day’s visitor
She cares not what we think or feel
She just gives of her radiance and warmth
And the world benefits
And nature bows to her majestic kindness
as life continues another day
Due to her largesse there are lush pastures of green
Open landscapes of rolling hills and vales
Carpets of forests and canopies
Her chlorophyll hides the true brilliant colors
Of the autumnal dying leaves.
The fauna in the lakes and rivers are warmed
As the mating season owes its loves to her
And nature is nourished once again.
Indeed she cares not
If she also burns and dehydrates
Causing fires and death
Heatwaves that kill millions
Parched deserts of drought
Oblivious to the poles or equator
We are the planets revolving around her after all
She is just there
Punctually
Daily
Showing up
Predictably
calculably
(even years ahead)
When she will make her entrances and when she will
take leave at sunset
Halachically we are guided by “neitz” and “shkiya”
Arguing incessantly as to the actual moment
She will enter the “vilon”
Or descend into the mikvah like ocean.
It is up to us
The receivers of her beneficence
To determine how to enjoy and survive with her life sustaining rays
And when to protect ourselves for fear of getting burned
Of not gazing at her directly
For fear of blindness
Of shading from her in the heat of the day
Her orange glow this morning seems so benign
The stuff painters will revel in, on their canvases
Trying to get the right hue of orange/redness.
People stand in reverent silence on the beach
and meditate ahead of the
Toil of the day
But soon she will ascend the Florida sky
And her brilliance will require protection once again
As we approach her zenith at midday
Until she makes her daily descent over the city landscape
Plunging me into and the world back into darkness.
It occurred to me that my metaphor of the divine has
been faulty, all along….
That my conception has been soiled by philosophy,
theodicy, history,
And my people’s victimhood
(after all just look at us mere decades ago)
That, for just a moment I might rather take a step into nature instead, and
Looking at our planet from out there in space
This singular azure blue globe with its wispy clouds
surrounding it and the deep blue oceans meandering across it
Could not have survived without her
That we as earth propel through the darkness of space along with our sisters
In an orbital dance around her
In exact proportionate spin
A precision in distance and nearness
to allow life and love.
Extending the comparison to our sacred texts
Like the warnings of Moses to the Israelites not to get too
close to the Divine rage
The fire that emerged suddenly and unpredictable when
those got too close to the Tabernacle
Or the Deuteronomic prediction that in the sinful future,
The face of the divine will be hidden (hester panim)
Allowing for all sorts of calamity.
In those hoary times there will be a total eclipse
And the earth will be plunged into spiritual darkness in
the midst of daylight sun
Her territory and domain encroached upon by the prince of darkness
Yet the phenomenon of eclipse remains,
built into the very fabric of our orbit
It’s bound predictably, calculably, to occur through no
“fault” of our own
Like the nature of human love
Whose eclipse of the heart follows the passionate love
And at times all is plunged into chaos and darkness
And only man’s heart of cruelty remains
To his fellow man, unspeakable crimes
Or to himself in destruction through his addictive
behavior, the amygdala of self-hatred.
Yet the sun remains hidden behind the eclipse
Patiently waiting to re-emerge
To formally take charge once again
Order shall now proceed
Chaos is forgotten
And the world returns to where it was
With the wasteland and the trauma
Burnished in the soul of recovery.
And once she reigns again
It is as if
Nothing had happened
All is returned to the ebb and flow of life once more
The day comes
The day goes
Sunrise and sunset resume
Is it possible that this sun reflects the very divine
Not only in nature but also in relation to earth to history
to us?
POSTSCRIPT
“The Present events are an affliction and that is an unbearable fact. We must contemplate this affliction in all its bitterness and without consolation while loving God as author of all things-including this same affliction-and as author solely of good”
Simone Weil “Attente de Dieu”
“The grand enigma of human life is not suffering, but affliction. It is not astonishing that innocents should be killed, tortured, flushed from their countries, reduced to misery or slavery, imprisoned in camps and cells—since we know there are criminals who commit these acts. Neither is it astonishing that sickness imposes long periods of suffering that paralyze life and make it an image of death—since nature is subject to the blind play of mechanical necessity. But it is astonishing that God has given affliction the power to take hold of the very souls of innocents and to seize them as their sovereign master. In the best case, the one marked by affliction only keeps half his soul. God himself cannot prevent what has happened from having happened. What better proof that the creation is an abdication? What greater abdication of God than is represented by time? We are abandoned in time. God is not in time. Creation and original sin are only two aspects, which are different from us, of a single act of abdication by God. And the Incarnation, the Passion, are also aspects of this act. God emptied himself of his divinity and filled us with a false divinity. Let us empty ourselves of it. This act is the purpose of the act by which we were created. At this very moment God, by his creative will, is maintaining me in existence, in order that I may renounce it. God waits patiently until at last I am willing to consent to love him. God waits like a beggar who stands motionless and silent before someone who will perhaps give him a piece of bread. Time is that waiting. Time is God's waiting as a beggar for our love. The stars, the mountains, the sea, and all the things that speak to us of time, convey God's supplication to us. By waiting humbly, we are made similar to God. God is only the good. That is why he is waiting there is silence. Anyone who comes forward and speaks is using a little force. The good which is nothing but good can only stand waiting. Beggars who are modest are images of Him. Humility is a certain relation of the soul to time. It is an acceptance of waiting. That is why, socially, it is the mark of inferiors that they are made to wait. "I nearly had to wait" is thetyrant's word. But in ceremony, whose poetry makes all men equal, everybody has to wait. Art is waiting. Inspiration is waiting. He shall bear fruit in patience. Humility partakes in God's patience. The perfected soul waits for the good in silence, immobility and humility like God's own. Christ nailed on the cross is the perfect image of the Father.”
Simone Weil "The Things of the World" The Simon Weil Reader, edited by George A. Panichas (New York: David McKay, 1977) pp. 423-4.
Julian Ungar-Sargon
This is Julian Ungar-Sargon's personal website. It contains poems, essays, and podcasts for the spiritual seeker and interdisciplinary aficionado.
