Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Painful beauty


There is a beautiful Haisidic story of a rabbi who always told his people that if they studied the Torah, it would put Scripture on their hearts. One of them asked, "Why on our hearts, and not in them?" The rabbi answered, "Only God can put Scripture inside. But reading sacred text can put it on your hearts, and when your hearts break, the holy words will fall inside."

2 comments:

Mata H said...

Thank you for this.

I am reminded of a snippet of a Leonard Cohen song called "Anthem":

You can add up the parts
but you won't have the sum
You can strike up the march,
there is no drum
Every heart, every heart
to love will come
but like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

The Harbour of Ourselves said...

the dear mr Cohen....amazing words that help me through the the dark times, the shit, the failings, the brokenness, the wrongs...