(א) שִׁמְע֥וּ אֵלַ֛י רֹ֥דְפֵי צֶ֖דֶק מְבַקְשֵׁ֣י יְהֹוָ֑ה הַבִּ֙יטוּ֙ אֶל־צ֣וּר חֻצַּבְתֶּ֔ם וְאֶל־מַקֶּ֥בֶת בּ֖וֹר נֻקַּרְתֶּֽם׃ (ב) הַבִּ֙יטוּ֙ אֶל־אַבְרָהָ֣ם אֲבִיכֶ֔ם וְאֶל־שָׂרָ֖ה תְּחוֹלֶלְכֶ֑ם כִּֽי־אֶחָ֣ד קְרָאתִ֔יו וַאֲבָרְכֵ֖הוּ וְאַרְבֵּֽהוּ׃ (ג) כִּֽי־נִחַ֨ם יְהֹוָ֜ה צִיּ֗וֹן נִחַם֙ כׇּל־חׇרְבֹתֶ֔יהָ וַיָּ֤שֶׂם מִדְבָּרָהּ֙ כְּעֵ֔דֶן וְעַרְבָתָ֖הּ כְּגַן־יְהֹוָ֑ה שָׂשׂ֤וֹן וְשִׂמְחָה֙ יִמָּ֣צֵא בָ֔הּ תּוֹדָ֖ה וְק֥וֹל זִמְרָֽה׃ {ס}
(1) Listen to Me, you who pursue justice,
You who seek the LORD:
Look to the rock you were hewn from,
To the quarry you were dug from. (2) Look back to Abraham your father
And to Sarah who brought you forth.
For he was only one when I called him,
But I blessed him and made him many.
(3) Truly the LORD has comforted Zion,
Comforted all her ruins;
He has made her wilderness like Eden,
Her desert like the Garden of the LORD.
Gladness and joy shall abide there,
Thanksgiving and the sound of music.
You who seek the LORD:
Look to the rock you were hewn from,
To the quarry you were dug from. (2) Look back to Abraham your father
And to Sarah who brought you forth.
For he was only one when I called him,
But I blessed him and made him many.
(3) Truly the LORD has comforted Zion,
Comforted all her ruins;
He has made her wilderness like Eden,
Her desert like the Garden of the LORD.
Gladness and joy shall abide there,
Thanksgiving and the sound of music.
“There is life and there is joy and there is our granddaughters and friends and writing books. There are many things,” he says, his voice quiet. “Yet in order to do almost anything, you have to act against the gravity of grief. It is heavy, it pulls you down, and you have to make a deliberate effort to overcome it. You have to decide that you won’t fall."
.....
"In the [last novel] I wrote, Falling Out of Time, this idea of falling, all the time – the temptation to fall is very strong.”
.......
"He says that it required a conscious decision on his part not to immerse himself in grief. He had to decide 'how much to insist on life'.
And there were other, related decisions. 'How much do you need to forget in order to continue your everyday life ... how much can you forget without killing, and how much can you remember without dying from it? I think we found this line, my family and I.”
David Grossman, In an interview with The Guardian-- https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/26/david-grossman-interview-you-have-to-act-against-the-gravity-of-grief
.....
"In the [last novel] I wrote, Falling Out of Time, this idea of falling, all the time – the temptation to fall is very strong.”
.......
"He says that it required a conscious decision on his part not to immerse himself in grief. He had to decide 'how much to insist on life'.
And there were other, related decisions. 'How much do you need to forget in order to continue your everyday life ... how much can you forget without killing, and how much can you remember without dying from it? I think we found this line, my family and I.”
David Grossman, In an interview with The Guardian-- https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/26/david-grossman-interview-you-have-to-act-against-the-gravity-of-grief
From a letter to his sister-in-law, p.92 of Franz Rosenzweig -- His Life and Thought by Nahum Glatzer
Each of us can only seize by the scruff whoever happens to be closest to us in the mire. This is the “neighbor” the Bible speaks of. And the miraculous thing is that, although each of us stands in the mire of our self, we can each pull out our neighbor, or at least keep him from drowning. None of us has solid ground under our feet; each of us is only held up by the neighborly hands grasping us by the scruff, with the result that we are each held up by the next one, and often, indeed most of the time…hold each other up mutually. All this mutual upholding (a physical impossibility) becomes possible only because the great hand from above supports all these holding human hands by their wrists. It is this, and not some nonexistent “solid ground under one’s feet” that enables all the human hands to hold and to help. There is no such thing as standing, there is only being held up.
Franz Rosenzweig (25 December 1886 – 10 December 1929) was a German theologian, philosopher, and translator.
Each of us can only seize by the scruff whoever happens to be closest to us in the mire. This is the “neighbor” the Bible speaks of. And the miraculous thing is that, although each of us stands in the mire of our self, we can each pull out our neighbor, or at least keep him from drowning. None of us has solid ground under our feet; each of us is only held up by the neighborly hands grasping us by the scruff, with the result that we are each held up by the next one, and often, indeed most of the time…hold each other up mutually. All this mutual upholding (a physical impossibility) becomes possible only because the great hand from above supports all these holding human hands by their wrists. It is this, and not some nonexistent “solid ground under one’s feet” that enables all the human hands to hold and to help. There is no such thing as standing, there is only being held up.
Franz Rosenzweig (25 December 1886 – 10 December 1929) was a German theologian, philosopher, and translator.