Hold on to the Sun

Hold On To The Sun

Hold on to tHe Sun Some of the old neighborhoods of Jerusalem give me rather a strange feeling as i pass through them, as if they existed only for as long as i traverse them, springing up mysteriously from somewhere or other, my own imagination, perhaps , or even memories predating my birth, to stand there before i enter. Quickly the laundry is hung out on the long balconies, and children in black caftans come out to resume their games.the silence that always prevails after i pass has led me to the peculiar conclusion that behind my back,alley by alley, the neighborhood vanishes.this, too, is the reason for the habit which i have formed of never turning my head, and never looking back at these places. for years i have refrained from expressing this feeling, even to myself, and when it sometimes awoke in me, even after i had emerged from these neighborhoods into other streets, i would reject it as firmly as a man dismissing the legends of some distant land and time.What finally led me to spend days on end examining it—without, however, 193 solving the riddle—was the following incident, which did not, apparently, happen by chance nor was it by chance that it happened where it did happen. At the time i was busy working on my study of the history and sources of Jewish liturgy, comparing ancient versions of the daily evening prayer. i was vaguely aware of the existence of another old Prayer Book, which i had grounds to believe might contain, if not exactly a different version, at least a rare interpretation of the evening prayer and the time appointed for its recitation.the reference was hastily jotted down on an old index card, dating to a period before i undertook my study,which accounts for the slipshod nature of the notes. i may have copied them inaccurately from a manuscript, or taken them down during one of the lectures given by my late teacher who passed away many years ago. According to my notes, this interpretation of the evening prayer refers to the light of the moon as it was before it was shrunk, and instructs believers to say the prayer with special rejoicing, “You should follow the sun in its sinking and the moon in its rising,” and say with devout intent: “With wisdomthou openeth the gates of the heavens, and with understanding thou altereth the seasons.” And when you say,“thus hastthou created day and night,” you should concentrate intently on the words ‘day’ and ‘night,’ and attach all your joy to layla, night, which is a resorting of the Hebrew letters of yahal—“He will illuminate”—and 194 Hold On to the Sun the extra letter “l.”And you should attach your joy chiefly to that “l” of layla, which has the numerical value of thirty and stands for the darkness in the moon on the thirtieth day of the lunar month.the above is the secret of the impregnation of darkness by yahal, which is the light of the Seven days of creation, the everlasting light. Andtheinterpretationstatesfurthermorethatabeliever should perform this deed in great secrecy,so that nothing at all of it be divulged.And he should exert himself greatly in its performance, so that he gain the upper hand over others who conspire falsely and delay the opening of the gates of Heaven. Such ones give rise to dissension between the sun and the moon and seek in their sin to stop the seasons in their appointed rounds and to bring,God forbid,a different light into the world. And at the end of these notes i found, to my great astonishment, the following:there are some who say that a believer should start right now combining the morning , afternoon, and evening prayers.As if the words of the Prophet had already come to be,“the sun shall be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: But the lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light.”And i do not know whether these words actually figured in the old Prayer Book or were no more than a supposition on the part of my late teacher, or perhaps even my own part in those distant days. 195 Hold On to the Sun for a long time i postponed going into the matter, but as...