Under the Tree of Life

[bnewman]

Like the "journal bound in leather fine" of the original song, a Torah scroll is also a book bound in skin, with "all the world within", to which those who hold it are bound by the promise of a Power that must not be named. I think we got the better deal, though — the Torah will keep producing new meaning for as many generations as continue to cherish and retell it.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Under the Gripping Beast" by Catherine Faber

listen to this song

/ Am G Am E / Am G C E / 1st / G Em AmG Am /

 

For an ancient scroll of parchment fine, as smooth you might think

A Tree of Life inscribed thereon in gleaming night-black ink

I bargained with a Power (I dare not pronounce the Name)

And though I've read it many times, it's never twice the same

 

/ G - Am - / G - C E / " / " /

 

Under the Tree of Life is all that I've been paid

The cost cannot be counted, but the bargain was well-made:

An eternity of service, for the story I've been sold

For I may not set the scroll aside 'til all the tale is told

 

I've tasted revelation, and my time draws near to rest

Yet the scroll begins again — one life cannot fulfill the quest

My children and their children must complete what I've begun

To tell the tale, unending, as the generations run

 

Under the Tree of Life is all that I've been paid...

 

Our learned teachers guard the scroll through ages new and strange

The written words remain, but their interpretations change

Yet a faith that meets the future by preserving what is past

Will always be a Tree of Life to those who hold it fast

 

Under the Tree of Life is all that I've been paid...

 

Some hundred generations now the covenant has bound

Three thousand times the tale's been told as the parchment is rewound

And we've yet to reach the end — I don't suppose we ever will —

For our story is not done: the Tree of Life is growing still

 

Under the Tree of Life is all that I've been paid...