Ben's Songs

וּמִ֣י יוֹדֵ֔עַ אִם־לְעֵ֣ת כָּזֹ֔את הִגַּ֖עַתְּ לַמַּלְכֽוּת׃

 

An American Jewish urban legend tells of an immigrant whose name was changed to "Sean Ferguson" because he or his mother answered a clerk's query with "Shoyn fargesen!", which is Yiddish for "I have forgotten!" — which isn't likely to have really happened, because immigration clerks are not quite that easily fooled. But an angel, especially one of a Chelmish persuasion (meaning: critically lacking in practical wisdom), just might be — which would be a problem, especially if the angel is supposed to be looking after an Irish immigrant whose name really is Sean Ferguson.

The protagonist, Reuven aka Robert (not Sean Ferguson!) is named for my mother's father of blessed memory, who often told his children and grandchildren silly stories of this sort.

by Benjamin Newman

after "Disobedience" by A.A. Milne

listen to this poem

 

In Jewish tradition, opinions differ as to what real plant (if any) the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad represents, or what real historical development (if any) the eating of its fruit represents — some say it's basic sentience or moral self-awareness, others suggest a technological change such as the development of agriculture.

I'm firmly of the opinion that Eve made the right choice — that G!d's experiment and our story as modern humans doesn't properly begin until we eat the Fruit of Knowledge, and that this story is ours to try to turn towards the good (we're not doing so great right now), not to reject.

In this song, I imagine that each Fruit on the Tree of Knowledge is different — a different flavor moral awareness. Some are sweet, some are bitter, and some are outright poisonous. If Eve wasn't wrong to eat of the Tree in the first place, certainly Cain was wrong to keep on eating the particular fruit he picked after that bitter first bite — and that, I think, is the crack in the world and the beginning of the main thread of Genesis: brother quarreling with brother to win father's favor, until finally we meet two brothers, Ephraim and Menashe, about whom almost nothing is written because they do not quarrel so there is no drama to write about.

lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman

listen to this song

 

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

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