Blessings of the Tanakh: Hebraica Veritas

By Ken Bazyn

Ever since God called Abram from Ur, he has conveyed his revelation and displayed his splendors to the chosen Hebrew people. Bazyn's introduction incorporates fictional first-person recreations of Cain's murder of Abel and Rachel's theft of the household idols.

His poems investigate such pivotal moments as Jacob's wrestling with an angel; the Israelites' faint-heartedness and desire to return to Egypt in the wilderness; the rise of monarchy and its alarming consequences; the prophet Elijah's troubled relationship with King Ahab; Jonah's futile flight from a call to preach repentance in Nineveh.

Not afraid to tackle complex, difficult-to-resolve theological issues, Bazyn weighs in on faith, judgment, idolatry, free will, suffering, repentance, the coming Messiah, and resurrection. His taut, condensed style, thick with intriguing metaphors, probes the believer's conduct and motivation: Why does God at times seem so distant and hidden? What does it feel like to be persecuted?

To aid in discerning each poem's meaning, Bazyn has added allusive, revelatory 35mm black-and-white photographs. Whether as a Jew, a Christian, or an unbeliever who is curious about the Tanakh's significance, you are drawn into this net of words, cut to the quick by standing naked and exposed before your maker like Job.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Apr 9, 2024
• ISBN: 9798385214228

Ken Bazyn

Ken Bazyn is long-time editorial director of Religious Book Club. He has written The Seven Perennial Sins and Their Offspring and Soul-Wrestling: Meditations in Monochrome. He has published articles in forty periodicals, from Commonweal to Dialog, and his photographs have appeared in forty-five magazines. His previous books of poetry are Gospel Midrashim, Jesting Angels, Artistic Alchemy, Humanity, Nuptial Favors, Creation Groans On, The Poetic “I,” and Apocalyptic Fervor.

Book preview

Blessings of the Tanakh

Hebraica Veritas

Ken Bazyn

Blessings of the Tanakh

Hebraica Veritas

Copyright ©

2024

Ken Bazyn. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

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Resource Publications

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paperback isbn: 979-8-3852-1420-4

hardcover isbn: 979-8-3852-1421-1

ebook isbn: 979-8-3852-1422-8

version number 03/26/24

New Revised Standard Version, copyright

1989

, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Cain and Abel: Mystery of Evil

Rachel: Missing Clay Gods

Faith:

An Addendum to Psalm 53

Hebrew Hasid

If You Don’t Do Good

The Art of the Snare

So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt

One Metropolis Spared?

Sodom’s Hourglass

In a Prophetic Tone

Contrariwise

The Selfish Gene

Oh, for the Fleshpots of Egypt

The Waterless Place

The Faithless Shepherd

Idolators

Nonpareil: Who Can Be Compared to You?

God Still Stands Indignant

Here Come the Diminutive and Disfigured

Golem

Monarchist Pretensions

Ahab to Elijah

On Bonhoeffer’s Participation in the Plot against Hitler

To Tarshish I Fly

A Ghoulish Gift

Fractured Dreams

SS Mutter

Eden

This Hermetically-Sealed Universe

Am I Responsible?

The Road Is Arduous

Transitions

The Wind Comes

Geometric Figures in Whimsy

Wet vs. Dry

Tears: Nature’s Safety Valve

Exodus 28: Twelve Tribal Stones

Notes from My Nervous Breakdown

The Wart of God

Wagging Manikin Faces

Jacob’s Kuntz

A Little Yiddish Humor

Joseph

Yahweh vs. Horus

You Have Become My Enemy

In Anguish: God, You Schlemiel

What! Is the Mocking Bird Here?

What Does God Do?

Inspired by Zechariah’s Visions

Messiah Coos and Mourns

Ezekiel’s Dry Bones

Listing of Photographs

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

I WANT TO COMMEND Wipf & Stock for its ongoing commitment to publishing important books on a wide variety of topics from across the theological spectrum. In particular, I take my hat off to Calvin Jaffarian’s excellent typesetting and layout as well as Rockbrook Camera in Omaha for conscientiously placing my 35 mm color slides onto a viable CD.

Too, my wife, Barbara, has labored with me long and hard to make the text as pleasing, accurate, and lyrical as possible. And Emily Callihan has faithfully questioned peculiarities of grammar, style, and content plus formatted the book with precision.

Credit is given here for the following poem:

What! Is the Mocking Bird Here? in C.S.P. World News

Introduction

Cain and Abel: Mystery of Evil

"Race of Cain, your agony,

Will it ever have an end?"

—Charles Baudelaire¹

THE NARRATIVE OF CAIN AND ABEL is so typical of the book of Genesis. There are few concrete details, and powerful, unexpressed emotions play out against a virtually barren landscape.² Genesis deals with scenes of extraordinary psychological complexity—squabbles about everyday domestic life, questions of birthright, rivalry between brothers, acts of revenge, dreams sent from God, and so on. Cain is depicted there as both the first farmer and the first murderer. Because of the many unresolved questions in the story, commentators over the centuries have felt obliged to fill in the gaps. Here’s the way key elements have been interpreted.

The first hint of tragedy comes in verses 4:4–5: And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. But why? One line of interpretation focuses on the offering itself. Abel had brought the firstborn of his flock, the fatty portions, while Cain had merely carried an offering of the fruit of the ground (v. 3). Later legends seized on this discrepancy, asserting that Abel sacrificed his finest lamb, while Cain just threw a few flax seeds on the altar.³ For instance, in a