Yes, you’re absolutely right that that song (as well as some of the others we studied) could be interpreted very much in a humanistic/universalist vein. The problem, of course, is that they weren’t being interpreted thusly. I’ve seen my teacher do the Israel = Jews thing a number of times since then, haven’t quite worked up the guts to call him on it, but I think I might soon. And Amir hasn’t been back to class since that day (sad sigh.)

(Potentially naive) question: my admittedly undereducated Reform mind is telling me that the lyrics of Eli, Eli are something like

My G-d, I pray that these things never end
the sand and the sea
the rush of the waters
the crash of the heavens
the prayer of people

So, re: reframing the conversation: Couldn’t these lyrics just as easily be the source of a conversation about connection to land as a source of connection *for anyone who loves that land* to a *nameless* divine/common experience of divinity? When I read Rumi, though the divine of whom he spoke does not have the same name as the one to whom I speak, I know that we’re talking about an essentially shared experience.

I suppose we could have the same conversation about any segment of the Bible or Torah, really - it can be used to divide or unite, depending on interpretation, right? Christian extremists in the US and the liberation theologians were, in fact, reading the same book, right?

Creating art is scary for that reason - once it leaves my mind/hands, who will use it then, and for what purpose?

Rhetorical questions, I know. You go, my brave friend.

PS - re: songs/emotional content/evoking pathos in an unexpected context: I had an emotional experience the other day with, of all things, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” Thinking about where my ideas about “freedom” come from, what the true nature of patriotism is, the evolution of American political ideology and how it could have created me as well as those who would exile me in its name. “Let freedom ring.”

Love and delightful things to you. -B.