EDMOND JABÈSThe meaning of this anecdote was discussed by the rabbis.
Reb Alphandery, in his authority as the oldest, spoke first.
‘‘A double mirror,’’ he said, ‘‘separates us from the Lord so that God sees
Himself when trying to see us, and we, when trying to see Him, see only our own
face.’’
‘‘Is appearance no more than the reflections thrown back and forth by a set of
mirrors?’’ asked Reb Ephraim. ‘‘You are no doubt alluding to the soul, Reb
Alphandery, in which we see ourselves mirrored. But the body is the place of the
soul, just as the mountain is the bed of the brook. The body has broken the
mirror.’’
‘‘The brook,’’ continued Reb Alphandery, ‘‘sleeps on the summit. The brook’s
dream is of water, as is the brook. It flows for us. Our dreams extend us.
‘‘Do you not remember this phrase of Reb Alsem’s: ‘We live out the dream of
creation, which is God’s dream. In the evening our own dreams snuggle down
into it like sparrows in their nests.’
‘‘And did not Reb Hames write: ‘Birds of night, my dreams explore the im-
mense dream of the sleeping universe’ ’’?
‘‘Are dreams the limpid discourse between the facets of a crystal block?’’
continued Reb Ephraim. ‘‘The world is of glass. You know it by its brilliance,
night or day.’’
‘‘The earth turns in a mirror. The earth turns in a scarf,’’ replied Reb Alphand-
ery.
‘‘The scarf of a dandy with a nasty scar,’’ said Reb Ephraim.
(‘‘Words are inside breath, as the earth is inside time.’’
—Reb Mares)
And Yukel said:‘‘The bundle of the Wandering Jew contains the earth and more than one
star.’’
‘‘Whatever contains is itself contained,’’ said Reb Mawas.
The story I told you, as well as the commentaries it inspired, will be recorded
in the book of the eye. The ladder urges us beyond ourselves. Hence its impor-
tance. But in a void, where do we place it?
(‘‘God is sculpted.’’
—Reb Moyal)
—rosmarie waldrop