Random thought from summer reading
Jul. 10th, 2011 01:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cremainsI'm reading Ursula LeGuin's translation of the Tao Te Ching, and this section (which she has entitled "Skill") seemed to me like it could have been a beautiful description of Jewish law. It goes like this:
------
Good walkers leave no track.
Good talkers don't stammer.
Good counters don't use their fingers.
The best door's unlocked and unopened.
The best knot's not in a rope and can't be untied.
So wise souls are good at caring for people,
never turning their back on anyone.
They're good at looking after things,
never turning their back on anything.
There's a light hidden here.
Good people teach people who aren't good yet;
the less good are the makings of the good.
Anyone who doesn't respect a teacher
or cherish a student
may be clever, but has gone astray.
There's a deep mystery here.
------
It's the first stanza that I like best as this description (I considered not even quoting the last two, but there are some appropriate things there, too - although the part about the light and the mystery hits the reader a bit hard over the head). The people in the first few lines sound like talmidei hachamim (sages) to me, embodying what they know. I also love the door, unopened and unlocked, as a description of prohibitions in halakhah.
------
Good walkers leave no track.
Good talkers don't stammer.
Good counters don't use their fingers.
The best door's unlocked and unopened.
The best knot's not in a rope and can't be untied.
So wise souls are good at caring for people,
never turning their back on anyone.
They're good at looking after things,
never turning their back on anything.
There's a light hidden here.
Good people teach people who aren't good yet;
the less good are the makings of the good.
Anyone who doesn't respect a teacher
or cherish a student
may be clever, but has gone astray.
There's a deep mystery here.
------
It's the first stanza that I like best as this description (I considered not even quoting the last two, but there are some appropriate things there, too - although the part about the light and the mystery hits the reader a bit hard over the head). The people in the first few lines sound like talmidei hachamim (sages) to me, embodying what they know. I also love the door, unopened and unlocked, as a description of prohibitions in halakhah.
