Adeena Karasick and Maria Damon
Fabricadabra
Writing through a textatic axis of tattered scraps, scavenging matter
of raided traits, tirades, tatters
tides of matted weeds and wode, gritty powdered dyestuffs and twisted grids of ripped linen,
warped scarves, scary laced-up letters traced across a wavy, unstable page
a surfeit of surface, an abyss of depth
stitched through rewoven threads, semes, samples
all pick-pocket-y and pen-
pecked; repacking like a stacked hacker
of bracketed fractures, stacked rations
or ratcheted passions, philological axioms, the shmata
teaseled within an inch of itself, tufty fluffs of staple
stimulated to a fine-knapped patina of tendrils, staticky
electrified, each filament shivering in a textilic X-
stream, primpy poufs of tensile threadlets
spun, on the dreidliche spindle in
roundelay, laidwork in split-stitch
stabbing needled lines of glass splinters to prick
your writing hand, making and unmaking
its itchy unfinishability.[i]
Thus, intersubjectively, we, agonistic, mangle our words,
wrangling syllables as we mesh our flaxen texts.
& through an infinite folding,
all voluminous, luminous, ominous and moist with clenched disclosures
files, furls, flows into, out from itself
sifting through ripped crypts, unscripted riffs
a rag cloth waving itself into readability
And after the teasing comes the carding: "to comb wool," late 14c., card… Vulgar Latin *caritare, from Latin carrere "to clean or comb with a card," PIE root *kars- "to scrape" (see harsh). The English word probably … via Anglo-Latin cardo, Medieval Latin carda "a teasel," Latin carduus. Latin charta "leaf of paper, a writing, tablet," Greek khartes "layer of papyrus," probably from Egyptian. Influenced by Italian cognate carta "paper, leaf of paper."
And after the carding comes the drafting, spinning, plying, dyeing blocking, skein winding, warp winding, tying on, threading the heddles, threading the reed, weaving,
Threading the reed, weaving also laced through in the Rolling Stones guitar musicianship,
which they call the “fine art of weaving.” As Keith Richards and Ron Wood roll around the necks,
frets, licks of their guitars, like two threads circling, entwining
cutting, tying off, embellishment, wearing, flaunting, showing off, prancing, preening, flouncing, swirling, pluming, girling and gawking!
And then the wearing, the wearing out, threadbare and worldworn,
tear-torn, rent-in-grief, discarded, shredded and pulped.
After the pulping comes the pressing, the drying, the writing, inscribing, fluting, scoring,
glyphing, embellishment, ornamentation, mellifluence, calligraphy and rapture!
And all pulped up, plumpily primped
pressed, the paper itself
a shmata –
carta bombycina, rag paper
plumed with fine cotton linters,
fibers, flax, silk
rewoven and webbed with all that’s
inscribed, courted, colored
gloriously worn
in endless spirals of resplendence.
Paper and poplin, page and sheet. We inscribe the leaves that cover us.
The inside-outside, thinnest membrane of consciousness,
gauze of language, protection, pretension, we peer through,
pierce, or merge across–
encloaked in the materials of our metaphors.
Disentangled, as our synapses align,
only to be re-entangled in conspiratorial riffages,
roughed up and rewoven scintillations of chintz, the rag
polyphonously rigorous, vigorous, wrangling its regalia, from
Raga (n.)
1788, from Skt. raga-s "harmony, melody, mode in music," lit. "color, MOOD," related to rajyati "it is dyed,"
dyed (dayenu!) into that bright-hewn melody, text meddling with text
in metastatic expansion, textile morphosed into legible text, the negligée
becomes legend, dying for desire into meaning
and rages through all that reveals, conceals
through rhapsodic lineages, edges, adagés, attachées
secreting s’écrites, accreting
through silken circuits, secrets
through all that looms
rag (n.)
O.N. rogg "shaggy tuft,"
O.Dan. rag (see rug),
back-formation from ragged (c.1300),
O.E. raggig "rag-like."
Slang for "tampon, sanitary napkin" attested from the 1930s.
Testing Rags –
as per the Orthodox Laws of female cleanliness (Niddot), it is an offense to have marital relations when she is bleeding. And because a woman cannot know exactly when she has started bleeding, she inserts rags into her ervah[ii] before intercourse to test for menstrual fluids.[iii]
blood, semen, sweat, silken thrust sleek cirques lurking
And if a vestige of blood is found she is unclean, dye-stained from the inside out.
She is scolded, ragged upon
rag (v.) "scold," 1739, of unknown origin; Dan. dialectal rag "grudge." Enraged and raging against. rage (n.) c.1300, from M.L. rabia, from L. rabies "madness, rage, fury," related to rabere "Be mad! Rave!"
Thus, the shmata-rag revels, rebels through all that is florid lurid furious
in a flurry. Courageous and ragged, rough and shaggy
savage and raging, slashed
spun, tattered roguing
in ragtime
syncopated, jazzy piano music," circa 1897
from rag "dance ball” (1895, Amer. Eng. dialect),
possibly a shortening of ragged, in reference to
the rhythmic imbalance.
And through the twinned mix
of jazz-inflected, ragged rhythms,
both the rag and the ragtime
have been historically, socio-politically, aesthetically and materially
marginalized.
And in the flex of injected lex, sketched vectors, vexed specters
systems of infections, inflections, connexion, synnexion, confection
of wracked fictions, slick dictions, predilections
refabricated with fierce ardor
martyred in the tsuris of surfaces, surfeits’
weft rising and falling, in
submission to power and invisibility,
the weave interlacing luxe of unimaginable eros
as selvedges meld collaborative links into inky silks, slinky
liquefactions written into a brocade of braided thickness,
this hefty text
all sheared, shorn, rags, scraps, fragments
of cross-stitched traceries liaiseries,
fringed tapestries fraught with (il)legalities
myths’ secrets, stains, emissions
flagging its swag of scraggly frags
or raggedy aggedot [iv] –
‘cause in Hebrew aggadah is "telling"
from the Aramaic naged (from which may arise)
And as you bind yourself to me naked;
contractually telling and retaling detailing
teachings traditions traduits
expanding connections, synnexion, synechdocally annexing
expanding and contracting like the tzimtzum,[v]
re-spinning
twinned S-spin and Z-spin,
the vagrant spindle flagrant in the fingers of the knowing spinner
spawning a twice-spun yarn, a textured fabrication
of slubs, lumps, spun nubs, puns.
In Hebrew, the acronym SPuN
comprised of the three letters: Nun Pei Sin
references Nefesh, spinning soul, the body
the garment, integument over-written
spread in the ripped whispers of longing
re-threaded through
cycles, tracings, points
all rapturous, scrapturous
scrap (1) n.
Old Norse, "scraps, trifles,"
from skrapa "to
scrape, erase:"
from PIE *skerb-, extension of *(s)ker- "to cut"
scrap (2) "to fight," 1846, a variant of scrape, "an abrasive encounter."
Obsolete colloquial scrap "scheme, villainy, vile intention" (1670s).
escrap from a Germanic source akin to O.H.G. scrot "scrap, shred"
like the scrappy threads of tzitzit[vi] –
the 32 knotted ritual fringes, tassels worn since antiquity on prayer shawls or undergarments /
pierced through the four corners
four threads doubled back on themselves to make eight threads two strands of four ends double-knotted; one wound around the other seven ends, double-knotted; three times to make five double-knots. Between the first two double-knots wrapped seven times then eight, eleven, thirteen held by a final double-knot from which hang the eight thread-ends.
knot knot
who’s there
Ret/Rot. Knit/Knot
"a knot cannot make another knot but any thread can"[vii] {{{ naughty! }}}
Etymologically, tzitzit is connected to nitzutz, spark.
Kabbalistically read, each string, a spark of light
that bursts forth from the 4 corners of the garment referencing
the 4th letter in the Hebrew Alphabet, Dalet ד
a door, of embroidered possibility
4[viii] levels, worlds of existence (Emanation, Creation, Formation, Action)
4 letters of the unpronounceable name יהוה
4 major sefirot (Wisdom, Understanding, Kindness and Speech)
4 levels of PaRDeS, the 4 interpretive strategies from which all meaning is generated
And as 4’s foam, flow into a fluid forum, a forêt of forces, these fourfold forays
Through re-strung connections, knots, epochs
braided inlays of sutured futures of frayed histories, mysteries apertures
may the 4’s be with you
Tzitzit is also derived from N-TZ-H (Netzach), which references the 4th of the emotive attributes of Creation, signifying eternity, power and victory. Further, it derives from the root word for "flower" and originally meant a “tassel” or "lock," as in the Book of Ezekiel where Ezekiel is picked up by an angel and carried by a "lock" (tzitzit) of hair.
Evocative etymologies: knit silk, braided chains –
613 twists of the thread
613 bones, tendons, sinews
613 mitzvot
wrapping and wrapping
entrapt enrapt, gnarled rapture, radiant
thread over threads
and punctuated by knots
twining turning melting burning
diurnal nocturnal
returnal
the knot
as rosebud
as nipple
as lipp’d luxury
as fist
as conundrum
internal and external
loop de loop spooled in pilled pulls, pilpul pulleys
one long thread – the shamash –
Shamash, Akkadian Sun God, god of justice in Babylonia and Assyria, corresponding to Sumerian Utu. God of morality, truth, driver away of storms and bringer of the sun, brightener of the earth, passing around and around our life-threads…
Also the Master Candle lit first and used to light others.
Also, the caretaker of the synagogue.
Also, the personal assistant, the aide…
The sun is our life-thread, our caretaker, our masterlight, our longest strand, our protector, wrapping us in its daily orbit.
(((or rapping:
S to the H to the MA T A
métier)))
Shmata, Shamash!
We are alight in your mashed curves, arcs whose end yearns for itself
in a knotty complex of trawling hollers
a scrolling corollary
or choral scroll
rock and roll
[scrap and scroll]
scroll (n.) akin to scrap
c.1400, "roll of parchment or paper," from scrowe (early 13c.),
from Anglo-Fr. escrowe, O.Fr. "scrap, roll of parchment,"
from Frankish *skroda "shred," O.H.G. scrot "piece cut off," scrotum) Ger. Schrot "log, block, small shot"), from P.Gmc. *skrautha "something cut"
or scrolled like the Torah; not bound, glued, stapled, or sewn
but stitched and re-stitched infinitely reversible, traversable
opening itself inward, invaginated
folding in on, written on skin
Vellum. Papyrus. Palm leaves.
a Torah scroll (Sifrei Torah) may only be written on parchment
from the skin of a kosher animal
and it may be written on the full, un-split animal hide
and it may be written on the inner layer, adjacent to the flesh
and it may be written on the outer layer on which the hair grows[ix]
So, between hide nor hair
within a hair’s brea[d]th, splittin’ hairs and hair raising
in Hebrew the letters that make up the word for hair, Se’ar,
also spell the word sha’ar (gate) and shi’ur (measurement).
Thus, every separate strand of hair represents a measurement, a precise boundary, a gate. a door (our embroidered possibility) with its “lock” (tzitzit)
The shmata, a meshwork of woven hairs, measures,
reminds us how all is fleshily meshed,
like Ariadne’s thread through mazes, puzzles, dilemmas
side-swept. beachy french. fishtail. topknot. curly twist. side pony. braided crown. loop swoop. day bun. curly bang up-sweep. pompadour. polished pony. rosette. night-twist. tuck and roll. chignon.
and lets down its hair
in highlighted waves, ringlets
curls into itself
cutting off and into these circumcised words
that reweave the we in curtailed spurts
folding into and across, through
swooning wounds and counterscars,
a prepuce precipice pulsates through rings of flesh
marking covenant, between all that is overt and covert, coveting
all ravenous and cavernous
in a parasidical polysemia, a multiplexity of disseminative cutting.
As the word cuts cloth cuts skin cuts off cuts into
rites of passage personal, national, cultural and communal
the shmata sacrifices itself
through myriad mirrors memes mères mires memories murmuring
unmarred by moorings, emerging into page upon page, wave upon wave
generations of unmade whisperings, meltings
our mother(s) the sea, merci! endless lyric of lapping skirts along the strand, drawing and withdrawing her protection, her laplap ample and appealing, spinning linen in her widening line-strung lyre.
For it is said, you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen… you shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold on four sockets of silver and hang a veil and the ark of the testimony will rest there within the veil. [x] And between the veiling and unveiling, réveille’d volés values, velveteen, valour
draped in script
address her
through an embroidered curtain
girded with a strip of silk
clasped in filigree
and robed in fine fabric
through veiled weft, woven breath,
weaving the word of the word
all slippery and lexuriant --
as la loi lulls through layers linings, mapping.
Because whenever the scroll is opened to be read, it is laid on a piece of cloth called the mappah[xi].
Reminding us how the mappah is not the territory, the chart, the khartes
but an errstory, erostory
carried through the synagogue, as one kisses the text, the parchment, fingers, lips, book touching the edge of their tallit to the Sefer Torah
binding the cloth to the word out of which the world is woven
into
the silky damp of the labyrinth where there is no thread[xii]
but reread
through weedy tweeds, undulating twills,
ripped silks dragged through the swill, damaged damask, Assam mulberry, bombyx mori, dived-for byssum and davening seasilk, diamonds, honeysuckle and the dyes –cochineal, wode, saffron, indigo, murex (a purple to dye for), more precious than rubies or mothers’ blood. Ragged patterns diseased systems’ hallucinating network
all mapped out
our world the text
For if mappah also refers to the body of Ashkenazic-oriented commentaries on the Shulhan Arukh[xiii] (the Code of Jewish Law)
the cloth is the code,
the text and the textile, intersubjectively mapped in the
unmappability
of its very name.
NOTES
[i]. The dried flower of the teasel (dipsacus) is used to scratch up the surface of woven material to create a soft knap. “Dipsacus is a genus of flowering plant in the family Dipsacaceae. The members of this genus are known as teasel, teasel, or teazle. The genus includes about 15 species of tall herbaceous biennial plants … growing to … 3.3–8.2 ft tall.
“The genus name is derived from the word for thirst and refers to the cup-like formation made where sessile leaves merge at the stem. Rain water can collect in this receptacle … A recent experiment has shown that adding dead insects to these cups increases the seedset of teasels …, implying partial carnivory. The leaf shape is lanceolate…with a row of small spines on the underside of the midrib.
“Teasels are easily identified with their prickly stem and leaves, and the inflorescence of purple, dark pink or lavender flowers that form a head on the end of the stem(s). …The first flowers begin opening in a belt around the middle of the spherical or oval flowerhead, and then open sequentially toward the top and bottom, forming two narrow belts as the flowering progresses. The dried head persists afterwards…”
[ii]. Roughly translated (from the Aramaic) as a woman’s vulva, vajayjay, vagine. As stated in the Talmud, in Sota (48a), in Masechet Berachot (24a) and Masechet Kiddushin (70a), “kol b’isha ervah,”: basically, the voice of a woman is a pudenda. And is the basis for the prohibition against hearing a woman sing, and falls under the umbrella of laws relating to tzniuit (modesty). Sanctioned by Maimonides (Hilchot Issurei Biah 21:2) as issurei beiah, a binding halakhic principle, and entrenched in the Shulchan Aruch, the 16th C. primary source of Sephardic Law, the isur (prohibition) is not tied to the singing itself but the potential byproduct of sexual arousal – the prohibited, erotically illicit thoughts of her genitalia, that a woman’s voice my spur.
[iii]. “It is the custom of the daughters of Israel when having marital intercourse to use two testing-rags, one for the man and the other for herself, and virtuous women prepare also a third rag whereby to make themselves fit for marital duty. If a vestige of blood is found on his rag they are both unclean and are also under the obligation of bringing a sacrifice. If any blood is found on her rag immediately after their intercourse they are both unclean and are also under the obligation of bringing a sacrifice”, Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Niddah 14a. Soncino 1961 Edition, page 92.
[iv]. Etymologically, the cognate Hebrew: הַגָּדָה, means "telling", while the Aramaic root אגד (as well as נגד from which אגדה may arise) has the dual implication of “expanding” / “drawing out” and “binding” / “drawing in.” Correspondingly, the Aggadah may be seen as those teachings which communicate Rabbinic traditions to the reader, simultaneously expanding their understanding of the text, while strengthening their religious experience and spiritual connection. The root also has the meaning "flow," and here relates to the transmission of ideas.
[v]. According to the major Kabbalistic texts (Etz Chaim, The Bahir and the Zohar), the most
crucial doctrine in Lurianic Kabbalah (13th C. Jewish mysticism) is called tzimtzum (the secret doctrine of how the world was formed through contraction, condensation, framing). As described by Hayyim Vital in Es Hayyim 42:I 896-c, “The world consisted of primal chaos (Tohu) hylic matter; an amorphous mass” and there [was] nothing outside of it. Basically, tzimtzum (which was alluded to in the 13th century texts and fleshed out more comprehensively in the 16th and 17th centuries) refers to the process of making a limit from the limitless infinite. Or as Vital expresses it in Derush’al ‘Olam ha-Atzilut, “when the Supernal emanator wanted to create this world, which is physical, he constricted his presence…for previously Ein-Sof filled everything” (Liqqutim Hadashim, ed. D. Toutitou, Jerusalem 1985, p.17). Particularly, it’s a theory of emanationism: the condensation of light (or information) through a progressive chain of successive emanations [disseminations]. (Tanya, p.834), a superfluity of systems, frames, constructs, diffusions enabling the world to be revealed.
[vi]. The tassels on each corner are made of four strands which are then threaded and hang down, appearing to be eight. The four strands are passed through a hole (or according to some: two holes) 1-2 inches (25 to 50 mm) away from the corner of the cloth. The Talmud explains that the Torah requires an upper knot, (kesher elyon) and one wrapping of three winds (hulya). 7 and 13 hulyot must be tied, and that "one must start and end with the color of the garment.” According to the Shulchan Arukh (The 16th C. Code of Jewish Law), the four strands of the tzitzit are passed through holes near the four corners of the garment (11:9-11:15) that are farthest apart (10:1). Four tzitzyot are passed through each hole (11:12-13), and the two groups of four ends are double-knotted to each other at the edge of the garment near the hole (11:14,15). One of the four tzitzit is made longer than the others (11:4); the long end of that one is wound around the other seven ends and double-knotted; this is done repeatedly so as to make a total of five double knots separated by four sections of winding, with a total length of at least four inches, leaving free-hanging ends that are twice that long (11:14). Before tying begins, declaration of intent is recited: L'Shem Mitzvat Tzitzit ("for the sake of the commandment of tzitzit").
The two sets of strands are knotted together twice, and then the shamash (a longer strand) is wound around the remaining seven strands. The two sets are then knotted again twice. This procedure is repeated three times, so that there are a total of five knots, the four intervening spaces being taken up by windings numbering 7-8-11-13, respectively. The total number of winds comes to 39, which is the same number of winds if one were to tie according to the Talmud's instruction of 13 hulyot of 3 winds each. The number 39 is significant in that it is the numerical equivalent of the words: "The Lord is One" (Deuteronomy 6:4).
Sephardic Jews use 10-5-6-5 as the number of windings, a combination that directly represents the spelling of YHVH, G-d’s unpronounceable name. According to Rashi, the word tzitzit (in its Mishnaic spelling) has the value 600. Each tassel has eight threads (when doubled over) and five sets of knots, totaling 13. The sum of all numbers is 613, traditionally the number of commandments in the Torah. This reflects the concept that a garment with tzitzyot reminds its wearer of all Torah commandments.
Nachmanides (11th C Biblical commentator), however points out that the Biblical spelling of the word tzitzit has only one yod rather than two (giving it a gematria of 590 plus 13), thus adding up to the total number of 603 rather than 613. He points out that in the Biblical quote "you shall see it and remember them", the singular form "it" can refer only to the "p'til" ("thread") of tekhelet. The tekhelet strand serves this purpose, explains the Talmud, for the blue color of tekhelet resembles the ocean, which in turn resembles the sky, which in turn is said to resemble God's holy throne – thus reminding all of the divine mission to fulfill His commandments. Nachmanides’ knots are worn by the majority of Sephardic (Western European) Jews and Teimani (Yemenite) Jews)
[vii]. Edmond Jabès, “The Book of Subversion" From the Book to the Book: Trans. Rosemarie Waldrop, Wesleyan, NH, 1991.
[viii]. According to Kabbalistic hermeneutics, the 4 letters of the unpronouncale name: Yud, Hei, Vav, Hei), the 4 worlds of existence: Emanation, Creation, Formation and Action; the 4 major Sefirot: Wisdom, Understanding, Kindness and Speech; the 4 levels of interpretation: Secret, Metaphorical, Allegorical and Literal; the 4 Causes (Material, Efficient, Final and Formal) highlighted in McLuhan’s 4 Laws of Media: Enhancement, Retrieval, Reversal and Obsolescence; the 4 epochs: oral tribe culture, manuscript culture, the Gutenberg galaxy and the electronic age.
[ix]. But if it is written on the outer layer on which the hair grows it is not kosher. There are three types of specially processed animal skin or parchment[ix] (gevil, klaf, duchsustos) which are also used in the production of a mezuzah, megillah and tefillin. As it is written, a kosher Sefer Torah should be written on gevil. If klaf is used in place of gevil, the Sefer Torah is still kosher, but this should not be done. A Sefer Torah written on duchsustos is not kosher.
[x]. According to Exodus (26:31-34), “You shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen; it shall be made with cherubim. You shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, their hooks also being of gold, on four sockets of silver. You shall hang up the veil under the clasps, and shall bring in the ark of the testimony there within the veil; and the veil shall serve for you as a partition between the holy place and the holy of holies. You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the holy of holies”.
[xi]. An example of a Mappah, Torah cover (reproduced below), Rome, Italy, 1729.
Silk velvet, brocade, gilded silver thread embroidery, silk thread mounted embroidery, gilded woven band. The rectangular Torah cover consists of three sections. The central section is made of purple velvet cloth, adorned with a woven lace gilded band, creating a large embroidered frame in the center. Within the frame is portrayed the Giving of the Torah: two hands are represented as holding the tablets of the Ten Commandments on the top of the mountain burning in flames. The commandments are surrounded by white clouds and six trumpets –from three of them emerge blowing winds. Above the scene there is an embroidered golden crown. A mounted embroidery inscription in letters of silver gilded thread is on both sides of the central scene. On each side of the embroidery is a purple brocade fabric, with vegetal motifs made of gilded thread. The cover is surrounded by a gilded woven band, similar to the frame of the central piece.
[xii]. Hélène Cixous, The Book of Promethea
[xiii]. The authoritative code of Jewish law and custom compiled by the Talmudic scholar Joseph Caro (1488-1575), the original edition, published in Vienna in 1565 emphasizing the practices of Sephardic Jews, written by the Polish Talmudic scholar Moses Isserles (c.1520–72).
of raided traits, tirades, tatters
tides of matted weeds and wode, gritty powdered dyestuffs and twisted grids of ripped linen,
warped scarves, scary laced-up letters traced across a wavy, unstable page
a surfeit of surface, an abyss of depth
stitched through rewoven threads, semes, samples
all pick-pocket-y and pen-
pecked; repacking like a stacked hacker
of bracketed fractures, stacked rations
or ratcheted passions, philological axioms, the shmata
teaseled within an inch of itself, tufty fluffs of staple
stimulated to a fine-knapped patina of tendrils, staticky
electrified, each filament shivering in a textilic X-
stream, primpy poufs of tensile threadlets
spun, on the dreidliche spindle in
roundelay, laidwork in split-stitch
stabbing needled lines of glass splinters to prick
your writing hand, making and unmaking
its itchy unfinishability.[i]
Thus, intersubjectively, we, agonistic, mangle our words,
wrangling syllables as we mesh our flaxen texts.
& through an infinite folding,
all voluminous, luminous, ominous and moist with clenched disclosures
files, furls, flows into, out from itself
sifting through ripped crypts, unscripted riffs
a rag cloth waving itself into readability
And after the teasing comes the carding: "to comb wool," late 14c., card… Vulgar Latin *caritare, from Latin carrere "to clean or comb with a card," PIE root *kars- "to scrape" (see harsh). The English word probably … via Anglo-Latin cardo, Medieval Latin carda "a teasel," Latin carduus. Latin charta "leaf of paper, a writing, tablet," Greek khartes "layer of papyrus," probably from Egyptian. Influenced by Italian cognate carta "paper, leaf of paper."
And after the carding comes the drafting, spinning, plying, dyeing blocking, skein winding, warp winding, tying on, threading the heddles, threading the reed, weaving,
Threading the reed, weaving also laced through in the Rolling Stones guitar musicianship,
which they call the “fine art of weaving.” As Keith Richards and Ron Wood roll around the necks,
frets, licks of their guitars, like two threads circling, entwining
cutting, tying off, embellishment, wearing, flaunting, showing off, prancing, preening, flouncing, swirling, pluming, girling and gawking!
And then the wearing, the wearing out, threadbare and worldworn,
tear-torn, rent-in-grief, discarded, shredded and pulped.
After the pulping comes the pressing, the drying, the writing, inscribing, fluting, scoring,
glyphing, embellishment, ornamentation, mellifluence, calligraphy and rapture!
And all pulped up, plumpily primped
pressed, the paper itself
a shmata –
carta bombycina, rag paper
plumed with fine cotton linters,
fibers, flax, silk
rewoven and webbed with all that’s
inscribed, courted, colored
gloriously worn
in endless spirals of resplendence.
Paper and poplin, page and sheet. We inscribe the leaves that cover us.
The inside-outside, thinnest membrane of consciousness,
gauze of language, protection, pretension, we peer through,
pierce, or merge across–
encloaked in the materials of our metaphors.
Disentangled, as our synapses align,
only to be re-entangled in conspiratorial riffages,
roughed up and rewoven scintillations of chintz, the rag
polyphonously rigorous, vigorous, wrangling its regalia, from
Raga (n.)
1788, from Skt. raga-s "harmony, melody, mode in music," lit. "color, MOOD," related to rajyati "it is dyed,"
dyed (dayenu!) into that bright-hewn melody, text meddling with text
in metastatic expansion, textile morphosed into legible text, the negligée
becomes legend, dying for desire into meaning
and rages through all that reveals, conceals
through rhapsodic lineages, edges, adagés, attachées
secreting s’écrites, accreting
through silken circuits, secrets
through all that looms
rag (n.)
O.N. rogg "shaggy tuft,"
O.Dan. rag (see rug),
back-formation from ragged (c.1300),
O.E. raggig "rag-like."
Slang for "tampon, sanitary napkin" attested from the 1930s.
Testing Rags –
as per the Orthodox Laws of female cleanliness (Niddot), it is an offense to have marital relations when she is bleeding. And because a woman cannot know exactly when she has started bleeding, she inserts rags into her ervah[ii] before intercourse to test for menstrual fluids.[iii]
blood, semen, sweat, silken thrust sleek cirques lurking
And if a vestige of blood is found she is unclean, dye-stained from the inside out.
She is scolded, ragged upon
rag (v.) "scold," 1739, of unknown origin; Dan. dialectal rag "grudge." Enraged and raging against. rage (n.) c.1300, from M.L. rabia, from L. rabies "madness, rage, fury," related to rabere "Be mad! Rave!"
Thus, the shmata-rag revels, rebels through all that is florid lurid furious
in a flurry. Courageous and ragged, rough and shaggy
savage and raging, slashed
spun, tattered roguing
in ragtime
syncopated, jazzy piano music," circa 1897
from rag "dance ball” (1895, Amer. Eng. dialect),
possibly a shortening of ragged, in reference to
the rhythmic imbalance.
And through the twinned mix
of jazz-inflected, ragged rhythms,
both the rag and the ragtime
have been historically, socio-politically, aesthetically and materially
marginalized.
And in the flex of injected lex, sketched vectors, vexed specters
systems of infections, inflections, connexion, synnexion, confection
of wracked fictions, slick dictions, predilections
refabricated with fierce ardor
martyred in the tsuris of surfaces, surfeits’
weft rising and falling, in
submission to power and invisibility,
the weave interlacing luxe of unimaginable eros
as selvedges meld collaborative links into inky silks, slinky
liquefactions written into a brocade of braided thickness,
this hefty text
all sheared, shorn, rags, scraps, fragments
of cross-stitched traceries liaiseries,
fringed tapestries fraught with (il)legalities
myths’ secrets, stains, emissions
flagging its swag of scraggly frags
or raggedy aggedot [iv] –
‘cause in Hebrew aggadah is "telling"
from the Aramaic naged (from which may arise)
And as you bind yourself to me naked;
contractually telling and retaling detailing
teachings traditions traduits
expanding connections, synnexion, synechdocally annexing
expanding and contracting like the tzimtzum,[v]
re-spinning
twinned S-spin and Z-spin,
the vagrant spindle flagrant in the fingers of the knowing spinner
spawning a twice-spun yarn, a textured fabrication
of slubs, lumps, spun nubs, puns.
In Hebrew, the acronym SPuN
comprised of the three letters: Nun Pei Sin
references Nefesh, spinning soul, the body
the garment, integument over-written
spread in the ripped whispers of longing
re-threaded through
cycles, tracings, points
all rapturous, scrapturous
scrap (1) n.
Old Norse, "scraps, trifles,"
from skrapa "to
scrape, erase:"
from PIE *skerb-, extension of *(s)ker- "to cut"
scrap (2) "to fight," 1846, a variant of scrape, "an abrasive encounter."
Obsolete colloquial scrap "scheme, villainy, vile intention" (1670s).
escrap from a Germanic source akin to O.H.G. scrot "scrap, shred"
like the scrappy threads of tzitzit[vi] –
the 32 knotted ritual fringes, tassels worn since antiquity on prayer shawls or undergarments /
pierced through the four corners
four threads doubled back on themselves to make eight threads two strands of four ends double-knotted; one wound around the other seven ends, double-knotted; three times to make five double-knots. Between the first two double-knots wrapped seven times then eight, eleven, thirteen held by a final double-knot from which hang the eight thread-ends.
knot knot
who’s there
Ret/Rot. Knit/Knot
"a knot cannot make another knot but any thread can"[vii] {{{ naughty! }}}
Etymologically, tzitzit is connected to nitzutz, spark.
Kabbalistically read, each string, a spark of light
that bursts forth from the 4 corners of the garment referencing
the 4th letter in the Hebrew Alphabet, Dalet ד
a door, of embroidered possibility
4[viii] levels, worlds of existence (Emanation, Creation, Formation, Action)
4 letters of the unpronounceable name יהוה
4 major sefirot (Wisdom, Understanding, Kindness and Speech)
4 levels of PaRDeS, the 4 interpretive strategies from which all meaning is generated
And as 4’s foam, flow into a fluid forum, a forêt of forces, these fourfold forays
Through re-strung connections, knots, epochs
braided inlays of sutured futures of frayed histories, mysteries apertures
may the 4’s be with you
Tzitzit is also derived from N-TZ-H (Netzach), which references the 4th of the emotive attributes of Creation, signifying eternity, power and victory. Further, it derives from the root word for "flower" and originally meant a “tassel” or "lock," as in the Book of Ezekiel where Ezekiel is picked up by an angel and carried by a "lock" (tzitzit) of hair.
Evocative etymologies: knit silk, braided chains –
613 twists of the thread
613 bones, tendons, sinews
613 mitzvot
wrapping and wrapping
entrapt enrapt, gnarled rapture, radiant
thread over threads
and punctuated by knots
twining turning melting burning
diurnal nocturnal
returnal
the knot
as rosebud
as nipple
as lipp’d luxury
as fist
as conundrum
internal and external
loop de loop spooled in pilled pulls, pilpul pulleys
one long thread – the shamash –
Shamash, Akkadian Sun God, god of justice in Babylonia and Assyria, corresponding to Sumerian Utu. God of morality, truth, driver away of storms and bringer of the sun, brightener of the earth, passing around and around our life-threads…
Also the Master Candle lit first and used to light others.
Also, the caretaker of the synagogue.
Also, the personal assistant, the aide…
The sun is our life-thread, our caretaker, our masterlight, our longest strand, our protector, wrapping us in its daily orbit.
(((or rapping:
S to the H to the MA T A
métier)))
Shmata, Shamash!
We are alight in your mashed curves, arcs whose end yearns for itself
in a knotty complex of trawling hollers
a scrolling corollary
or choral scroll
rock and roll
[scrap and scroll]
scroll (n.) akin to scrap
c.1400, "roll of parchment or paper," from scrowe (early 13c.),
from Anglo-Fr. escrowe, O.Fr. "scrap, roll of parchment,"
from Frankish *skroda "shred," O.H.G. scrot "piece cut off," scrotum) Ger. Schrot "log, block, small shot"), from P.Gmc. *skrautha "something cut"
or scrolled like the Torah; not bound, glued, stapled, or sewn
but stitched and re-stitched infinitely reversible, traversable
opening itself inward, invaginated
folding in on, written on skin
Vellum. Papyrus. Palm leaves.
a Torah scroll (Sifrei Torah) may only be written on parchment
from the skin of a kosher animal
and it may be written on the full, un-split animal hide
and it may be written on the inner layer, adjacent to the flesh
and it may be written on the outer layer on which the hair grows[ix]
So, between hide nor hair
within a hair’s brea[d]th, splittin’ hairs and hair raising
in Hebrew the letters that make up the word for hair, Se’ar,
also spell the word sha’ar (gate) and shi’ur (measurement).
Thus, every separate strand of hair represents a measurement, a precise boundary, a gate. a door (our embroidered possibility) with its “lock” (tzitzit)
The shmata, a meshwork of woven hairs, measures,
reminds us how all is fleshily meshed,
like Ariadne’s thread through mazes, puzzles, dilemmas
side-swept. beachy french. fishtail. topknot. curly twist. side pony. braided crown. loop swoop. day bun. curly bang up-sweep. pompadour. polished pony. rosette. night-twist. tuck and roll. chignon.
and lets down its hair
in highlighted waves, ringlets
curls into itself
cutting off and into these circumcised words
that reweave the we in curtailed spurts
folding into and across, through
swooning wounds and counterscars,
a prepuce precipice pulsates through rings of flesh
marking covenant, between all that is overt and covert, coveting
all ravenous and cavernous
in a parasidical polysemia, a multiplexity of disseminative cutting.
As the word cuts cloth cuts skin cuts off cuts into
rites of passage personal, national, cultural and communal
the shmata sacrifices itself
through myriad mirrors memes mères mires memories murmuring
unmarred by moorings, emerging into page upon page, wave upon wave
generations of unmade whisperings, meltings
our mother(s) the sea, merci! endless lyric of lapping skirts along the strand, drawing and withdrawing her protection, her laplap ample and appealing, spinning linen in her widening line-strung lyre.
For it is said, you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen… you shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold on four sockets of silver and hang a veil and the ark of the testimony will rest there within the veil. [x] And between the veiling and unveiling, réveille’d volés values, velveteen, valour
draped in script
address her
through an embroidered curtain
girded with a strip of silk
clasped in filigree
and robed in fine fabric
through veiled weft, woven breath,
weaving the word of the word
all slippery and lexuriant --
as la loi lulls through layers linings, mapping.
Because whenever the scroll is opened to be read, it is laid on a piece of cloth called the mappah[xi].
Reminding us how the mappah is not the territory, the chart, the khartes
but an errstory, erostory
carried through the synagogue, as one kisses the text, the parchment, fingers, lips, book touching the edge of their tallit to the Sefer Torah
binding the cloth to the word out of which the world is woven
into
the silky damp of the labyrinth where there is no thread[xii]
but reread
through weedy tweeds, undulating twills,
ripped silks dragged through the swill, damaged damask, Assam mulberry, bombyx mori, dived-for byssum and davening seasilk, diamonds, honeysuckle and the dyes –cochineal, wode, saffron, indigo, murex (a purple to dye for), more precious than rubies or mothers’ blood. Ragged patterns diseased systems’ hallucinating network
all mapped out
our world the text
For if mappah also refers to the body of Ashkenazic-oriented commentaries on the Shulhan Arukh[xiii] (the Code of Jewish Law)
the cloth is the code,
the text and the textile, intersubjectively mapped in the
unmappability
of its very name.
NOTES
[i]. The dried flower of the teasel (dipsacus) is used to scratch up the surface of woven material to create a soft knap. “Dipsacus is a genus of flowering plant in the family Dipsacaceae. The members of this genus are known as teasel, teasel, or teazle. The genus includes about 15 species of tall herbaceous biennial plants … growing to … 3.3–8.2 ft tall.
“The genus name is derived from the word for thirst and refers to the cup-like formation made where sessile leaves merge at the stem. Rain water can collect in this receptacle … A recent experiment has shown that adding dead insects to these cups increases the seedset of teasels …, implying partial carnivory. The leaf shape is lanceolate…with a row of small spines on the underside of the midrib.
“Teasels are easily identified with their prickly stem and leaves, and the inflorescence of purple, dark pink or lavender flowers that form a head on the end of the stem(s). …The first flowers begin opening in a belt around the middle of the spherical or oval flowerhead, and then open sequentially toward the top and bottom, forming two narrow belts as the flowering progresses. The dried head persists afterwards…”
[ii]. Roughly translated (from the Aramaic) as a woman’s vulva, vajayjay, vagine. As stated in the Talmud, in Sota (48a), in Masechet Berachot (24a) and Masechet Kiddushin (70a), “kol b’isha ervah,”: basically, the voice of a woman is a pudenda. And is the basis for the prohibition against hearing a woman sing, and falls under the umbrella of laws relating to tzniuit (modesty). Sanctioned by Maimonides (Hilchot Issurei Biah 21:2) as issurei beiah, a binding halakhic principle, and entrenched in the Shulchan Aruch, the 16th C. primary source of Sephardic Law, the isur (prohibition) is not tied to the singing itself but the potential byproduct of sexual arousal – the prohibited, erotically illicit thoughts of her genitalia, that a woman’s voice my spur.
[iii]. “It is the custom of the daughters of Israel when having marital intercourse to use two testing-rags, one for the man and the other for herself, and virtuous women prepare also a third rag whereby to make themselves fit for marital duty. If a vestige of blood is found on his rag they are both unclean and are also under the obligation of bringing a sacrifice. If any blood is found on her rag immediately after their intercourse they are both unclean and are also under the obligation of bringing a sacrifice”, Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Niddah 14a. Soncino 1961 Edition, page 92.
[iv]. Etymologically, the cognate Hebrew: הַגָּדָה, means "telling", while the Aramaic root אגד (as well as נגד from which אגדה may arise) has the dual implication of “expanding” / “drawing out” and “binding” / “drawing in.” Correspondingly, the Aggadah may be seen as those teachings which communicate Rabbinic traditions to the reader, simultaneously expanding their understanding of the text, while strengthening their religious experience and spiritual connection. The root also has the meaning "flow," and here relates to the transmission of ideas.
[v]. According to the major Kabbalistic texts (Etz Chaim, The Bahir and the Zohar), the most
crucial doctrine in Lurianic Kabbalah (13th C. Jewish mysticism) is called tzimtzum (the secret doctrine of how the world was formed through contraction, condensation, framing). As described by Hayyim Vital in Es Hayyim 42:I 896-c, “The world consisted of primal chaos (Tohu) hylic matter; an amorphous mass” and there [was] nothing outside of it. Basically, tzimtzum (which was alluded to in the 13th century texts and fleshed out more comprehensively in the 16th and 17th centuries) refers to the process of making a limit from the limitless infinite. Or as Vital expresses it in Derush’al ‘Olam ha-Atzilut, “when the Supernal emanator wanted to create this world, which is physical, he constricted his presence…for previously Ein-Sof filled everything” (Liqqutim Hadashim, ed. D. Toutitou, Jerusalem 1985, p.17). Particularly, it’s a theory of emanationism: the condensation of light (or information) through a progressive chain of successive emanations [disseminations]. (Tanya, p.834), a superfluity of systems, frames, constructs, diffusions enabling the world to be revealed.
[vi]. The tassels on each corner are made of four strands which are then threaded and hang down, appearing to be eight. The four strands are passed through a hole (or according to some: two holes) 1-2 inches (25 to 50 mm) away from the corner of the cloth. The Talmud explains that the Torah requires an upper knot, (kesher elyon) and one wrapping of three winds (hulya). 7 and 13 hulyot must be tied, and that "one must start and end with the color of the garment.” According to the Shulchan Arukh (The 16th C. Code of Jewish Law), the four strands of the tzitzit are passed through holes near the four corners of the garment (11:9-11:15) that are farthest apart (10:1). Four tzitzyot are passed through each hole (11:12-13), and the two groups of four ends are double-knotted to each other at the edge of the garment near the hole (11:14,15). One of the four tzitzit is made longer than the others (11:4); the long end of that one is wound around the other seven ends and double-knotted; this is done repeatedly so as to make a total of five double knots separated by four sections of winding, with a total length of at least four inches, leaving free-hanging ends that are twice that long (11:14). Before tying begins, declaration of intent is recited: L'Shem Mitzvat Tzitzit ("for the sake of the commandment of tzitzit").
The two sets of strands are knotted together twice, and then the shamash (a longer strand) is wound around the remaining seven strands. The two sets are then knotted again twice. This procedure is repeated three times, so that there are a total of five knots, the four intervening spaces being taken up by windings numbering 7-8-11-13, respectively. The total number of winds comes to 39, which is the same number of winds if one were to tie according to the Talmud's instruction of 13 hulyot of 3 winds each. The number 39 is significant in that it is the numerical equivalent of the words: "The Lord is One" (Deuteronomy 6:4).
Sephardic Jews use 10-5-6-5 as the number of windings, a combination that directly represents the spelling of YHVH, G-d’s unpronounceable name. According to Rashi, the word tzitzit (in its Mishnaic spelling) has the value 600. Each tassel has eight threads (when doubled over) and five sets of knots, totaling 13. The sum of all numbers is 613, traditionally the number of commandments in the Torah. This reflects the concept that a garment with tzitzyot reminds its wearer of all Torah commandments.
Nachmanides (11th C Biblical commentator), however points out that the Biblical spelling of the word tzitzit has only one yod rather than two (giving it a gematria of 590 plus 13), thus adding up to the total number of 603 rather than 613. He points out that in the Biblical quote "you shall see it and remember them", the singular form "it" can refer only to the "p'til" ("thread") of tekhelet. The tekhelet strand serves this purpose, explains the Talmud, for the blue color of tekhelet resembles the ocean, which in turn resembles the sky, which in turn is said to resemble God's holy throne – thus reminding all of the divine mission to fulfill His commandments. Nachmanides’ knots are worn by the majority of Sephardic (Western European) Jews and Teimani (Yemenite) Jews)
[vii]. Edmond Jabès, “The Book of Subversion" From the Book to the Book: Trans. Rosemarie Waldrop, Wesleyan, NH, 1991.
[viii]. According to Kabbalistic hermeneutics, the 4 letters of the unpronouncale name: Yud, Hei, Vav, Hei), the 4 worlds of existence: Emanation, Creation, Formation and Action; the 4 major Sefirot: Wisdom, Understanding, Kindness and Speech; the 4 levels of interpretation: Secret, Metaphorical, Allegorical and Literal; the 4 Causes (Material, Efficient, Final and Formal) highlighted in McLuhan’s 4 Laws of Media: Enhancement, Retrieval, Reversal and Obsolescence; the 4 epochs: oral tribe culture, manuscript culture, the Gutenberg galaxy and the electronic age.
[ix]. But if it is written on the outer layer on which the hair grows it is not kosher. There are three types of specially processed animal skin or parchment[ix] (gevil, klaf, duchsustos) which are also used in the production of a mezuzah, megillah and tefillin. As it is written, a kosher Sefer Torah should be written on gevil. If klaf is used in place of gevil, the Sefer Torah is still kosher, but this should not be done. A Sefer Torah written on duchsustos is not kosher.
[x]. According to Exodus (26:31-34), “You shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen; it shall be made with cherubim. You shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, their hooks also being of gold, on four sockets of silver. You shall hang up the veil under the clasps, and shall bring in the ark of the testimony there within the veil; and the veil shall serve for you as a partition between the holy place and the holy of holies. You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the holy of holies”.
[xi]. An example of a Mappah, Torah cover (reproduced below), Rome, Italy, 1729.
Silk velvet, brocade, gilded silver thread embroidery, silk thread mounted embroidery, gilded woven band. The rectangular Torah cover consists of three sections. The central section is made of purple velvet cloth, adorned with a woven lace gilded band, creating a large embroidered frame in the center. Within the frame is portrayed the Giving of the Torah: two hands are represented as holding the tablets of the Ten Commandments on the top of the mountain burning in flames. The commandments are surrounded by white clouds and six trumpets –from three of them emerge blowing winds. Above the scene there is an embroidered golden crown. A mounted embroidery inscription in letters of silver gilded thread is on both sides of the central scene. On each side of the embroidery is a purple brocade fabric, with vegetal motifs made of gilded thread. The cover is surrounded by a gilded woven band, similar to the frame of the central piece.
[xii]. Hélène Cixous, The Book of Promethea
[xiii]. The authoritative code of Jewish law and custom compiled by the Talmudic scholar Joseph Caro (1488-1575), the original edition, published in Vienna in 1565 emphasizing the practices of Sephardic Jews, written by the Polish Talmudic scholar Moses Isserles (c.1520–72).