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SUFFERING OF INNOCENT CHILDREN
Solomon said: " But I returned and considered all
the oppressed that are done (lit., made) under the sun; and behold the tears
of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter" (Eccles. 4:1)
Was he actually able to see all those who were
oppressed? Certainly not, but he was speaking of the infants who suckling at
their mother's breats were taken away. Truly, the like of these are oppressed
from every side, above in the celestial sphere, and oppressed below on earth.
Most oppressed are the ones who are so on account of their inheritance, and of
them it is written: " Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and fourth generation " ( Exod. 20:5) ....
Consider the child born of the adulterous union of a man with
his neighbor's wife, whom, openly or secretly, he has stolen; the Holy One, be
blessed, is bound nevertheless to give a body and form to that child, and then
truly is it "an oppressed one who is made such," that is, in spite of
the Almighty....
All shed tears, tough among them are differences. One, for
instance, is a child conceived in incest ... Lord of the world! If they who
begot me did sin, what is my guilt? ....
.... Eternally righteous are the judgements of the Holy One,
be blessed, and all his paths are paths of truth ... If it is the parents' sins
that are cause of their death, then indeed they "had no comforter."
But, in reality, the tears shed by these "oppressed
ones" act as a petition and protection for the living, and by dint of their
innocence and the efficacy of their intercession, in time a place is prepared
for them, such a one as cannot be attained to or occupied by even the most
rightous; for the Holy One, be blessed, does in reality love these little ones
with unique and outstanding love. He unites them withhimself ... it is written:
"Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou founded strength"
(Ps. 8:3)
Zohar: The Book of Splendor , Exodus, Edit by
Gershom Scholem
OR
...They rode on. The horses trudged sullenly the alien ground
and the round earth rolled beneath them silently milling the greater void
wherein they were contained. In the neuter austerity of that terrain all
phenomena were bequeathed a strange equality and no one thing nor spider nor
stone nor blade of grass could put forth claim to precedence. The very clarity
of these articles belied their familiarity, for the eye predicates the whole on
some feature or part and here was nothing more luminous than another and nothing
more enshadowed and in the optical democracy of such landscapes all preference
is made whimsical and a man and a rock become endowed with unguessed kinships.
Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy (pg.247)
(again, which appears clearer?)
The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of
the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity too great
for the eye of a man.
- William Blake-
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April 2006 DallasNews.com
