A radical human posture between death and life.
– Avivah G. Zornberg
At the other end of the known world
a man with no credentials but his father’s name
responds to God’s call
by fleeing.
His hope is to travel
as far away as possible;
the theological absurdity
of such an attempt never arises
for, although we question him,
his flight
is a provocative
but comprehensible act.
He is a small figure
overwhelmed by gigantic forces,
a child who shrinks
to foetal size.
The insistent verbs of descent carry him
downwards:
into the ship’s hold,
the whale’s belly,
a posture of regressed stupor,
into complete withdrawal
from consciousness.
Only then can he condense
the velocity of his flight
into prayer –
for what is left
is the internal silence
at the heart of all stories
and replacing silence,
the soul’s response.