Panim-פנים: Faces Hidden, Faces Revealed

Panim-Faces.

Faces: We are astounded and humbled by their faces. We know they were brutally abused; that they were starved, had to drink sea water, were alone in dark dungeons for weeks on end, and … Oh God!  We shudder at what that awful and was.

Yet, somehow they emerged from the inferno with heads held high, hands held high, and smiles that lifted us all upon high.

Faces: Like grotesque bits torn from Bosch’s demonic underworld: Gazan and Hamas faces, no, we’re not surprised  at all. Their faces scream the desire to kill, rape, and burn; their twisted laughing faces, again and again, wildly celebrate the suffering of young Jewish girls, while their covered faces bespeak all the difference in the world…

…Between their people’s ghoulish faces, and our nation’s forever gentle, grateful, tear-streaked faces.

פנים-Faces.

Dear Family of Israel,

As you know, פנים …

Panim            has been our word, for millennia and more.

Panim            has been our word for faces, and more, for millennia and more.

פנים               has been our word; for interior, for within, for deep within.

פנים               has been our word; for Innermost, and Essesnce, and Faces too.

And so, dear family …

Panim-Faces                                                                       

פנים.              Look at their. Faces.

פנים.              Unlike our. Faces.

Panim M’chusot-Covered Faces                                         

פנים.              Faces. Covered.

פנים.              Their inner Akbar; their emptied essence, their decaying innermost, their inner rot.

פנים.              Faces. Hidden.

Are not—

פנים.              Faces at all.

פנים.              Gazan faces are covered and hidden, for all to see.

Because.       There remains no—

פנים.              Nothing is left inside. No—

פנים.              No within. Nor essence or innermost. No—

פנים.              Nothing is left inside. No—

פנים.              No radiance. No heart. No humanity.

פנים.              Created like all.

פנים.              In the image of God.

פנים.              Look there. At their—

פנים.              That have been smothered, and so remain: covered, hidden, smoldering, and putrid like no other—

פנים.              Look there. At their: Image of God. Free! To extinguish their—

פנים.              Their Godly image was theirs: To obliterate.

Panim M’urot-Radiant Faces                                            

פנים.              Look again; there, at their, at Our—

פנים.              Radiant faces. Innermost. Essence. Souls shining Within—

פנים.              Standing there. Hands held high. One finger held high. Four radiant souls held high.

Because.       The holy image remains deep, there, within their—

פנים.              There. Upon that stage. Their. Image of God. Free!

While beside them stand hollow, empty, Hamas—

Covered.

faces.             Hidden. And blackened by their innermost—

פנים.              Faces of shame. Shame on you! Destroyer of. Raper of. Your—

פנים.              Though never our—

פנים!              shall you extinguish. Never our—

פנים!              shall you vanquish our innermost, our within, Our Image of God. Never!

Because.       Dear family of Israel, upon that stage stands our—

פנים.              Am.

פנים.              Yisrael.

פנים.              Chai!