Friday, February 05, 2010

Specialized Archaic Hebrew Dialect

כ"א בשבט תש"ע
Imbolgen 22

Last night I dreamt.

I was touring Breezee Tower (a tall business building now deserted in my hometown) for an apartment on the upper floor. The halls of the building were busy with people - though deserted in real life, it was not deserted in my dream, but was in use for both business (lower floors) and apartments (upper floor).

The upper floor of the building was also haunted by ghosts. Most people were afraid of the ghosts, but I wasn't. I talked to the ghosts in conversation whenever approached by one.

There was a table in the middle of a side hallway. As I approached the table, I started to dance around the table (like one does at Simchat Torah) and chant a chant made up of words I had not ever learned before. I didn't understand many of the words released from my mouth, but someone at the table recognized them as an archaic specialized dialect of ancient Hebrew that very few people knew. It was a specialized ritual form of Hebrew. Some of the words I myself recognized - for example, Torah was pronounced as a construction of Tarah (tar sounding something like car, ah sounding like ahh - like in haftarah). I knew in my mind the word Tarah was Torah, but an ancient pronunciation of it.

I woke up.

Dare to be true to yourself.