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Down Down Down, tunnels deepen through the bed of strong granite rock

Tunnels connected to tunnels bringing life to darkness 

Rich and poor, old and young traverse these barren halls of another century

Rumbling, twisting and turning, huge metal machines cut through the bed of strong granite rock

A mother clings to her child on a barren platform among the noise

A man in a suit types away at his device, without a look around

A homeless man shakes a small coffee cup filled with jingling change

All alike, waiting, waiting, waiting for a rumbling metal machine to roll in

Head by head, they march on, like ants 

Packed like sardines into an unknowing and strange metal can

Hands touching metal and seats filled with people, this machine knows no empty space 

We all have one purpose, one mission, one destination: out 

Stumbling and shoving to the front huge metal doors open up revealing another barren hall of the past

A mother, A suited man, and a homeless man, together shuffle out; herd going to the grass

For an instant paths intertwined, different yet the same

But once the metal machines rumblings came to an end, so are the paths of these city residents

Each with their own lives, so complicated and quick

Never consider the fellow who they are riding with

Sprawling tunnels, down, down, down under the ground, endless and divine.

 The City’s heart beats with the tunnels, sounding a rumbling tone

“Ultimately — or at the limit — in order to see a photograph well, it is best to look away or close your eyes. ‘The necessary condition for an image is sight,’Janouch told Kafka; and Kafka smiled and replied: ‘We photograph things in order to drive them out of our minds. My stories are a way of shutting my eyes.” (Part 1 pg 53)

The reason why I chose this quote because I found it interesting how the author uses the sense of irony to describe how to appreciate and truly visualize photographs. Normally if someone were to describe and appreciate a photograph, they would obviously have to use their eyes but what the author is bringing is a different perspective and using more of your mind rather than just visualizing it. This quote feels important to me because it starts to show the level depth the author analyzes things. 

“What the Photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once: the Photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially.”

The reason why I chose this quote was because this was one quote that really made me start to wonder. I completely agree with this quote because one can always live in the moment and have fun, but as time progresses, these memories start to fade. Having that picture, brings back the memories, bring back the emotions associated with that moment. This is why people start to create photo albums and have a storage system for pictures. Quotes like these help to appreciate the text and make the readers think at a much deeper level. It helps the reader to resonate with the text and the ideas involved. 

How do objectify beauty and make others understand the vision we have?

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Some Background

The lion is a quite a symbolic animal in Jewish culture. It signifies bravery, prominence, power, and wisdom. Often times an important Jewish scholar or prominent community leader would have a lion sculpted on his tomb stone. Additionally, the lion is a symbol of protection and is often sculpted at the very top of a Jewish sanctuary protecting the ten commandments.

Interestingly, the word for lion in Hebrew is aryeh, and it is a common Jewish name.  Often times the name is paired with a Yiddish word for the middle name. For example, my first name is Aryeh, and my middle name is Zalman, which is Yiddish for Solomon.

When I saw this depiction of King Solomon and a lion guarding him by his thrown, on the playing card in The Jewish Museum, I immediately thought about how it perfectly matches my name.

Analysis:

The lion pictured on the playing card is sitting upright with his front legs straightened and together. Its presence is a sign that there is a respectable person on the thrown above. However, this is no ordinary security lion. If you take a closer look, you’ll see that the lion has a pair of wings, signifying some kind of supernatural strength as well. With a little research I found that the lion depicted at the foot of King Solomon’s thrown is a lot more than a mere statue.  It is actually the first elevator mechanism illustrated in the Old Testament. As explained by Nissan Mindel on Chabad.org, on each of the six steps leading up to the king’s thrown sat a pair of golden lions facing each other. The lions would stretch out their feet and help the king onto the next step by lifting him up, and gently setting him down into the palms of the next pair of lions, until the king was seated in his gold plated, ivory thrown. (The biblical source for the lions found on King Solomon’s thrown can be found in Kings 10:20.) Additionally, the presence of the lion which can also be a symbol of wisdom, matches King Solomon’s wise looking facial expression.

Detailed information:

Artistic Play-Cards
Ze’ev Raban (Israeli, b. Poland, 1890-1970)
Duchifat Press (Jerusalem), Palestine (Israel), c. 1920
Ink on paper
Each: 2 1/4 × 1 1/2 in. (5.7 × 3.8 cm)
The Jewish Museum, New York
Gift of Dr. Harry G. Friedman, F 4561

(Thejewishmuseum.org)