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Aryeh Cohen

For Holly on her 66th birthday
A Talmudic diptych

​I

An occurrence, being in Nehardea. 

There were two. 
The one demanded of the other: “What have you with my land?” 
               Otherwise inscribed: “What have you with my house?” 
The other: “From you I bought it. I had it under use till term.” 
The first: “I was afar, away in other places, not able to challenge your usurpation.”
Others interpret: “I was here the whole time, dwelling in the inner rooms.” They appeared before Rav Naḥman.  

He said: “Go, clarify your use.” 
Rava, then retorted: “Is this truly the law? One who wishes to extract from his fellow, upon him  is the burden of proof.” (Babylonian Talmud, Baba Bathra, 29b) 


To own is to hold. To grasp with quick fist.  
To drive a stake into hard ground. To bound.  
To limn. To limit.  
To own.  
To contest is to get between to challenge to  
query to dare 
to lie 
to contest. 
The land  
               inert it stays where it was 
               property implies perhaps that it was  
               seeded with sweat and now impregnated  
               with the life of the owner. 

It happened in Nehardea. It did. 
Two men, real men,  
bandanas and cowboy hats. One maybe 
had a John Deere cap. Sweated through around the band. 
The conversation was anything but hale friends well met. 
The conversation was pointed  
       disjointed 
           angry  
                sharp 
What are you doing on my land son? 
You sold it to me.
       Say it like this: YOU SOLD IT TO ME MOTHERFUCKER!! 
       Say it like this: But you… you sold it to me. 
       Say it like this: Don’t you remember, old man, I bought it from you. I tilled it till my arm  near fell off, I planted it and harvested it. Three
       years now. I bought it from you, old man. 
       Now leave. 


It happened like this 
of a day. a very certain day 
on a field. a specific field 
it happened like this 
a certain man and another man 
two men. no other men.  
two men facing each other over a piece of land  
my land. my land  
was your land I bought it from you 
Impossible I was not here 
Impossible I was on it all the while 
two men. facing each other 
face to face 
standing before the law. before a very specific law 
before Rav Naḥman. before Rava 
Rava also before Rav Naḥman 
setting the case before the law 
setting the land before the law 
Rav Naḥman speaks. Clarify your hold. 
               Make it clear to me that you had possession. 
               make it clear to me that you had sole possession. 
               make it clear to me that the land is yours
       Rava. student. questions. 
       is this the law? 
       the books say that the one who extracts must bring proof.

II


It happened in Meḥoza. 
That one man who said to his fellow: What are you doing in this house? He replied: I bought it from you and have enjoyed the years of legal ownership. He said: I was in distant markets! 
He replied: Behold I have witnesses that each and every year you would come to market for  thirty days. 
He said: All thirty days I was occupied with the market. 
Said Rava: It does happen that all thirty days one would be occupied with the market.  (Babylonian Talmud, Baba Bathra, 30a) 


It is the lure of the easy metaphor  
the lure of the market ignoring the house 
preoccupied with the marketplace you have forgotten who 
was in your house. preoccupied. engrossed. It happened. 
in Meḥoza. With one specific person  
and another specific person. 
and Rava decided that that is what people do.  
in Meḥoza. only in Meḥoza?  

I was away in foreign lands, not the lure of adventure 
it wasn’t the white sands, just the daily search for bread, 
It wasn’t that home slipped my mind, that ever I didn’t think 
of Meḥoza and those left behind, its just that I was ever so 
busy, the busyness that is life, running after the deal 
avoiding the pain, the strife, you were on my mind 
really. It happened. But I wasn’t in Mehoza.  

and yet you were. and even when you were.  
you weren’t.  
               and yet you were. and even when you were. 
               you weren’t. 

but that is still too easy. the metaphor falls breaks 
dissolves into dust on the stairs of the courthouse 
on the rhetoric of the courthouse and the anger  
of the law: What are you doing here? 
I have a claim 
I was unable to dispute 
I have witnesses 
I was unavailable 
       Yes. It happens.
we are though still captured by the metaphor 
take it on then, break it open. 
       what is a house? if you were in foreign lands for these many
                                       years it was not a home 
                          it was a piece of property 

yet here I was. I ate those years. I enjoyed those years I made a home and memories. 
you could have come back  
what gates or walls did I erect? 
what bill of divorce did I send you? 
I paid in blood sweat and tears 
I paid in the laughter of little children 
       the cries of skinned knees and broken
       expectations the glass of merlot at the end of the
       day 

​       the sunsets

Aryeh Cohen is Professor of Rabbinic Literature at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies of the American Jewish University. He is also a co-convener of the Black Jewish Justice Alliance, and the president of the Society of Jewish Ethics. His latest book is Justice in the City: An Argument from the Sources of Rabbinic Judaism. He has a Talmud podcast Daf Shvui/Weekly Daf: Give me forty minutes or so and I'll give you a daf or so anyplace you listen to podcasts. Twitter: @irmiklat 
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