| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling: Mithras, God of the Noontide, the heather swims in the heat,
Our helmets scorch our foreheads, our sandals burn our feet.
Now in the ungirt hour, now ere we blink and drowse,
Mithras, also a soldier, keep us true to our vows!
Mithras, God of the Sunset, low on the Western main,
Thou descending immortal, immortal to rise again!
Now when the watch is ended, now when the wine is drawn,
Mithras, also a soldier, keep us pure till the dawn!
Mithras, God of the Midnight, here where the great bull dies,
Look on Thy children in darkness. Oh, take our sacrifice!
Many roads Thou hast fashioned: all of them lead to the Light!
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber: certainly was tonic. She told herself that she would have
come to the same conclusion if Kirsch had occupied a
Methodist pulpit.
There were no Kaddish prayers in Kirsch's Temple. On the
Friday following the first anniversary of Molly Brandeis's
death Fanny did not go home after working hours, but took a
bite of supper in a neighborhood restaurant. Then she found
her way to one of the orthodox Russian Jewish synagogues on
the west side. It was a dim, odorous, bare little place,
this house of worship. Fanny had never seen one like it
before. She was herded up in the gallery, where the women
Fanny Herself |
