Seal of approval – an article

There is justification.

People seek justification based on this

in order to acquire approval for their actions

only so they will not write a letter as in 1863 “Rain of insults falls Édouard Manet  wrote

after his painting “Olympia”

received insults and condemnations because a naked woman was drawn sprawled on a couch, and next to her a black maid

He sought no general justification at the time for his painting and the public responded accordingly.

Surely, a naked woman sprawled on a couch was not supposed to shock a public accustomed to the sight of the naked characters of Venus and Aphrodite.

Soon the Renaissance.

But there was no justification for this work by Manet

Without nudity and without the pretentions of honor of mythology! In its time

Similar to Manet’s painting that required legitimacy from the mythology

and the granting of legitimacy to his creation from the public

So it is regarding eating meat

There are those who have ensured approval and justification for slaughtering so that animal body parts go into a styrofoam box wrapped in transparent cellophane with pieces of meat for sale in butcher shops

in a lunchtime plate of raw meat to processed meat

in your home

Well, here there is justification by the following determination in the divine order that permitted the eating of meat only after the flood

in the Noah Torah section

and “Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything”

From this time on, the creatures by order of God are allowed to eat meat as before you were only allowed to eat flora.

And moreover,

from now on the Creator emphasizes that only man is in the image of God, so there is a much greater prohibition on harming man.

To illustrate this, it is necessary to permit eating animals – only thus is there a chance to maintain the value of human life

Here also is a seal for an entire people.

From here I pass

to editing work

Editing a book of poetry like this is like a slaughterer

to live meat

both have an inclination to being edible to buyers

What justification does another person have

to touch another’s poem?

Even if I am the only one in the 21st century who believes that another person’s poem should not be edited, even though there is justification for editing poetry in Hebrew that was practiced

since the 19th century.

This time I will not buy this seal of approval

The nature of the work is evident in the editor’s state of mind

and the finished result is according to his subjective

whims. One cannot remain

passive and objective

when the editor has to

give the finished result so that the credit to be written in the letters of his name

I do not care about the interpretation that the editor’s editorial purpose regarding the writings of another person

is concerned with checking the perfection of the spoken language

according to the linguistic rules and granting final polishing until the uniting of this writing only adds oil to the fire for me.

So yes, there are seals of approval and there are justifications, and there are some who will rejoice at them

whether it’s a work in the spirit of mythology or eating animal meat despite the murder in the matter, and to a poem

that all it seeks is to remain belonging

to the poet’s heart.

Tali Cohen Shabtai was born in Jerusalem, Israel, and is an international poet of high esteem with works translated into many languages. She is the author of three bilingual volumes of poetry, “Purple Diluted in a Black’s Thick”(2007), “Protest” (2012) and “Nine Years From You”(2018). A fourth volume is forthcoming in 2021.  She has lived many years in Oslo, Norway, and in the U.S.