moni ovadia - La bottiglia vuota (2002)

La bottiglia vuota - Text fragments

(...)

"Full" and "empty", these concepts are a part of many cultures of the world . Take Chinese culture, for example, which has elaborated around the concept of Ying and Yang the entire Buddhist and Taoist system of thought. Once Westerners, with their eternal attraction for the Orient, understood that becoming Zen monks is no joke, they chose their formulae in pills and proceeded to invent "New Age", which is certainly much more dynamic, gastronomic and a lot less work.

In our own fashion, we Jews have also tried our hand at Ying and Yang, and have built something quite distinctive; less attractive, perhaps, but still quite significant:

A Jew and a Greek - let's not forget that the Jews and the Greeks were the prima donnas of antiquity – are arguing heatedly over the supremacy of their systems of thought.

Says the Greek (heavy Greek accent):

You Jews have the Bible, the Talmud...sure, alright...but we Greeks, just think, we've dug under Athens, archeological digging, down, down below in the depths of Athens and we found wires! Yes, wires, because even in Socrate's time, we already had the telegraph!

The jew says (heavy Yiddish accent):

Ok! So you found wires! And this is something to be so proud of??? This is something you have to be so smart for??? Whats so amazing about it? Haven't we Jews done some digging, too? Archeological digging, under Jerusalem, beneath the Wailing Wall...much deeper than you, thousands of meters deep! Phooey...we found nothing! Because, even in the time of Solomon we already had...wireless telegraph. (...)

Story
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La bottiglia vuota - Author's notes

Story-telling and singing has always been the primary form of representation and I have decided to use this formula because of a desire, or perhaps I should say an urgency, to return to a spare, simplified means of theatrical communication. That is why I decided to call it "The Empty Bottle", so as to underline this need for "emptiness" and immediacy. This is also why I decided to accompany myself on the guitar and to read from several sources.

Why is it important to to tell, to narrate, today?

Because we have lost the art of narration in favor of writing (How? For its own sake?) and, more importantly, in favor of television-style narrative.

Recently, I discovered the meaning of the word "ABRACADABRA".

It's an expression in Aramaic, avaráh keh devaráh, which means literally "I create as I speak", and in all probability refers to the Creation: "God said let there be light, and there was light". The Creation is a linguistic operation and therefore, through language we are able to create. Likewise, through language we are able to gain knowledge, and, fundamentally, make ourselves known.Thus, it is not a coincidence that the sexual act is defined in the Bible as "knowing", meaning implicitly that in love making, one either knows or one dominates. And that knowing is realized with all the means at our disposal: mind, heart, body and soul.

The voice is none other than the sound of our interiority which, through language and orality, has a fundamental cognitive and generative power. This creative capacity in Judaism is inseparable from the singing voice.

The first word in the Bible is "Bereshit", that is "In the beginning", and it may be broken down and anagramed into two words, "Shir el", "Song for God".

Does this mean, perhaps, that the Law and the Creation of the world are contained between two songs? To create by speaking and singing.

Moni Ovadia