rejecting redemption

Abandoning one temple and erecting another. These new gods also must be betrayed. We must murder our self-created gods as well - the form of highest respect. The only valid temples are the ones that have blasphemy carved into every stone with which they are built. No, I know no allegiances. What's that you say? That I'm fooling myself? That I'm inevitably entangled in webs of affiliation to which I pay homage? Perhaps. Even so, it's a lie worth believing in. What's that? Will I be grovelling again at the steps of this temple tomorrow? Most probably. But at least today, now, I have demolished it to rubble. For one moment I have tasted divinity - that frightful fiction. If only I could believe my words. To make the stone bloom, as Celan would say. Moses' heroism was in striking the rock instead of speaking to it, as God had commanded. For this, he forfeited the promised land. He refused to pray to stone. His prayer came in the form of a fist.