‘Illustrations of William Preston’

    

The brethren in lodge assembled last Sunday.

New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education reached a milestone last Sunday when our members gathered in the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia for our first Emergent Communication held outside New Jersey.

LORE, as it has become known, was opened in due and ancient form inside the South Lodge Room, home of Alexandria-Washington Lodge 22, with thirty-two brethren present, hailing from jurisdictions around the United States, including Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. In addition, Bro. Robert L.D. Cooper of Scotland and Bro. David Chichinadze of the Republic of Georgia were present too.

GWMNM photo

Symbolic replica of the cornerstone.

In fact, hundreds of Masons were in Alexandria that week to join the centenary celebration of the Memorial’s cornerstone-laying ceremony, which was re-enacted the following day. Related activities included the annual meeting of the Conference of Grand Masters of Masons of North America and the City of Alexandria’s George Washington Birthday Parade, which terminated at the Memorial this time.

Two presentations were heard that afternoon from our own Bro. Howard Kanowitz and from a very special guest speaker.

Bro. Kanowitz reprised his poem “Redemption at Gettysburg,” which he delivered for the first time at LORE’s inaugural Stated Communication. (Look for it in the pages of our first book of transactions.) The six-part epic tells of Freemasonry’s civilizing influence extending even into the horrors of combat during the Civil War.

The headliner was Bro. Shawn Eyer, a native of Academia Lodge 847 in California who has been in residence at the Memorial, serving as Director of Education. He also is Editor of The Philalethes, the quarterly periodical of the Philalethes Society, the independent historical and literary society, itself reaching its 95th anniversary this year. Bro. Eyer presented a research work titled “Holy Symbols, Infinite Wisdom: Freemasonry’s Mystical Ground Plan in Prestonian Thought.”

Worshipful Master Craig thanks Shawn
for the valuable Masonic research and education.

William Preston was the author of Illustrations of Masonry. First published in 1772, and reprinted numerous times in the ensuing years, Illustrations is widely thought to be the source material for much of the ritual we today use in our lodges, but he has not been celebrated universally. Nineteenth century writers, like Albert Mackey and Albert Pike, derided Preston, Eyer explained, alleging his ideas on Masonic rituals and symbols lacked any sophistication, particularly anything that could nourish a spiritual appetite. Eyer vindicated Preston’s writings by bringing to light texts that are supplemental to Illustrations.

etymonline.com

Illustrations does not mean only pictures.

The long-forgotten writings, called the “Syllabus,” provide what Mackey and Pike most desired, as well as the thesis for Eyer’s eye-opening discussion that day. Suffice to say there was more to Preston’s thinking than architecture and physical senses.

Two Georgia Masons:
Danny from the state and David from the country.

LORE’s rental agreement for the room stipulated a limited time, so it was necessary for GLNJ’s Senior Grand Warden to close the lodge in ample form before the brethren exited into the hallways for chats and selfies. The LORE contingent divided into separate dinner parties headed for several restaurants in the area, with all the brethren doubtlessly feeling fraternally satiated by our meeting.

     

‘A Masonic side of the Priestly Blessing’

     
At the communication last Saturday of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786, Bro. Howard brought up, during a miscellanea part of the meeting, what he described as a Masonic understanding of the Priestly Blessing from the Book of Numbers.

The Lord bless you

and keep you;

the Lord make his face shine on you

and be gracious to you;

the Lord turn his face toward you

and give you peace.

Detail from Resurrection of Lazarus by Marc Chagall, 1910.

Chagall was a Freemason of the Grand Orient of France.

He began by describing it is a prayer that can benefit people of any faith, and not only Jews. Then he explained, how in Hebrew, it is delivered in a trio of phrases, first of three syllables, then of five syllables, and then of seven syllables.

In conclusion, he said this sentence structure is the basis for a certain aspect of the lecture of the Second Degree.

As we are into the first hours of Hanukkah, I extend my sincere wishes for a safe and happy time for all who celebrate!
     

‘Research lodge meeting upcoming’

     
New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education No. 1786 will meet for its quarterly communication next Saturday, and has two worthy presentations slated.

That’s Saturday, March 10 at 9:30 a.m. at Hightstown-Apollo Lodge 41 (535 North Main Street) in Hightstown.

Junior Warden Michael Carducci will speak of his analysis of the Scriptural passages employed in the Craft degrees. Howard Kanowitz, who we continue to fail to draft into the officer line, will deliver “Growth of Science.” I have no idea what that will entail, but if you know Howard’s work, then you know this will be another brilliant talk on an unusual subject.

There will be a continental breakfast—don’t ask me which continent—before the meeting, and a light lunch afterward. Then, please feel free to follow me to Newark, where the 25th Annual New York Pipe Convention will be in progress already. That’s at the Wyndham near the airport. With the losses of McClelland and Dunhill pipe mixtures, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, but it’ll be fun overall.
     

‘Live long and prosper’

     
The signature line from one of American television’s best known characters: “Live long and prosper.” When Star Trek debuted on NBC in 1966, it received little attention, and endured only three years. One thing that did get the public’s eye, provoking a maelstrom of outrage in the forms of phone calls, telegrams, and letters, was the appearance of Leonard Nimoy’s character, Starship Enterprise’s Science Officer Mr. Spock.

Courtesy Star Trek/Paramount

Between his pointed ears and pitched eyebrows, he looked, said the complainants, like the devil. (I can’t imagine what would have happened had they known the actor was Jewish.) Beside his physiognomy, Spock employed a salutational hand gesture; with the phrase “Live long and prosper,” he would uphold his right hand with thumb extended, and with the four fingers in two pairs. It requires some dexterity. I can’t do it, and hardly anyone I’ve ever seen attempt it could do it. I imagine it requires the strong fingers of a pianist. It was another physical aspect of the character, a native of the fictitious planet Vulcan, that distinguished him from his human colleagues. A number of years ago, I learned the origins of this unique display of digits. In another of his characteristically brilliant papers, Howard Kanowitz, at New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education, discussed aspects of Masonic ritual, explaining in an aside how he recognized Spock’s hand gesture in the movements of holy men during worship in his synagogue. (I’d quote from this paper directly, but I no longer have it on file.)

Amid the media eulogies of Nimoy today is an excerpt in Tablet magazine of the book Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish by Abigail Pogrebin. Here are a few relevant paragraphs:

Would it surprise him if today people didn’t know he was Jewish? “Well, I think a lot of people know what I am. Certainly at Star Trek conventions, I’ve told the story about where this came from,” he demonstrates the Vulcan greeting: a raised hand with forked fingers—the pointer and middle fingers sandwiched together and the ring and pinky fingers similarly aligned. “I’ve always talked about this coming from my Jewish background.”

He invented the hand signal based on his memory of seeing the rabbis do it when they said the priestly blessing. Nimoy recites the prayer for me in Hebrew and then translates: “It says, ‘May the Lord bless and keep you and may the Lord cause his countenance to shine upon you, may the Lord be gracious unto you and grant you peace.’ ”

He points to one of his photographs behind me, which depicts an isolated hand shaped in the famed Vulcan salutation. “I was talking to this rabbi cousin of ours about that image one day [Rabbi John Rosove of Temple Israel of Hollywood, a cousin of Nimoy’s second wife, Susan Bay], and I told him that my childhood memory was that when these guys did this traditional blessing, it was really theatrical. These men from our synagogue would cover their heads with their prayer shawls, and they were shouters— these were old, Orthodox, shouting guys. About a half a dozen of them would get up and face the congregation, chanting in a magical, mystical kind of way. They would start off by humming.” Nimoy hums. “And they’re swaying and chanting. And then the guy would yell out: ‘Y’varechecha Adonai!’ And then the whole bunch of them would, like a chorus, respond, ‘Y’varechecha Adonai!’—all six of them. It was really spooky.

Courtesy Tablet

“So, the congregation was all standing, and my father said to me, ‘Don’t look.’ And in fact, everybody’s got their eyes covered with their hands or they’ve got their heads covered with their prayer shawl, the entire congregation. But I peeked, and I saw these guys doing this. So I introduced it into Star Trek. But I said to this rabbi cousin of ours, ‘To this day, I’m not really sure why my father said, Don’t look.’ And he explained, ‘The traditional belief is that during that blessing, the Shekhina—the feminine presence of God—enters the congregation to bless the congregation. And you shouldn’t see God, because the light could be fatal to a human. So you close your eyes to protect yourself.’ ‘Well!’ I said. ‘I never knew that!’ ”
     

‘The End is near’

    
Registration for the Semi-Annual Meeting of The Masonic Society in Philadelphia closes one week from Saturday.

Courtesy 20th Century Fox

There will be events throughout the day and night on Saturday, July 28 in the City of Brotherly Love, including presentations from three Masonic scholars you in New Jersey know well:

RW Ben Hoff, Past Master of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education; RW Howard Kanowitz, one of our most prolific researchers and writers; and RW Ray Thorne, current Master of the research lodge, all will speak. They will be joined by RW Tom Savini, director of the Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library of the Grand Lodge of New York, who also will make a presentation.

The full itinerary can be read here.

Take notice of the banquet at The Union League. Not to be missed!

The Masonic Society holds its semi-annual meetings in different cities around the country, and this year’s is the closest to New Jersey yet. (Our Annual Meeting is held in Virginia every February during Masonic Week.)

The New Jersey Second Circle of The Masonic Society will meet next on (or about) Friday, November 30 for our annual Feast of Saint Andrew. Details TBA.
    

‘Orations in Ramsey’

    
It’s been a long day, capped with a great feast at Sagaponack, and I’m too tired and overfed to post a Magpie recap of the utterly mind-roasting event hosted this afternoon by the Rose Circle Research Foundation. And tomorrow I want to get to the New York Public Library to catch “Three Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam” on its final day of exhibition. (It opened in October, and I just haven’t been able to get there. I missed MOBIA’s “A Light to the Nations,” and I ain’t missing this one!)

Where was I going with this?

Yes! Bedways is rightways now. I’ll post Rose Circle photos and info tomorrow. In the meantime, here is an update on New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education No. 1786:

We are going on the road next month. When the lodge was organized nine years ago, we spoke of maybe holding our meetings in different venues around the state, for the sake of variety and to bring our work to lodges far and wide. The brethren of Hawthorne-Fortitude Lodge No. 200 in Ramsey approached us last year and offered their hospitality, ergo our presence on Saturday, March 12. Lodge opens at 9:30 a.m. Attire: suit and tie. Lunch to be served afterward.

On the agenda:

“Ode to Joy,” a paper on the glorious Ninth by Ludwig van, presented by Bro. Howard Kanowitz; and

“Masonic Trestleboards,” an A/V presentation by Bro. Ben Hoff.

I was going to have a paper of my own on the subject of Ramsay’s Oration and what I suspect is its proper context within the Romantic Movement in the arts of that period, but it is incomplete. Perhaps less time blogging would be helpful.

Hawthorne-Fortitude Lodge No. 200 is located at 24 North Franklin Turnpike in Ramsey.