[1053W-{1/6/81}CD Vol. II, p. 592]
[P. 592] “When, referring to religious statements, I say, ‘I hope for eternal peace after our death,’ he replies, ‘Those are all secrets – we should not run around as we do with our five senses if we knew the answers.’ “ [1053W-{1/6/81}CD Vol. II, p. 592]
[1054W-{1/16/81}CD Vol. II, p. 598]
[P. 598] {FEUER} “Reflections on history and the development of mankind’s predatoryactivities lead me to ask in the morning whether these have not brought about art. ‘Certainly,’ says R., ‘and that is why it is an evasion and a dismal substitute; it becomes something worthwhile only when it is religion … .” [1054W-{1/16/81}CD Vol. II, p. 598]
[1055W-{1/17/81}CD Vol. II, p. 600]
[P. 600] {FEUER} {SCHOP} “But then Rub. plays us the first part of the (Opus) 106Sonata [Beethoven], and our delight is boundless! … R: ‘It is like being taken into the workshop of the Will, one sees everything moving and stirring as if in the bowels of the earth.’ – ‘Anyone who could translate this into words would have the key to the enigma of the world.’ ‘Cries of passion to which the workshop opens its doors.’ – ‘Not even Shakespeare can be compared to it, for what he has created is too closely connected with the world’s misery.’ “ [1055W-{1/17/81}CD Vol. II, p. 600]
[1056W-{1/19/81}CD Vol. II, p. 601-602]
[P. 601] “Then he announces to Herr Levi, to his astonishment, that he is to conduct ‘Parsifal’: ‘Beforehand, we shall go through a ceremonial act with you. I hope I shall succeed in finding a formula which will make you feel completely one of us.’ [Wagner had planned to baptize Hermann Levi, who was Jewish, before he would allow him to conduct Parsifal, which Wagner claimed presented the religious mysteriesof Christianity on the stage] (…) I tell R. that what seems to me to be the difficulty here is that the community into which the Israelite would be accepted has itself abandoned Christ, though it might write about him, whereas previously blood was shed and [P. 602] everything sacrificed in his behalf. R. says he himself has certainly remained true to him, and in his last essay he more or less outlined what the formula would be. {anti-FEUER} ‘The trouble is,’ he exclaims, ‘that all great personalities reveal themselves to us in time and space, and are thus subject to change.’ When we have our first parting, he exclaims jokingly, ‘What an accursed subject you have brought up here!’ and when we come together again, he raises it once more, and we agree that this alien race can never be wholly absorbed into our own. R. tells me … that when our friend modestly approached him and kissed his hand, R. embraced him with great inner warmth, and from what emanated between them, he came to feel with extraordinary precision what a difference of race and separateness really mean. And thus the good Jew always suffers a melancholy lot in our midst.” [1056W-{1/19/81}CD Vol. II, p. 601-602]
