Felix Mendelssohn

They say that the three-part harmonies
of J.S. Bach are quintessentially Christian:
three ropes wound together in one.
So I wonder about Felix Mendelssohn,
though only Jew by birth:
whether he felt the Fathers composing with his pen,
whether the orchestra sounded like Wrath and Law.

No Jewish thing is accomplished alone.
That is what makes it Jewish, the constant
checking against tradition, amendations
in both directions. And what difference
could it make that Felix was his Christian name--
only a Christian has confidence enough for felicity (that is what makes
one Jewish, the doubt even in the capacity to doubt)?

Is there sign in the tidy conclusions of the movements of Symphony 1
of a unified God-- the belief that makes us
Jewish-- or in the highs and lows of Midsummer Night's Dream?
Is there whisper of the debates of the Talmud, that Jewish-made
text? I think I hear fear in the background, or exile,
crackle of fires in the allegro,
intimations of Gershwin, Jolson, Kern.

Or maybe there is nothing of the Old Testament there,
just a felicitous waltzing around all the symbols of the faith.
And what could be more Jewish than that?