By Marc Gafni from a work in progress “Dance of Tears” Prayer is the restoration of the divine image through the restoration of the dignity of the word. Prayer, teach the masters, models sacred speech. Writes the Maggid of Mezeritch… ...
Archive for the ‘Hebrew Wisdom’ Category
Through my body I vision God
Every event of consciousness shows up in the body; fear for example causes perspiration – however it is clear that fear is not reducible to perspiration. But by tracing the physical correlate of the emotional world of consciousness we gain an i ...
Your Unique Letter, Your Unique Story
In the mythic teaching of ancient Hebrew mysticism, the calligraphy of your Unique Letter in the cosmic scroll is determined by the particular angle at which you were situated in relationship to the revelation at Mount Sinai. Sinai, in the great Hebr ...
Redeem suffering
How does your Unique Christ Self redeem suffering? When the who of suffering becomes clear, then you can bear almost any how. When you realize that the particular pain you feel is an intrinsic part of your passion and presence, part of your path ...
Daily Wisdom: To Greet With Godâs Name
The world over, Godâs name is evoked in greetings. The Spanish hello – âOlahâ – originated in Arab Spain from the term âOâAllahâ â Allah of course being the Arab appellation of God. In Bavarian German they say ‘Gruss G ...
The Daily Wisdom: The Crying of Ishmael
God responds to the crying of Ishmael and not the crying of Hagar. Ishmael represents the crying of the baby with which all life begins. Why does the baby cry? The baby is hungry, the baby is afraid, the baby is vulnerable, the baby is lonely. The ba ...
Daily Wisdom: A Name with the power to Heal
 Why do we respond to death not with an exclamation of comfort, but with the Kaddish â a seemingly theological statement, âMagnified and Exalted is his great name”? The answer holds one of the most sacred mysteries of love rooted in the se ...
The Essential I (By Dr. Marc Gafni)
By Dr. Marc Gafni In this excerpt from Reclaiming Rosh Hashanah: The Dance of Tears (forthcoming), Dr. Marc Gafni explores the Garden of Eden biblical story and Abraham Kookâs teaching on the âinner essential I,” through which we come to u ...
Prayer: a pointing-out instruction for God
By Marc Gafni We are all despearate for communion. It is what makes our lives worth living. Communion is the movement from loneliness to loving. It is the experience of being held and received. We are all systematically mis-recognized. To be recogniz ...
Daily Wisdom Post: The Stones Will Sparkle
Now let me share with you something truly beautiful. It is a sort of Hebrew mystic expansion of TraherneââŹâ˘s moment of rapture. It is one of my favorite stories. ...
Daily Wisdom Post: Perception is Love
The Kabbalists were often referred to as Mistaklim or Chozim, roughly translated as the Lookers or Seers. ...
Daily Wisdom Post: I Canât Do It Without You
The Kabbalists takes the mandate of love implicit in self perception ââŹâ one step further. I need to understand that not only am I a part of God but I am also a partner to God. ...
Daily Wisdom Post: Identity
The unfolding of the universe entails full divine loving presence. The divine perspective changes to include human beings. It is an intimate relation of shared identity. ...
Daily Wisdom Post: Void and Eros
The mystics teach us that to access the erotics of being ââŹâ the fullness of ourselves in every moment - we need to first linger in the emptiness for a time. ...
Daily Wisdom Post: Perception as Creation
The language of God is man. We are not just GodââŹâ˘s messengers, we are GodââŹâ˘s language and voice, the means by which she shares her message. ...