We need to De-Centralize the Sexual: Marc Gafni
I have received some mail – from I am sure lovely – but superficial readers who think that the blogs from the last couple of months somehow violate the Orthodox relationship to sexuality.
Precisely the opposite is true.
The piece below – like all of these blogs- is an attempt to articulate the implicit position of Orthodox Hebrew Wisdom. When I say Orthodox I refer to the classic halachic tradition of Hebrew wisdom in it’s most ideal and evolved form. This tradition holds a stunningly beautiful position which views the sexual in context – a context in which sex is a gorgeous model for Eros. Paradoxically however – in affirming that position SEX IS DE-CENTRALIZED. It is given it’s appropriate, honored and yet balanced place in the life of the individual. Such a depth vision is a desperately needed response to a culture which has slain all the gods except for Aphrodite and implicitly worships all to often at the altar of the sexual.
Eros Expanded
Erotic fulfillment is reached when I have expanded the realm of eros beyond the sexual to embrace all of my existence. Indeed the root of the Sanskrit word tantra — tan — means expansion. True tantric energy expands into all realms of life. This expansion is the goal of Kabbalistic tantra.
The Zohar weaves this esoteric teaching into a seemingly innocent passage:
The original quote is so striking that I decided to leave it virtually intact. Read it slowly almost as a tantric meditation.
The original quote is so striking that I decided to leave it virtually intact. Read it slowly almost as a tantric meditation.
Every person must find himself in Sexual Union (of male and female)…
for in that way the Shechina never parts from him. And if you will say, one who travels (and is separated from his partner and therefore separated from sexual union) does not the Shechina depart from him..? Come and see — before a person begins his journey, he should organize his prayer— from a place where he is in sexual union — in order to draw the Shechina down on him before he sets out on his path…Once he has learned the order of prayer — and the Shechina dwells on him through his sexual union, he should set out on his way – for the Shechina can now remain with him ..in the city or in the field…
“As long as he is on the way, he needs to be mindful of his path in order that the higher union, the Shechina not part from him. Even when he is not in sexual union…this higher union does not leave. When he arrives home he should rejoice (be sexual) with his partner .. for she is the one through whom he accessed the higher union with the Shechina.”
This passage, part of the cherub mystery tradition, makes the merging with the Shechina dependent on sexual union. Clearly then, they are not the same thing. The goal is ‘higher union with the Shechina’. The higher union takes place when one has been able to move beyond the bedroom to transpose the sexual to his/her broader world. To greet the divine at every doorstep, every crossroad, in every sparrow along the way. After returning from the way he is instructed to again be sexual with his partner in order to re-cast his life once more in the model of the sexual. In this way sex leads him to Shechina.
It is in the move through the sexual to the erotic that we achieve the ultimate goal of the spirit: higher union with the Shechina, erotic fulfillment in every arena of living.
marc gafni
posted on marcgafni.com
share comments on info@marcgafni.com
or directly below
