Deuteronomy Cycle Two 07:12-11:25 - Ekev

Sometimes the Heart of God just happens to us. Then, even given our humanity…our fears and grief, the peace and joy…the Heart breathes into our blood and pulse. The breath catapults us to a place where two becomes one…two tablets (Rashi), two feelings, light and dark, big and small. It fills us with a fine organic light, natural, symbiotic. It brings us to our knees in tears. Suddenly our bodies become transparent. The soul message rushes through our skin, our bones. The way to know God, we realize, is to be open and vulnerable, to be entered.

How small Ekev looks tagging behind VaEthChanan. Words, we have learned, are here now. One day though they will be archaic like animal offerings. In Ekev, we see that the human body (this divine manifestation) is here now. As humans we are to speak words that help us to be divine in our human-ness (8:3). We get to use our boundaries as beams leading us towards the greater radiance. But one day our bodies will also be archaic…unnecessary. We will be fully entered by God. What then?

I wouldn’t say that the answer is in small Ekev. What we do get though is the question and it’s an important one. So, let’s see how Ekev relates to self-mercy….to see how words (beyond meaning) lead us to humility (the center of self-mercy) and to the brilliance of surrender.

Let’s do it like a Rorschach print. Let’s put sentence syntax, characters, story and most analysis in the background. What jumps out at us is ekev (therefore). If this, then that.

If words, then story. If words, analysis. If beyond words, then sounds, rhythm, inner construct, symbol. If beyond words, then beyond emotion. Consciousness begins to enter us. Consciousness enters us until we are beyond body. Of course, words are like pain. You need to experience them fully to get beyond them. You can try and dodge them but it’s fruitless. Therefore, through words, the process of this writing will (hopefully) lead us to experience.

Let’s look at the verbs first. The first is tishme-un. The root is sh’ma (to listen). Imperfect. Second person plural. Passive. Really passive because it connects with the direct object (the nun), Fine. What does all this mean? You will have been listened to by you. You immediately get the feeling of revolving sound passing through our bodies…important sound. Another verb repeated a lot in this parasha is nishva. The root is sh’va (to swear). Perfect tense. Third person singular. Passive. So you get the feeling of a finished act..of God (the subject) having been sworn. The passive construct is important. Vows of man (for example the Nazirite) are in the active. Vows of God are swears done to God. The earthly vow is a human promise on the outside. The spiritual vow is inside..swearing one’s soul. Many of these verbs end in “cha” or you, attaching us to the passive action. How can we experience this? The intention here is to be able to receive. Maybe a small group could sit in a circle, meditate and visualize beams of light connecting hearts to a central hub, like a wheel. Maybe we can focus on heart-light that rises above words and dichotomies. In time, at the same moment (maybe someone rings a bell) the light from the center can return. It can flow through the beams and cut straight to the hearts. Each person can then experience reception. The merging at the hub can be powerful even if you are just visualizing others around you. It’s important to close the eyes.

Let’s look at the nouns. Like the verbs they are often followed by “cha”. You is attached to the beauty. Beauty is being done to “you”. There’s the fruit of your womb (bitnecha), the fruit of your land (admatecha) etc. Later, quite often, there is your heart. We come across fire and snakes but there isn’t a you or your. What’s clear is that we are in a world of contrasts (and we must accept this) but that we are a piece and part of God, even in the same word (elohecha). The intention with the following meditation therefore is to be passive in God’s beauty, to merge naturally. Each person can sit separate and imagine him or herself as the center hub from the exercise before. He or she can imagine angels or loved ones or friends sitting around her. She can relax and bless each angel, feel these beams of light holding her still, creating a womb in which she can rest. She can even imagine herself being lifted by the golden energy, the fire from the eyes, the iron beams cutting towards her heart. She can even imagine snakes lining the circle as forms of protection. This, after all, is how snakes are referred to in Ekev.

Finally let’s look at prepositions… the repetition of the words lifnay, mifnay and vifnay. All refer to before…many have the pronoun cha or chem at the end…meaning before you (singular or plural). Here, we go beyond human rank. There is always someone before you. What’s important is releasing the knowing or not knowing and being in love with God. Such an experience of humility is personal. It can mean prostration, crying for hours, fasting. Maybe this is why the word prostitute comes from the same root as holy…kadosh. The prostitute allows her or himself to be entered. The spiritual is suddenly pushed into the most earthly need and there is nothing wrong with that as long as care is given to the body. Hopefully, there is some awareness of the symbolism of the act of sex and love-making, that God is the ultimate lover, the fusion of both partners, that here there is ultimate surrender in both entering and being entered.

So, may we be thankful for our ability to be made human and to be entered by God. May we be opened and be rushed into a greater light. May we be strengthened with the iron in the mountains so that we may be bodies led into and through words. May our chants and sounds be listened to by God and by our own ears as we are slowly merged. May we circumcise (ourselves) to the Lord and (actively) take away the foreskins of (our) hearts (Jeremiah 4:4)