Yitro
The Holy Steps to God
The Haftorah section for this week
is in Isaiah. I beheld my Lord seated on a high and lofty throne; and the
skirts of His robe filled the Temple. Seraphs stood in attendance on Him. Each
of them had six wings; with two he covered his face, with two he covered his
legs and with two he would fly. And they would call to each other, “Holy, holy,
holy! The Lord of Hosts! His presence fills the earth!” (6:1-3).
This is the kedushah . It shows up three times in our Shabbat liturgy …in the Yotzer Or, during the Amidah and in the Musaf service. According to Rabbi Elbogen (Poland, 20th c) merkavah mystics in the 600s believed that the kedushah would take us there…to God…and that it was our work to bring there to here.
In any case, come late to the service or early, it was set by rabbis so all could say the kedushah.
And now, come late or early, maybe we say it or not. But it might be a nice thing to do. There’s even a little yoga move that comes along with it. You get to lift your heels off the ground three times. You can even go a bit higher each time.
.
Yes, here we have the anthropomorphized God but if we describe ourselves as God-like why can’t we describe Him like us? So even if it doesn’t directly deal with our personal issues the kedushah is not something we want to bury. The sages (for a reason) have tied it to this week’s parsha Yitro and to the receiving of Torah.
Let’s look at the prophetic writing. It seems (in the words of both Isaiah and Ezekiel) we are being shown the steps to God right at the God-place. For a moment let’s see the steps as strings on a violin. The strings are so close together that their holy sounds are barely tenable to human ears, if at all. Open the strings up a bit and we can both listen and see. We see the fire and thunder as they light-up Mt Sinai and manifest as Torah. Open the strings up more and we see and hear the Ten Commandments. Open them up more and we see the boundaries of Mt Sinai (and of the outlying areas). Finally we see them in each of us and in a man named Yitro. It’s Yitro who really brings it all down to earth through his advice to his son-in-law Moshe.
Some of us call this miracle of God-access vibrations. Some steps. Some levels. They are the sefirot as well as each breath we breathe. They are whatever it takes to keep us moving one thought, one hand-length, one cubit, one moment closer to the Holy One. According to Talmudic rabbis they are the steps of Jacob’s ladder. The ladder is equated to Mt Sinai. The people stand on the nether part of Mt Sinai. The top of the ladder reaches to heaven. The angels ascend and descend the steps of the ladder. Moshe ascends and descends Mt Sinai. (Gen Rabbah 68:12).
Even within each commandment we see a myriad of steps depending on the Talmudic rabbi doing the analysis. But really, each of these devrit carry a utopia of vibrations highly reflective of God and therefore capable of many different personal reflections. That’s part of the beauty of Torah, each word, each white space.
Finally,Yitro (with his seven names) instructs Moshe how to help others in a hierarchical manner. Moshe is to delegate to people who (according to position) are to delegate to others. Yitro originally comes to the Israelites because of the power of Torah (Bab Talmud Zevachim 116a). In his advice he actually advises Moshe to apply this construct of steps or levels to the healing of the Israelite people.
In a sentence, Yitro’s advice is simply a transmission of the kedushah (chanted by angels) for humans like us.
So, may we open ourselves to the kedushah and therefore to the Torah in each other. May we see that each state of being (from the refuge cities to the Holy Mountain) is necessary for the whole picture. May we say the kedushah in our own form to the people we love, to those in our community. May we say it in heightened form when in prayer and in even more heightened form when we, as well, go to the mountain. May we heal each other as we move breath after breath to the kedushah beyond the kedushah…to the magnificent silence of God.
This is the kedushah . It shows up three times in our Shabbat liturgy …in the Yotzer Or, during the Amidah and in the Musaf service. According to Rabbi Elbogen (Poland, 20th c) merkavah mystics in the 600s believed that the kedushah would take us there…to God…and that it was our work to bring there to here.
In any case, come late to the service or early, it was set by rabbis so all could say the kedushah.
And now, come late or early, maybe we say it or not. But it might be a nice thing to do. There’s even a little yoga move that comes along with it. You get to lift your heels off the ground three times. You can even go a bit higher each time.
.
Yes, here we have the anthropomorphized God but if we describe ourselves as God-like why can’t we describe Him like us? So even if it doesn’t directly deal with our personal issues the kedushah is not something we want to bury. The sages (for a reason) have tied it to this week’s parsha Yitro and to the receiving of Torah.
Let’s look at the prophetic writing. It seems (in the words of both Isaiah and Ezekiel) we are being shown the steps to God right at the God-place. For a moment let’s see the steps as strings on a violin. The strings are so close together that their holy sounds are barely tenable to human ears, if at all. Open the strings up a bit and we can both listen and see. We see the fire and thunder as they light-up Mt Sinai and manifest as Torah. Open the strings up more and we see and hear the Ten Commandments. Open them up more and we see the boundaries of Mt Sinai (and of the outlying areas). Finally we see them in each of us and in a man named Yitro. It’s Yitro who really brings it all down to earth through his advice to his son-in-law Moshe.
Some of us call this miracle of God-access vibrations. Some steps. Some levels. They are the sefirot as well as each breath we breathe. They are whatever it takes to keep us moving one thought, one hand-length, one cubit, one moment closer to the Holy One. According to Talmudic rabbis they are the steps of Jacob’s ladder. The ladder is equated to Mt Sinai. The people stand on the nether part of Mt Sinai. The top of the ladder reaches to heaven. The angels ascend and descend the steps of the ladder. Moshe ascends and descends Mt Sinai. (Gen Rabbah 68:12).
Even within each commandment we see a myriad of steps depending on the Talmudic rabbi doing the analysis. But really, each of these devrit carry a utopia of vibrations highly reflective of God and therefore capable of many different personal reflections. That’s part of the beauty of Torah, each word, each white space.
Finally,Yitro (with his seven names) instructs Moshe how to help others in a hierarchical manner. Moshe is to delegate to people who (according to position) are to delegate to others. Yitro originally comes to the Israelites because of the power of Torah (Bab Talmud Zevachim 116a). In his advice he actually advises Moshe to apply this construct of steps or levels to the healing of the Israelite people.
In a sentence, Yitro’s advice is simply a transmission of the kedushah (chanted by angels) for humans like us.
So, may we open ourselves to the kedushah and therefore to the Torah in each other. May we see that each state of being (from the refuge cities to the Holy Mountain) is necessary for the whole picture. May we say the kedushah in our own form to the people we love, to those in our community. May we say it in heightened form when in prayer and in even more heightened form when we, as well, go to the mountain. May we heal each other as we move breath after breath to the kedushah beyond the kedushah…to the magnificent silence of God.
Subscribe to Chava Torah... (RSS)
0 comments:
Post a Comment