“Isru Chag”

 A brief thought:

The day after a Jewish Holiday is called “Isru Chag”, which literally means to “bind the Holiday”. 

Aside from the technical reason for the name, which has to do with the Temple service, it dawned on me that perhaps there can also be another, more personal meaning, for the name. During the Holidays we stretch ourselves to attain that unique Holiday consciousness. When the Holiday concludes, we need to go back to our normative lives. There can be, and ought to be, a gap between these two states of consciousness. But it’s not the way of Judaism to allow such a gap to remain.

So on this day, we “bind” the consciousness of the Holiday to our normative lives. We download the light of Holiday consciousness into the vessels of our normative lives, infusing our normative lives with that wonderful expansiveness which only a Holiday can provide. We literally “bind the Holiday”.

To what? To our normative lives! 

Taking a Ride

 To read a story is to take a ride on somebody else’s imagination. But to write a story is to take a ride on your own imagination. 

Each has its own unique place. At times, imagination can ignite imagination.

—————O—————

New Male/Female Paradigm

 Absolute Infinity is neither endlessly contracted nor endlessly expanded, neither infinitely small nor infinitely large. Rather it subsumes both tendencies in seamless transcendence.

It’s good that my blog comes with a disclaimer that my views and insights are subject to change as I grow and flow on my life journey. Please don’t expect me to report on every shift in perspective. Firstly, many of them likely occur imperceptibly. Secondly, I don’t always necessarily have the time to write about them. Accordingly, I rely on my general disclaimer to cover me in such situations.

However, a recent big shift occurred in a noticeable way which I want to briefly share because I want to avoid misunderstandings. For about ten years, I believed that God’s Oneness is the source of the cosmic feminine and His Infinity is the is the source of the cosmic masculine. If you look back on this blog, you will find some literary output expressing this perspective.

Obviously, when philosophically examined, God’s Oneness and Infinity mean the same thing. However, I believed that within emanated and created reality they expressed themselves in two different ways; the Oneness as contracted, feminine, and the Infinity as expansive, masculine. 

Today, I think of both cosmic feminine and masculine as expressions of latent tendencies within God’s Absolute Infinity itself. The tendency towards inwardness, infinite contraction or smallness, is the source of the cosmic feminine. It’s like the infinity of a point. In contrast, the tendency towards outwardness, infinite expansion, is the source of the cosmic masculine. It is like the infinity of a line.

Thus, it makes sense that the cosmic feminine expresses herself as a vessel to receive. Forming a vessel and attracting what fills it are tendencies towards inwardness, depth. In contrast, cosmic masculinity is typically expressed by the role of  giving. Healthy giving is an act of seeking new territory to fill, an outward expansion

Since God’s Infinity is Seamlessly One these tendencies do not reveal themselves in God’s Being. However, as with many of His other attributes, they find expression within the confines of emanated and created reality. 

As I am currently working on a book, I do not have the time to write an essay on some of the ramifications of this paradigm. However, I provided the core concepts which can be applied further to explain many phenomena.

               ————-o————

There’s More to Me

There’s more to Me,

Than the Me I see.

For I am a roaring Nile,

Caught up in self denial.

Such is the story of a soul,

A vast and supreme whole,

Reaching into a tiny hole,

While pursuing a divine goal.

Yet, the Me crunched inside of, 

the hole,

Pines to know the Me beyond,

that’s whole.

 

-——O——-

The Fruit of Time

Unlike what it may seem, 

the future vast

is NOT the fruit of 

father past 

impregnating 

the present flash.

Rather, 

the “fruit of time” 

is the present flash,

borne of

father past 

impregnating 

mother,

future vast.

———-O———

The Saintly Dispute

For over the past two centuries, many in the Jewish world wondered why the Vilna Gaon opposed the Chassidic movement. I do not claim to know for sure. Rebbe Nachman cautions that disputes between Judaism’s great saints are rarely, if ever, about what they appears like to the masses. But I would like to offer the following tentative possibility.

Based on the stories I heard and the style of each side’s approach to Torah, it seems to me that the Gaon was uniquely sensitive to the soul of time. He was concerned with where the timeline of history and destiny stood at that moment. What may have been paramount to him was not to compromise the flow of this particular stream.

In contrast, the Baal Shem Tov and his followers were uniquely sensitive to the soul of European Jewry. They were concerned with the suffering and the needs of the people. What may have been paramount on their side was to elevate the material and spiritual state of their flocks, even if such efforts may have led to anachronistic results; such as solving a present day issue by drawing down a spiritual light from the messianic future. 

If this was the case, then each side had important concerns and who am I to take sides? All I can do is resonate with where my soul is genuinely rooted, while admiring the Torah contributions and concerns of the other side as well.

   ————O————

You & i

שמע ישראל…

There’s no outside You,

  There’s no inside You.

 Thus, there’s only You!

ברוך שם…

Fragmentation only exists,

  As an illusion which persists.

ואהבתה…

You and i will never part,

  If i but grasp this in my heart.

————O———