At the moment, our Tariqa Eliyahu HaNabi ‘meets’ online as a Facebook Group. Here is the Purim Greeting posted there recently.
On Prostration during Purim
Since the time of Rabbenu Abraham ibn Abi’l-Rabi’ (one of the early leaders of the Egyptian Pietist Movement and Rabbenu Abraham ben HaRambam’s teacher on the Jewish Sufi Path) , our movement has promoted three kinds of prostration.
(i) The contemplative-meditative prostration known as the “Elijah” or “Prophetic posture”;
(ii) The liturgical form of prostration used in communal worship (especially in the Amidah but also in the Psukei de Zimra and in other parts of congregational liturgy);
(iii) The spontaneous act of prostration which sometimes arises during both formal liturgy and in private superorogatory devotions. In its first and third forms and it also features in the Abulafian and Safed systems of meditation. In the third form of spontaneous prostration, the gesture is usually one of profound self abasement in Awe of the Divine Majesty, anguished repentance, or simply a gesture of submission and silent worship.
These are the forms of prostration that our movement practised for centuries and which we now intend to renew in this Tariqa.
Several of our members use some, or all, of those forms of prostration on a daily or regular basis.
Some only occasionally.
And some not at all.
It seems to me that some use of the gesture should be practiced by all who regard themselves to be aspiring Jewish-Sufis in the tradition of the Egyptian Pietists, and especially by Tariqa Eliyahu members— who have joined this group in a gesture of dedication to the “Special Way”.
Even in public worship it is possible to prostrate oneself mentally (while bowing physically in the ‘normal’ manner) during the Amidah. This is especially relevant in the case of senior and infirm members for whom physical prostration is difficult or impossible. They might hold in mind or visualise that they are actually prostrating themselves whilst bowing normally. In this manner the devotion can also be performed by the hasid when davening in a minyan of Jews not following the suluk al-Khass without disturbing potentially unsympathetic congregants .
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Tikkunei Zohar 20-21 compares Purim to Yom Kippur (Yom HaKippurim) even though these two festivals might seem to be at opposite poles in relation to solemnity/partying fasting/ feasting.
In the Purim story, Mordechai refuses to prostrate himself before Haman.
At the core of the Atonement ritual the High Priest and all the congregation of Israel prostrate themselves at the mention of the Divine Name.
Might I suggest that we make Purim a time when all our members might make a (physical or spiritual) prostration as part of our Tariqa’s celebration of the Festival. Perhaps (mentally) during congregational worship.....or perhaps as a single act of private devotion at home during meditation, bearing both Mordechai and the Kohen Gadol in mind, and acknowledging no power or deity but the One G-d, before whose Name we bow and bend the knee.
Purim Sameah!!
nachman davies
Safed 2023