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each one featuring a short Jewish-Sufi text for Hegyon HaLev (Lectio Divina)
In the Sh’ma we are commanded to love G-d “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might”— “bchol levav’cha,uv’chol nafsh’cha,uv’chol meodecha” (Deut 6:5).
However we translate the original hebrew—and there are many options, each with rich shades of meaning — the message of this text is clearly that we must be throroughly whole-hearted in the service of G-d, using absolutely everything that we are, and everything that we have in doing so.
This week’s Parsha (Sh'lach) includes a description of the mitzvah of tzitzit: the fringes one wears on one’s four-cornered garments to remember all the commandments of the Torah.
There are many traditional ways to tie the knots on these tassels, some simple and some extremely complex and decorative.
As an
expression of my allegiance to the
Jewish-Sufi hasidim of the middle-ages, I wear the “Rambam 7” tzitzit on my own talitot — as I am fortunate to have a friend here in Tzfat who knows how to tie them for me professionally.
As
you will have guessed this particular tying method uses seven very simple
knots.
Rabbenu
David ben Joshua Maimuni (1335–c.1414)—
One of the leading lights of our
Jewish-Sufi movement — saw a connection between the knots of the tzitzit and
our referenced Sh’ma phrase enjoining total dedication of
every part of one’s being in serving G-d.
R. David presents the seven knots as reminders of the way in which we are to use the five bodily senses of sight,
hearing, taste, touch, and smell, plus the super-senses of the intellect and
soul (heart and mind) in concert.....each
and every part of one’s being exercised
to the fullest extent possible in a unity of purpose. The physical
and the spiritual.....the apparent
and the hidden.....the demonstrable and the intuitive.
All.
We
know from R.David ben Joshua’s “Murshid” that this is
intended to produce a state where
the devotees may themselves become, as it were, a channel for activity of G-d in
this world—becoming in some sense, G-d’s eyes and hands. But for
this to happen, our devotion
needs to be utterly without reserve and
thoroughly whole-hearted.
The
commentary on the tzitzit to which I
refer comes from Rabbenu David ben
Joshua’s letter known as MS NLR Yevr.-Arab. (formerly II Firk. Yevr.-Arab.)
II 2170 . Here is the passage
on tzitzit translated by Professor Paul Fenton:
“As for the number of knots (required for the) ritual fringes, they vary in accordance with two opinions. The first is that man’s (body) is composed of four elements versus a single soul and therefore there are five knots. (Alternatively,) there are four threads which are borne by a single fringe, and these four threads are borne by a single hole. This second analogy is more noble.
As for those that tie seven knots, they consider the five senses, the soul, and the intellect — a total of seven.
This prompts them (to recall) that the faculties, the body, one’s soul, and one’s intellect, the most sublime together with the most coarse, all incline toward God and engage in introverting their outwardness, and extroverting their inwardness.
It is for this reason that the verse states: “with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deut 6:5), referring to the intellect, soul, and body together.
It is written, furthermore, “and you shall see it and remember the commandments of the Lord:(Numbers 15:39)—that is,the Divine commandments are witnesses within us and remind us of that of which we are continuously forgetful.”
(Professor
Fentons translation [emphasis mine] from
R. David’s “EPISTLE ON ESOTERIC MATTERS BY DAVID II MAIMONIDES FROM THE GENIZA”;Studies
in Ancient Oriental Civilisation No 66, University of Chicago)
Shabbat
Shalom!!
Nachman Davies
Tzfat
June 26 2024