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| Water and Cakes of Divine Sustenance (Eliyahu HaNabi on the Path to the Cave) |
This weeks Torah reading (Parshat Massei) records the stages on the Journey of our Nation from Egypt to the
Promised Land. The Sufis wrote
entire manuals based on the concept of the
adept’s passing through various stages (Maqamat) and States (Ahwal) on the
path to nearness/union with G-d.
From the time of Ibn Paquda’s “Duties of the Heart” onwards , our Jewish Sufi Masters copied (then adapted and developed) the highly detailed Maqamat literature which they had studied in the Sufic manuals.
The Islamic-Sufi Maqamat concept may well have been borrowed from Jewish ascetic traditions that had found their way into the Talmud. (see Mishna Sota 9)
You can read my brief exposition of this on our website.
Click on this link to read it:
“Maqamat: STATIONS ON THE PATH”
(A pdf of this
document is availble on request. The
formatting of the text is better in the
pdf!)
ooo0ooo
Brief Hegyon HaLev
* Our spiritual journey can never end as our Divine
goal is Ein Sof (“without End”).
* Our state (hal) and our station (maqam) on the Path are the
secret of G-d.
* No human can ever be truly sure that they have arrived or passed above any one of the stations. Only G-d knows.
* But both Islamic Sufis and Jewish Sufis share one certain opinion about reaching the goal: One has not “arrived” until one has reached perfect equanimity/hishtavut.
* Our task is simply to do our best and leave judgements and accounting to the Divine Judge.
Take another look with me, for a moment, at that painting at the head of this post.
Each Shabbat we reach a Station on a kind of ascending path on a spiritual spiral. Each Shabbat we have an intensified opportunity to open our hearts to receive his Peace and his Rest. The six working days are a time when we draw sustenance from the spiritual food we receive on Shabbat....and they are also the time when we look forward to the next "Shabbat rest-stop" on the journey.
Like Eliyahu HaNabi at his "station" on the way to the Cave of Encounter (Melachim I9:6):
May we be nourished by the “cakes” and “water” (of blessing and strength; of intuition and inspiration) that G-d might send to sustain us on our spiritual and ascetic journey......
and May we learn how to prepare our souls to receive them.
Shabbat
Shalom
Nachman Davies
Safed
August 2 2024