Professor
Paul B. Fenton has advised us that it is
highly unlikely that the Egyptian Pietists would have made use of Islamic/Arabic dhikr texts
paraliturgically, and also that they would almost certainly have performed any
private or secluded dhikr in hebrew.(2)
We have no surviving record of any Jewish-Sufi
congregational dhikr that may have
been practiced in the private
synagogues and oratories of the Cairene Hasidim,
but this is not surprising given that it would have been somewhat clandestinely performed
anyway, to avoid persecution from unsympathetic Muslim– and sometimes Jewish–
local residents.
The
Maimuni-Innayati Sufis (and many of our own Tariqa members) are more liberal in
their choice to use Arabic and/or Islamic
texts during Dhikr. In the Israeli Tariqa Ibrahim, I imagine this
is also the case. Some
see the sharing of hebrew and arabic
texts as a way to bridge political and religious gaps through active
coexistence in worship. This is laudable in so many ways in our era of politico-religious strife, but my focus
here in this short homily is on
contemplative practice rather than
politics. What
follows is derived and developed from a
longer essay on Dhikr for Yom Kippur (2023) that was written specifically for Tariqa Eliyahu muridin.
ooo0ooo
The
liturgy of Yom Kippur gives us a most significant text that we regard as our Tariqa’s
pre-eminent dhikr mantra.
יי הוא
האלהים
“AD-NAI HE IS GOD”
This
declamatory text marks the
moment when we make the day’s
last pleas for Divine Mercy at Neilah. It is
repeated many times, usually seven, and is often executed with gasps and breathless urgency as the metaphorical
gates of prayer close. It comes immediately before the final act of Yom
Kippur—the tekiah gedolah of the
shofar and is a cry from the
heart— a passionate declaration of faith and a final expression of entreaty and, it must be said, relief.
On Yom
Kippur, the sevenfold repetition of this
mantra-like phrase (often fourteenfold if the shaliach tzibbur recites
it first) reminds me of the repetition
that is such a strong feature of the congregational and
private forms of sufi dhikr— indeed it is the
third and concluding mantra that we use each Wednesday in our Hazkarah
litany in the Safed Jewish-Sufi group.
ooo0ooo
The text “Adonai Hu HaElohim” originates
in the biblical tale of Elijah’s victory
over the Baalist cult on Mount Carmel. Consequently
Tariqa members refer to it as “The
Elijan Mantra”.
It is a declaration made by the witnesses to
that fiery Elijan miracle which is described in chapter 18 of the first book of
Kings:
וירא כל־העם ויפלו על־פניהם ויאמרו
יי הוא האלהים
יי הוא האלהים
And all the people prostrated themselves (fell
on their faces) and they said:
“The LORD, He is G-d!
The LORD, He is G-d!”
Melachim1,18:39
Why is
this specific text so significant to our Tariqa?
We are Tariqa
Eliyahu HaNabi and the
Prophet Elijah is the root (as it were)
of our uniquely Jewish silsila. This text might be described as “our” dhikr
text par excellence because it was first uttered in response to a biblical miracle performed by our Master,
Eliyahu HaNabi himself.
It
is clear from its liturgical eminence on
Yom Kippur that any contemplative Jew
might profitably recite the Elijan Mantra in private meditation or perhaps use it as a hegyon
ha-lev text in
contemplative reflection. But because of
our Uwaysi relationship of hitkashrut
with
Eliyahu HaNabi/Al Khidr, for us
it has a special resonance.
But the
there is another reason that I have
suggested that the Elijan Mantra has a
certain potential pre-eminence for us as
aspiring Sufis. I claim this is so because there are several remarkable and
highly fortuitous connections between our text and the language used in
Islamic-Sufi dhikr—“fortuitous”
because anything which
brings together the Sufis of Islam and the Sufis of Judaism (without compromising either
Sharia or Halacha) will
bring closer the time when “He shall be One and His
Name will be One”. (iii)
There
are certain linguistic and theological
resonances present in the text of the Elijan
Mantra that I would like to bring
out for you. I would like to try to reveal some of its inner light—
and its potential for generating a
little achdut between Islamic and
Jewish sufis and aspirant sufis.
I will explain.
The Shahada is the Muslim declaration of witness and consists of two phrases. The second phrase refers
to the role of the Islamic Prophet but
the first section (which is a
declaration of monotheistic singularity) is a phrase which all Jews and
Muslims could recite together
without fear of any compromise.
The most universally praised dhikr text in
Islamic Sufism— and one which is used by
all the Islamic-Sufi Orders— is derived from the first half of the Shahada.
It might
be rendered as:
La ilaha il Allah
There is
no god but G-d
The inter-relation of this Muslim text with the Jewish Elijan Mantra is self evident—both are stating the same fundamental principal of monotheism.
Whether any personal name can be ascribed to G-d in Himself—the Divine Essence—is a disputed matter in both our religions, but if we choose to regard the name “Allah” simply as the Judeo-Arabic term “G-d” ” (which is the way it was used by our Maimuni forebears who conversed and wrote in Arabic using this same Divine Name)then I propose that our members should be at ease and indeed happy to use the first Shahada phrase in their devotions, even in its Judeo-Arabic form.
In private devotions or silent dhikr, if a particular Jewish murid had theological or halachic difficulties in using the Arabic formula, their (in my opinion unwarranted) discomfort would be removed if they were to use the Hebrew Elijan Mantra as a kind of Shahada variant–ideally doing so in intentional solidarity with our Muslim-Sufi brothers and sisters.
The most
commonly used shorter mantra phrases used by Islamic Sufis are :
*the Divine Name ALLAH (G-d)
*the
Divine Name HU (Huwa) (He)
*and
the exclamatory phrase Ya Huwa (Oh He!)
In Hebrew “hu” הוא is usually a simple pronoun meaning “he”-––but readers may be surprised to learn that in the Talmud we are also informed that הוא is itself a Divine Name. (iv)
It is
also significant that Yah (with a final H) is not only a Judeo-Arabic
exclamation, it is also a biblical Divine
Name.
This is
much more than a merely fortuitous set of coincidences. It seems
to me to be almost Providential. One
might see in this a foreshadowing
of a time when "His Name Will be One".
oooOooo
Rabbi
Lee Weissman is an acknowledged expert on the
Judeo-Sufic writings of Bahya
Ibn Pequda, and is also a much valued member of Tariqa Eliyahu HaNabi. He recently had this to add to my comments:
Rabbi Shmuel Miller, z'tz'l who was a genuine expert in the teachings of Rabbi Avraham ben haRambam would have "hazkara" in his home and it was centered on the "Elijan Mantra." He used to emphasize that the "Hu" was to be meditated on as a "limiter" to say "He AND ONLY He" making this even closer to the message of "la illaha il Allah"
oooOooo
There
are so many words in the formal liturgy
of Yom Kippur, and hardly any space for
personal contemplative prayer.
*Many of
our members will be (more or less) willingly incarcerated in a synagogue (as
though in a communal khalwa-cell)
for the
day.
*Some of our members will endeavour to recite every single word of every single service.
*Some of our members will choose to zone-out during
those services.
*Some
will prefer not to recite all the texts
in the machsor;
*Some may not use a machsor or attend public services at all!
The Elijan Mantra might
give you a dhikr focus that can be recited silently in one's mind—either as preparation
for Yom Kippur (where it already makes
an appearance in Sephardi Selichot)—or during the Night and Day of Yom Kippur itself.
The long
night of Yom Kippur after one has
returned home and/or fulfilled one’s
liturgical obligations at Kol Nidrei-Arbit is perhaps the most ideal time for such a dhikr practice. But it might
also be a silent mental practice that one might perform during the long daylight hours
of Yom Kippur when the Shaliach Tzibbur is up front in
full liturgical and verbal flow.
oooOooo
AN ALTERNATIVE FORM OF THE ELIJAN MANTRA
In our weekly meetings in Safed,we recite the entire Elijan Mantra congregationally, over and over vocally as part of the Litany which prepares us for the longer period of silent contemplation that always follows. The Litany (Wird) ends with an exclamation of the sound HUUUUUU! This is the form in which it appears on the graphic that heads this essay.
Some
members of Tariqa Eliyahu might
prefer a lengthier form, especially if they want to use it privately on Yom Kippur Evening and
so, for them, I might
suggest a special version whose purpose I will first explain.
In many Islamic Sufi Orders, progressively shorter forms of invocation are often used in dhikr recitations. Sometimes this simplification is said to be directly related to Stations and States— but many Orders see this progression as representing the progressive stripping away of inessential detail to reveal (as it were) something of the Divine Essence—a clearer reflection of The Real Itself.
Many Islamic Sufi masters would view the dhikr of no dhikr, where verbal and conceptual thought is all but obliterated, as being the ultimate aim of the Sufi act of Recollection that we are considering here.
Sufic thought,in both its Muslim and Judaic presentations, insists that the more speechless we become in attempting to describe the Divine,and the more perplexed we are in attempting to express any detail relating to G-d––the closer we are to "tasting" an element of His reality.
And so, with that in mind here is a suggested
format in which each line may repeated
tens, scores, or hundreds of times
before moving on to the next ––vocally or
silently––with each line diminishing in length until,hopefully, it all
disappears into a breathing silence that is
liberated from any text or words.
May we all be written and sealed in the Book of Life for a good and Sweet New Year
September 2023
Safed
(Updated
September 28 2005)
NOTES
(i) These statements and texts are discussed in
a more detailed essay on the general subject of Dhikr
in Tariqa Eliyahu which you may
read here: https://jewishsufis.blogspot.com/2024/08/dhikr-remembrance-of-g-d.html
(ii) see
Paul B. Fenton, “La Pratique de la retraite spirituelle (khalwa) chez
les judéo-soufis d’Egypte,” in Giuseppe Cecere, et al., eds., Les mystiques
juives, chrétiennes et musulmanes dans l’Egypte médiévale (Cairo: Institut
français d’archéologie orientale, 2013), 211-252
(iii) see
Zecharya 14:9
(iv) Shabbat 104a
Acknowledgement
I would
like to thank my friend Sheikh
Paul Salahuddin Armstrong
https://paulsarmstrong.com/biography/
for checking the accuracy of my statements concerning Islamic practice.