This
week's Parsha Behaalotcha refers to
the Lights of the Menorah. Here is an extract from a short Hegyon HaLev Commentary that
I wrote on the subject of Light—for the
Jewish Contemplatives website in 2010.
כי־עמך
מקור חיים באורך נראה־אור
For the Well of Life is in You
And in Your Light we see Light.
Psalm 36:10
"The
key to our spiritual liberation is not to shout at the dark but to light a
candle. As many have observed, a small flame can fill a very large dark space
with light. I read last week that (in deepest darkness, far away from
artificial light) a small candle flame can sometimes be seen by the human eye
from a distance of up to five miles.
The flame of prayer is a bright
reminder of the Original Light. Just because something is hidden does not mean
that it is not powerful. It is by the light of the kind of prayerfulness that we call devekut
that (the prophet) Joseph was able to interpret dreams, for the light of
contemplative prayer is a guiding lamp on the path towards the near-prophetic
state of Ruach ha-Kodesh.
Devekut means “cleaving to God” in utterly
devoted thought and action. When we pray and live in devekut we can
become “God’s intimate friends” (to use Abraham ben HaRambam’s term [as
translated by Wincelberg]). In that state we may sometimes become channels for
the Light. Not “directly” in the way a Prophet
does—but “reflectively” through receptive contemplative prayer.
The small light of Prayer is only
“small” in the way that a laser beam is small. In other words, its size belies
its enormous power.... for the light of contemplative prayer is drawn from the
Light of God Himself:
' For with You is the source of life,and in
Your light we shall see light.
Extend Your kindness to
those who know you
And your righteousness to
the upright of heart.'
(Psalm 36: 10)
It is no accident that a hierarchy is
present in those verses. They describe a process:
—G-d originates Light.
—He makes this Light our
point of connection with His Presence and our guiding beacon.
—When we are “living in
intimate relation” to those two statements,in contemplative prayer, we can
become potential channels of that Light ourselves.
In other words: Our act of prayer
itself is sometimes the means by which the Divine Compassion/Chesed is “extended” to others.
Nor is it just our prayer that can become such
a channel -our whole life can become suffused with this Light, at least
potentially.
As members of the Jewish People, each one of
us has made covenant with the God of Israel and each one of us lives a life of
dedication in His service.
Whether we are engaged in prayer or washing the dishes, davening the liturgy or caring for our sick relatives, studying the Parshah or busy in our “secular” employment—we all have the potential to be “all prayer” as that little light of inestimable power can enter through the tiniest of cracks.
oooOooo
And there is another way in which we can see something of The Light:
כי־עמך
מקור חיים באורך נראה־אור
Your Word is a Lamp to my feet,
and a
Light on my Path
Psalm 119:105
G-d speaks to each one of us in our
hearts during receptive contemplation, but he also speaks to us through the scriptures. His servants the
prophets have given us texts through which we can glimpse some of the depths of
the Divine Plan even if it we do not quite understand the half of it ourselves.
The words of the Torah and the Prophets and
the Writings are channels of that Original Light in a way which can open
the gates of our constricted consciousness to show us glimpses not just of the
path to be taken but also something of the Expansive Realm of God Himself.
By reading the words of our scriptures
prayerfully in Hegyon ha-Lev (Lectio Divina) we may find that we are able to receive a form of revelation ourselves. It may not be
“prophetic revelation”, but it is related to prophecy in its directness.
Our “study which is prayer” and our “prayer which is study” are the dual guides on the road out of the spiritual captivity of our personal small-mindedness. They are like twin angels, keruvim of light, which show us the way to the Merchav-Yah, the wide open consciousness of the World of Thought- and their names are Observe (shamor) and Remember (zachor)."
oooOooo
Looking at those words again fifteen years after they were first written, I can see that I was describing khalwat dar anjuman—the "shiviti consciousness" of being in constant remembrance of the Divine Presence that R. Abraham ben Ha Rambam called Khalwa batina. The term "prayer of devekut" was describing the sufi state of fana-baqa.
Its final words hint at the Light(s) of Shabbat....and they also seem to point to the intertwined relationship between our
religious observances and our freer contemplative activity during Dhikr. As the Sufis of Islam and our own Jewish-Sufi Maimuni teachers never tire of reminding us: Halacha (Sharia) and Contemplation (Khalwa) go hand in hand.
Like the spectrum of
Light itself—each wavelength has its own
character—but all is G-d.
Nachman Davies
Spain 2010
Safed June 2025