Many of us are familiar with the basic elements of Rabbenu Abraham ben HaRambam’s projected syngagogue reforms. Chief among these are the postural aids to devotion that involved the congregation kneeling, standing and bowing, and practising various forms of prostration.
These were all believed (by him and by his circle) to have been Jewish liturgical practices that had merely fallen into desuetude, and Rabbenu Abraham defended this belief countless times in several of his works.
Prostration was
freely practised in private Jewish-Sufi
liturgy and personal devotion and this is clearly indicated in a responsum
of Rabbenu Abraham himself. Elisha Russ-Fishbane
describes and translates it for us as follows:
The questioner was
careful to note that the pietists comported themselves differently when praying
in the main synagogues than when congregating in their private prayer circles.
“When they pray in a mixed group in the
synagogues... they pray together according to the established custom, so as not
to burden the congregation with something that it cannot sustain,” thus making
themselves indistinguishable from other worshipers (except perhaps for their mode
of dress) out of deference to the congregation.
But it is another matter “when they pray alone in their homes or when
they gather for public prayer in houses of study (be-vet midrashim).” On
these occasions, they sit for the “hymns of praise” (pisuqe zimra) and for the
blessings of the recitation of shema‘ in fear and awe, their faces
toward the holy [ark], which is in the direction of the land of Israel and
Jerusalem and the Temple of the Lord ... taking it upon themselves to sit in
the same way in which they stand for the prayer [toward Jerusalem]. They bow
down to the ground and prostrate when bowing in the qadish and qedushah,
and some or most of them prostrate to the ground whenever they are overcome
with humility and great concentration. So, too, they prostrate instead of
bowing from the waist at the beginning and end of the “forefathers” and
“thanksgiving” blessings [of the standing prayer]. They similarly prostrate at
certain moments in the “hymns of praise,” the blessings of the recitation of shema‘,
and the blessings of the [standing] prayer. In sum, they view their bowings
and prostrations as a sign of [heightened] concentration.”
Rabenu Abraham Ben HaRambam trans. Elisha Russ-Fishbane
in: Judaism,
Sufism, and the Pietists of Medieval Egypt,Oxford University Press, 2015, page135 (emphases are added here)
It is clearly
indicated above that the Pietists made use of these postures during liturgical
recitation, but it is not often known
that there was (and is) a form of
prostration that was used by the Jewish Sufis in private devotions specifically as an aid to contemplative
meditation.
The Elijah Posture
This form of prostration [תזייק tazyiq/tazzayuq] has
been called “The Elijah Posture” and the “Prophetic Posture”.... the former
because we have a clear reference to it
having been used by Eliyahu HaNabi (I Kings 18:42) and the latter because it
has been used (significantly by all three Abrahamic religions) as a posture to
increase one’s receptivity to inspiration.
This
posture (ראש בין הברכיים rosh bein ha-birkhayim) is clearly something quite separate
from the prostrations that are part of the
formal recited liturgy. It is a prophetic
meditational device geared specifically to prepare and encourage the
practitioner to become receptive to a
degree of ruaḥ
ha-qodesh. This is clearly its function in the
following description by Rav Hai Gaon (939 – 1048):
[For] one who is worthy...when he seeks
to gaze at the [Divine] Chariot and the palaces of the supernal angels,there
are methods to follow: He should fast for
a certain number of days and place his head between his knees, and
softly chant many specific songs and praises towards the earth. Thereby he will gaze within — like one
who sees seven palaces with his very eyes, as if he is entering from palace to
palace seeing what is inside each one.
(translated
and quoted in Daniel C.Matt, Becoming
Elijah,page 175)
This passage
is especially significant for Jewish-Sufis as it clearly indicates the related
Sufi-adopted practice of extended fasting and (even more remarkably) the practice of zhikr
(referred to as “specific songs and praises”).
Insights into the use of the rosh
bein ha-birkhayim posture as a contemplative practice abound in the writings of
the later kabbalists. For example, in
Eben ha-Shoham(1538) R. Yosef Ibn Sayaḥ advises the
practitioner :
“To isolate himself and meditate in solitude on
matters known to us in this wisdom, and to bend his head like a reed between
his knees until all his senses are numb. Then he shall see the supernal lights
manifestly, and not just suggestively.”
(quoted in Moshe Hallamish, An Introduction to the Kabbalah, page 78)
How do we know that
it was viewed this way by the Egyptian Pietists?
We know for certain that prostration was used
in this way from a manuscript fragment authored by one of Rabbenu Abraham ben
HaRambam’s own group—a manuscript that
bears a close resemblance to the style
of his father-inlaw, R.Hananel ben
Shmuel, and may even have been written by him.
Professor Paul B.
Fenton translates it for us is as
follows:
“ And
Elijah went to the top of Carmel, and he
bowed himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees.(I Kings 18:42).
Elijah
seated himself and put his face between his knees, intending thereby to turn
away his attention and devote his meditation solely to this present pursuit. The nations [i.e., Sufis] have taken this
practice over from us and have adopted and adorned themselves with it [i.e.,
claim they originated this practice],whereby they sit in this position for a
whole day. They call it tazayyug,
i.e., the concealing of one’s face in the collar, i.e., the hem of one’s
garment.”
Paul B.
Fenton (trans)
from A JUDEO-ARABIC COMMENTARY ON THE HAFTAROT BY HANANEL BEN SEMUEL(?),ABRAHAM MAIMONIDES’ FATHER-IN-LAW, in Maimonidean Studies,ed., A.Hyman,Vol 1,Yeshiva University Press,New York,1990,p49
The concealment of
the face is familiar to us from the posture of Moses (at the burning bush and in the Cleft of the Rock) and of Elijah (at the threshold
of the cave). It is also practiced by
many during the first line of the Shema.
Most significantly, the faint memory of both the posture of prostration and the
concealment of the face are preserved in the act of nefilat hapayim (falling on the face)
during the Tahanun prayer which sometimes follows the Amidah.
Though the
recitation of this prayer has become associated with self-examination and with petitionary
prayer, it may well have originated in a practice of silent meditation
following formal congregational prayer— the period of reflection after tefilla
spoken of in Berachot 32b:24. As
such, it presents us with an opportunity to open our minds and hearts to the
possibility of receptive inspiration and provides us with a moment of khalwat dar anjuman in congregational worship.
But Tazayug/the Elijah Posture is quite distinct from the bowings, kneeling, and prostrations that Rabbenu Abraham promoted for congregational and private liturgy.
In our group's private devotions and vigils, in our personal zhikr and khalwa, Tazayug: The Posture of Elijah has a most special role to play in our contemplative practice as Jewish-Sufis.
©Nachman Davies
(from The Mitkarevim:Jewish Contemplatives and the
Return of Prophecy)
