Introduction
Each “school” of mysticism or spirituality
has its own particular “path”— usually
derived from the actual experiences of its founders and leading members, and almost always
rooted in what they consider to be an
ancient tradition. This is as true of the Jews who formed our Pietist
movement in Mediaeval Cairo, as it
is of the Safed Kabbalists, the Christian Desert Fathers, Carmelites, and Carthusians— or of the Sufis of Islam.
That Juan
de la Cruz, Rabbenu David ben Joshua
Maimuni, Ibn Arabi, and Rumi should
share the same (or very similar)
spiritual experiences should not
be surprising— as each of them was trying to meet the same G-d seen through different lenses. The source of their similar experiences was not so much an ancestral or tribal culture or a
monolithic mesorah, but their personal experience of contact with
the Divine: the only True Teacher, whatever language, text, or
method might be
used as a medium of communication
and instruction.
Some
founders of these “schools” leant heavily on traditional texts and methods. Others made their connection to
ancient practice rather more symbolic and, being less afraid of innovation, they might take a
basic traditional principle and then develop it using their creative (and
sometimes inspired) imagination.
Whatever recourse to historical memory that their founders may have had,and whatever proportion of re-imagining or free creative renewal they may have applied to source material— each Kabbalistic
School, Sufi Tariqa, or Christian monastic Order has its
own distinct focus and methods—an ethos
and a set of principles and practices (Adab) which it encourages its members to use
and promote as a way to develop their
own truly personal and individual journey.
Tariqa Eliyahu is no exception to this general rule.
The Egyptian Hasidim of the mediaeval era were the first flowering of a fully-fledged “movement” in
Jewish-Sufism. The sufi-derived work of Bahya Ibn Paquda (1050-1120) gained great
popularity but it never produced a “movement”. Like our Cairene forebears in the movement, our Tariqa seeks to “reimagine” the elements of spiritual practice that may
have been elements in the curriculum (as it were) of the biblical Bnei haNevi’im (the Sons of the Prophets).
The use of our imagination in forming our
“path” is necessary because the historical evidence of that biblical curriculum
is minimal.
We can, however, be certain when identifying
the two main elements in the path
of the Bnei haNevi’im:
KHALWA
(solitude/retreats/contemplation)
and
SEMA (Music/chanting).
SEMA (music and
chanting)
is given a secondary and preparatory role in our Tariqa. Music was undoubtedly
of great significance to the Sons of the
Prophets and also to the mediaeval Egyptian pietists and we have many
mentions of such “Sufic” musical performance in the Maimuni texts.*1
These musical elements were designed to
induce ecstatic experience,expanded consciousness, and various levels of
prophetic inspiration. In our
meetings we begin with a short period of
mantra chanting (sometimes with instruments
and movement) but, for our
“sober” tariqa, music or chanting is almost always featured as a comparitively brief introduction to a much longer period of silent worship and contemplation.
Instead, we have chosen to make KHALWA
our principal focus and practice: taking its various stages
and forms from the categories given by Rabbenu Abraham ben HaRambam in the Kifaya—namely:
(i) Extended Retreat: in full isolated seclusion;
(ii) Periodic Retreat: involving
short term residence and incubation in shrines, synagogues, or meditation
cells;
(iii) Domestic Retreat: where
the term refers to solitary contemplation and supererogatory devotions
performed at home as vigils or during other times of the day;
(iv) Interior Retreat: the
development of a ‘shiviti consciousness’ of the Divine
Presence at times of private
devotion or (ultimately) at all times and in all situations (khalwat
dar anjuman/khalwa batina).
To
these we have added a ‘new ’ practice derived from the writings
of R.Abraham He-Hasid:*2
(v) Communal Retreat: the practice of regular meetings for silent contemplation as
a Tariqa congregation. Such communal
khalwa is practiced at our weekly
meetings in Safed and is based on priciples related to the three-day “preparation and sanctification” of the Jewish nation at Sinai. Thus,in a very real
sense, we regard it as being a renewed practice rather than a wholly innovatory one.
But there is
a form of Sufic practice that involves both Khalwa-meditation and
Sema-music and chanting simultaneously. Furthermore, it is performed both by the individual on retreat
and by the community when it
meets as a congregation— This
practice is known as DHIKR, a term variously translated as “Invocation”
or “Remembrance”.
What follows is a brief exposition of the way our Tariqa understands this term.
It is not a comprehensive study
or a scholarly academic essay— rather it is intended as an introductory
text,written for the benefit of new
members: some of whom may have had a
limited experience or knowledge of Sufi practice before attending our meetings or applying to join our Tariqa.
ooo0ooo
What is Islamic-Sufi
Dhikr?
The term Dhikr has several nuances in Islamic
Sufism. It can mean the recitation of
Divine Names/Attributes; the
repetition of any mantra-phrase
as an act of worship, ritual concentration or trance inducement; the repetitive
chanting of a short text practiced to remove all
focus on oneself,on sensation, or on distracting ratiocination—all in the attempt to focus on G-d Alone. In these ways: one hopes to make some kind of ‘anamnesis’ of the Ineffable One,
immanent somehow— in/through the contemplative action of one’s soul/heart.
Many
Islamic-Sufi tariqas perform set dhikr mantras vocally,often in combination with
movements of the upper body, and often
over long periods of intense performance.
Some dance or sway. Others
recite Divine Names or religious phrases silently and without
movement; sometimes using beads to count
repetitions and cycles.
The
term can also refer to the silent and attentive act of focussing on such Names
or Phrases (through visualisation and/or mental audition) ceaselessly.*3
It
is this state of intimate relationship/union with the Divine in every moment that
is also the aim of Jewish-Sufi practice:
Rabbenu Abraham Maimuni refers to it as wusul
(arrival/attainment/gnosis)
In his
Shaarei Tzedek, an anonymous Abulafian [thought by some to be R. Shem Tob Ibn Gaon] described the dhikr
method of the Sufis that he
observed in Palestine in 1295 as follows:
“They chant the Name of G-d ( Allāh,as
it is in the language of Ishmael)...when
they pronounce these letters they direct
their thought completely away from every possible ‘natural form’, and even away from the letters of the name “Allāh”
themselves ... They are carried off into a trance without realising how, [which is remarkable] since no Kabbalah has been transmitted to them. They
refer to this removal of all forms
and images from the soul as Effacement. (mahw)” *4
The author there regards the sufic method as being “vulgar”, and makes
the point that there are higher
forms of Hazkarah— and then
proceeds to outline the linguistic methods of his teacher, R. Abraham
Abu-l’Afia (1240-1291). The author
regards “the permutations and combinations of letters and the mysticism of numbers” to be a higher form of dhikr than mantra
style dhikr. As Jewish-Sufis
we might well disagree with him. *5
We are
fortunate that we have an entire manuscript on the subject of Islamic-Sufi dhikr from the pen of Ibn Atā Allāh
al-Iskandari (1259-1309). Al-Iskandari was a follower of the Shadhili path,*6 —and so we can assume that
he will be referring to the Shadhili dhikr practice common at the
time our movement was flourishing in
his part of Egypt.
A few selected passages from his Miftah al Falah
(The Key to Salvation)*7 can
thus shed some welcome light on (i) Islamic dhikr practice in
mediaeval Egypt;and (ii) what we can therefore assume to be the actual dhikr practice that the Jewish Egyptian
Pietists were observing and copying:
“Remembrance may be
with the tongue,with the heart,
or with the members of the body” Miftah
al Falah p46
Quoting
Al-Ghazali,he writes: “Dhikr is an inner reality in which the Invoked takes possession of the heart while the invoker is effaced and vanishes.” Miftah al Falah p47
“Dhikr
is like a fire that neither stays nor
spreads. When it enters a House it says “It is I-there is noone
else but Me” Miftah al Falah p48
“When you invoke God Most High, all
who hear you invoke with you,because you invoke with your tongue,then with your
heart,then with your soul,then with your spirit, then with your intellect,then
with your innermost self.....When you invoke with your heart, the universe
and all of God’s worlds therein invoke
with your heart...When you invoke with
your innermost Self..the invocation is united with the Essence.” Miftah al Falah
p51
What is Jewish-Sufi
Dhikr?
Not
surprisingly, given the cross-culturally shared nature of advanced spiritual
experience—and of Divine inspiration itself— almost all of the Islamic-Sufic principles
mentioned above would also apply in venerable Jewish
practice. This practice is referred to in Midrash Shir HaShirim
and Midrash Otiot Rabbi Akiva.
The concept of the 99 Beautiful
Names of G-d recited during Islamic dhikr may thus be strongly
related to the Judaic “70 Names of G-d” and
quite possibly, in a sense, derived from them.
The recitation of Divine Names is
also a key element in Hekhalot
mysticism, and its sixth century practioners actually used the term ‘Hazkir’ when describing the recitation of such Names.
R.
Aryeh Kaplan cites a Merkavah text from Hekhalot Rabbatai as follows:
“The
text presents a mystical ‘name’
of God, which is actually a rather long phrase consisting of a number of
mystical words or names. The instruction
says that this phrase must be repeated 120 times, again and again.” *8
Though
Ibn Pequda describes such invocation of Divine
Names in his Hidāya *9 (where he uses
the exact word ‘dhikr’ —the principal
reference that we have to such a practice in the extant literature of the Egyptian Jewish Pietists comes from Rabbenu
Abraham HeHasid (Abraham Ibn Abi 'Rabi) who writes:
“The spiritual world can be reached
through the practice of external and
internal piety, passionate love of G-d,
and delight in the invocation of His Holy Names” *10
Nevertheless
we can divine similar hints concerning the practice in a few other places. Rabbenu Abraham Maimuni writes:
"One who has faith must strengthen that faith by prayer [tefilla] and Invocation [dhikr], and by Devotional Litanies [ baqashot]" (Rosenblatt II p 148)
This second passage is particularly significant to us as it equates the performance of Dhikr with formal,and often obligatory, liturgy.
Referring to fragmentary texts concerning Jewish Pietist vigils, R. Russ-Fishbane writes that these fragments:
“...mention the constant remembrance
or mentioning (dhikr) of God. Obadiah cited the verse from Isaiah 62:6:
“... take no rest, all you who mention the Lord” (... ha-mazkirim et
ha-shem al domi lakhem). See also ENA NS 10 (laminated 46), 1, verso,
ll. 3–5, published by P. Fenton, “A Pietist Letter from the Genizah,”
HAR 9 (1985), 162. Another key source is the composite text published by
Fenton, “A Mystical Treatise on Prayer,” 156, in which meditation on
divine majesty and the remembrance of His name (dhikr ismihi) leads to
love that brings one to spiritual union (al-tauhị̄d ‘alā al-haq̣īqah).” *11
It therefore seems incontestable that the
Pietists practiced mantra hazkarah privately. But there is
no evidence (as yet!) that they held congregational dhikr events
such as ours in Tariqa Eliyahu.
The
scholars have frequently pointed
out that the lack of evidence may
have been because of (a) reticence in publishing matters that deal with any spiritual practice “using”
Holy Names (even though such use was never theurgic magic but always a
method of contemplative concentration (khalwa); or (b)because of a
concern that the exposure of such a
“sufi” practice might induce alarm from the more fanatically conservative members of the general Jewish comunity, bent on
witch-hunting for traces of supposed avodah
zara; or (c) because the outrage of those who vehemently opposed the
Maimuni nagidim’s Jewish-Sufi reforms in toto for purely
political reasons might result in religious
and civil censure and punishment.
We can, however
be certain that the Cairene Pietists will have observed Sufi sema and dhikr rituals closely: both in shared retreats at the Muqattam Mountains and in Fostat generally, as
it was a densely populated city of
multi-storey buildings with countless open windows. The
air would have been full of
the sounds of Islamic-Sufis engaged in vocal dhikr, and there is
incontestable evidence that there was
also an Islamic-Sufi zawiyya in the Jewish Quarter of Cairo itself during
Rabbenu Abraham’s nagidship.
In his detailed
and panoramic essay: Sufis and Jews in Mamluk Egypt, Professor Paul Fenton lists many of the
Islamic-Sufi exemplars whose presence in Cairo must have had a significant role
in the development of the Jewish Pietist movement in Ayyubid and Mamluk times.
He mentions (for example) the poet ‘Umar Ibn al-Farid (d. 1235), Abu l-Ḥasan al-Shadhili (1196-1258) Ahmad
al-Badawi (1199-1276), Abu l-Abbās
al-Mursī (1219–1287), and Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari
(1259-1309).
Furthermore the existence of numerous manuscripts by these authors in the Cairo Geniza ( a receptacle for honoured but damaged manuscripts and fragments) indicates the respect and
value that the Jews placed on these sufic texts. That they studied them is thus
evidential. We already know from the works of the Maimuni family that they quoted and
paraphrased them extensively in their own writings.*12
Dhikr Mantras
“Let
whosoever desires the benefits of dhikr follow the established texts.”
Al Iskandari*13
We do not know which specific texts or Divine
Names might have been used by the
Egyptian Pietists in their devotions and
retreats, but in our Tariqa we have collected certain biblical or prayer-book
texts that lend themselves to choral or
private recitation as mantras.
These
include: Ad-nai melech, Ad-nai
malach, Adonai yimloch l’olam va’ed; Ani l’dodi v’dodi li; Ein
Kel-heinu; Ana Ad-nai hoshiana; and Ribono Shel Olam. In our
meetings we have a special litany of mantras and a formula for their use. Prominence in that
litany is given to the Elijan Mantra ( Ad-nai
Hu Ha Elokim) but we also recite mantras that focus on the Divine Name “Hu”
and some of its variations. In Islamic-Sufi
rites the name “Hu” is often performed
as a breathing exercise and as a method
whereby the practitioner can cease thinking and start
encountering, as it were.
In
Chapter Four of the Miftāh al Falāh,
Al-Iskandari tells us that the
two most commonly used and most
praiseworthy Sufi mantra texts are (i)
the Name
of God (Allāh) and (ii) the
statement “There is no G-d but God” (lā ilāha illa ‘llāh) so one can assume that in the thirteenth century these
will have been the dhikr phrases
with which the Cairene
Jewish-Sufis will have been most familiar. It is most unlikely that
they will have used this precise name and formula, but highly likely that they
will have adapted the Sufi method and form of meditation connected to them.
The second of those above-mentioned forms
is the
first line of the Shahada,
and our “Elijan Mantra” with which we end our Tariqa’s Vocal Dhikr litany —(Ad-nai Hu Ha Elo-kim,
sometimes: Ad-nai Hu,
Ad-nai Hu, Ad-nai Hu, Ha Elo-kim)—is a Hebrew partner to that Shahada
text.
Our “Elijan Mantra” also contains the Hebrew word “Hu” (He) which is both a Jewish and an Islamic Divine Name — a serendipitous connection that we explored
at length in the previous essay Jewish
Sufi Dhikr for Yom Kippur. (https://jewishsufis.blogspot.com/2023/09/jewish-sufi-dhikr-for-yom-kippur.html)
The arabic term Hu (He),
sometimes appearing in the form Huwa or Hua, has always been a Divine Name of the
greatest significance in Islamic-Sufi
dhikr practice. In Judaism, the capitalised hebrew word Hu
(He) has been regarded as a Divine Name
since Talmudic times (at the very
least). In Shabbat 104a we read:
ה"ו - זה שמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא
Heh Vav: That is the principal name of the Holy One, Blessed be
He.
It is because of the great significance of
the “sufic” Name “Hu/Huwa” that we have made a Judeo-Arabic phrase by Yehuda
al-Harizi (1165-1225) the signature dhikr
mantra of our Safed group. We will
share more on that shortly, b’ezrat HaShem,
in a forthcoming essay.
The
Dhikr of Simplicity
In
Vocal Dhikr during congregational litanies (Wird) one frequently
encounters a process of progressive simplification from longer
phrases,through a “personal” Name to
the more abstract “He”— But such a
progression is equally significant with regard to a salik’s
contemplative meditations in private.
Indeed, Al-Iskandari actually suggests that once one has approached a trance like
state,one may use sounds rather
than letters or words. He writes:
“He is
subject to whatever comes over him among the sum total of the divine mysteries. Hence there might flow from his tongue Allāh,Allāh,Allāh or Hu,Hu,Hu, or lā
lā lā lā or a a a a a, or āh āh āh āh, or a sound without
any letter or noise. His behaviour, therefore is to submit to the inspiration. After the
passing of the inspiration
he should be
very quiet.
These are the
rules of conduct for the one
who needs to invoke with the tongue. As for the one
who invokes with the heart,he
is in no need of these rules. *14
Al-Ghazali
(1057-1111) made a similar comment about this gradual process of simplification from
texts to single words, and from literary forms to spiritual essence, in his Ihya ulum
ad-din:
He will endeavour to fix his thought
on nought else but the word Allāh. Then, after having settled in his retreat, he will
continuously repeat the word Allāh, concentrating to such a degree that
he ceases to pronounce the word which will henceforth flow upon his tongue
(...) Then the word's form, its letters and its writing will be absorbed into
his mind, only the meaning remaining (...) *15
This
progressive simplification of mantras used in dhikr and the
notion of liberation from texts,forms, and names are of great importance in our own
Tariqa and it is to a brief account of
our own practice that we will now turn.
The Practice of Dhikr/Hazkarah in Tariqa Eliyahu
You
will remember that the term dhikr
refers to remembering or to the invocation of the Divine. In the Islamic texts the various forms of “invocation” are listed
in several categories and subcategories.
We also have a ladder of
progression on this path which might be outlined, in ascending order (whether
performed in a congregational or a solitary setting) as follows:
Our
Tariqa’s “Ladder of Invocation”
(i)
The vocal recitation of Sacred texts or Divine
Names;
(ii)The
silent recitation of Sacred texts or Divine Names;
(iii)The silent contemplation of
the Divine;
(iv)The total surrender to the Divine in receptive and attentive contemplation.
The third and
fourth rungs on this ladder take place in our silent dhikr—most
often during solitary retreat or devotions (khalwa)— though there
is no reason to doubt that the wusul/encounter
that they represent may also be possible during our communal khalwa.
There
is also a level of attainment/Divine
blessing that we might call a “shiviti consciousness” that
can take place anywhere and anytime. Indeed, it is this state of constant recollection that is our Tariqa's ideal.
Our
Teacher and Master on the path, R.David ben Joshua Maimuni (1335-1414)
ends his Judeo-Arabic treatise (The Murshid/Guide to Solitude
and Detachment) with an exhortation
that stresses the centrality of
this advanced form of dhikr-hazkarah
when he
writes:
“Do not speak without first thinking, and
do not cease from the practice of the remembrance (dhikr) of G-d.”
*16
In Tariqa Eliyahu’s meetings, though we make use of some movement, postures,and
elements of breath-control in our short VOCAL
dhikr: in our SILENT dhikr we do not specify any motions,
breathing exercises, or postures, or indeed any methodology at all. In our usual meetings,
we balance fifteen minutes of vocal recitation with thirty to forty
of silent free contemplation.
In our focus on this higher form of silent dhikr— physical
movement becomes irrelevant and we follow the
Jewish-Sufi mesorah that insists: silent dhikr should eventually lead to disassociation from all
forms and matters physical during the
act of deep contemplation.
It seems that R. Hayim Vital (1542-1620) had
discovered this “sufic” principle by
himself (or was taught it) as we read of a progression from vocal to silent
contemplation in Shaarei Kedushah, that incidentally seems to justify
our Tariqa’s chosen ratio of vocal and silent dhikr rather well.
Speaking of the Schools of the Prophets while engaged in vocal dhikr, R. Hayim Vital writes:
This is the secret (meaning of):
"the sons of prophets with a timbrel and pipe before them, etc." (I
Sam. 10:5). For by means of the sweet voice of the melody, solitude (hitbodedut)
descended upon them with the pleasantness of the voice, and they divested
their souls (of worldly sensation) and then the musician stopped the melody
and the sons of the prophets remained cleaving to the upper realms and
prophesied. *17
In the
same passage, R. Hayim Vital underscores how the deepest form of contemplation
that follows this vocal preparation produces a certain release from the physical world of matter:
“You already know that all types of
inspiration require a man to seclude himself in a house so that his mind will
not be distracted. There he must isolate himself in his mind to the farthest
limits and divest his body from his soul as if he did not feel that he was
clothed in matter at all-as though he were only soul. The further his
remoteness from matter, the greater will be his inspiration. *18
This
station may be attained, if G-d so wills it, through the practice of
the silent remembrance of G-d —in
the manner of our third and
fourth rung on our Tariqa’s
Ladder of Invocation.
THE DHIKR OF SILENCE
During
the silent dhikr in our meetings,individual members are free to be
taught by the Divine
Teacher: alone and in private whilst— simultaneously—
being part of a Sufi congregation.
This silent dhikr is an unguided activity during which members are
free: to engage in acts of worship and
petition; to practice combinations of
their own preferred yogic or meditational systems; to silently
recite or meditate on texts or Names; to engage in a discussion with their
inner selves; to pray for others; to
examine their lives and sort-out their
problems; and also— to attempt to empty
their minds and hearts to make room for
G-d. That last possibility may be termed the
Dhikr of Silence.
This
fourth rung on our Ladder refers to the process and method that forms the core of the Kuntres
Maarat HaLev, a booklet written in 2005 before I had studied anything related
to Sufic contemplation techniques and Dhikr.
In
retrospect,I can now see it was
describing and promoting the very same
dislocation from thought and forms
during meditation that Al-Iskandari (and
possibly Hayim Vital) described and
promoted.
The
relevant passage is as follows:
In order to meet G-d in private contemplation,
we really only need to do one simple thing:
We need to make some time
to be with Him Alone
and give Him our undivided and loving attention.
Contemplative Prayer is giving G-d a chance to speak to us/do
something to us.
It is not about us, it’s about Him.
הרפו ודעו כי־אנכי אלקים
— BE
STILL and KNOW that I AM G-D—
(Psalm 46)
The method is simply:
Stand or sit in His Presence;
Make space inside yourself for Him to act;
Then listen with focus to whatever He may have to say
to you,
personally and individually.
The
Cave of the Heart-Kuntres Maarat
HaLev page 31
In
recent weeks I discovered a beautiful passage
which describes what lies beyond even that process of receptive audition, a
passage that describes how the
contemplative may ultimately enter that
state I refer to as the Dhikr of
Silence:
“What has been created disappears,
and the only true subject,the everlasting God,is as He had been and will be. This is the
goal of dhikr, as formulated by Junayd;centuries later the Naqshbandiyya would teach that the end of dhikr without words is contemplation (mushāhada), in which the subject and object are eventually,indiscernable. “True dhikr is
that you forget your dhikr”,says Shibli. Since even the word or thought “Oh God!” implies the consciousness of
subject and object, the last mystery of recollection
is complete silence.” *19
The very same
state is described by R. David
ben Joshua Maimuni (1335-1414) in his Murshid:
...during the final station, the soul
sinks so deeply into love that it is no longer aware either of itself or of its
love. Indeed, when the lover reaches the stage where he declares: ‘I am my
beloved and my beloved is I’, he loses awareness of his own self due to the
contemplation of the object of his love, which occupies him to such an extent
that he perceives nothing except [that which he perceives] through his
Beloved.” *20
Once again, this demonstrates a shared
contemplative experience in both
the Jewish and the Islamic streams of Sufi thought.
©Nachman Davies
August 27th 2024
Safed
NOTES
*1
R.Abraham ben HaRambam writes in the
Kifaya:
“In order to attain inner solitude that leads
to communion [with God] (al-khalwah al-bātinah al-mu’asṣilah ̣), the prophets and their followers
used musical instruments and melodies, seeking to arouse the appetitive faculty
toward [God], may He be exalted, and to empty the mind of anything but
Him.” (Rosenblatt, II: p384)
We
should take note of the
way in which the former musical
activity is here presented as a prelude
to the activity of receptive contemplation: this is also reflected in the format of our Safed Group’s meetings.
*2 Rav
Abraham HeḤasid (Abraham ibn Abi’l-Rabi ) d.circa
1223, teacher and colleague of R. Abraham ben HaRambam (1186-1237).
*3 Our term
shiviti consciousness refers to a popular meditational text that
may appear at the top of a siddur page: or on a calligraphic plaque just above Psalm 67 in the form of a
menorah. The text reads: “I will set
HASHEM before me always.” (Psalm
16:8). Some take the shiviti concept it
illustrates literally and attempt to hold the letters of the Tetragrammaton in
their minds, others regard it as a purely ethical statement. Some others regard it as a description of the contemplative
practice of maintaining a more-or-less
constant awareness of the Presence of
G-d.
*4 Shaarey
Tzedek (Jerusalem ms 8o 148 59b) quoted in Scholem G, Major trends
in Jewish Mysticism, Shocken, 2011. p147
*5
Consequently we have placed vocal and
silent mantra
recitation in the primary position during
vocal dhikr with regard to
methodology (though our principal contemplative method will always be
receptive silence.) The
Abulafian methods of Haskarah are
similar to Sufic practice when it comes
to choreography and breathing control, but they are very closely bound to letters and often to writing. Traditional
Sufi practice also makes use of letters—including
the visualisation of Divine Names— but it aims to go beyond them both, in
a somewhat less intellectual fashion, through the repetition of simple mantras: bypassing both
cerebral language-focus and even (as it
were) the Names themselves. To me
personally: an intuitive and somewhat
visceral approach seems to resonate with
the tambourine tapping,dancing, and chanting of the biblical Bnei Neviím more than with an
image of them sitting down with a pen and paper to meditate.
R.
Abu-l’Afia’s methods may frequently differ
from ours in form and detail, but they also have much in common, and they share
the same ultimate aim as those of the Jewish-Sufis: namely the attainment of
some profound form of union with
the Divine through the development of prophetic skills..... Therefore: our Tariqa members may well
find the Abulafian methods to be a supportive adjunct in their personal
contemplative practice.
*6 Abu l-Hasan al-Shadhili
(1196-1258)—one of the greatest Sufi Shaykhs in Egypt— was known to have
discussions with the Jews of Cairo. Though his official lodge was in Alexandria, he had a Jewish optician in Cairo and it seems
extremely likely to me that he might
have met Rabbenu Abraham (in his capacity as Leader of the Jewish community there) or
other members of his circle.
*7 Ibn Iskandari trans. M.A.Koury
Danner, The Key to Salvation (Miftah al Falah), Islamic
Texts Society,Indiana, 1996)
*8
A.Kaplan ,”Jewish Meditation”,Schocken Books, New York,1985, p 56 The mention of counting might suggest
the use of knot or bead chains reminiscent of Hesychast eremitic usage and also of
the Muslim tasbih. Once
again, cross-cultural sharing amongst contemplatives in different traditions is a highly likely
possibility.
In another fascinating and related comment,this time on the use of mantra techniques by the Safed Kabbalists, R. Kaplan writes:
“In sixteenth century Safed,for example,there
is mention of a technique known as gerushin,which
appears to consist in repeating a biblical verse over and
over as a sort of mantra.
Besides bringing the meditator
into a higher state of
consciousness,the purpose of the technique was to provide him with deeper insight
into the verse itself. As he repeated the verse
it would eventually appear as if
the verse itself were telling the
initiate its meaning. Rather than studying or analysing
the verse, the meditator would then be
communing with it.” (op cit. p56).
This would
mean that gerushin was not only comparable to Dhikr recitation—but also that it
resembled our own technique known as “Hegyon
HaLev”. One also wonders if the practice may have a Sufic origin as we know
the Safed Kabbalists at that time were
living in a city and region full of Sufi practitioners.
*9 Ibn Pequda, Kitāb al-Hidāyah ilā Farā’id ̣ al-Qulūb, ed. Y. Qafiḥ (Jerusalem: Yad Mahari Qafih, 1991), p
423 ̣ –4,
*10 P.Fenton, Some Judaeo-Arabic
Fragments by Rabbi Abraham he-Haṣīd,
the Jewish Sufi, JSS 26 (1981), p50
*11 E.Russ- Fishbane, Judaism,Sufism,and the
Pietists of Medieval Egypt,
OUP, 2015, Page 105
*12 see our essay
at:
https://jewishsufis.blogspot.com/2023/01/islamic-and-jewish-sufis-in-mediaeval.html
*13 Al Iskandari, The Key to Salvation
(Miftah al Falah), p73
*14
Al Iskandari,The Key to Salvation (Miftah al Falah), p 72.
*15 P. Fenton, Solitary Meditation in
Jewish and Islamic Mysticism in the Light of a Recent Archeological Discovery,
ME 1 (1995) p283
* 16 P. Fenton, Deux
traités de Mystique juive, p300
*17
P. Fenton, Solitary Meditation
in Jewish and Islamic Mysticism, p290
*18 P. Fenton, Solitary
Meditation in Jewish and Islamic Mysticism, p290
*19
A.Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam,University of North
Carolina Press,Chapel Hill,1975
*20 P. Fenton, Deux traités de Mystique
juive;Lagrasse: Éditions Verdier; 1987. p.288
