Shavuot

Editorial notes:
This essay offers a meditation on the meaning of the festivals, and especially of course Shavuot. Since Shai merely alludes in passing to Rashi’s interpretations, Midrashic accounts, and Kabbalistic teachings, any fuller explanation even of some of his allusions must be longer than his account [EZ*]. *Many thanks to Dr. Evan Zuesse for providing the commentary for this essay.

{Part 1 – 17/05/2017}

Editorial notes:
Part 1 – Exodus 19 tells of when Israel came to Mt. Sinai, 7 weeks after leaving Egypt, celebrated ever after as the festival of Shavuot. This involved almost two months of travel, and Israel arrived on the third new moon (counting as the first new moon the Pesach period which commenced the Exodus). The arrival at Sinai, and therefore Shavuot, signals the coming together of Israel and God, and culminates a process that Shai notes first began with Moses’s personal encounter with the Burning Bush at the foot of Mt. Sinai, which first set him on his mission to bring out Israel from Egypt. So fire, condensed light, is a crucial symbolism in this Burning Bush-Sinai revelation process, moving from personal revelation to communal covenantal redemption. As the Burning Bush indicates, fire is contained in all things, sustaining them, but when realized as coming from God it does not destroy but instead opens a way to illumination and transcendence. Through suffering comes elevation. The sacrificial offering is consumed by fire, and the half-shekel coin that is taken from each person in the census is according to a Midrash of the Rabbis fiery on one side. Citing Kabbalistic accounts Shai links this to the process that began the universe, in which the primal expansive fiery energies of HaShem were so powerful they burst their first material forms, producing a preliminary chaos, termed “the death of kings” in the mystical texts. This era of shattered vessels was the first stage of the further creation of the universe. Its “shells” remain with us as the material form of things, which separate each thing and being from connection with others and block harmony. According to the Kabbalah, God intended from the start to create humanity so that it would join with him in healing the material world’s brokenness, releasing the light residing in the shattered vessels, i.e., in this material world of separation and conflict, at last connecting everything together and making the world holy and whole again. We do this by performing sanctifications that rejoin material things and situations to their source in God. This is holiness, Israel’s task. However, the development of the world and of humanity to that ultimate fulfilment can only proceed step by step, takes a very long time and involves many mistakes, sins and suffering. The history of humanity commences with brokenness and alienation (the sin of Adam and Eve and their Expulsion from Eden; Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, etc.), and the promise of healing reconciliation rises level by level as the cycles recur, bringing the world step by step closer to the Messianic Era and beyond. So Israel’s arrival at Mt. Sinai and entry into the explicitly laid-out Covenant there marks a major turning point in the whole history of the universe. It culminates its own specific cycle that began with Moses personally discovering the fire within the Burning Bush, the divine light hidden in the things of this material world, and draws to a conclusion when Moses leads the entire people to Mt. Sinai so that they too will enter that world of divine light through accepting and understanding the Ten Commandments, the Tablets of the Torah, the condensed wisdom of God. When they do this, we are told in Exodus 19, they fulfil their destiny. They become a “treasured people” who as “a Kingdom of Priests and a holy nation” will now begin the process of raising up all of humanity through constant sanctifications of the world. That is why Shavuot provides, along with all the other festivals, a healing of time and of humanity. Shai mentions the analogy of the connection of Israel to God at Mt. Sinai to the stages of engagement and marriage specified in Jewish law – there must be a period of separation between the engaged fiancees before they are brought together in marriage. The Covenant at Sinai joining God and Israel is often likened to the marriage contract of Kiddushin, Sanctification, by the prophets, implicitly in the Song of Songs, in Halakhah, and in the Kabbalistic literature. [EZ].

Rashi Shemot.19.1

Shavuot is a rectification of time* which unites the burning bush and the 10 commandments (and Yitro and Moshe, cf. Hevel and Cain [cf. the shattering of the vessel of the 10th commandment which broke all the others]). Rashi reveals (by contraction of sod into pshat) that when this verse is read on Shavuot, particular/expanded personal rectifications are possible. This is why it is 7*7, because Moshe is like shin, and Yitro like reish, but ayin times zayin brings about the 8th king of Edom which was escaped on Purim by transcending identity/gender [btw samech looks like s’in]. Thus from rectification at Bryia, is the tzitzum of the rectification of Atzilut.

* The biblical festivals are like the fire half the coin of Teruma, whereas mortally evoked (although actually divine as well, per mystery of Bereishit in Mishkan) festivals are mortal rectifications of time, and this is like Shabat which is trans-eternal.**

** Re. half-coin fire, this is also seen at 19.9, cf. comments below at 19.5-8, since here is half of mishna.

[Rashi on 19.3, Ben tchelet lelavan.]

[Rashi on 19.4 AND YOU HAVE SEEN: Cf. Jesus, cf. Jew’s dying (sanctification of the name, shema) to avoid the world suffering more]

[על כנפי נשרים – the Nora of theodicy: God rescues us by our power to survive suffering, we should not be able nor allowed to suffer so much, nb. the nun in nesharim]

[19.5-8 – contracts the Mishna Shema  – nb. Rashi at A TREASURE does not contradict since this is the tzimtzum of Israel, which is alone only by way of mystery, cf. Mishna Brachot all, which contains this explanation

[19.12 – alludes to the Kabbalah of Ein Sof

[Rashi on 19.15 DO NOT GO NEAR – can see Har Sinai as the wedding, but it is also an expansion of the time between the contract and the yichud, which is while the groom waits for the wife to be purified (mesha’a shehakohaim), and thus warns her with kina. Also Rashi on 19.17  TOWARDS GOD  one reason he explained, because of this weaving of time.

[19.16 – we see time at the third day of creation, and our gilgulim are within that single day

Rashi 19.19 – cf. the unfolding of time, and also cf. Ramban on Emor that it is a saying re kol

Rashi on 19.20 cf. a “finger” of the miracle of the split sea

(( 19.21 e.g. religions that devolved the Ein Sof into idol worship, yet per 19.22 there is revelation through the contract of Sinai, the Jews, to allow the Ein Sof to occur despite man’s tendency to idol worship (aka think they know anything)

-> Rashi on  19.24 GO DESCEND – this is due to the iterative nature of idol worship; each time we think we understand something we stop “seeking to understand that which is beyond us” and idol worship

20.1 another place to see the story of “creation”, to see this for eg. see the 5/(6 – oops)-letter name as the same; and also to see the building of the Mishkan.

{Part 2 – 17/05/2017}

Editorial notes:
Part 2 reflects on the status of our desires, expressing our life-force, or vital soul, nefesh. Although the source of selfish evil acts harming others, it is also the source of life-affirmation and wholesomeness when directed to good. So it should not be utterly suppressed nor viewed as evil in itself, even if Christianity tended to do this [_EZ].

http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/3671013/jewish/Behar-Bechukotai-Haftarah-Companion.htm

“They said: “Since this is a time of [Divine] grace, let us pray for mercy that the tempter towards sin3 [be given to our hands].” They prayed for mercy, and he was handed over to them. He [the temptation] said to them: “Realize that if you kill me, the world goes down.” They imprisoned him for three days, then looked in the whole land of Israel for a fresh egg and could not find it.”

Broken rectification that led (through e.g. Judeo-Christian, but also further abreast in non-derived cultures) to sexuality become an alien fire because they tried to rectify too far. For although the purpose of life can be called “love your creator” this does not abolish or overrule or suffice for “love your other (zot)”. Cf. rectifying idol worship whilst committing idol worship (aka thinking that we know what it is, ever, anything). Thus still needs to be fixed.

{Part 3 – 17/05/2017}

Editorial notes:
Part 3 suggests that Reform or non-Orthodox congregations might reorganize the sanctuary space so that the bema is in the middle, and flowering plants be part of the surrounding rows of seats.

An idea for liberal/reform Mishkan: re-modularize service, placing Torah reading on a pedestal as the “voodo part”, then concentric circles (and vines and flowers) outwards of personal well being and (matters regarding the journeying towards) infinite transcendence.

{Part 4 – 17/05/2017}

Editorial notes:
Part 4 refers to halachic discussions of why we begin the Omer counting only after the second day of Pesach, and why we continue to number the days that have passed even after Lag B’Omer when some Sages argued we should start counting by the number of days remaining for our arrival at Sinai [_EZ].

Tet vav bet, 9 + 6 + 2 = 17, 17+33=50, would start counting down after lag ba’omer, but don’t change styles. Whereas the second day was not good^[1].

{Part 5 – 25/5/2017}

Editorial notes:
Part 5 discusses the festivals of Pesach, Shavuot and Purim as reflections on the imperfections of the self and how we should nevertheless press on with self-improvement. Even in the bad, there can be good hidden (e.g., Esther marries out, to King Ahashaverus, but this ends up saving the Jews from genocide), so we should go out from Egypt as quickly as possible, even accepting half-baked bread [_EZ].

Shavuot is like the fulfilment of Purim and Pesach.

In Purim, we realize that anything could be discovered to be good, and anything good could later in history be said to be bad.

On Pesach, we acknowledge that we have an imperfect perspective, but say, “So what! Now I am free! I’ll work out the details later. I’m in a hurry I’ll eat matza”. This is the model of freedom we begin with.

Through the counting of the Omer, we languish as we feel how much work we would have to invest if ever we were to transform our pathetic faking self into our true blossoming eternity.

After 33 we can see the end. We were so hateful to each other because we hated ourselves. When we can imagine that we are more than half-way, then we can imagine that other’s could become so too, and more, as well.

Technical:

Purim is like the woman becoming free, which is the Malchut. But it occurs hester/Esther, in a hidden way. Thus it is a window (that is our landscape and perspectives) which becomes a hinge of hinges (a doorway of a doorway of doors). This is a Bina, which relates to the word Pesach, which is also full of Bina. Thus we awaken within ourselves our own intellectual genius, it is not a genius of facts or figures, but of flexible construction within our sphere of thinking.

How does this happen?

We discover that more and more things we thought we knew, were false idols.

And didn’t we always know that everyone was doing everything wrong?

When combined with Torah, this hinges of hinges burns into an archer that is also the fire from which it was lit.

This is like the metaphor of the childbirth, which arrives after the wedding at Matan Torah when Shema Yisrael says ed and that recreates the crossing of the red sea behind them!

Thus we make all of history a gift to all of the future. Which is ourselves to be, forever and more.

{Part 6 – 1/6/2017}

Editorial notes:
Part 6 is a further meditation on the same thing, but the references are too elusive to follow the full chain of reasoning [_EZ].

References:

• “And it came to pass on the third day” 2.19.6
  • Talmud Shabbat 88a
• 3:
  • Trees
• Vav:
  • Children/Vayikra
  • Vayichi Yaakov
• Abject echoes (viz. abject with respect to time), and understanding when this is happening
• Shesh thread in Mishkan
  • [Btw, bigdei shesh for Yosef re bones carried by Moshe reincarnation of Hevel – could take it further and talk re Yitro/Cain re 8th king of Edom and then just link to Purim stuff] [[In which case could always bridge this back to the question of when Yitro arrives at the machane]???
  • But what about for-those who say he arrived after yam suf?
• 19.1 “bachodesh hashlishi” (re. “what is a chodesh”),
  • • Vs. “what is yom”
  • “bayom haze” (re. unredeemable sitra),
  • “midbar sinai” (could introduce the concept of less-discernable-apertures-of-light-amongst-levels-of-being;  could use sense as evolving-yud, or sense of intersubjectivity’s [viz. its own] unfolding [i.e. of itself])

Ideas:

• Use Habkuk 3 as “way of doing” “vayishma yitro”
  • 4.28.26 – How to give omer after having been preist of midyan
• Title: “Why Shavuot is not the same day as Yom Kippur”
  • • [It amuses me that this could end up sounding similar to the concept of “accepting christs’ love” qua “that sounds like only half-the job, but it’s half-the-job every single ‘Israeli’ can do perfectly, ed ain ba“]

{Part 7 – 1/6/2017}

Editorial notes:
Part 7 extends this into the question of how should we commence our self-purification? The answer seems to be: bit by bit, one step at a time. And the particular steps we choose to make must be only vaguely selected, since nothing is clear in life. We feel our way forward, assessing the path through sharing views of it with others (notice the reference to “inter-subjectivity” — again we are reminded of the subjectivity and relativism that Shai has come to consider the veil over reality that we can never escape from, through his study of philosophy). But anyway, Shavuot as transmuted through the Midrashic and kabbalistic symbols Shai mentions, celebrates the confused and halting journey we all make through life. What we are going toward is the Sanctuary (Mishkan). In its centre is the Ark with the Two Tablets of the Torah (the Luchot). These symbolize transcendence as such. “(I)t is an impossible point of contact between unlimited-ego-potential and its own echoing.” I.e., Shai here again is making the core meaning of the worship of God, which is identical to the path we should take through life, actually the quest for the untrammelled personal self. The halachot of the Luchot and the Mosaic covenant are from this perspective a kind of “voodoo” that empowers the self, even if it consists of the Shabbat laws that centre on God and actually restrict all actions savouring of self-centred “work-a-day” values. Shai then moves to consider the way love relations with other people affect the self. Love, he says, points to the realm of “the potential,” that is, it provides a space for the sought-for untrammelled self-expression. Laws dictating how one should act with the loved one actually imply that “there are no laws of love, but we are imposing them” voluntarily on ourselves. The lover accepts this sacrifice to affirm the importance of the loved one. So that is why there are so many arbitrary laws in the Torah dictating how one should relate to God and to others. Actually, the possible arbitrary demands are infinite, and when one submits to them, one feels one has come to and faces the Infinite (Ein Sof). But the same wide-ranging submission is not necessary nowadays. The restrictions on personal freedoms which we see in the Torah regime were written “in a time before so much personal freedom was had.” The use of the term “voodoo” for the commandments suggests that they are a way of hypnotizing or enchanting the devotee into conforming to Torah values; their chief magical function, in this view, is their subjective effect on the worshipper. There is another goal served by the mitzvot voodoo, however, which is “goodness to others.” Here it is noted that the Torah gives peace between people because it forces them to submit to a common standard. “This is like the Torah being Shalom [Peace], because it is like the letter zayin, which relates to the … word for weapon” (in Hebrew zayin also means “arms, weapon”). One can imagine that there is a zayin-like shape hovering over the sephirah Chessed, loving-kindness. So Shai finds a coercion suggested subliminally by the Torah Luchot, the Tablets of the Law. The letters and numbers of the Sefirot interwoven in that Law, and above all in the prayer service, then present a kind of “periodic table” of elements that together produce and constitute the “eyes” (the vision of the world) that a Torah personality has (symbolised by the Torah “crown” put on the wrapped Torah Scrolls). So the best voodoo spell is to pray the Shabbat prayers with proper intentionalities. That generates the sense that one dwells in “the house of Shabbat.” By the end of Shabbat there is a very strong communal element (e.g., in the Havdalah references to the coming of Mashiach, previsioned in the light of the Havdalah candles). Shai adds that Shabbat doesn’t work “unless [one has] already accepted Mount Sinai.” But one can get there either before or after the revelation, as the rabbis debated concerning when Yitro arrived at the Mount. In a way, we all arrive this doubled way, “thus progress towards Shabat is sensible for the estranged, but fulfilment is voodoo,” and that will bring down the blessings of life (“late rain and early”). To come to this fulfilment, it is best to start with Pesach, coming out of Egypt, and rise to Shavuot. Yom Kippur is too lofty a starting point: we need to struggle to it, and it is a danger for the unready (“like the rope tying the High Priest when he entered the Holy of Holies … to pull him out if he should die”). Shavuot, where the marital covenant between HaShem and Israel is signed, is “for realizing I’m good enough (aka “He married me didn’t he, he must like me”).” So we don’t need to be full saints, just to be willing to start the journey there [_EZ].

This is not a rule-book. I use the word Midrashim “allegories” because it suggests a fuzzy resolution (it cartoons things that are too complicated to be said).

Elie: A common question I heard walking over, I was listening to people talk on the tram, there was a loud break-up and I kept tensing, and after that, it just because too interesting to stop listening to everyone else… A common question was, “So how do I validate my ticket?”

The very will to participate is the song of Shavuot in the poetry of life.

Shai continues: People want to know what parts of the machine they can start testing. I get it. Web 2.0 model.

Let’s say we’re all somehow, magically, doing one thing, and that this one thing is only ever revealed by allusion (aka Kadosh), and all we see are the footprints of the shepherd who we’re chasing, in love. (cf. Jullian Assange, but imagine a holy conspiracy which created its own machinations [this is the implication of any “culture”, cf. Essay on Post-Zionism). (Pro-tip: the foot-prints symbolize the blessings/opportunities/improvements in life which we pursue along whose trail).

Let’s call it a mishkan. In the middle are the Luchot. This is the Torah, it is an impossible point of contact between unlimited-ego-potential and it’s own echoing. Any Torah in life is here. On Shabat (which acts like a Succah, which creates a house within a temporary structure, which thus takes the Torah learned, and makes it into its definition of “house”, this then spills outs into the mundane week according to the laws of Shabat Mishna 1.1), it is good both for voodoo (ibid) and other voodoos (unllisted).

Love when shared to include spiritual self, creates an envelope, which is to suggest the potential. This is like adultery and stealing being synonymous because love brings us closer to the perception of seeing the face of God in the other. They are the same thing because to say “there are laws of love” is to imply that “there are no laws of love, but we are imposing them” (since the Torah acts to create, not to replicate – viz. Torah says “x”, because otherwise, you would say, “x has not absolute value, only subjective value” so it acts by reverse logic, since it reveals ignorance [i.e. “I didn’t know that adultery is just made up, but now I know since the Torah says that it is an arbitrary thing”)] Once this happens, a person can start thinking about what it means to make something special (aka arbitrary). In this case the arbitrary modus is infinite (Ein Sof), so in this case relationship contracts (whether material or not, which ironically gives the social contract defacto right of way, which is why Pirkei Avot say what they do, but I would argue that they were written in a time before so much personal freedom was had (even if it was restricted into its definitions of normalcy, which had allowed different religions to co-exist without being interested, aka there is no social pressure for many people now to be forced to adhere to some religious belief [except, often, their own], and therefore would disagree with who I am, which is why I see myself as parallel, not convergent per se. ) cause an overlay in responsibilities, which occur in four/five worlds (Asiya through to Atzilut, and therefore it is wrongminded to think that the emotion is the core arrow, it is the arrow we create like a swimmer creating our own wake), which allow us to migrate our identities. Why is this significant? Because a person might think, I will only ever be myself, but by loving others, we become like another person.

But at this stage, if wanting further, rather than love being end-all, one’s goodness to others is the primary determinant of voodoo-ability. This is because the mitzvot themselves are not all equally kadosh in their gradations within reality, this is like mishna Pea 1.1. This is like the Torah being Shalom, because it is like the letter zayin, which relates to the history of the word for weapon, and yet can be seen atop the sefirot illustrating kindness.

In terms of character development, there is anything which allows one to be the one-in-charge in a situation, aka to be the one judging a situation. This is because when overlaying the sefirot in seder hishtalshelut onto the aleph-bet, one can look at the letters as if in a periodic table, and imagine the unlisted elements. Thus ayin (eyes), looks like it should sit on top of the Torah.

After that it’s all specializing in different things, trying them out, longevity is a key ingredient in any spiral development, and early retreat implies a truncated radius. HOWEVER, I find that in terms of things that I see with my mind, I feel like being fully-invested in something is more important than doing many things.

What is lacking here is an overt signpost project which defines the constellation-goal. This is because of its allusive nature (aka kadosh).

If someone asked what the best spell, I would say: a deep understanding of the prayers of Shabat in their core portions (Shema Brachot 18) and employing meditative techniques whilst praying (i.e. directed focii-types of mind).

Zachor Ve’shamor is an impossible point in the Escherian world^[I]. It means that we can transform the ritual observance of Shabat (39 laws et al) and the Shabat practices (prayer, rest, etc), into a single thing, which becomes the house of Shabat.

The communal element I think is strongest at the end of Shabat.

The time after Shabat is a remembrance of Yom Echad, which is light (which was leather, because light is bent around the ayin (i.e. doesn’t go straight down from taf to aleph, and that is why the mental shroedie’s box^[II] doesn’t affect physical wave potential, and this is how consciousness is created (in the differential, aka gimmel). This might mean that Maxwell’s demon^[III] is possible, by creating a mental conspiracy, but I can’t imagine how it would be tested).

And I would say charity is the best predictor of rain, late and early.

Off the reservation:

I think that Yaakov climbs the ladder through only the upper three worlds, but through echoing with the fourth. Therefore I have wondered about a yogi rabbi, who would connect the earth (sitting upon it) as he learned. It is good for health, and therefore, according to the Mishna in Pea that commends those farmers who would give at the end of every row of produce, [I think it is because they increased the opportunity for other people to receive their own early and late rains], and also because in Pea where it teaches that if one makes it easier for the poor by making piles, it is fine in some circumstances unless someone amongst the collectors (?) reminds you of the law, even if it is to his advantage. Therefore it can be right to do.

I don’t think Shabat works unless already accepted Mount Sinai, which is an eternal undoubting pledge. But Yitro arrived in 2 points, and so does everyone, thus progress towards Shabat is sensible for the estranged, but fulfilment is voodoo, remember late rain and early.

And in the yearly cycle, I feel so-far like Tishrei is too holy to worry about (cough) but Nissan is the cooking tipping-point since it is the point at which freedom is baked. “I am competent to judge, aka think for myself, on x matters”, and like Shabbat, we observe and remember. (Whereas Yom Kippur is like the rope tieing the High Priest when he entered the holiest sanctum in order to pull him out if he should die from its potency). #FavouriteGadgetsForMagicOverYear

But Succot is good for building Shabat.

Purim for dealing with doubt about how can be both rasha and tzaddik in one.

Channuka is good for remembering history and thus tieing into own “canon” of what is an echo of Torah.

Sefirat ha’omer for noticing all the places need development.

Shavuot for realizing I’m good enough (aka “He married me didn’t he, he must like me”)

^[1] https://www.koltorah.org/halachah/rav-soloveitchiks-gems-on-sefirat-haomer-by-rabbi-chaim-jachter?rq=sefirat%20haomer%20soloveitchik

^[I] This is, probably, a reference to Maurits Cornelis Escher, famous for his artistic depiction of impossible geometrical structures. For further details see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._C._Escher.

^[II] This is, probably, a reference to Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment. For further details see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat.

^[III] “In the philosophy of thermal and statistical physics, Maxwell’s demon is a thought experiment created by the physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1867 in which he suggested how the second law of thermodynamics might hypothetically be violated”. For further details see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_demon.