|
THERE IS A PRAYER THAT THE KABBALIST SAY IS ESSENTIAL TO ARTICULATE AND INTEND BEFORE ONE DOES A MITZVAH. “FOR THE SAKE OF THE UNITY OF THE HOLY ONE BLESSED BE HE AND THE SHECHINAH WITH LOVE AND AWE...”
In Alcoholics Anonymous they refer to “the G-d of your understanding.” In other words there are many ways to talk about The Divine but there is also the way that one particularly understands G-d. The Shechina is our sense of G-d within our experience and perception. It is the Divine that speaks to us in a language that we understand. The word Shechinah means the One who dwells and is perceived in our midst. The goal of the children of Israel as they wandered though the desert was that G-d’s presence should be a tangible reality to be experienced as part of their life. The Shechina was felt in the tabernacle where G-d revealed himself to Moses, followed the Jews
not only into the Holy Land, which is the ideal place for G-d’s presence to rest in our midst, but even went with us in our exile and stays with us in our pain. The Bible refers to the Shechinah as dwelling with us in our contamination. That means even as we debase ourselves, The Shechinah is still in a relationship with us.
The Holy One Blessed be He is often referred to in the Zohar as Tifferet, Splendor, which is the center of the emotional Sefirot. The Holy one Blessed be He represents transcendence from the limitations of the human perception. The goal is for us to reach beyond our limited experience
of the Divine and effect a coming together of what we can understand and feel of G-d with that which is beyond the mind.
This practice realizes the potential of becoming one through uniting below and above, heaven and earth, body and soul, night and day, words and inspiration, light and vessel into a moment that is forever that will ultimately transform the world into a place of love, laughter and light.
“For the sake of the unity of the Holy One Blessed Be He and the Shechinah with love and awe...” |
