someone in our on-line dream group who dreamt to "malachite" requested
that I quote from this, so here it is. one of my favorite spiritual
books for about 30 years....
I'm going to quote from "Honey from the Rock:
Visions of Jewish Mystical Renewal" by Lawrence Kushner, harper and
Row, New York 1977i. my copy is tattered and has seen me through a lot
of changes in spiritual perspective.
one note: I didn't know the phrase, Malachey Elyon, until I was an
adult though I attended a Reform Jewish religious school for several
years, and studied traditional Hebrew with an aspiration, at one point
in my childhood, of being a rabbi there is a song that is sung o
welcome the angels (malacheim) of the Sabbath just after the lighting
of the candles..but my family was not an observant or religious one
and Reform Jews tend to downplay anything as mysticl as welcoming
angels as messengers of peace, messengers of the Holy Day, messengers of
the Most High. I think they threw out the baby and kept the
bathwater, myself....though I'm basically non-speculative spiritually
as a middle aged adult.
I;ve taken the liberty of correcting some of the male-centered
language in the original text, because within about 5 years of the
publication of this book, Rabi Kushner's congregation in Massachusetts
switched to one of the first gender-free liturgies in a Jewish
synagogue in the US. I'm far from a scholar of Hebrew...barely read it
any more. but I follow the lead of some of my more Hebrew-literate
colleagues who have taken up the challenge and joy of changing the
traditional Hebrew prayers into feminine gender...that much the easier
in my native tongue. I've also played just a little with some of
Kushner's telegraphic use of phrases, and added some punctuation
according to MY understanding of what reads more smoothly in prose...
so, edited lightly with the passage of time...
The Fifth Gate: Malachei Elyon Messengers of the Most High
"and he said, ' Why do you ask my name?' "
The Hebrew word for angel is "malach." Which also means messenger:
one who is sent.
Not cherubic creatures who adorn architecture, valentines, and
fantasy. They can be anyone who has been sent. Just as anyone who is
sent can be an angel. It is required only that there be an errand.
One message.
...There is one great difference between people chosen to be God's
messengers, and earthly messengers. While those on errands of this
world almost always know where they are sent and why, people chosen to
be messengers of the Most High rarely even know that they are
messengers. Unsuspecting and unaware, consumed by their own plans and
itineraries. Busy on their own schemes, God is already sending them
somewhere else.
I do not know how many times in one's life one is also a messenger.
But for everyone it is at least once. One to whom it is given to know
that their errand is complete is blessed and rare. Not so for most of
us.
Remember only that you are not always going where you are going for
the reasons you think you are.
....There must have been a time when you entered a room and met
someone, and after a while you understood that, unknown to either of
you, there wa a reason that you had met. You had changed the other or
he had changed you. By some word of deed, or just by your presence,
the errand had been completed. The, perhaps, you were a little
bewildered or humbled or grateful. And it was over.
Each lifetime is the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
For some, there are more pieces.
For others, the puzzle is more difficult to assemble.
Some seems to be born wih a enaqrly completed puzzle.
And so it goes.
Souls going this way and tat.
Trying to assemble the myriad parts.
But know this. No one has within themselves
All the pieces to their puzzles.
Like before the days when they used to seal
jigsaw puzzles in cellophane.
All the pieces were there.
Everyone carries with them at least one and probably
Many pieces to someone else's puzzle.
Sometimes they know it.
Sometimes they don't.
And when you present your piece
Which is worthless to you
To another, whether they (or you) know it or not,
You are a messenger from the Most High.
...The Zohar is even more explicit [than Genesis regarding how God
appears to us mortals...ed.]"and indeed whenever the celestial spirits
descend to earth, they clothe themselves in physical things and
appear to be people in human shape."
...I happen to have an idiosyncrasy when it comes to tefillin, the
small black leather boxes containing bits of parchment on which are
written passages from the Torah. When I travel, I carry my tefillin with
me. I tell myself that just in case the spirit should move me, or if
should feel spiritually weakened, I would have them with me...aftr
many trips I still hadn't put them on but a few times. nevertheless, I
still carry them with me....
then the other day, a dear friend told me that his mother had given
away his set of tefillin. there were tears inhis eyes.
Ad then I understood..they weren't mine. I was only bringing them to
their intended owner. "They must be yours," I said.
****** hope some of this speaks to everyone who reads it; I find new
levels of meaning in this book every time something brings me to it.
Judith
that I quote from this, so here it is. one of my favorite spiritual
books for about 30 years....
I'm going to quote from "Honey from the Rock:
Visions of Jewish Mystical Renewal" by Lawrence Kushner, harper and
Row, New York 1977i. my copy is tattered and has seen me through a lot
of changes in spiritual perspective.
one note: I didn't know the phrase, Malachey Elyon, until I was an
adult though I attended a Reform Jewish religious school for several
years, and studied traditional Hebrew with an aspiration, at one point
in my childhood, of being a rabbi there is a song that is sung o
welcome the angels (malacheim) of the Sabbath just after the lighting
of the candles..but my family was not an observant or religious one
and Reform Jews tend to downplay anything as mysticl as welcoming
angels as messengers of peace, messengers of the Holy Day, messengers of
the Most High. I think they threw out the baby and kept the
bathwater, myself....though I'm basically non-speculative spiritually
as a middle aged adult.
I;ve taken the liberty of correcting some of the male-centered
language in the original text, because within about 5 years of the
publication of this book, Rabi Kushner's congregation in Massachusetts
switched to one of the first gender-free liturgies in a Jewish
synagogue in the US. I'm far from a scholar of Hebrew...barely read it
any more. but I follow the lead of some of my more Hebrew-literate
colleagues who have taken up the challenge and joy of changing the
traditional Hebrew prayers into feminine gender...that much the easier
in my native tongue. I've also played just a little with some of
Kushner's telegraphic use of phrases, and added some punctuation
according to MY understanding of what reads more smoothly in prose...
so, edited lightly with the passage of time...
The Fifth Gate: Malachei Elyon Messengers of the Most High
"and he said, ' Why do you ask my name?' "
The Hebrew word for angel is "malach." Which also means messenger:
one who is sent.
Not cherubic creatures who adorn architecture, valentines, and
fantasy. They can be anyone who has been sent. Just as anyone who is
sent can be an angel. It is required only that there be an errand.
One message.
...There is one great difference between people chosen to be God's
messengers, and earthly messengers. While those on errands of this
world almost always know where they are sent and why, people chosen to
be messengers of the Most High rarely even know that they are
messengers. Unsuspecting and unaware, consumed by their own plans and
itineraries. Busy on their own schemes, God is already sending them
somewhere else.
I do not know how many times in one's life one is also a messenger.
But for everyone it is at least once. One to whom it is given to know
that their errand is complete is blessed and rare. Not so for most of
us.
Remember only that you are not always going where you are going for
the reasons you think you are.
....There must have been a time when you entered a room and met
someone, and after a while you understood that, unknown to either of
you, there wa a reason that you had met. You had changed the other or
he had changed you. By some word of deed, or just by your presence,
the errand had been completed. The, perhaps, you were a little
bewildered or humbled or grateful. And it was over.
Each lifetime is the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
For some, there are more pieces.
For others, the puzzle is more difficult to assemble.
Some seems to be born wih a enaqrly completed puzzle.
And so it goes.
Souls going this way and tat.
Trying to assemble the myriad parts.
But know this. No one has within themselves
All the pieces to their puzzles.
Like before the days when they used to seal
jigsaw puzzles in cellophane.
All the pieces were there.
Everyone carries with them at least one and probably
Many pieces to someone else's puzzle.
Sometimes they know it.
Sometimes they don't.
And when you present your piece
Which is worthless to you
To another, whether they (or you) know it or not,
You are a messenger from the Most High.
...The Zohar is even more explicit [than Genesis regarding how God
appears to us mortals...ed.]"and indeed whenever the celestial spirits
descend to earth, they clothe themselves in physical things and
appear to be people in human shape."
...I happen to have an idiosyncrasy when it comes to tefillin, the
small black leather boxes containing bits of parchment on which are
written passages from the Torah. When I travel, I carry my tefillin with
me. I tell myself that just in case the spirit should move me, or if
should feel spiritually weakened, I would have them with me...aftr
many trips I still hadn't put them on but a few times. nevertheless, I
still carry them with me....
then the other day, a dear friend told me that his mother had given
away his set of tefillin. there were tears inhis eyes.
Ad then I understood..they weren't mine. I was only bringing them to
their intended owner. "They must be yours," I said.
****** hope some of this speaks to everyone who reads it; I find new
levels of meaning in this book every time something brings me to it.
Judith
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SF Bay Area
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