Kabbalah, Seasons and Sight

A trip away from home can really open our eyes. Since coming to live in Tzfat we have become accustomed to seeing the men and boys around us all dressed in stark black. Yesterday we took a trip to Jerusalem, we traveled on the bus down the mountain, across verdant green fields, begging to bloom with the myriad blossoms of spring. The trip was such a pleasure since we have been trapped in the clutches of winter now for several weeks and the day turned beautiful and warm for us, giving us the blessing of nice weather and bright sun making everything seem fresh and new!

This afternoon I sat down and studied for a while in my Kabbalah the letter for the day which is Ayin ע

which is the symbol for various types of sight, including insight, foresight and the perspective of how we view life. I was reminded how Torah teaches us that in the ancient of days each village or tribe had a seer, someone who was revered by the rest of the people as the person who was able to keep alive in the community the ability to know right from wrong, to avert disaster, to foretell further events and direct people concerning many other things. In a book that I read long ago the seer of the village was the only person who never wore anything black in color. In fact, the mystics of ancient Israel used to wear crimson, gold, turquoise,white and fuschia because they believed that darker colors indicated a total absence of light and thus interfered with their ability to connect to 'the light' of schechenah!

I hadn't realized how used to seeing black I have gotten until yesterday! The city was full of colors, women and men in wonderful, glorious color everywhere one looked. So the Ayin today brought me to thinking, what is it that makes someone in the color black appear so stern, and sterile? Why is it that even the youngsters who are dressed in black look hard?

Isn't the absence of light, black? I begin to meditate on this in my silence with the Ayin before me and suddenly realized that indeed black shuts out light, light can neither reflect from nor be absorbed by black. Somewhere in my studies I also learned that a black lens can distort the light in your picture in such a way as to create a semblance of evil!

Ayin has of course a number, 70, it is the number of men that Abraham choose to work with him in the priesthood and its various duties. Reflecting on the instructions for the clothing of these men we learn that they were all assigned colors to reflect what position they held! Colors, not black! The mystics of almost every religion are people who loved color, they wore it, painted their faces with it, used it on their totems, flew flags rich in splendid flower hues and even adorned their homes with it!

Ayin speaks to us of being open, of using our eyes, both physical and spiritual to see TRUTH, to be aware of all that is around us, it begs us to seek out the tiniest of flowers hidden by the springs green grace and to note the deep rich colors of the earth as the seasons change. Ayin also asks us to search ourselves to see where our own true colors lie, if we are indeed made in the image of the Eternal than we must be truly beautiful, like a diamond with it's light spread out for all to see! We must become aware of how we look, not just outside but also inside. We must open up the chasm of our soul and let the reflection of the light pour through us.

Ayin asks us to bring into being the essence of light, color. Doesn't it make your feel good when you put on your first new spring outfit? Think of it! I'll bet that most of us love to buy the pastel hues of the spring season, and that we feel different when we wear them! I saw on the net the wonderful art in Central park, the color was glorious, I was particularly taken by one photo that was shot from a helicopter and showed the spirals of bright crimson floating against the sea of green that is the beloved park of New York! It spoke volume's about how one can use colors to bring new light and life into something which is otherwise so familiar that we take it for granted. Ayin asks all of us to do what the artist did in New York! Put some color into our lives! We are after all the reflection of creation in all its wonder, and we have all experienced times in our lives when everything seemed black, but when we come out of those times we seek light and color again as they symbolize the ability of life to survive!

Ayin,

the letter of sight, of seeing, the awakener of our sense of sight, the ruler of our eyes both spiritual and physical. We should all work on being filled with light, with the colors of the spectrum that is reflected from our souls center. Spring is a time of new beginnings, of new life reaching out of the old, it reminds all of us how we can become so used to seeing only black that our lives become mired in the quag and mud until no light can get in. Perhaps you don't have a whole day to go out and enjoy the budding spring, but maybe when you drive home this evening from work you could stop for a few moments at a park, or a flower shop, or if you walk home window shop at the glitziest store on the block, sense the color, let it pour into your soul the energy that is reflected there.

Simply put, Ayin tells us that we must stop once in a while and take in the beauty that is around us, and more specifically the beauty from within us, so that we can begin to reflect who we truly are!

Kabbalah, Kitchens and Knots

There is a heartbeat that runs through this place in which we live, it is a sure and steady beat that can be felt best in the the bustle that becomes Friday. It is baking day here in Tzfat, and whether by design or by the fact that one lives here eventually you fall into the rhythm of those around you. It is about four hours until the sun sets, and when that happens a deep rest wraps itself around the people here, and we gather over our tables to welcome the Sabbath Bride. It is a tradition that goes back as far as the recorded history of the Jews.

So for several hours this morning I baked, goodies not just for Sabbath but to last the entire week. The cookie jar is brimming with fresh sugar cookies, and peanut butter crunch cookies, a batch of brownies is cooling on the side and the Challah sit quietly on the table waiting to be wisk away under her white cover before the wine is brought out only to reappear in all her glory when my husband takes her from under the cover, slivers a little salt over her and says the blessing.

I fell to watching my husband as he cleaned the rugs in the living room while I waited for a batch of cookies to emerge from the oven. He went round and round in concentric circles with a small damp brush taking the weeks worth of dirt from the surface of the rug. I began to think about the way in which such a rug is woven, by hand with hundreds of knots being tied as the weaver blends the colors and brings out the design. The Kabbalah tells us that we are all knots in the chain that links us with all the Jews who came before us, all the way back to the mountain where Moses received the living Torah. I went back to my kitchen and my baking but the knot idea had taken root and I fell to meditating on what this knot of mine might look like if I could see it. Would it have bright colors, would there be Rabbi's or Cohains or ritual butchers, or bakers in my knot? Would it have strings of silver or flecks of gold? It would of course have some dark colors for the times that our people went through trials and tribulations, and there would be some stains I am sure where there were times that we didn't measure up as we should have when put to the test.

I came in then after the last batch of cookies to the computer and sat down to write something about knots, and Kabbalah. I took up Richard Seidman's book on The Oracle of Kabbalah which has been a favorite of mine for some years and shuffled the deck of letter cards quietly. When at last I picked one from the deck I wasn't at all surprised to see the Aleph in my hand. This is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and of course the Kabbalahists tell us a primary letter in the history of our people. It is numberless, the number that has been assigned to it over the years is infinite, it cannot be written the great teachers tell us.

The Aleph always has a special message when you see it, I recalled having seen an Aleph just last week at the beginning of a line of Torah reading and noting that it looked like a fragile piece of silver filigree against the background of the parchment, it looked like fire in ice! The Aleph is a knot א it reminds me of the wonderful Celtic knots in the book of days that the Druids wrote, it is a symbol of all that we are or might become. If you read about the letter Aleph you find that while it brings us to face ourselves, it also grants us insight. We can see the importance of simple things like baking and cleaning and at the same time catch a glimpse of the Divine in the way the Aleph balances itself.

The Kabbalah also tells us that the Aleph is a messenger who reminds us that we must not only nourish our bodies but must also nourish our souls. We stop and take time from the ordinary to experience that which is life. The knots that tie us one to one as human beings also tie us to the Creator Being, and when we see the Aleph with its arms outstretched it is a reminder that we should reach for that place inside of us where our soul resides and connect to all that is spiritual in the world around us. There are strong knots and weak knots in each of our chains and we are specifically placed in life to support, in what ever way that GOD intends, the rest of the knots in our chain.

As I worked on this piece I came to understand that the colors and the history of our knots is all there in each of us. We are intricate, delicate, wonderful beings who carry a history in our souls that ties us forever to the past just as it pushes us toward the future. Each of us, no matter where you might find yourself as you read this, has a place in the chain of knots that is life, we are part of the infinite number that is Aleph, we are the reason for the beating of the heart of planet earth. Some of us may wonder, I know I do, about the colors of the knot and what Hashem thinks when He/She looks at mine, but I came to understand today that that isn't nearly as important as how we view the way we tie the knot. We need more than ever to make each piece of the knot firm, we need to hold tight to those simple things that give us a rhythm to our lives and at the same time we must nourish and replenish our souls so that those who see our knot in the end will know that we did our best to ensure that generations from now there will be kitchens where cookies are baked, tables are set with the finest dishes and the blessings are still said over the candles.
We must as the Kabbalah teaches, make way for the Eternal in our lives even while we tend to the simple everyday tasks that make a house a home.
Leah PettePiece