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Creating Bridges: Spirituality & Philosophy:
Kabbalah: "Letters from Heaven:"
Spiritual Guidance from the Hebrew Alphabet
Chet
We stand at the gate
between life
and death
yearning
for what lies beyond
then returning
with new longing
by Avigayil Landsman
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I dedicate this month's column to my friend, Carol Fox-Prescott, a brilliant acting and breathing teacher whose life is a perpetual toast to life. Her enthusiasm for celebrating the everyday miracles of life as well as compassion for life's disappointments is inspiring. She brings out the best in everyone and finds the good that many others overlook. Eternally young, her vital energy is more than an entire cheerleading squad. She is the embodiment of two of my favorite chet words: chay, life and chazak, strength.
The derivation of chet is a gate or wall that contains the wild aleph energy. As with many letters, the early form took a 90-degree turn and shed a few rungs in order to become the letter we have today. I think of the deeper symbolism of a gate turned on its side. The slats, once used to contain energy are transformed to rungs on a ladder that assist us in reaching higher levels.
In the Zohar, a thirteenth century Kabbalistic mystical text we find an allegory of the lover who comes each day to a gate in order to see his beloved through a small window in the palace. This symbolizes approaching a holy text, wanting to get a glimpse of the inner truth contained within its plain meaning. Sometimes we have a moment of revelation when the truth is discovered.
This moment can seem like a recognition of something that isn't really outside of us, but hidden so deeply that it seemed to be "out there" somehow. This revelation is fleeting, we return to "our regularly scheduled program" and arrive the next day at the gate with hopes of getting another glimpse of our beloved. This experience reminds me of a peep show. A robed woman first intrigues the man. This evocative figure beckons him to look. As the stripper slowly and seductively removes her garments, the man is aroused. He wants to see more, wants to get beyond the outer garments that hide the mystery. When we study, we encounter the text that on the surface may appear simple, trite, boring or even unnecessary.
The man at the peep show may also think the clothes unnecessary, but it is exactly those clothes-the text, that arouses our curiosity, encouraging us to go into the text more deeply until we penetrate the deeper meaning of the text and experience a flash, a rush of energy in raising our awareness. For this reason, we understand that the purpose of studying mystical texts isn't only for the deeper truths but for the process of discovery itself just as the purpose of a peep show isn't for the sake of seeing the stripper's naked body as much as it is to watch her provocatively undress.
We encounter many other gates in the world. Our worldly personalities act as gates. It's only after someone has continually pursued us and we feel safe that we open up. I have often found myself very drawn to someone without knowing why. There is something about the person's energy that makes me want to get to know them better. I remember meeting a woman at a Purim potluck dinner and thinking what a great friend she'd be. After our initial meeting, she barely seemed to notice me. I drove by her house on my way home, so I often saw her working in her garden. As much as I liked her from that simple meeting, something told me to hold back and not pursue her. I watched her from a distance, through a gate as it were, for a few years. Luckily, we eventually wound up in a class and she being the class wiz, offered to help me with a difficult assignment. It was through that connection that we began our friendship.
As we got to know each other, I discovered that her high-energy, lighthearted public persona masked something a bit darker. We both supported each other through our dark times, as well as to celebrate our triumphs. Our friendship is now about thirteen years in the making and through it, we have opened many gates to find the riches within.
Scientists' research has shown that certain geometric patterns create effects in the brain. I can't believe I had a four foot op art poster in my bedroom for so many years. That could explain quite a lot! Similarly, when we meditate on an evocative image, we can be transported to new states of awareness. This multi-dimensional aspect of images is the power behind Tarot and other divination decks. It is also the power behind the Hebrew letters. Sensitive students who intuitively understand the meaning of the letters without previously encountering them have pleasantly surprised me. They look at the letters and are transported to highly spiritual domains.
Chusan v'chupah
In a Jewish wedding, the chusan, groom and bride stand under a chupah, canopy. This enclosure symbolizes the couple's home. The chupah's opened sides recall Avraham's tent that was also open on all sides to allow guests in regardless of the direction they were traveling. The guests at a wedding surround the chupah but do not enter it.
The chupah thus becomes a boundary that establishes a sacred domain for the couple. In this way, the couple remains a part of the community yet a special nature of their relationship is protected. This is the first time they are together in holiness, to receive the holy blessing from above, so a "shield" is necessary to douse the intensity of the holy light.
The canopy of the chupah is similar to the bride's veil that reveals and simultaneously conceals her beauty (all brides are beautiful, no matter what their physical appearance). The covering of the chupah is the wings of the Shekinah, the indwelling presence of the Divine. It is also known as the shadow of faith.
Chet in Torah script has three components: a zayin, a vav and a little "mountain" that joins the two letters. This represents the woman, the man and the presence of God to insure that the union is holy.
To LIFE!
The gate of chet holds the energy of the wild aleph. This is the energy of life: giving energy context. Many are familiar with the salutation, "L'chayim!" meaning, "To Life!" The same shoresh of l'chayim is chaya, animal, one that is alive. The types of animals in Torah symbolize aspects of the psyche. The wild lion, the adventurous, untamable spirit and the sheep, the docile follower, are but two examples. The gate of chet holds the energy of the wild beast in us. The young man who wants to sow his wild oats will wander to no other woman's tent once he finds himself under the chupah.
The Gate of Return
The letter chet is also a Hebrew word meaning mistake, missing the mark. It is said "only your sins separate you from your God." (Is 59:2) In this way, our blunders become our gateways to the divine. In the moment that we recognize we've missed the mark and strive to do better, the gate is opened; the gate turns ninety degrees to become the ladder to heaven.
Rabbi Dov Bear of Mezritch said, "The teshuva is in the chet like the oil is in the olive," meaning that we cannot achieve atonement, a return to God until we lose our connection with God. When I fall from grace, when I make a chet, a mistake, I strive to do teshuvah(make amends). The more I fall from grace, the more I realize I have fallen and then do teshuvah with more awareness which more fully repairs my inner brokenness.
The tension between divaykut, total cleaving to God and teshuvah, return, creates movement. This reminds me of a yo-yo. The yo-yo yearns to be united with the hand, God. The yo-yo falls from the hand but does not fall away completely as it is connected to the hand by a string. It appears that the yo-yo is climbing up the string but it is the tug of the hand that pulls the yo-yo up. The string is the prayers of our hearts and the intentions of our mitzvot, good deeds. This desire comes from being in touch with the divine that lives within us. When we fully know this we can rest comfortably in the wings of the Shekinah. This is faith. Teshuvah happens when we believe that the strength of the Divine is powerful enough to lift us up when we have fallen further than we thought we'd fall. Then we don't have to fear the falling because we know that built into the falling is the pull to ascend.
The Numbers Game
The numerical value of chet is eight, one more than the complete cycle of seven. The zayin's time is up; time to repeat the octave! Turned on its side, the eight is the sign for infinity. Jews light eight candles for Hanukah, the celebration of a small, tenacious band of Jews who triumphed near-extinction. The light symbolizes the spark of divinity contained in each person. The eight candles, therefore symbolize the infinitude of bright spirit in the world.
Chanukah and Sukkoth are eight-day holidays to bring our awareness to miracles (Chanukah celebrates the miracle of a scant supply of oil for the Temple lasting much longer and Sukkoth celebrates God's protection of the Hebrews while they traveled in the desert). A week would have been sufficient, but to make a point, God gave one day more!
Tarot Eights
The eights in Tarot's minor arcanna reveal various aspects of chet. To me, the eight of wands epitomizes the vitality of life. In most decks, the eight of wands card shows trees in bloom, even on fire. The wands are pictured diagonally across the picture plane, giving the sense of a gate, or a ladder. The eight of swords pictures a figure very loosely tied up. She really can get out of the "trap". When I think of standing before a gate, I realize that what I consider to be an obstacle is only an illusion I have created in my mind.
The eight of cups shows a person walking away from eight cups. Here we get the sense of chet as the gate opening us to a new perspective. The cups are piled on top of one another, creating a barrier of a kind. Perhaps that space in the rows reflects that the person has knocked one over in order to get past an old way of life and is now going beyond the limitations of what lie behind. The eight of pentacles shows that once we work with determination, fulfillment and happiness are ours! The outer reward of the inner work!
There Was a Rose and a Rose
The opening line of the Zohar begins, "There is a rose and a rose." The first rose refers to the sephira(emanation of the divine) Binah, heavenly mother who gives birth to the lower sephirot, the last one being her daughter, the Shekinah, the closest emanation to physical existence.
I have an etching by world-renown artist Manuel Menan in my bedroom that is part of a series entitled, "About Eros and Thanatos," love and death. The etching expresses the artist's experience of the birth of his daughter.
Pictured in the etching is a woman's torso with a rose between her legs; tears form at the edges of the leaves. Menan explained to me that they are his tears of joy. Emerging from the dark, above the torso is an hourglass, symbolizing eternity. Birth is one aspect of life, one end on the continuum that leads to death, and back again through birth. I bought this print when I was a young woman, admiring the delicate beauty and sensitivity the artist put into his creation without much depth of understanding.
As a middle aged mother in the throes of menopause, just ending her childbearing years, I compare the awe and dread of birth. There was no way I would be able to give birth and I couldn't imagine how any woman could. Now, the memories of my children's births are distant and hazy. I remember them the way I recall a favorite dramatic movie, knowing with relief on how it will end. I think too, of the fear I have about my eventual death and take hope and courage that just as my fear of giving life was unfounded, so too will be my passing from life. Now I understand more fully how this etching fits in to the titled theme "About Eros and Thanatos."
The hourglass, like the figure eight suggests a repetition of cycles. The hourglass seems to peer out of a curtain of darkness, emerging from hidden realms, beyond this immediate birth; perhaps hearkening back to the life it knew before this one, all connected through the process of deathing. As I look at this enigmatic etching I wonder at the birth of all life. The hourglass is merely hinted at with just a speck of light inside it, reminding me of God's first command, "Let there be light!" From amidst the chaos Light began the process of Life, the continual cycle of beginnings and endings.
There was a moment in my childhood where the veil between life and death was very thin. For weeks my broken body lay in a hospital bed, my soul hovering over it, deliberating whether or not to stay. My mother, ever thoughtful, coming from a place of wisdom beyond her own consciousness, brought me a rose in a milk glass bud vase that she put next to my bed. I later learned that my mother replaced the rose before it began to wilt, therefore creating a "miracle." In my tenuous state, where one day merged with another, time seemed to stand still, the rose was ever-new, fresh and vibrant, inspiring me to heal with radiating good health and strength.
There was a rose and a rose….
There was the gift from a mother to her daughter and there was a gift from a daughter to her mother. I lived. A few years later I drew picture after picture of roses for my mother. And several years after that, I gave birth to my daughter, Rubi ROSE.
This is the meaning of chet. We stand at the gate between life and death, yearning for what is just beyond and then returning to where we stood, with a new longing.
Chet in a reading
Chet in a reading signals a time to consider what lies beyond the gate. What do you have to do to gain entry? Are you repeating a cycle that needs to be broken; after all, if it hasn't worked thus far chances are it's not going to in the future. Doing the same thing over and over again is the definition of insanity.
What initially seems to be a barrier to us in one way or another is often a gate that leads to a deeper understanding. What gate do you need to walk through to find God? For some it's ritual, for others it's prayer, study or even humor. There are said to be forty-nine gates to the divine. It isn't as important what gate you chose as long as you show up each day in attempt to get beyond. Remember, a gate begins as an obstacle but in the end protects.
I'd like to end with a few lines from a poem by Rudolf Steiner entitled, "Winter Solstice"
Living in darkness,
Create a Sun.
Weaving in matter
Know spirit's delight
The Image
The Torah script chet combines the letters zayin and vav, representing male, the female. They are connected with a chevron, a little Mt. Sinai representing God. When our male and female sides are integrated, when we are both gentle and strong, when our conscious and unconscious selves unite in action, the supernal light shines. The bride and groom symbolize the mystical union under the chupah, the Shekinah presiding over them. The oil, we will remember, was needed for the eternal light in the Temple. Rabbi Dov Bear likens our sins to the olive, the teshuvah to the oil. The sacred marriage depicted here brings together the ideas of integrating the many levels of male and female as well as the release of light that confessing our wrongdoings brings. This integration brings light to the world. Shine on, shine on!
The legs of the chupa are the zayin and vav, the angelic female presence above is the top fabric of the chupah for the couple stands in the "shadow of faith."
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Avigayil Landsman,
Torah Scholar, Calligrapher, Lecturer, Teacher & Creator of the "Letters From Heaven" Deck
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Avigayil has been a serious student of Torah for the last ten years and has written many d'vrai Torah(Torah lectures). She is the creator of Letters from Heaven, a Jewish divination system that incorporates the mystical meanings of the Hebrew letters, her chiddushim (new insights into Torah) and their application to the challenges of daily life. Her LFH readings offer seekers of all persuasions spiritual direction in finding one's authentic voice.
Avigayil is a multi-media artist who is best-known for the beaded breastplate that adorns the Woodstock Jewish Congregation's Torah. She creates personalized ketubot, beeswax Shabbat candles, shiviti plaques and other judaica as well as secular art in Sculpey, paint, and shadow boxes that combine disparate objects such as feathers, beads and wood.
Her Judaica (beeswax Shabbat and havdallah candles, havdallah spice boxes, shiviti plaques) and calligraphy cards are available for purchase at the Woodstock Jewish Congregation's judaica shop, Miriam's Well and her home. She also does private commissions.
Avigayil has taught enrichment classes in calligraphy for the Woodstock Jewish Congregation's Hebrew school. She prepares children and adults for becoming Bat/bar-mitzvah with humor and deep wisdom that come from her own unique way of living through the lessons of Torah. She has also given workshops and lectures on the spiritual meaning of the Hebrew letters and Letters from Heaven at Omega and Mount St. Alphonsus.
"Avigayil Landsman's interpretations of the Hebrew letters are original, witty, steeped in scholarship, and above all a genuine opening to our own spiritual wisdom." Rachel Pollack, creator of Shining Tribe Tarot Deck www.rachelpollack.com
Avigayil is available for art commissions and LFH readings in person or on the phone. She may be contacted by e-mail at:
jewishwisdomandart@
hotmail.com
www.jewish-wisdom
-and-art.4t.com |
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