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Creating Bridges: Spirituality & Philosophy:
Kabbalah: "Letters from Heaven:"
Spiritual Guidance from the Hebrew Alphabet
Nun:
Emergence
Numerical value: 50
Live life as a song (nign)
Love life as a miracle (Nays)
by Avigayil Landsman |
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Bonnie Meadow can be found in a children's dictionary under the word "lute." In my dictionary, she can be found under the word, "friend." Bonnie and I have been friends since our teen-age children were in diapers. As we watched them play "mommy and daddy" we looked at each other and asked, "wouldn't it be great if we became machatunim?"(in-laws) We knew early on in our friendship that what we had was golden. Bonnie and I share a special relationship through sharing our most intimate secrets and thoughts. We have a special understanding that we don't have to be "polite" with each other when we believe the other needs guidance. While others may look the other way, we get into each other's faces-with love. We trust the other's judgment and advice. In fact, we seek it from each other, knowing that in our times of fear and self-doubt the other will hold the ladder needed to climb out of the pits of despair. Bonnie has had her share of challenges in life. She is the person who gives 150%.
She's one of the most capable people in the world. Lack of training is never a barrier for her to excel. She simply puts her turbo-charge brain into gear and figures out how to do anything, such as fixing her car, playing several musical instruments, dancing, writing jazz songs as well as melodies to psalms that sound like they were written in Sinai, running the Jewish Federation, and singing and acting in hysterically funny plays. What I love about Bonnie is that she doesn't have a conceited bone in her body. She shines in her accomplishments, certainly, but never at anyone's expense. If anything, her shining inspires others to push beyond their perceived limitations. Such was the case with me when Bonnie and I were both preparing to become adult bat mitzvah. Typical of me, I was lost when it came to learning how to chant from Torah. I remember how after two weeks, Bonnie apologized to me for not only learning everything she needed to know but also excelling at chanting. She wound up explaining the nuances of chanting in ways that the teacher couldn't and at long last, my mind penetrated the mysteries of trop. Bonnie is a team player. You could compare her to Fred Astaire who could make any partner look good, even a coat rack!
Bonnie, whose passion in life is music, and who learns to swim in the strangest waters embodies the energy of emergence. It is for this reason that I dedicate this month's teaching to her. May she be blessed with lots of naches, a Yiddish word that means pleasure.
About nun
In Aramaic, nun literally means fish, which coincides with the letter's ancient derivation. Just as a fish rises to the surface of the water, so a prince, nagid rises above his people. On a spiritual level, one who achieves a place of victory, netzach, is a neshama, soul who has emerged from the mire of his life. He is a person who has learned the lesson of natan, to give. The significance of spelling natan the same forwards or backwards is that the one who gives also receives through giving. Nays, miracle, is a challenging event that transforms reality. And, when you fully emerge, your soul flies up to HaShem while chanting the wordless nign, the essence of prayer. If you don't know the words to a prayer, God will hear you just as clearly if you hum the nigun. In fact, one's kavana is often strongest when humming the nigun without the words. The words are memorized with the intellect, but it is a nigun that rises from a pure neshama.
Caring for the soul
The Kabbalists in 16th C Safed, Israel developed rituals for celebrating Shabbat such as wearing white clothes. A few months ago, I decided to adopt this tradition to my spiritual practice, which has made a difference. I feel more vulnerable wearing white because I feel more open physically. White is so bright, so expansive. Other Shabbat traditions include not doing any work and enjoying nature. I am a workaholic and often find myself working on Shabbat. One Shabbat I took a walk in my white clothes. On my walk, I saw a beautiful piece of ceramics embedded in the earth. I immediately bent over to dig it up-but I was wearing white and didn't want to ruin my pure white garb! It only took a moment for all this to sink in. AHA! I cried. Just as my clothes are vulnerable to the effort of working on shabbas, so is my neshama, soul! The mitzvah on shabbat is to abstain from work in order for the soul to recharge , va- yi-nafash from its efforting on the previous six days. For six days we focus on our nefesh, our animal soul, our survival needs: money, food, shelter, etc., but on Shabbat, we are instructed to rest from these labors so we can focus exclusively on caring for our neshamas, or "higher" soul, the part whose focus is to connect with Spirit. Doing labor takes the focus away from the pure enjoyment the neshama needs in order to expand and grow. Ceasing work on Shabbat offers the soul the opportunity to emerge.
Healing the soul, healing the body
"Elohai neshama she natati bi tehora hi," "God, the soul you gave to me is pure." Every morning, a traditional Jew recites a prayer that begins, "God, the soul you have given me is pure." The word used for soul is neshama. In Jewish mysticism, there are various levels of soul. The Ishbitzer rebbe says that unlike nefesh which concerns itself with basic survival needs (often referred to as the "animal soul") and ruach, which is connected to emotional concerns, the neshama is directly connected to HaShem. The neshama is the part of the soul that knows only God.
It is important that we understand and accept the purity of the soul before true healing can occur. Spiritual healing comes about through revealing the hidden light beneath the klipot, deadened layers of hurt. When we wish healing for someone we include both healing of the body and soul. The readings you can do with the Hebrew letter cards offer you the opportunity to discover deep hidden truths about your psyche and what you need to focus on to release yourself from negative patterns that dominate your life that cause dissatisfaction. The letters are forms and in that everything contains energy, the letters too contain vital energy that can do much to facilitate healing and spiritual growth.
Suffering from a chronic illness that flares up from time to time, I decided to do a healing reading for myself. I asked what the nature and cause of the illness was and what I had to do for the cure. I shuffled the deck, cut it into three piles and turned over the first card in each pile. I was then moved to turn over all the cards in the pile instructing me what to do to facilitate a cure. I put those cards around my body and meditated a while with my eyes closed. Then I opened my eyes and meditated on each letter, listening for the advice each letter had for me. I heard many valuable lessons.
I was then moved to put the letter zayin on the center of the pain. Zayin, if you remember is a weapon. A friend recently told me that there is a Malaysian sword called a keris that looks very much like the letter zayin. Zayin told me to cut through old memories (zachor-memory). Gradually, I felt the pain mitigate. I became lighter and the pain started to ease. After a while, I decided to stand those letters up on my dresser where my eyes could see them as I moved in and out of my room. I left my home later with the letters memorized.
As I traveled, I thought more deeply on what each letter was telling me. Many memories came up for me connected to the directions I'd received. I breathed into these feelings and came to new realizations about how my way of relating to people often drains me. Lamed, for example, told me, "l'at" slow down! My impatience causes me to rush activities, which in turn stresses my muscles. I entered a place of gentle and loving acceptance of my limitations, acknowledging that outside of my impatience my soul lives calmly inside me, glowing with beauty. No matter how much pain I am in, whether physically or emotionally, my soul remains ever pure, waiting patiently for my hands to manifest its beauty. This is the hidden glory (chaf) of the experience of pain. This daylong retreat into the letters was uplifting and part of my neshama's emergence.
The number game
The numerical value of nun is fifty, a significant number in Torah. Every seven years the land is to be given a rest. At the end of seven cycles of seven years, there is a jubilee year in which all debts are forgiven. This is the fiftieth year. The captives are free to go home. The soul is free! There are fifty gates that lead to heaven. After counting the omer for seven weeks, the fiftieth day, Shavuot, celebrates the receiving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai.
The mikva, or ritual bath is a ritual used for spiritual cleansing. The mikva must contain at least one sixtieth natural water and be deep enough for a person to submerge completely. Not one hair is allowed out of the water when a directed person enters the mikvah. One uses the mikva as part of a rite of passage. Marriage, conversion and a woman's monthly cycle are times when one goes to the mikvah. The kavannah, or sacred intension of the mikvah is to enter the cosmic birth waters so that the neshamah may emerge transformed and spiritually cleansed. The mikvah is used also be those in contact with some form of death. This person is considered tamai, impure. A woman is considered tamai not because her cycle is considered dirty, but because menstruation occurs because a life was not conceived therefore it can be construed as a form of death. Before entering the mikvah, one removes any foreign matter that can interfere with direct contact with the water. Jewelry, make-up, eyewear are removed. It is customary to cut the nails and wash the entire body with soap as well. Even extraneous dirt on the skin is seen as a barrier. The person enters the water, curls up into a fetal position, emerges and says a prayer. This is repeated three times.
The long and short of it
A traveler to the Holy city of Jerusalem came to a fork in the road. A child sitting at the crossroads told him that there were two different roads that led to Jerusalem, the long-short road or the short-long road. The man said to himself, "Hmm, this road looks really pleasant, I think I will take this short-long road." Indeed, the road was very pleasant and short, with inspiring vistas and easy travel. He arrived in record time, however; he had no way to enter the city because he came to the back of the city where there were no gates of entry. The man sighed and seeing no alternative, retraced his steps to the crossroads and took the long-short road. This road was not at all pleasant. The roads were full of potholes that made travel very difficult and the journey took a much longer time. After a very unpleasant journey, he at last arrived at the holy city's front gates that opened to him in glorious welcome.
From this story we learn that the path to the soul's emergence often requires a long, tough journey, full of transformative experiences. But, like a diamond in the rough, the adversity we prevail strips us of our unhealthy self-concepts, allowing the full brilliance of our defined facets of being radiate.
Image
In the nun card, the fish is jumping from the sea of the emotional water of ruach. We see that the animal soul, nefesh(nefish?) has been transformed into a nagid, a prince because he wears a crown.
Moses, the liberator of the Hebrew slaves, was drawn out of the sea by Pharaoh's daughter. His successor was Joshua, the son of Nun, which hints at the greatness of his spiritual father known as the "great fish." The gematria of great fish (dag gadol) is fifty.
The ultimate practice of emergence is song. A wordless song is called a nigun. First we say the words of prayer, then we are stirred to song and finally, we drop the words and fly on melody-a nigun. The Levites were the singers because song arouses the revelation of the secrets in the heart. Song moves us to a level that transcends logic, therefore it reveals the concealed mysteries.
The backround of the image is the parting of the waters, the nays gadol, the great miracle of Passover. When we transcend the bounds of material reality, we find miracles abound. The waters part and we enter into a new dimension.
Nun in a reading
We engage in many relationships: parent, child, friend, teacher, and lover. May we engage with loving intimacy that deepens and may this safe place create the miracle of our souls' emergence! Kayn y'hi ratzon-may it be so!
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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:
Avigayil1@earthlink.net
Website:
www.jewish-wisdom
-and-art.4t.com
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