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Creating Bridges: Spirituality & Philosophy:
Kabbalah: "Letters from Heaven:"
Spiritual Guidance from the Hebrew Alphabet
THE GATES PROJECT IN CENTRAL PARK: addendum to Chet
Chet: Gate
Sound: ch as in Chanukah
Numerical value: 8
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by Avigayil Landsman |
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With great gratitude, I dedicate this column in honor of Christo and Jean-Claude, innovative artists who brought the joy and wonder of the Gates Project to New York City’s Central Park. Their project inspired thousands of happy tourists and native New Yorkers. I pray that the inner peace and sense of global community that people felt through the Gates’ production and participation continues in our hearts and consciousness. This column is a reflection of my insights gleaned through walking through a few miles of the Gates Project. May it be for a blessing.
Today, February 27, 2005 is the last day for visitors to experience the wonder of the Gates Project in Central Park. It is one week since I was privileged to experience the pageantry and beauty of this “outstallation.” I feel nostalgic for the experience as one misses an unusual meeting with a dynamic teacher or dramatic natural display, such as a sunset atop a high mountain in a foreign land. This ephemeral quality is intrinsic to its power to delight and inspire. I couldn’t take the Gates for granted; I had to seize the opportunity to go or miss out altogether.
The title itself stimulated my Jewish imagination because the concept of gates is ubiquitous in Judaism. There are fifty gates of wisdom and many psalms include passages of walking through the gate of righteousness. In fact, the derivation of the letter chet, discussed in an earlier column (see archives) is a gate! Not surprising, the structure of the frames for the Gates project strongly resembled the block letter, chet itself! So, even though returning to the letter chet, the eighth letter of the aleph-beit is going out of alphabetical order, the lessons of the Gates Project are very much alive in me right now, urging me to share.
Before I speak directly about the Gates project, I want to consider the significance of a gate. A gate keeps unwanted beings out and holds wanted beings inside, therefore, a gate is a boundary. In a spiritual sense, a gate marks a rite of passage. One passes through a gateway of birth into life, through death into pure essence. There is a gate to the heart, a gate into a new year, a gate into a holiday. Each gate we enter requires a change of consciousness. Hopefully, we leave out the qualities that no longer serve us and open to the new qualities that nourish us.
I had learned a few things about the Gates project before setting out for New York City. I was impressed that Christo had earned the money for the project through selling his art and hadn’t taken any foundation grants. This meant to me that the project would be free of commercialism or politics. His mission was to “give joy,” an honorable goal during this time of political and social unrest. I believe that the greatest protest in a post-9/11 world is to create works of joy that celebrates humanity’s innate goodness and love. I was relieved to know that after the project was dismantled, the fabric and steel would be reused or recycled rather than treated as waste. I was also impressed that Christo treated his workers well, which included providing a hot meal for the workers each day on china plates. Care went into planning the project in ways that were unseen. I did not see the workers assembling the Gates, but knowing that the workers were well cared for added to my enjoyment.
When I heard that there were over 7,000 gates erected throughout Central Park, I went through my mental files of the many gates erected throughout the world, particularly the intricately carved stone gates in front of the Great Stupa in India, replete with sensual figures and trees. I wondered what kinds of intricate designs Christo had come up with. I had some misgivings when someone told me that the orange fabric of the Gates looked like the orange plastic fencing used for construction sites. “It’s like a valance,” my friend described it. “What’s the fuss about then,” I thought, and yet, a nagging curiosity tugged at my soul, urging me to follow my first instinct to get to New York when another friend advised, “This is for anyone going through a transition in his or her life.”
Ironically, as my friend, Mary and I approached Central Park, we saw plenty of orange construction fencing. I pointed it out and said, “Hey, Mary, look, gates!” It was a beautiful day with clear blue skies and fairly warm temperatures considering it was mid-February. I hadn’t been out for a walk in a few weeks due to the upstate New York snowstorms. Earlier in the week I had suggested to Mary that we take a walk together. After a few hours under the Gates I commented, “This was some walk you took me on!”
My skepticism lasted about twenty seconds. From a block away, I saw a bunch of orange drapes suspended from orange frames. Just as I was about to step under my first gate I breathlessly exclaimed to Mary, “Look! We’re entering the birth canal!” From that moment on, I saw one metaphor after the other.
Firstly, Mary corrected me, it’s not orange; it’s saffron. I learned that the saffron color was chosen to contrast with the gray colors of the winter landscape, but it stimulated many associations in my mind. The color reminded me of a Buddhist monk’s robe as well as the color a fetus sees in the womb. The womb is the gateway to life. In this way, the color led me to more metaphors. The serpentine expanse of drapes became pieces of a supernal monk’s robe. “A great monk has cut up his robe and set the pieces on poles to guide us on a walking meditation.”
Jewish households have mezuzahs on the doorposts of their homes. A mezuzah is a decorative container for the prayer of divine unity, known as the Shema. It is customary to stop a moment and touch the mezuzah before entering a home. Some Jews take a moment to kiss the mezuzah as a way to express gratitude for God’s presence in their lives. Kissing the mezuzah gives one the opportunity to take a sacred time out. As I walked through the Gates and sensed the sacredness within the project, I thought that it would be appropriate to have mezuzah on each frame to encourage the sense that we are entering into the dwelling of the divine.
In fact, no one ran through the Gates. People came to the Gates with a respectful and welcoming attitude. The expanse of saffron breaking up the gray landscape, the gently fluttering fabric overhead created a kind of shelter that brought out people’s good will. People weren’t exactly meditating, but the Gates generated an atmosphere of reverence.
An interesting phenomenon was that for the most part, people walked under the Gates in a great procession. Unlike medieval pageants that excluded the peasantry, the Gates was a great social leveler. People of all ages, nationalities and income brackets came under the Gates. We were a global community. As far as I know, no act of violence was committed. It seemed that everyone was smiling, genuinely grateful to be there. What a great way to unite people, to bring people out for a walk in the park in the middle of the winter! I doubt there have ever been this many people visiting the park during this time of year.
When we got to the skating rink, Mary left the Gates to climb up a sparkling rock outcropping. She told me that although architects had designed Central Park and everything I saw had been brought in or constructed, including the ponds, this rock had always been here. Before this part of the world had been civilized, it had been wild, just as the rocks along the creeks in Woodstock, New York had. The fact that we were in the middle of a modern city made this rock outcropping seem more ancient and miraculous to me. Mary asked if I’d ever been to Central Park before and I said I thought I had but wasn’t sure when. The irony of traveling to a modern city to climb up a rock when I lived in upstate New York where this was not an unusual activity jarred an old memory. Thirty years earlier, I was thinking how funny it was to climb a rock in a city-- the same thought I was having now! I mused that perhaps this was the same rock I’d been on then.
We paused a moment to appreciate the bird’s eye view of the park. Visually, the gates were all connected, like dominos, forming what looked like the Great Wall of China, a giant snake or the spine of a great prehistoric animal. The fluttering of the gates was lyrical. The simplicity of the repeated design was soothing to me.
We returned under the Gates for more inspiration. I was grateful that Mary was open-minded and knowledgeable in Torah so she could readily understand my references. “This is the perochet (curtain) of the mishkan (Tabernacle)!” I excitedly declared. During the month of February, Jews worldwide were reading the section of the Torah that described the building of the sanctuary. In the Torah (Bible), God had instructed the newly liberated Hebrew slaves to build a sacred place that was portable since they were on a long journey from Egypt, their place of bondage, to Israel, the Promised Land of freedom.
Previous to their liberation, they had suffered 400 years of hard labor and their spirits were dried out. God had performed miracles so that they could escape, but although their bodies were free from slave labor, their consciousness had not changed much. They were fraught with fear. These people were accustomed to the restrictions placed on them by their taskmasters. What would they do with their lives now that they had the choice to do as they pleased? Like adolescents with no curfews or rules to guide their behavior, the Children of Israel needed guidelines on how to live and they needed time to integrate the structure of rules on how to behave.
The building of the sanctuary was God’s way of helping the Hebrews set boundaries on their new consciousness. They were to draw their focus away from the doubts experienced in the endless, dry desert and focus instead on building a structure filled with beautifully decorated ritual objects imbued with holy intent. This ancient teaching translates to us moderns as an instruction to focus our consciousness on the sacred contained within the secular moments; to live life with enthusiasm (enthusiasm means to being filled with God). Make your life a work of art. Thousands of people with loving intent were hired by Christo to carry out his vision. In this way, Christo was like the biblical Betzalel, the foreman of building the sanctuary.
The Friday evening following my trip to the Gates project, I lit the Shabbat candles, the ritual welcoming the beginning of the Jewish sabbath. I lit two candles, each in a lovely bronze candleholder. I meditated on the space between the two-- the candles acted as gates into Shabbat consciousness.
The Gates changed the ordinary park into a sacred procession. Thousands of people who had never walked through the park came to experience a special building project. Everyone I’ve spoken to who went to the Gates commented how everyone they saw was smiling. Unless they were posing for a photograph, visitors to the park walked under the gates. I felt sheltered, somehow protected, although there was in fact, no horizontal roof. The fluttering fabric gave the impression of shelter, though. I sensed a vibrational change when there was a gap in the gates. I noticed how “exposed” I felt when I exited the park and had the sky directly above me. I remember that after walking down a block I had an urge to run back under the protective, sheltering wings of the Gates. I had entered the sacred Mother, was born and longed to return to her tender embrace.
In the Bible, the curtain that separated one section of the sanctuary from the area where only the High Priest was permitted was called the perochet. Behind the perochet was the Holy of Holies, which contained nothing physical because it was the place where the holy Presence of God resided. And what was in between each of Christo’s gates? Nothing! So, to me, this translated into the Holy of Holies.
The Gates marked regulated space, which keenly sharpened my appreciation of every moment, especially since the moments spent under the gates were so pleasant and transporting. What I learned from this was that each moment in our lives we walk through a gate. In between each moment is the silence of the Holy Presence. Each moment contains an opportunity to experience God’s miracles, God’s love for us. Unconditional love is as close as this moment.
The Hebrew word for tabernacle is mishkan, which literally means “place of closeness”. The Divine Presence is as close as your neighbor! (The word for neighbor in Hebrew shares the same root.) The meditative experience of walking under one piece of saffron-colored fabric after another made this point very clear to me. Each moment we live, we have the choice to experience Divine Presence or not. The Gates turn our attention inward, under the shelter of the gently fluttering curtains. The experience of walking through Christo’s creation instructed me to make of my life a mishkan; be creative with each action I take, bring people together in friendship and do it with caring for our planet and each other. Kayn y’hi ratzon. (May it be Your will!)
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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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