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Creating Bridges: Spirituality & Philosophy:
Kabbalah: "Letters from Heaven:"
Spiritual Guidance from the Hebrew Alphabet
Gimmel
Going the extra distance: The Inner Meaning of Gimmel
Nourishing good deeds
Ripening dreams go out across
The abyss
Traveling to the ends of the earth
Through generations and generations
Opening our eyes to discovery
by Avigayil Landsman
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I dedicate this month's column to my holy brother, Robert Esformes, deep soul, extraordinary cantor, inspiring guide and caring friend. This column would not be in progress if it were not for Robert. Years ago, I approached Robert to teach me to chant Torah for my bat mitzvah. My parasha (section of Torah) tells the story of the engagement of Rebecca and Isaac. It took a lot of effort for me to learn how to chant. Robert gave me many classes, all free of charge, going over the material again and again until I at last arrived at a reasonable degree of competency.
One evening I chanted all my selected verses. I was doing a fair job, with Robert rarely needing to correct me. I was very happy with this level of proficiency, continuing my chanting when all of a sudden, Robert, an itinerate tease, started to snort in imitation of a camel! Camels figure prominently in the story: Rebecca gives water to ten camels, she rides a camel, and most notably falls off her camel when she sees Isaac, her beloved. Of course, I laughed, knowing that in Hebrew I had just chanted, "Behold, the camels were coming."
Each time I practiced, he would snort and I would laugh. I chided him, "Robert, if you keep this up, I'm going to hear your snorting in my mind when I am in front of everyone and will crack up!" He imprinted that sound in my brain, but more importantly, he drew my attention to the camel's importance in the story. Later, Robert seriously encouraged me to look deeply into the meaning of gamal, the Hebrew word for camel that begins with the letter gimmel. It was this search that ultimately led me on my journey with Letters from Heaven, the title itself coined by Robert. Robert and I became friends through my bat-mitzvah training. Our relationship itself speaks of the generous nature of the letter gimmel. You could say that gimmel is my "totem" letter!
Last month we talked about the containing beit, who houses the unbridled, undifferentiated energy of aleph. This energy, now contained, has been nurtured until it is ready to go out into the world. Marc-Alain Ouknin writes in "The Mystery of the Alphabet" that the original meaning of gimmel is "carrying the primal power beyond." The derivation of gimmel comes from a symbol for the camel, an animal that can go very long distances in the dry desert because of its special hump that stores liquid and food. Through the process of reductionism, the most important part of the drawing replaces the whole. In this case, experts argue if it's the hump or the neck. I think that gimmel looks like a camel running. If you look at my illustration, you can see the letter gimmel in the front legs and neck of the camel.
In Kabbalah, there is a Tree of Life, a kind of blueprint of divinity that consists of ten sephirot (essences of the divine). I call it Spiritual Pinball. These sephirot are also mystically paralleled with parts of the body. The sephira, Keter, which is beyond the body, is known as the crown, which is beyond the body. Tiferet, which is associated with the heart, is the center of this tree. Almost all of the sephirot connect to Tiferet. The paths between the sephirot are ascribed letters. The path that gimmel takes is the longest path between any of the ten sephirot, moving from formlessness to form, from the crown of Keter to the compassionate heart of Tiferet in the same way the camel travels long distances through the desert.
The story that I read from the Bible for my bat mitzvah illustrates this quality of gimmel.
I will paraphrase some of the dialogue from my bat mitzvah parasha Chaye Sara for a comedic twist. The characters include Sara and Avraham, the first people to believe in one God. They have a son, Yitzchak (Isaac) in their old age. The parasha opens with a simple statement that Sara has died. Yitzchak is staying at home, brooding when Avraham says, "Gevalt, I have this thirty-seven year old son who just sits around all day doing nothing! When are you going to get a job! Get out of here and get married already!" Then Avraham tells his servant, Eliezer, "Go out and get a girl for my boy." So Eliezer goes out and asks God for a sign to make sure he's got the right girl for Yitzchak.
The sign is that the right girl will give not only him water to drink but she will give water to all ten of his camels as well. There are ten sephirot in the Tree of Life, so the camels are significant. In the Torah, Rivka (Rebecca) travels to her beloved Yitzchak on her gamal (camel) a symbol for her loving kindness. How do we come to this conclusion? Because the shoresh (root) of gamal (camel) is the same as gimilut chasadim (acts of loving kindness).
The word gamal when used as a verb means "to be generous" as in Psalm 116:7: "Return, my soul, to your tranquility, for God has been generous (gamal) with you!" When she gives Eliezer and all of his camels water, she has fulfilled God's sign. To reinforce the message, Eliezer recounts this scenario of watering the camels to Rivka's family in order to convince them to let their daughter leave her home to become Yitzchak's bride. When a story in the Torah is repeated, it is repeated to draw attention to an important message. The camels she waters represent opportunities to do mitzvot (good deeds). The fact that Rivkah goes beyond the customary ritual of hospitality of offering water to Eliezer and offers to water not one, but all ten camels shows how kind she is. Those camels drank a lot of water, let me tell ya'! This story is the template for the concept of acts of loving kindness, a hallmark of Judaism.
Eliezer convinces Rivkah to leave home to marry Yitzchak. She hops up on a camel and follows Eliezer. Rivkah's first sighting of Yitzchak is in the field meditating (which is the Biblical template where we get the afternoon prayer service) and then there is this very weird line that says, "He looks up and behold..." and instead of it saying something like, "And behold, there is Rivka, his beloved," it says, "Behold, the camels are coming!"("Snort!") Gamal means camel and from this shoresh, or root we find other related words: "to wean", "camel" or "camel driver." The fullness of gimmel is seen in other words with the same shoresh: gamayl is mature, gamal: ripen, nourish; g'mal, renumeration. Gam'lah is a bridge uniting two areas, just as gimilut chasidim unites two people, one who gives and the other who receives.
Now we can understand why the Torah says, "…and behold, the camels are coming." Yitzchak perceived her essence of goodness before he saw her physical form! When Rivka sees Yitzhak, she falls off her camel. Rivka is now entering her mortal, earthbound state. The letter gimmel represents the path that connects the sephirah of the unbodied Keter (crown) to the embodied Tiferret: perfection, radiance and compassion.
There is another subtle teaching in this story that enhances the gimmel teaching. Rivka uses a kad (vessel) to water the camels. The gematria, or numerical value of kad is twenty-four. The purpose of gematria is to connect two otherwise unrelated words or concepts. Letters also act as numbers; there are no separate digits in Hebrew. Each word therefore has a numerical value. There are twenty-four books of the Tanach(the Jewish sacred texts: Torah, Writings and Prophets). Water is a metaphor for Torah since Torah sustains the soul. This implies that Rivka's kindness fills the Torah, which she lovingly gives to others. The essence of Torah is Love.
I feel a strong resonance of Rivka with the High Priestess card in the Tarot. The High Priestess is also veiled because she holds the mystical teachings. Like Rivka's kad, the High Priestess is the "vessel" of sacred teachings. The energy of the High Priestess contributed to my spiritual portrait of gimmel.
Gimilut chasadim-- acts of loving kindness, is about going beyond yourself, going the extra mile for somebody, the way Robert did for me. And, not only did he train me, he trained nine other women, also preparing to become bat mitzvah, asking only that we do something for someone else in return. So, to make the metaphor complete, we can say that Robert watered ten camels with his liquid voice and many of us have gone on to prepare children for their bar and bat mitzvah.
The difference between gimilut chasadim and charity is that charity is money given to the poor and charity can only be given to the living. Gimilut chasadim can involve people of any financial bracket as well as the dead. Ways that one can honor the dead are: comforting the mourner; attending a shiva minyan so that the mourner can pray for the deceased; visiting a cemetery. They are examples of gimilut chasadim.
Visiting the sick, doing an errand for someone, caring for an animal (ie.dog, cat or camel) or doing volunteer work are other examples of gimilut chasadim. You don't necessarily need to use your money; it's more about using your inner resources like the camel who carries several days' supply of food and water inside a special vessel. So, this sense of being nourished until ready to be weaned, ripening until fully ready is about having so much in yourself that you are able to give even more. The way the soda bursts out of a shaken bottle, the way Rivka falls off her camel show that deep love just can't be contained! That Rivka is riding on a camel and that Yitzchak sees the camel and not her shows that he sees her essence. Then she veils herself. She's being modest, covering up who she is. Her goodness precedes her.
Now, let's think about these concepts for a minute. Everyday, there are many unsung heroes going the extra mile for others. It can be as simple as opening the door for a mother pushing a stroller or as big as a doctor or lawyer offering services pro bono. But let's get bigger for a moment because, even though this may sound like fantasy to you, gimilut chasadim is a Jewish spiritual practice. Imagine the United States government embracing the practice of gimilut chasadim and you'd have socialized medicine and guaranteed housing for all. We would be a healthy, well-fed, properly educated bunch of folks with sound ecological and economical practices. Gevalt! What a wonderful world this would be if our elected officials embraced this concept! Giddy-up, gimmel!
For me, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, affectionately known as the "Singing rabbi" embodied the spiritual energy of gimmel. He tirelessly gave his love, compassion and material wealth to all who were in need. He didn't just entertain people; his spirit transformed their lives. Disenfranchised Jews who heard him sing and listened to his stories of loving God became observant. Shlomo reached out to people on the edge.
When questioned why he responded to the needs of so-called mishuganayim(crazies) he explained that each person was a diamond in the rough, needing just a little polishing and cleaning. He was known for being late to concerts because he would stop to hug everyone he met on the way to the concert hall. He was known as "Master Jesus" by the Blacks in South Africa during the time of apartheid because he would hug all the Black bell hops and maids in the hotel. He visited inmates in prisons and sang to Jew and gentile alike, even someone as contrary to Jews as a member of the KKK. He got many calls from very ill people.
There's a story of a patient who was unable to find a copy of Shlomo's newest record. Not only did Shlomo make sure the patient got it, he delivered it himself, record in one hand, guitar in the other, and then give the patient a private concert! His generosity knew no bounds. There once was a girl wading out into the ocean, determined to commit suicide and Shlomo dove in after her, pleading with her to come ashore. He finally said, "Look, not only are you going to end your life, you are going to end mine, too. Soon, I will not have the strength to make it back to shore." The girl finally conceded, not a moment too soon. Shlomo was so dedicated to saving lost souls that he was willing to give up his life, all for the love of God. When he met someone, whether it was a famous rabbi, a homeless person or even a mugger he addressed him or her as Holy brother, Holy sister or my dearest friend.
Gal is another word that begins with gimmel. It means open. The prayer for studying Talmud is "Gal anay v'abita, niphlaot mi Toratecha." "Open my eyes to the wonders of your Torah."(Psalm 119:18) Related to this is giloo-i or, a Talmudic and Kabbalistic concept that means revelation of light. This refers to having an especially deep insight. Within Torah is light and when we have a new and profound understanding from relating the Torah to our spiritual life, we are releasing Torah's inner light. We are releasing the sparks planted within the Torah, for as it is written in Psalm 97:11 "Light is planted for the righteous."
The illustration for gimmel shows Rivka riding her camel through the desert. The eye of the divine is opened, revealing the "wonders of Torah." The scene is framed by the famous "kad"(vessel) Rivka used to water all those thirsty camels. Below Rivka is a wave design, symbolic of the life-giving Torah as well as gal-gal, a wave, suggesting generations. The Torah has been a source of insights for generations and continues to reveal more sacred truths. I thank my brilliant son, Philip for doing the gimilut chesed of developing this image with the computer instead of going out on a Saturday night.
I will end today with a quote from Mother Theresa that I feel expresses the spirit of gimmel succinctly.
"Love is a fruit in season at all times. In reach of every hand."
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Avigayil Landsman,
Torah Scholar, Caligrapher, 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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