“Meditation(S)”: One Word, Three Semantics

Meditating in a Jewish perspective “Our sages used to sit an hour before prayer”, says the Mishna. They did so to increase their kavannah, their intention, their mindfulness. We want to apply this to all of our life. Only from a place of openness can we receive. Only from a place of stillness can we see. Only from a place of quietness can we hear. Our meditation tools are hitbonenut (self-inquiry) mussar (ethical discipline), and the teachings of Torah in words and in our body . Our influences include Maimonides, Rabbi Salanter, Rav Kook, and the Aish Kodesh. Meditation strengthens this place of silence, stillness and peace within us, so that we can let the divine light shine through us in our daily lives. Because the concept of Jewish meditation can mean many different things, we offer here some more detailed explanations on the background of the practice, before presenting the specific approach of Nefesh Shalom. “Meditation(s)”: one word, three semantics Enter full screen mode “Meditation” comes from the Latin meditari, which means “exercise” and “reflection”. In its most elementary sense, “meditating” means exerting one’s thoughts in a focused manner: directing one’s mind to a specific object. This object can be intellectual (in the case of philosophical meditations), physical (in the case of Buddhist breath meditation), or divine (in the case of mystical meditation). In these three disciplines, the goal of meditation is completely different: philosophy seeks to understand reality, Buddhism seeks to bring awareness to the functioning of the mind, and mysticism seeks to connect to G.od. It seeks to do so through contemplating, “reflecting”. While the common sense translates “reflecting” as “thinking”, its most original meaning refers to a physical action: that of sending back, or “reflecting” an image just like a mirror or a body of still water. “Meditating” can therefore be defined as “dwelling still” in order to “reflect”, to “show” the image of something else but the dweller. A spiritual translation of this process would be to say that Man, through meditation, becomes the reflection, the mirror by which the divine appears. This may be one of the reasons why ”betselem elokhim’, “in the image of G.od“ אֱהִים בְּ צַ לְ מֵ we say that man is formed (Berechit 1.37): G.od shows through Man. We don’t always see it, because our egos are so often in the way of the divine light. But when man makes himself still, G.od shows through him. When man meditates, he “reflects” God: the divine presence appears both to him, and through him. Thus the soul of man is at ease and at peace. It shines happily. Judaism knows three main forms of “meditation”: intellectual meditation: the way of study; devotional meditation: the way of prayer; and spiritual meditation: the way of silence. Nefesh Shalom focuses on the latter. Meditation in Judaism: a branch of “Jewish mysticism” While the way of study and the way of prayer were written down to preserve Jewish knowledge in the diaspora, more esoteric forms of meditation were only transmitted orally. This is why meditation in Judaism pertains to the realm of mysticism. Mysticism aims specifically at drawing one closer to G.od. So even when it makes surface use of the intellect—for instance, through the contemplation practice of focusing on a passuk from the Torah—it draws on emotion, intuition and piety. Jewish meditation is not about being mindful of ourselves, it is about having or Mind-full of G.od. Because the idea of a subjective encounter with the divine is so intimate, so ineffable, and so difficult to grasp with words, it pertains to the realm of mysticism (esotericism), as opposed to mainstream or upfront religiosity (exotericism). Truth is hidden. G.od is Truth. G.od is revealed The words “mysticism” and “esotericism” take their roots from the Greek word µυω, “to S-T-R or satar) which)סתר conceal”. But we can trace it further back to the Hebrew root also means “to conceal,” or “to hide”. Mysticism is the esoteric, the hidden side of a system. It considers not only that reality (“truth”) is hidden behind appearances, but also that reality is “spiritual”: inhabited by the spirit of G.od (ruach ha kodesh), the divine presence. Whatever you take the divine to be, if you are moved when you see a sunset or the face of a baby, if you see soul behind a flower, if you feel singing niggunim wash over yours, you get it. It is beyond words anyway, so the word “divine” can even be dropped if it gets in the way. But it is not surprising that you would get it. In the Jewish view, man is a spiritual being, because he was created in the image of G.od. This is why he can have access to spirituality from his own being, from his own body-mind. This is the path taught by Jewish meditation. The world in the mystical view: “G.od in drag” According to the mystical view, the world as we see it is a cover; a beautiful curtain that mirrors the true reality it conceals: that it is divine. The world is divine because the world is G.od. .(ein od milvado) אין עוד מלבדו :In the Jewish mystical view, G.od is everywhere But we don’t necessarily see it in our ordinary experience of the world, in our day-to-day lives. Thus the Jewish view of G.od is in itself an exemplification of mysticism: the Jewish G.od is that which cannot be seen. G.od, which is, in the Jewish view, the ultimate truth of the world, its “raison d’être,” is hidden. Jewish theology articulates this beautiful paradigm that the G.od who is revealed is the G.od who is hidden. Jewish mysticism, mostly known through the school of “kabbalah” (the receiving), is therefore the mystical path of an already mystical tradition. Why meditation? On prayer and meditation It is because the divine is concealed to the ordinary experience, that Jewish meditation comes to be. It teaches us to learn a more refined “way of being” so that we can perceive the divine. Part of this training involves our own soul cleansing. How can you see through water if it is turbid? Prayer was designed to be a path of communication towards G.od. Nevertheless, the words of prayer are written by others, and the words of the other are not always sufficient to make us “feel” what we are saying. But this is not the deepest reason why meditation comes to be. There is an essential difference between prayer and meditation: prayer is a communication we address to G.od, from where we are, from the mundane. Meditation is a key that opens a doorway from where we “go” to meet divinity. But we go on the spot. There is nowhere to go, since G.od is everywhere. So in prayer we talk. In meditation we learn to see that we already “are” in presence. This is why in meditation we say that we “go within”. Both practices are designed to provoke an encounter, in different ways that makes them complementary. The main way these paths have been combined in the Jewish tradition is by using meditation as an introductory practice to prayer. When there is space within us, we “see” that we already “are” in the presence of divinity, and then we can “talk”. This meditation practice can be described as kavannah (intention) meditation. In fact this practice is the main trace we have of silent meditation in the Jewish tradition. The mishna says (Berakhot 5.1): .אין עומדין להתפלל אלא מתוך כובד ראש חסידים הראשונים היו שוהים שעה אחת ומתפללים .כדי שיכונו את לבם למקום “One should not stand up to pray unless from a head full of respect The first pious men (chassidim) used to wait one hour and then pray in order to direct their hearts towards the Omnipresent.” Everything we “have” about silent sitting meditation in Judaism stems from this little sentence. This means that any Jewish meditation practice today, is a partial reconstruction from fragments. This first implies the necessity of subjective creativity, and second that any claim of “purity” and of “authenticity” is illusory. So everything we build on this hint from the mishna as well as on other texts from the esoteric tradition, will necessarily involve a process of interpretation. Our tools for that will be textual archeology, intuition, and interpretation. We have set off on the journey of living hermeneutics. Jewish meditation techniques: a basic practical presentation We have very few written traces of specific Jewish meditation practices and techniques. This is due to two main reasons: firstly, meditation, as an esoteric field, was an elitist practice exclusively transmitted orally from master to disciple. Secondly, too many keepers of this tradition were destroyed during the Shoah, along with the texts they were carrying in their bodies and in their hands. This is why again, one has to keep in mind when approaching the topic of “Jewish meditation”, that this is a practice we can grasp today only in fragments, only from its echoes from the past. In addition to being exclusive and esoteric, meditation was not popular in mainstream society until recently. Since the seventies, the counterculture’s general thirst for spirituality, meaning and healing hasn’t exempted the Jewish community, and Jewish meditation has experienced a striking revival over the past decades. Today, not only meditation is being taught again in synagogues; it has ‘come out’, and “spirituality centers,” JCC’s, Universities, and Retreat Centers all across the United States are offering courses in kabbalah, Jewish mysticism and “Jewish meditation”.

Load more