Thursday, January 18, 2007

The Threshold of Soul

In an interview at the Jerusalem Post, Velvel Greene, retired former NASA scientist and professor at Ben Gurion describes the effect of his first meeting with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, before he became religious. It's a transformative moment, a moment of religious epiphany.
His first sight of the Rebbe was at a 'Farbrengen,' a lively hassidic event where the Rebbe would speak. "I was in New York on business and Rabbi Feller called to say a Farbrengen would be held at Chabad headquarters. He said I should go, so I did. The Rebbe spoke in Yiddish, so I understood the words, but I didn't have enough Jewish knowledge to comprehend most of it. The whole event amazed me: There was the Rebbe - educated in math and science himself - who spoke of the 'soul' as something real, not just an idea. And listening to his every word were a thousand Chassidim, working guys, just like me. But for them, everything the Rebbe said had critical importance for their lives today."

As the Rebbe spoke, Greene recalled a Bialik poem he'd memorized as a child. "In one of his poems, Bialik wrote about standing on the threshold of existence, looking into the depth of the Jewish soul. That's what I did at that Farbrengen. It was my epiphany."
It's an interesting term in this context, threshold. And key to the mystical experience of coming closer to God. With the Rebbe providing the portal for him to look through to the other side.

In ancient Hekhalot mysticism, there were seven thresholds to pass through in the experience of drawing near to God. Each level represented an ascent in closeness.

As for this image of the Rebbe, I'm reminded of the passage in Hagigah 15a the beginning of which is cited in reference to Rabbi Akiva to describe his ascent above: "Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee." (Song of Songs 1:4)

One imagines that Rabbi Akiva presented a similar clarity and depth of soul for his followers that is here transcribed in this moment of epiphanic transformation.

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posted by Alcibiades @ 1:10 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

The Political Question du Jour

he hot new political question - which I imagine will be with us for some time, but there is nothing like getting an early start to create doubt among his constituency - is: Will Christian conservatives and other conservatives vote for a Mormon? In this case Mit Romney for President in 2008.

Heh. In my case, I no longer have to wonder. It's no longer in the realm of the academic.

I had completely forgotten about it until I read this post by Dean Barnett, but I actually voted for Romney already in 1994 - when he was running for Senate against Ted Kennedy. Dean Barnett tell us:
I first met Mitt Romney in early 1994 when he was beginning his Senate run against Ted Kennedy and was a washed up pol at age 27, having lost my bid for state representative in 1992. I’m proud to say that I was one of the first volunteers for the Romney for Senate campaign.


I still don't have a very good sense of what Mormonism is besides the rumor of a few weird practices here and there, but Rebecca Lesses points out, at Mystical Politics, that the representation of the physicality of God in Mormon theology reminds her of the understanding of God in Judaism as represented in [the elusive] text of the Shi'ur Koma, a key tenet of the early mystical tradition in Judaism, known as Merkavah Mysticism.

Unfortunately most of our knowledge of the Shi'ur Koma exists as guess work rather than text, as its not precisely extant.

And a commenter at her site points out that the Enochic traditions, also essential to Merkavah Mysticism, plays an important role in Mormon theology.

Which makes aspects of Mormonism sound almost like a displaced apocalyptic cult from the first or second century CE Israel that somehow landed in 19th century America.

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posted by Alcibiades @ 10:24 PM 0 comments