Elul: Ani l'Dodi v'Dodi Li

(A post shared from our sister website "Jewish Sufis")


The phrase “Ani l'Dodi v’Dodi Li” displays an acronymic reference to the Month of Elul.

   In this  month of Elul—perhaps the  most ‘Sufi’ of Jewish months because of its history as a time  of retreat and meditation — the phrase offers us a springboard for contemplative reflection, and also presents us with a  potential recitation mantra for our private dhikr.

The imaginative possibility that this biblical text from the Song of Songs might refer to the  Sufi concepts of fana and baqa  was apparent to our Jewish-Sufi forebears. Furthermore, they  chose to emphasise such a reading of its hidden meaning within their unique system of Jewish mysticism. 

R.Abraham Ibn Abi'l-Rabi (d c.1223)—also known  as Abraham He-Hasid—was the  teacher and  colleague of R. Abraham ben HaRambam (1186-1237) and he made a clear reference to these two Sufic concepts in his Commentary on Shir HaShirim

In a fragment discovered and  translated by Prof. Paul Fenton, Rabbenu Abraham He-Hasid connects  the phrase to the aspirant’s need for  a mentor and guide (Shaykh/Murshid).   The essential nature of this  system of transmission and guidance was later stressed by both R. Abraham ben Ha Rambam (in the Kifaya) and R. Obadya Maimuni (1228-1265)  in his Hawdiyya.

Most significantly, for us  here in Tariqa Eliyahu haNabi, R. Abraham He-Hasid also connects this pattern of transmission and guidance to the Bnei Neviím: the biblical “Schools of the Prophets”  that so inspired Rabbenu Abraham ben Ha Rambam and his circle.

Rabbenu Abraham He-Hasid writes:

 

“The Sage (Solomon) at times refers to this vision and communion as "bride" and at others as "love", whereas the seeker (qasid) of this "bride" and "love" is called "beloved", as it is said

 "My beloved is mine... as an apple among the trees of the orchard, so is my beloved among the young men". (Cant, ii.3)

The plural is here mentioned as an allusion to those who choose a master in their quest for the goal, these are (2 Kings vi.i and elsewhere) "the disciples of the prophets." *1

 

It was the intention of the  Mediaeval Cairene Pietists  to revive the esoteric practices of the BneiNevi’im that they considered to have been temporarily lost to Judaism— yet fortuitously preserved by the Islamic Sufis. These practices were understood to be a path that led to spiritual maturity, human perfection, and the potential attainment of prophecy. Our Tariqa Eliyahu seeks to renew this specific Jewish-Sufi Path. 

ooOoo

 The Ani l'Dodi quotation appears in connection with the concepts of the fana (annihilation) that leads to baqa (intimate union with the  Divine) in the  writings of R.David ben Joshua  Maimuni (1335-c1414)

Here the  debt to Islamic Sufism is explicit— both linguistically and philosophically—and  his writings indicate precisely how enthusiastically the concepts of fana and  baqa had been adopted by the Jewish-Sufis of his era.  Following his example,we regard them with the  same enthusiasm in our own Tariqa's spiritual practice.

   In an unattributed (but possibly autographic) commentary on Shir HaShirim ( from a manuscript that is nevertheless most certainly in R. David ben Joshua’s  own handwriting) we read:

“I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine” (Cant. 6:3). We have already explained earlier (fol. 8b, Cant. 2:15) that whenever thou turnest to the love of an object and desirest all that that object desires, then it is as though [that object] had become thyself and thou hast become it, insofar as thou possessest it and thou art enslaved unto it. To be sure, thine annihilation (fana) within it is a mighty witness and indication that he belongs to thee and thou belongest to him.” *2

 

In  the Murshid, R. David ben Joshua Maimuni  writes:

“...during the final station, the soul sinks so deeply into love that it is no longer aware either of itself or of its love. Indeed, when the lover reaches the stage where he declares: ‘I am my beloved and my beloved is I’, he loses awareness of his own self due to the contemplation of the object of his love, which occupies him to such an extent that he perceives nothing except [that which he perceives] through his Beloved.”  *3

 

Paraphrasing  Mansour Al-Hallaj*4 — R. David Ben Joshua declares:

 

אנא מן אהוי ומן אהוי אנא

“I am my Beloved and my Beloved is I

...Oh Goal of my desire, in You I am freed from my Self.

You brought  me  so close to You

that it seemed as though You were I "  *5

 

©Nachman Davies

Safed

Elul 1 2023

Revised Sept 16 2024

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*1    Fenton, P“A Mystical Commentary on the Song of Songs in the Hand of David Maimonides II,” (p.49) in Esoteric and Exoteric Aspects in Judeo-Arabic Culture, ed. B. Hary and H. Ben-Shammai (Leiden: Brill, 2006)

*2   Fenton,P ibid. p 42

*3  translated from: Fenton, PDeux traités de mystique juive;Lagrasse: Éditions Verdier; 1987. (p.288-289)

*4     Mansour Al-Hallaj (c.858-922): a Persian Islamic Sufi saint and martyr who was a proponent of the concept that  annihilation of the  ego could lead to true unio mystica.  He was tortured  and  then executed  for stating this belief.

 *5    translated from  Fenton. P. Deux traites, p289

ELUL: Hide and Seek for Contemplatives



   Each year we enter into a period of deep reflection and prayer which begins with the month of Elul.  In Aramaic, 'elul' means 'search'. 

  A Jewish Contemplative is one  who seeks  G-d with a special intensity. Someone who seeks to be drawn near to the Divine.  Someone who wishes to be fully engaged in an intimate relationship with G-d.

  That relationship becomes the main activity, motivation, and even occupation of such a person. For a Jewish Contemplative the relationship is lived out through the activities of deveykut (a conscious attempt to be passionately attentive to the Presence of G-d), tefillah (liturgical prayer), hegyon ha-lev (a meditative and prayerful study of sacred texts) and hitbodedut/hitbonenut (a dialogue of informal prayer ,and receptive contemplation in solitude).

  When one considers that the 'Object' of the contemplative’s desire is ultimately unknowable, inexplicable, intangible and utterly beyond human description or comprehension, it might well seem rather odd to describe a contemplative life-style as a 'relationship'.

   Yet that is how I experience it and it is the way the vast majority of Jewish contemplatives and mystics have experienced it since biblical times. In the Bible, we are told that the G-d of Israel is our Father, our King, our Friend, and even our Betrothed. In the daily experience of prayer that is how it can feel even though we know we are using similes and metaphors to describe the indescribable.

  Biblically, G-d is the One who insists that

 “If you seek me with all your heart I will let you find Me”
 (Yirmeyahu 29:13).

  David reminds us:

 “If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, 
He will reject you forever” 
(Divrei Hayamim I, 28:9)

   Because of his violence and bloodshed, David was not the one chosen to build the Temple, and he obviously felt that Divine rejection keenly when he uttered those agonisingly bitter words to his son Solomon. In a more positive mood, and on a different day he would surely have focussed on the mercy and forgiveness of his Heavenly Judge. We ourselves can but hope that we will be forgiven our faults, and in that, we have many Divine assurances in Scripture to soften the message of David´s admonition.

   Nevertheless, David reminds us, there are many times when G-d hides Himself because of our faults. And the greatest of these is not being there for G-d when He comes looking for us.


  In playing Hide and Seek for Contemplatives, there are times when we simply cannot be bothered looking for G-d, and times when we do not wish to be found ourselves.

  Times when we push G-d away like spiteful children losing a game, and times when when we try to hide Him in a mental cupboard out of embarrassment or shame. 

  This can sometimes be due to remorse about things we have done or said or thought ourselves. Sometimes it can be because we have chickened-out in a political, social, or theological world in which it is unfashionable to admit that we want to know G-d in an explicitly intimate way. We may wave Him as a sectarian Flag, or mouth words in His Name,  but do we really want to meet Him?  Or are we afraid to hear what He might  say if we were  to really  listen to whatever He might say to us?

  G-d sometimes seems very close to us and we rejoice. But even when we feel we are doing our best, there can be a strong sense of His distance or absence.

  Sometimes He hides from us in a sort of dance, in a sort of game, in a sort of lesson, in a sort of method we don’t really understand, and sometimes struggle against. It can go on for years like that. 

  The absence of any sensation that G-d might be within hailing distance is a common and recurring state in the life of most full-time contemplatives. This is not punishment, cruelty, or the Divine toying with us like puppets. But it may be a refining test-situation.

  It may be a positive tool which ultimately helps us to see more of G-d and less of ourselves in the contemplative process. It can remind us that it is G-d Himself that we seek and not the gifts He gives us.


Yes, He will let us find Him...but we cannot make Him stay.

Yes, He will wrestle with us for a time....but at dawn He will be gone.

Yes, we may sense His Presence for a moment....but we cannot dwell in that moment for long and live.


   If we truly experienced the feeling of 'rejection forever' that David spoke of, the chances are that many of us would give up the search to find G-d. This does not mean to say that dedicated Jewish contemplatives always, or even often, feel truly close to Him. For some, there are times when it is a case of believing that the sun is there even when it doesn’t shine. For many others there are even times when faith itself disappears.

  We must also realise that our relationship can be intimate but our attention span is severely limited, and though we may describe the contemplative life as being a relationship, it can never be a relationship between equals.

  Maybe R' Nachman of Breslov came close to describing the situation we are in. He speaks of a 'Spring' and a 'Heart' which are in love but are separated by space and each located on the summit of a mountain. When the 'Heart' leaves its summit and runs to try to reach the Spring it feels anguish because, in the valley, it can no longer have an uninterrupted view of the Beloved on the opposite summit.

  So the intimacy of their love is expressed in periods of eternal gazing and unfulfilled longing....or in bursts of rushing to achieve a union despite an almost total loss of vision. It is a view which captures the paradox that the contemplative is in a passionate relationship with an immanent G-d, while simultaneously knowing the otherness of G-d and the chasm produced by His transcendence.  


Spring and Heart Illustration (N achman Davies 1994)

 For many Jews Elul and  the Ten Days of Awe  are the time of year when they become their most active in both prayer and in self examination.  We Sefardim, for example, intensify our liturgy from Rosh Hodesh Elul onwards with the  daily recitation of Selihot....and  Ashkenazi Jews (and  some Sefardim)     blow the  Shofar daily during the  month of Elul  to remind us  of the special time  we are in.

   For those who live out the religious  calendar with some intensity, there is a sense that one should 'seek G-d while He may be found' with the month of Elul being an annual retreat-time par excellence. For such people the month of Elul and the Ten Days of Awe can be extraordinarily charged and numinous. This can even be the case for contemplatives who have an intense prayer regimen all year round.

For many Jews, the season provides an uncomfortable (but somehow also welcomed) opportunity to take stock and it gives them a formally sanctioned encouragement to engage in a more intense prayer-life than may be thought appropriate or even possible at other times.

The month of Elul and the Ten Days, are a time when the game of hide and seek is liturgically intensified. In a sense, it is a celebration of an awareness that G-d was/is "there/here" all along and we create the liturgy to highlight that.


But the month of Elul and the climax of the introspection that is reached on Yom Kippur can sometimes be a sort of one-off binge which does not truly connect with the time preceding and following it. There is also the risk that our confessions can become rather pathetic exercises in perfectionism unless we remember that we are also confessing in the plural for 'kol Yisrael'.

The long haul of the penitential period which opens with Elul, and which closes at the end of Yom Kippur can be a cathartic experience, but it is not magic. Neilah is best seen as being a part of a continuing journey rather than as a triumphal destination. A contemplative also knows that time is really an illusion. 

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow are simultaneous in G-d: The still point of Musaf Yom Kippur can be like a small flame inside the soul which burns all year round as a memory and a reference point.

In this way of seeing things, though G-d has concealed Himself, His Presence is not altogether withdrawn but there is a sense in which this kind of hiding is for our own good. We are reminded that Moses saw the back and not the face of G-d and that Elijah covered his face with a mantle: both prophets experiencing the event thus shielded for their own protection. The times in which we are in our own cleft of the rock are rare events, and the obscuring cloud is actually our friend.

We are given the Penitential/Holiday season as a chance to double up our half-hearted efforts to find G-d. Its message is really that He is more present in the world if we make Him so. But that is also a description of what a Jewish Contemplative is trying to do in every moment and not just once a year, or even once a week.


Potentially, every moment can be 'the time when He might let us find Him'.   Every place is His 'field' if we are actively looking for signs of His Presence.But it sometimes involves us seeing in the dark. It sometimes involves us standing still in order to see that He is right next to us.

It may involve the ability to survive on the manna of hope when faith is all but lost. It certainly involves patience and determination. And in this game of Hide and Seek, whether we are playing it during Elul, during the High Holidays or on a normal weekday- it is the energy and consistency with which we make the search that counts: for we are told we can find Him..... but only if we search with all our heart.

All of it.

It requires total commitment....

...but He is waiting for us and coming towards us as we turn towards Him in teshuva... and He has a place in His Heart for us all.

“For He will hide me in His Tabernacle
on the day of distress, 
He will conceal me in the shelter of His tent.  
 Upon a rock He will lift me.”
(Tehillim 27:5)




©Nachman Davies
Safed 2024
(from an essay written in 2009)




Introducing the Jewish-Sufi Group of Safed


 

 

TARIQA ELIYAHU HA NABI

Tariqa Eliyahu is a  global  Jewish-Sufi group for religious Jews who wish to renew and develop the  contemplative practices of the Mediaeval Egyptian Pietist Movement—a group  that flourished in the 13th to the  15th centuries. 

In the  mediaeval era, the  Egyptian Pietist Movement’s  leaders included R. Abraham He-Hasid (d.circa 1223), and several members of the  Maimonides dynasty [R.Abraham ben HaRambam (1186–1237), R.David ben Abraham Maimuni (1222- 1300), R.Obadya Maimuni (1228–1265), and  R. David ben Joshua  Maimuni (1335–c.1414)].

R.David ben Abraham Maimuni actually visited Meron and both he and R.Abraham ben HaRambam  are  buried next to Maimonides in Tiverya. 

With such strong leadership, the  movement became  extremely popular, and it spread from Cairo throughout Palestine  and  Syria—flourishing  for over three hundred years.

Though  much of its literary output was in handwritten  Arabic (and  thus largely  lost to us save  in Genizah fragments)  its legacy impacted the contemplative practices of  those Galil hasidim who were to develop Safed’s mystical brotherhoods in the  sixteenth century.  The Egyptian Pietists were not focused on the cosmology and theosophy of the  sefirotic kabbalah that became  Safed’s  most popular mystical system— but instead, they were almost totally concerned with devotional and ascetic contemplative  practice.  

Most remarkably, They were Jews, but they quoted Islamic texts (including sections  from the  Quran and Hadith), and openly borrowed the  ritual and contemplative manuals and poetic  texts of  the Islamic  sufis whose devotion they admired.

WHY DID THEY DO THIS?

They did  it  because they believed those contemplative texts had preserved something that was originally Jewish.

Specifically: They did  it  because they believed that the  ascetic and contemplative practices of the Biblical B’nei Nevi’im  (Schools of the  Prophets) had been lost to Judaism but had been preserved in Islamic Sufism—and they sought to restore, renew, and develop those practices in Judaism. 

 Their aim was to prepare the Movement’s members  to attain a personal and intimate state of   marifah/intuitive gnosis and  contemplative “nearness to G-d” that would hasten the  return of prophecy to Israel.

Those same spiritual perspectives and aims—and  that same respect for  the texts and practices of Islamic Sufism— are the  core principles of  our own century’s “Tariqa Eliyahu”... and they are also essential features  of our newly formed group in Safed. 

You can read  much more  about the history, aims, and practices  of our global Tariqa on our website HERE

 

THE SAFED JEWISH SUFI GROUP

In June 2024, Tariqa Eliyahu inaugurated a local branch in Tzfat (Safed) in Northern Israel.    This group meets weekly in the Old City for an hour of  contemplative prayer (Silent Dhikr/Hazkara) in a  Jewish-Sufi mode.

 

REGULAR MEETINGS

The main element of our meetings  is  the practice of  SILENT DHIKR  (silent congregational contemplation).  We do not offer “guided meditations”, we do not teach or learn “meditation”.  We do not offer courses of study on religious or contemplative  matters. We do not present  what we do as a form of “therapy” or “self improvement”.

Such practices are attractive and  have  their place in one’s spiritual development— but they can also  distract from our simple attentiveness to the  Divine  Voice. And  that receptive attentiveness to the “still small voice” is  the Heart of  our Elijan Tariqa.

In classic Sufic tradition, and in reference to the musical practice of the Bnei Nevi’im—meetings  begin with a very short vocal Dhikr unit (mantra recitation) and (on special occasions) a brief Sohbet lesson or discussion.  At the  start of the  meeting this  might also assist the members to transition from their busy world and interior noise to the calm and receptive  mode of the silent Dhikr/Hazkara that follows. For that, we simply sit together in silent contemplation for  between  thirty minutes to an hour....and leave  in silence.  Anyone who wishes to leave before the  end of the  silent dhikr period  may do so.

At our meetings we do not discuss or describe our personal and individual  contemplative experiences or practices with the group—they are matters  to remain secret or shared only with one’s own spiritual director.  At our meetings  we simply perform the Tariqa´s specific Vocal Dhikr together (in unison) and  then maintain a period of  congregational silence.

What one does during that silence is left completely to the individual. Discretely and without causing disturbance to the  others, one may sit, kneel, stand,or prostrate at will. 

We wish to  make our Group’s   meditational process to be  something that is experienced privately  in the hearts of the members—an educational process whose direction and form is left entirely up to G-d who is our  true Teacher and Master.  

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From what you  have  just read, you  will now appreciate  that we are  not a group of “New Age” hippies, nor are we culture-based "sufi-jews".  We are religious Jewish-Sufis of the  School of Abraham ben HaRambam. But the Safed Jewish-Sufi Group has its own distinct adab (format and character) because attendance at our meetings is open to anyone who receives  our invitation to attend.

Though  our core members are religious observant Jews, and  though the   texts we use paraliturgically  are Jewish (Classical Hebrew or Judeo-Arabic)—the Safed group also welcomes participants  from  all religions  and none—who respect that core ethos  even if they do not follow it themselves.

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SO WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?

 

*Opportunities for Torah study and meditational courses and events  are legion  and readily available in  Tzfat already.   Our function supplements rather than replicates them.

 

*For some  people who are not intellectually or academically inclined, or who are uncomfortable with long verbal synagogue services, it may actually provide a non-liturgical but  much needed way to meet G-d in a community setting.  Being a paraliturgical event with no formal services, it also enables the full egalitarian participation of  both men and  women in one shared practice.

 

*Individual Khalwa (retreat) in solitary hitbodedut at one’s home or at a secluded location is  always  going to be  the ideal Jewish-Sufi practice, as is stressed especially in the  Kifaya of R.Abraham ben HaRambam and the  Murshid of R.David ben Joshua— but reclusive or calm environments are not available to many who live in crowded areas; whose shuls are busy sociable places;  or whose domestic and  business situation does not provide much space or time  in which to develop this  form  of  solitary prayer.  Our meeting environment  and practice might  provide them with this.

 

*Others who are maybe beginning the practice of contemplative  prayer might find  extended retreat or lengthy contemplative silence difficult to manage—and  for  them our practice might offer a gentle introduction to receptive meditative prayer with the  added support and  discipline of  a contemplative community.

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Our weekly regular meetings are held each Wednesday in the  late afternoon— though some  special events  will be  held on Sundays.  If you are visiting Tzfat  and  would  like  to attend, please contact us   using the contact-form on the  sidebar.

   For  the summer months we have  agreed to set the  following simple format for  our weekly Wednesday  meetings:

 

SOHBET—15 mins

[business, discussion, or brief lesson]

VOCAL DHIKR—15mins

[using hebrew biblical and liturgical texts and classical Judeo-Arabic texts]

SILENT DHIKR 30—45 mins

[free private prayer/meditation: attentive/receptive  contemplation.]

 

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We  hope to bring together local contemplatives (and would-be contemplatives) from all streams  of Judaism and of  Israeli society: streams whose members can so often be shockingly antagonistic,dismissive,or intolerant  of  one another.

In these times of denominational,sectarian, racial, and political turmoil in Israel (and  globally) it is  hoped that by keeping shared contemplative silence, all religious, sectarian, racial,or political differences may be shelved (however briefly) by the commonly shared  desire  to be personally attentive  to the ‘Voice of  G-d’ within all of us.

 

Let Light dawn in the  world,in our days,

for we wait and  work for  Your Salvation

 

May HaShem grant success to the  work of our hands.



 

Nachman Davies

Safed

May 29 2024 (reposting: July 28 2024)


As of this date:  much of the future activity on this  "Jewish Contemplatives" website will be transferred to the "Jewish Sufi" website HERE  and  to our   Jewish Sufi Facebook Group HERE

 

The Communal Khalwa (Hitbodedut) of Sinai


R. Abraham He-Hasid was the teacher of R. Abraham ben HaRambam. They were both leaders of the Jewish-Sufi group we call "The Egyptian Pietists" . It will soon be Shavuot, when we remember and re-enact the Revelation at Sinai. Abraham HeHasid wrote a highly original interpretation of the three day preparation period before Sinai ........which will explain why I am sharing this with you now.

The Divine Revelation of Sinai is unique among recorded instances of prophetic experience because it was a revelation simultaneously received by each and every man,woman, and child present— and not solely by a community’s charismatic Leader and Prophet.

  The prophetic status and capability of Moses was incontestably unique, but even he  wished that all Israel might be prophets,  and  to some  degree we all can be and  will be—if we seek G-d with all our hearts in receptive contemplation.

  Various scholars   have expounded their  views on the differing levels of prophecy that may have  been experienced by the Prophet Moses and by the rest of the Israelite community.[1]  Many of them opine that it was only the initial ‘words’ of that revelation that were ‘heard’ by the entire community.

    Nevertheless, all agree that each and every Israelite  received something inspirational during this  unique group-prophetic event—each in accordance with their own individual capability, perspective, and levels of understanding.

   Exactly how and  what happened might  be imagined—and it is beyond the reach of any pragmatic science or academic research to know such things factually anyway— but the overriding significance of Sinai remains:  It is the recorded statement that all the people were united in a  shared prophetic event of such momentous power that it created a religion that has survived to the  present  day.

But there is  more.

The  Sinai event is  not  just  something momentous  that happened in the  past.  It can be experienced anew in our own times — and maybe  we are  actually obliged to make that happen.

With the  aid of some Jewish-Sufi genizah texts, this  short essay hopes to show  you why that is  so.

 

Why am I writing  this essay now?

  In 2022 I inaugurated TariqaEliyahu HaNabi —an online, predominantly anglophone, Jewish-Sufi confraternity with the  aim of studying, renewing, and developing  the special path (suluk al- khass) of  the Jewish Sufis of the Egyptian Pietist movement.[2] 

Its special focus and area of activity was the  development of contemplative gnosis through ascetic practices which they believed were derived  from those of the   biblical Bnei HaNevi’im (Schools of the  Prophets). They held that these practices had been lost to Judaism  but preserved by the  Sufi movement of Islam.  It was their aim to reclaim and restore these contemplative  practices to Judaism [3]— in order to prepare  for  the return of prophetic ability to Israel.  This  is also   the  stated aim and practice of  our Tariqa Eliyahu.

  Although it has a fundamentally Orthodox perspective/adab, the  members of Tariqa Eliyahu actually  come from many Jewish denominations and streams of thought, and  they   include Modern Orthodox, Masorti, and  Reform members; Ashkenazi, Sefardi, and Mizrahi members; Mekubalim, Haredi Chasidim, Progressive Neo-Hasidim,  and Maimonidean  Rationalists.     At the moment,  all our members are  Jewish but some  of them have  also received Islamic-Sufi or Universalist-Sufi initiation before joining our Tariqa.

   Quite unexpectedly (and  as the  group’s Administrator) during the  Omer period I felt it was time to “act locally and  geophysically” as well as “think globally and  online”— and thus  I began the process of forming a local group in Safed.  I began  to gauge local interest for  this project last week and, with the  aid  of a friend or two—we are hoping to inaugurate this  Safed Jewish-Sufi group  in the week before Shavuot.

   There are very specific reasons  for  that pre-Shavuot date which  I  hope will become  clear as you read on. This brief  blogpost is intended to serve as outline preparatory or follow-up reading for those Tzfatim who have expressed an interest in attending our first meeting.

 

Khalwa-Hitbodedut

The mediaeval Jewish-Sufis of the Maimuni dynasty and the Egyptian Pietist   group that they led—all wrote in Arabic, often in Judeo-Arabic which uses Hebrew characters.    In their seminal writings  the  Arabic (and Sufic) term “khalwa” referred variously to (i) concentrated meditation itself; (ii) ascetic  and physical isolation techniques,both short-term and  long term; (ii) the  contemplative practice of solitude generally— whether it is practiced through solitary periods of meditation or through  solitude in the  crowd (khalwat dar anjuman).

 In mediaeval times, the Arabic term khalwa was usually  translated by the  hebrew word hitbodedut  which— in those pre-Breslover days— denoted (i) solitude itself; (ii) reclusion from society; and  (iii) concentrated silent contemplation with all of the Sufic inflexions of the Arabic term readily understood and  appreciated by the  Jewish Pietists.

   Unquestionably (in both Jewish  and  Islamic Sufism) Khalwa is  a term that is most often used with a focus on the individual in solitude or engaged in an interior process of personal meditation.  Some Islamic Sufi orders  practice periods  of silent meditation communally whilst performing zhikr (mantra recitation), [4]  though  for many such groups the term khalwa is used exclusively in reference to the individual process of seclusion. 

    In imitation of Moses and Elijah, the  Jewish-Sufis of mediaeval Egypt  practiced periodic or extended retreats alongside Muslim Sufis in the  Maqqatam mountains outside Cairo.  In imitation of the  Prophet Muhammad, the  Sufis had developed a particularly isolated form of solitary retreat for extended periods (often forty days long, an interesting fact which links that practice to the  Mosaic retreats on Sinai). These isolation retreats were often practiced in extremely confined dark spaces [5] as an intense form  of contemplative practice designed to induce semi-prophetic experiences.

  It is  quite  clear from  the extant writings of the  Maimuni dynasty (and from the  numerous  anonymously written fragments from other Egyptian Pietist authors) that solitary retreat and extended retreat was perhaps the most important and characteristic practice  of the Jewish-Sufi Movement.  It is  clear that they were usually envisaging an individual contemplative  and  ascetic practice performed in as deep a form of reclusion as was deemed individually appropriate:  But did they ever practice such meditation congregationally?    I believe  we have  the hint to a possibly affirmative  answer to that question— in the  writings of Rabbenu Abraham He-Hasid.[6]


The Communal Retreat before Sinai

   The Divine Revelation at Sinai was made to Moses but also—in some  form— to each and everyone present.  It is an event which describes the universal and  shared experience of prophecy (intimate communication with the  Divine) that is the   aim of  all  Jewish-Sufi contemplative  strivings.

 More than this, it is also  a part of  the entire Jewish Nation’s  journey to the  time when a  form of   prophecy will return to all Israel — at a time when  the  people of all nations:

  “ will be  filled with the  knowledge of G-d as the  waters  cover the  sea.” [7]

The Egyptian Pietists believed that the path to such prophetic restoration was Khalwa (solitary retreat and contemplation) Might it be that the one of the forms of Khalwa they had in mind was  a communal re-presentation (an anamnesis-zikarah) of that experience at Sinai?

ooo0ooo

 The Judeo-Sufic Texts

In his  1981 paper Some Judaeo-Arabic Fragments by Rabbi Abraham he-Ḥasīd, the Jewish Sufi, Professor Paul Fenton identified,translated, and commented on a group of fragments authored by anonymous mediaeval Jewish Sufis and (most especially) by Rabbenu Abraham HeḤasid (Abraham ibn Abi’l-Rabi’ d.circa 1223).

The texts  contain  Biblical commentaries  that place an original and inspiring Jewish-Sufi interpretation on the  Three-day retreat before Sinai.

   In his  examination  of one of the  fragments by R. Abraham He Hasid, Professor Fenton writes:

Rabbi Abraham is of the opinion that in the days that preceded Revelation, Moses imparted to the Israelites an esoteric doctrine whereby they might attain to prophecy. Details of this doctrine were not disclosed by Scripture, on account of their subtlety, but are alluded to in the "sanctification" that the Israelites underwent. Elsewhere, Abraham Maimonides intimates that this external and internal purification consisted in "inward contemplation" (khalwa batina). [8]

For me, the  key expression for our discussion here is “hakhanah we-qedushah” which Professor Fenton translates as preparation and sanctification”.  The phrase refers specifically to the  three day period of preparation before the Sinai Revelation.

Here is R. Abraham’s HeHasid’s  phrase in its  context (emphases mine) :


EXTRACT ONE

Therefore keep these two sublime principles and forever observe them. The first is the state of vision and revelation. Recall the "preparation and sanctification" [hakhanah we-qedushah] which I have indicated to you, which is the path that leads to Him and the details of which I have informed you, as well as the purifications which I have imparted to you, so that you may be elevated to this spiritual state. [9]


Meditative Observations[10]

In Extract ONE  we read  “Recall the "preparation and sanctification" [hakhanah we-qedushah] which I have indicated to you, which is the path that leads to Him”   Might we take  the term “Recall”  literally and liberally and  regard it as an invitation to make  the Prophetic experience  of Sinai actually present (in congregational re-enactment) ?   Might the “path” be taken as a reference to the process of Judeo-Sufic suluk/tariq generally, or  is R. Abraham hinting that the  path of khalwa is some undisclosably-secret and  esoteric practice or  method of prayer that he was transmitting privately to his immediate disciples.  Both possibilities may also be derived from the continuation of this passage cited  below in Extract Five.

 

EXTRACT TWO

A  term that mirrors hakhanah we-qedushah appears later in another fragment (from an anonymous Pietist author) as follows:

"The testimony of the Lord is sure" alludes to the Ten Commandments inscribed on the Tables of Testimony. They are qualified as "sure", since they were imparted to the Israelites' souls through Revelation (kashf), ecstatic vision (mukashafa) and internal illumination (basira  batina) in the highest degree of certainty (yaqin) and the most elevated type of faith(iman),of which there is no higher. Furthermore, the truthfulness [of these commandments] was experienced through a spiritual state and procedure - that is, the procedure of sanctification and preparation" (qedushah we-hakhanah) alluded to in the verse (Ex. xix.10-11) "And they shall be ready... and you shall sanctify them" — and through the unveiling of mysteries, as well as the outpourings of supernal wisdom and inspiration that result from this spiritual state without one's knowing whence or how they derive.  Therefore, they are described as "making wise the simple", for through them he who has attained this state shall become wise. [11] 

 

Meditative Observations:

In EXTRACT TWO  we read “Furthermore, the truthfulness [of these commandments] was experienced through a spiritual state and procedure - that is, the procedure of sanctification and preparation" (qedushah we-hakhanab)”   The author describes the retreat before Sinai as both a “state” and (even more significantly) “a procedure”.   It seems  clear that the  former refers to the  attainment of a state (hal)  or station (maqamat) immediately experienced  before the  reception of the influx that produces  attainment/gnosis/prophecy.  Might the  second  term (“procedure”) indicate  a specific practice of khalwa (as receptive  contemplative  prayer) that was transmitted privately without  any human intermediary as well as by instruction from the Prophet Moses?  Something that was to be deliberately taught in the  Sufi circle  but also experienced privately during the intimacy of silent contemplation.    Again, Extract FIVE  below might hold  the  key — but there is  also a clue  to be  found  in Extract Three which we will now  consider: 

 

EXTRACT  THREE

This third fragment by another anonymous  author from the circle of  R. Abraham HeHasid states (emphases mine) :

"The first chapter in the fundamentals of this Path is (Deut. iv.35) 'Unto thee it was shewed' " Moses here means that this Path, that is the Path of Revelation (kashf), provides knowledge of God and His Oneness, not by manner of induction nor rational enquiry [nazar] into His works and deeds  but through and from God Himself. For the heart's eye perceives that which the [sensual] eye cannot see, nor reason grasp, nor demonstration prove. This is the deeper meaning (yudaq) of the following verse "out of the heavens He made thee to hear His voice that He might instruct thee. His Revelation to thee and thy Path to Him are not those of other nations, but they stem from within thyself towards Him." This is an allusion to the "preparation and sanctification" at Sinai through which thou heardst His voice from the Heavens. [12]

Meditative Observations:

This EXTRACT THREE testifies to the  prevailing Jewish Sufic view that it is dhawq (intuitive knowledge) that trumps all  forms of spiritual seeking and mystical knowledge. But it also traces  a kind of “root” to that practice in the   retreat before Sinai. Most significantly, it stresses that the  True Teacher is G-d Himself and  that His revelation comes to the individual in prayer as well as through the textual and legal revelations  of the  Oral and Written Torah.  One sees this with the  “Eye of the  Heart” and the bakhanah we-qedushah that prepares one  for this—With this reading we might see the  process as the  kind  of training in receptive contemplation I described in  Kuntres Maarat Ha Lev.[13]

 If so, then  we are discussing a specific   preparation for  direct input from the  Divine experienced in meditation. This is a view that is expressed in several  passages from another section from the  fragments under discussion here.  R.Abraham HeHasid  writes:

 

EXTRACT  FOUR (selections)

"And I will make them hear my words that they may learn to fear Me. "To make hear" alludes to the state of unveiling and spiritual illumination (mushahadda)...

Therefore man arrives at this state by means of the heart's vision, illumination and purification...

"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him". (Ps. cxlvii.11) "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him." For the latter know God through God Himself ...

 For His holy ones see with an internal vision and perceive truth according to its reality. Their grasp of the Most High is intuitive (dawqiyya) and intimate." [14]


By now, I hope the  reader will appreciate the enormous debt we owe to Professor Fenton for translating and  sharing this collection of fragments in one  single collection for  us to reflect on.  

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THE TRANSMISSION OF “THE PATH”

  We now come  to a brief examination of the  most significant section of R.Abraham HeHasid’s message  to us  as latter-day  Jewish-Sufis in Tariqa Eliyahu—and even more crucially— to every single Jew who wants  to be  part of  the  restoration of  Israel’s prophetic intimacy with G-d.

I quote  the text  here as Extract FIVE in R.Elisha Russ-Fishbane’s translation.  Rabbi Abraham HeHasid writes (emphases mine):

 

EXTRACT FIVE

The first meaning grasped by spiritual intuition is the proximity of revelation and the unveiling of outer and inner visions and illumination. The second [verse refers] to the giving of the statutes and laws...

Preserve both of these noble doctrines and practice them, the first of which is the  state of unveiling and revelation through... preparation and  sanctification........ the path of divine attainment which I have explained to you for your benefit and the purifications which I have entrusted to you, by which you may ascend to that state

So bequeath and teach them to your descendants so that they will be an inheritance that will never be severed, such that your descendants will transmit the wayfaring path (tariq al-suluk) received from their ancestors... [15]

Paul Fenton renders  this  passage  as follows:

[T]he first verse alludes to the proximity of Revelation and to the unveiling of the external and internal sight and their illumination (basira qalbiyya). The second verse alludes to the prescription of the Laws and ordinances.

 Therefore keep these two sublime principles and forever observe them. The first is the state of vision and revelation. Recall the "preparation and sanctification" [hakhanah we-qedushah] which I have indicated to you, which is the path that leads to Him and the details of which I have informed you, as well as the purifications which I have imparted to you, so that you may be elevated to this spiritual state.

 Bequeath and teach them to your descendants so that they will be continuously transmitted within your midst and thus the practices of this path shall be handed down from your forebears to your descendants. If each generation attains to the state of vision, then they will witness to the authenticity of the Torah which they possess and how it was revealed and accepted by their ancestors. Thus each generation shall inherit this Torah from Sinai and its appropriate spiritual state

In footnote Paul Fenton quotes a related passage,but this  time   from R.Abraham ben Ha Rambam:

"The Revelation took place in order to familiarise you with the ways and means of Prophecy, so that the perfect ones among your descendants (i.e. the Jewish Sufis) may attain thereby that which you have attained. (Ex. xx.20) [16]

Meditative Observations

 It is apparent that both these passages  are talking about  the ”preparation” for transmission of something  that was received at Sinai.     By stressing that there are  TWO aspects of the  Sinai Revelation both of which are to be preserved  and actively transmitted it also seems (to me) to indicate the  hidden agenda of  implying   that the   path of  the bnei ha nevi’im  had been neglected in Jewish practice. 

   I believe  this imbalance in  common Jewish observance  to be  as present today as it was in the   view of the  Egyptian Pietists  of  the mediaeval period.

In Kuntres Maarat HaLev,  I wrote:

"Israel’s response at Sinai was, and is: “We will do and we will hear.”  That is most often interpreted with the meaning: Israel hears G-d’s voice by observing the commandments—that the practical action of observing the mitzvot  leads to spiritual understanding. That is most certainly true. But a complementary interpretation occurs to me.

I’m absolutely certain that there are no accidents:

It surely must be of primary significancethat the first commandment in the principal text of Judaism,is Sh’ma!— Listen! —

Judaism has been focussed for centuries on ‘doing’.  But the time is coming when the significance of ‘listening’ will grow in importance." [17]

 

To expand  this  somewhat:

We have Halacha and  Liturgy in abundance....

We study the Written and Oral Torah assiduously....

But in our day:

Where is our religion’s  contemporary practice of Khalwah-Hitbodedut?

 Where is  our contemplative  Hakhanah we-Qedushah ?

These are  questions  we should  all be  asking, not  just in the  Omer lead-up to the  commemoration of  the Sinai Revelation at Shavuot.....but every day and  right now.

 

Should Communal and  Congregational

Khalwah-Hitbodedut,

be restored in Jewish Practice?

*

  I think The Mediaeval Egyptian Pietists quoted above

  would support my answer in the  passionate affirmative...


ooo0ooo 


A suggestion for Shavuot

  Perhaps the  most immediately apparent  form of  practice to renew and  commemorate the Three Day  Sinai prophetic-preparation period would  be  for Jewish Sufis to engage in an annual  three day retreat immediately before the  festival of Shavuot.

Perhaps  this might  be  an annual community gathering at a retreat centre.

Perhaps it might  be a private practice that Tariqa members could pursue in their  own locations or at a retreat environment of their  choice.

Perhaps the Mediaeval Jewish Sufis may have  actually practiced something  resembling the Sinai retreat like this  already whilst up in the Maqqatam mountains?

 Nevertheless,  because of its connection with Shavuot, it would  seem to me  that a community gathering of Tariqa members Three days  before Shavuot  might  be  a most poignant way to commemorate and  renew the  first Sinai retreat.  It could  then  culminate in some  form of congregational contemplative  event such as a  silent zhikr meeting before or after Shacharit on Shavuot day.

 The fragmentary texts we have reflected on here could  even be the inspirational generator for the  establishment of  an initiatory  or periodic   Formal Khalwa  for individual Tariqa Eliyahu members — a full- on three day individual  isolation retreat in the  manner of an Islamic -Sufic Khalwa in a confined space.

ooo0ooo

But Sinai is not merely a event  that resides in  historical memory—to be  commemorated  only at  Shavuot.  It is  not an event that is recalled only when we are in a synagogue during the  reading of the  Torah.  It also resides in the  memory of each individual Jew and  it  is  recalled every time  an individual hears  the call to attention that is  expressed in the  Sh’ma. 

The mediaeval texts   just quoted refer to the  Torah of the  Heart as well as to the  Torah of Jewish Law and Liturgy. To use R. Obadyah Maimuni’s expression from his Maqala Al Hawardiyya [18]  It  is the Torah al-haqiqiyyathe real and true essence of the Torah—that the Jewish-Sufi is striving to receive in contemplative prayer. 

The  Voice  which goes out from Sinai  does so every day [19] and  at every moment.

 Our task, our nisayon/training   is to become  aware of that—by sudden or by gradual intuitive  illumination— and  actually listen to it: To be attentive  to that Voice, in some sense, just as we did  at Sinai.  

In  Kuntres Maarat HaLev I put it like  this:

"The Torah of the Heart is eternally given and when we  receive it intentionally,  it  produces a connecting link between our intellect and our life-force.  Our tangible experiences and our spiritual perceptions are thus bound up with our essential soul root, and from there, bound up with our G-d.

When  we open up this channel we deepen our relationship with the Supernal Torah, because our obedience to the commands of the Torah would be incomplete if love and true internalisation were absent.

G-d speaks to all of us through the Torah She-bi’chtav (Written Torah) and the Torah She-ba’al Peh (Oral Torah). He also speaks to us in our own prayers and in our own private study and meditation.  When  we read the scriptures with pauses for meditation or when we meditate in silent prayer, we are hoping to access the Torah of the Heart. 

 We know how and when we are called to action as a nation and as individuals through the words of the written and oral Torah—but we each receive that Torah according to our own abilities and character, and for this reason we also need to receive and digest those ‘words’ personally, in the Cave of the Heart, alone with our  G-d."

ooo0ooo

 

CONCLUSION

   After years of practicing  and writing about solitary khalwa in reclusion and physical isolation, it is only now, in 2024, that I have considered that  khalwa could (and should) be a communal and congregational practice as well .  Both forms might hasten the day when prophecy returns to Israel as of old. 

  The Sufic term khalwat dar anjuman describes the  state of shiviti consciousness and absorption into the  contemplation of the  Divine that persists even when the devotee is amongst a crowd.  It usually denotes a high  state of individual interior detachment from the  created world and  its  creatures. 

  In recent  days, I remembered the periods of communal silent and totally undirected meditation that I had engaged in daily as a Carmelite  monk. (long before my conversion to Judaism in 1992).  I remembered also the  clean simplicity of Quaker meetings.   Both these events  made communal silence in deep contemplation the regular form of their meetings—for  the  Carmelites who spent  the majority of their time  alone in their cells they were a daily event:  an hour every morning and  an hour every evening.

   We might give  a specifically  Jewish inflection to the concept  of khalwat dar anjuman  by relating it to  the Sinai experience :  

We can be alone but  simultaneously united with the other seekers in a silent meditative congregation: All of us  together, yet each of us  alone — with both the individual and the  community engaged in  communal preparation for an intimate meeting with G-d  Himself.  Just as at Sinai.

   Spurred on by the above fragments from R.Abraham ben HeHasid and his circle—and inspired by the convergence of my ruminations with the proximate festival of Shavuot............ we have scheduled the first meeting of Tariqa Eliyahu’s Jewish-Sufi Group in Safed to be convened in the days immediately before Shavuot.

Its principal practice on that day?

Silent  congregational contemplation....

no guided meditations,no chatter, no preoccupation with systems or liturgies or performances— just silent shared  hakhanah we-qedushah.

As we read in the Zohar:

“The acts of G-d are eternal and continue for ever.

 Every day the  one  who is  worthy receives the Torah standing at Sinai.

He hears the Torah from the mouth of the Lord as Israel did….

Every Jew is  able to attain that level, the level of standing at Sinai.”  [20]  

 

©Nachman Davies

Safed May 27 2024

 

[1] See the  detailed analysis of Jewish Sufi  theories on what was received,who received it,and the  personal variation in  its reception in  Lobel.D, Moses and Abraham Maimonides Encountering the Divine, Academic Studies Press,2021, Massachusetts—especially Chapter 6.

[2] The Egyptian Pietists were an Oriental/Middle-Eastern Ḥasidic movement centred  on Egypt and later spreading  to the Palestinian and  Syrian region, believed to have been in existence at the time of the Rambam (who was not part of the  movement).

  His son and successor (Rabbenu Abraham ben HaRambam (1186–1237)  was taught  by the movement’s prolific author and leader, Rav Abraham HeHasid (Abraham ibn Abi’l-Rabi) d.circa 1223.  

Subsequently, R. Abraham ben HaRambam  became one of  the  movement’s authors,leaders,  and dynamic defenders himself, as did  other members of the Maimuni family such as R. Obadyah Maimuni (1228–1265)  and R.David ben Joshua Maimuni (1335–c.1414).  

[3] They believed that these practices were originally Jewish—and  several scholars  make  a convincing  case that they were— but it is also possible that the  Egyptian Pietists were actually being i predominantly innovative,but wished to prevent accusations  of heresy.

[4] Zhikr recitation comes in many forms: vocal or  silent; involving movement and gesture or  performed  statically; sitting or kneeling/prostrated; and often  focussed on Divine Names or short mantra phrases.  The  term also refers to a constant remembrance of the  Divine: as such it bears  a close resemblance to the  Jewish idea of a “shiviti conciousness”  practiced at all times.

[5] The Archeologist Dr. Yossi Stepansky discovered a Sufi Khalwa cell of this  type on Mt Canaan in Safed, which has led to scholarly observation  that the practice was clearly familiar to the  Safed Kabbalists  who may have  been inspired (as were the  Egyptian Pietiests  before them)  to develop such (originally Jewish/Christian) practices in a Sufi manner.

[6] Abraham ibn Abi’l-Rabi’ was known as Abraham HeHasid (the  term “Hasid”signifying “Sufi”in his time and  location). The  fact that the  son of Moses Maimonides (Abraham ben HaRambam)  was also known as  “Abraham Ha Hasid” caused some confusion in previous  centuries  over authorial identities, confusion  that has since been resolved.

[7] Joel 3:1

[8] Fenton. P:  Some Judaeo-Arabic Fragments by Rabbi Abraham he-Ḥasīd, the Jewish Sufi, in  JSS 26 (1981), page 57

[9] Fenton P: Some Judeo-Arabic Fragments,  page 66 

[10] These are merely my own  Hegyon HaLev reflections for the reader’s own contemplation, not academic theories about linguistic textual interpretation.

[11] Fenton P: Some Judeo-Arabic Fragments,  page 71

[12] Fenton, P:  Some Judeo-Arabic Fragments,  page 71

[13] Davies, N: “The Cave of the  Heart-Kuntres Maarat HaLev”,KDP Amazon, Safed, 2022 (page 48)

[14] Fenton P:  Some   Judeo-Arabic Fragments,  page 66 &67

[15] Russ-Fishbane E:  Judaism Sufism and  the Pietists of Mediaeval Egypt, OUP, Oxford, (page229)

[16] Fenton P: Some Judeo-Arabic Fragments,  page 66

[17] Davies, N: “The Cave of the  Heart-Kuntres Maarat HaLev”, KDP Amazon, Safed, 2022 (page 57)

[18]  Fenton, P: The Treatise of the Pool: Al-Maqala al-Hawdiyya. London, Octagon Press, 1981.  Page 108

[19] See also Pirkei Avot 6:2

[20] ZOHAR I:90a