This Jewish Contemplatives
website has always had a dual focus. Firstly it was created
(in 2004) to encourage the practice of
solitary meditation and prayer for all Jews. Secondly it was created to promote
intentional solitary contemplative lifestyles (for the very small number of observant Jews who felt called
to this exceptional
lifestyle). In that group were included all those who were
trying to convert situations of unintentional isolation or loneliness into
an opportunity for constructive prayer—generated by their desire to make a spiritual contribution to the communal life of
Kehal Yisrael.
But behind all those
intentions there was a greater
intention.
There is a Jewish tradition that the experience of
prophecy (intimate and receptive communication with the Divine) had been
experienced not only by the biblical prophets, but by every single man, woman, and child who stood at Sinai. Furthermore, our Sages claimed that there would
come a time when this awareness of the
Divine (ruach ha kodesh and various levels of inspirational prophecy)
would be restored to Israel, —and indeed, to all human kind— “when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of G-d, as the waters cover the sea-bed.” (Habakuk 2:14)
To further this process, in 2005 I wrote
a very short booklet (Kuntres
Ma’arat Ha-Lev/The Cave of the Heart) which presented a method of contemplative prayer
that was, in fact and in intention, conceived as a method of prophetic training
in receptive contemplation. This was
followed by several articles on this website with the same “prophetic” aim, including
one on general receptive
intuition and one on a method of lectio divina called Hegyon Ha-Lev.
In 2008, and with the
assistance of Christine Gilbert (an academic scholar of Judaism and a
lifelong contemplative practitioner), I formed an online Community of Jewish
Contemplatives aimed specifically at individuals already practicing an
intentional contemplative lifestyle. We never made a minyan—with only
seven members—and so after a few years I transferred the idea to form a
Facebook Group promoting the original concepts.
This was more successful (in
some ways) but although the group has around 1,400 members, they are
mainly there to support rather than participate. The first
community experiment had been aimed at a tiny minority of Jews geared to
eremitic practice, the Facebook Group version was inclusive of all Jews with a
personal contemplative practice— a much larger(and ever growing) catchment group. The burgeoning of these spirituality orientated groups makes me think that the time for “the
return of prophecy” is coming closer. Almost daily.
In November 2021 I
began the third experiment in the
process by creating a Jewish Sufi Tariqa, Derech Eliyahu Ha-Nabi,
and recently began accepting members. This blogpost is an
introduction to that new group.
At the moment its membership is strictly
limited to observant Jews who already have some knowledge or a deep interest in
personal Sufi practice and/or the Jewish
Sufi movement—but eventually its membership will become open to the general
public. Watch this space, but please do
not hold your breath. We are “preparing the sukka” still and are not yet ready “to receive guests” or passive
observers.
First, here is some
necessary personal and group background.
I had been interested in
Sufism (a form of Islamic mysticism and philosophy) since my days as a student
of Javanese Gamelan. I was taught by
teachers (like Pak Rudhatin Brongtodiningrat of blessed memory) who believed
that this kind of musical performance was a device to develop rasa (a
kind of spiritual intuition that the Sufis called dhawq) and whose kraton
based gamelan teaching was closely related in its methods and intention to
the notion of kebatinan (the Javanese ‘science’ of ‘inner’ spirituality and mysticism). They were also all devout Moslems with a
strong connection to the Sufi traditions believed to have been brought to Java
by the Wali Songgo. It was during
my decades as a resident of Java that I (coincidentally?) first developed the form of receptive prayer and intuitive practices that were described in
Kuntres Maarat Ha Lev.
Shortly after writing Kuntres
Ma’arat Ha-Lev, after relocating to live in Andalusia, Christine Gilbert
introduced me to a paper by Professor Paul B. Fenton, the leading academic commentator and translator of the Judeo-Arabic manuscripts of the mediaeval Jewish Sufi Movement. (many of which he identified himself). I was stunned by this
discovery and began a slow but persistent study of R. Abraham’s Kifaya (in an English
translation by Rosenblatt and later by that of R. Wincelberg). This led to further reading on the Jewish-Sufi mode
of contemplative prayer in the writings of R. Obadyah Maimuni and the Egyptian
Pietists. In November 2021, I was blessed to
have a two hour meeting with Professor Fenton himself who enlightened me
still further, and introduced me to some of the ideas of R.David ben Joshua Maimuni, whose sprituality
spoke to me most profoundly and personally.
ooOoo
What was it that
excited and moved me so much about this
mediaeval group of “Egyptian Pietists”— a group which had been very large and
influential for centuries, and whose ‘lost’
writings are still being discovered in the Cairo Genizah and in private
collections globally?
The answer to that question
is described in my book “The
Mitkarevim—Jewish Contemplatives and
the Return of Prophecy” which
is in the final stages of preparation, but here are the headlines:
(i) The Rambam and his descendents believed that
the era when prophecy would return was fast approaching. (It is, but we
have to see “time” a little more in a Divine
perspective,as it were.) This belief was
crucial to the members of the mediaeval group of Jewish Sufis.
(ii) The penultimate chapter
of R. Abraham’s magnum opus (the Kifaya) supports hitbodedut
(solitary seclusion) in four forms: (i) a personal practice of solitary meditation:
(ii) a temporary practice of secluded retreat
(resembling the extended khalwa
of the Islamic Sufis), (iii) the
practice of “solitude whilst in a crowd” which the Sufis called “khalwat dar anjuman”;
(iv) the institution of a form of “communal
eremiticism” for intentional (often celibate) Jewish Sufi contemplatives housed
in a “convent” or attached to a synagogue.
These ideas are developed in the books and fragmentary manuscripts that were penned by
members of the Maimuni family and its pietist circle.
(iii) The mediaeval Jewish Sufis were an elitist
group. They spoke of a “suluk ha khas”
—a special way for the minority of Jews attracted to a particularly intense
form of ascetic and contemplative practice.
It seemed to me when I discovered this, that I had “found my tribe” as I
had described it on this website. They
also insisted that before one embarked on this “special path” one had to be meticulous in the practice of the “common
path” of the Halakha: the loving and
meticulous obervance of the mitzvot. To me, as an observant Orthodox Jew, this was most significant.
(iv) In their private individual
worship and in their congregational liturgy (in their own small houses of
prayer), the Jewish Sufis under R.
Abraham’s tutelage practiced choreographed postures and silent acts of bodily
devotion that were designed to increase the more spiritual and reflective
moments in the recitation of the daily services. His motivation was to increase
decorum and the contemplative element in Jewish worship. This growing focus on
contemplative Jewish worship practice is precisely what we can see happening
online nowadays with the proliferation
of Jewish Meditation websites, Zoom
meetings, and “spiritual” literature. It
is also what I have been writing about so passionately all these years as readers of this blog will have already
realised.
It was with all this in mind
that I decided to form a new group (tariqa/mesora) whose aim is to renew
the contemplative elements of the mediaeval Pietist movement of the Maimunis— in a totally Orthodox Jewish
manner.
Tariqa Eliyahu HaNabi
This is a private
group for Orthodox Jews who are also
(practising or aspiring) Jewish-Sufis in the tradition of Rabbenu Baḥya Ibn Paquda, and (most especially) the Egyptian
Pietists of the Maimuni dynasty. This Group/Tariqa was founded to be:
(i) a community base for Orthodox Jews who are
also aspiring or practising Jewish Sufis;
(ii) an attempted renewal of the
contemplative practice of the mediaeval movement known as the Egyptian
Pietists;
(iii) a place where we could share and
study Jewish Sufi texts (classical and newly composed) to formulate ways in which that renewal might be
developed in our own era.
Our prime goal is the development of deveykut : an intimate
relationship with G-d.
The
group’s taḥlit is a mystical and
contemplative one—wusul/wusla/ittisal . This can not be
overstated.
Other
groups of a similar nature may be focussed on politics, cultural/racial
co-existence, or interfaith matters or on the creation of congregational
experiences and social events. Ultimately our group is about the journey of the
individual soul towards some kind of meeting/union with Divinity in
solitary contemplation. In this we are not only walking in the footsteps of the
Maimuni Pietists, we are also (to some degree) following the Rambam.
At the
moment our group is not concerned with real-time congregational activities such
as group zhikr or sema, and so our focus is on individual
practice: Each of us Alone, but all of us united in spirit. This
involves our study and development of
Jewish-Sufi meditation, formal tefilla, and supererogatory
devotions as well as the observance of the musar and ethical precepts of
the Judeo-Sufi Way that Rabbenu Baḥya and Rabbenu Abraham ben
HaRambam presented.
ooOoo
One
of the primary characteristics of Islamic Sufi groups is the lineage of
transmission known as its silsila. This is something like a chain of semicha ordination
whereby each member links to current and previous masters through initiation rites in an
initiatory chain. In Islamic Sufi Orders
this usually attempts to establish a lineal connection with the early leaders of
Islam and especially with its Prophet.
There is already in existence a
long-standing global Jewish-Sufi Tariqa which follows this pattern: The
Inayati-Maimuni Order. Reb Zalman
Schachter Shalomi of the Jewish Renewal Movement set up a pioneering project to
renew the legacy of Rabbenu Abraham ben Ha Rambam. But he chose to do this by newly
creating a joint silsila binding Islamic-Inayati Sufism to (Ashkenazic-origin)
Ḥasidism.
In doing this he was creating an an
interfaith/universalist venture that included a silsila (lineage) marrying
the semicha (as it were) of the Prophets
of Israel and the mesora of the
Baal Shem Tov to that of the Prophet
of Islam and the Islamic-Sufi Masters. Then, and to this day, I do not feel that is
what the Maimuni leaders would have
wished. This is, of course a purely
unsubstantiated personal view and it can be contested.
I intuit, in humility and accepting
that I may be mistaken, that we ought to take Rabbenu Abraham’s lead (as
expressed in the Kifaya) and
count as our founders .....ONLY the Hebrew Biblical Prophets and not the
Prophets of our dear Abrahamic brothers.
It was with this in mind that I founded this Tariqa in 2021. I had
considered this view and kept it to myself for
two decades but felt that the
time was now right to look for like
minded Jewish Sufis who might share this intuition and outlook.
The
term Jewish Sufi was coined by Professor Paul Fenton in the 1980s—specifically
to describe the Egyptian Pietist movement, but
the term “Jewish Sufi” has come to
mean many other things online. For many
it describes *Jews who incorporate
Islamic-Sufi music and dance into their spiritual practice or cultural or
political activities, * People of Jewish heritage who happen to follow
an Islamic or Universalist/Inayati Sufi path or *Jews who have converted
to Islam and yet still align in some way
with both Sufism and Judaism. Other groups have every right to use the term in these ways, but in this group our meaning is clear: Tariqa
“Derech Eliyahu” is neither Universalist (Inayati) or Interfaith. It is a group for Jews who consider
themselves to be ḥasidim (pietists) of the movement that was led by the Maimuni Dynasty.
As Orthodox Jews we are limited in the extent to
which we can accept open religious syncretism,eclecticism, and the mixing or
hybridisation of Jewish and Islamic or Christian faith-concepts and liturgy.
The exact details of
those practical limitations for us–as Jews bound by the (Orthodox) Halakha–really
need to be discussed in our group as there are areas of controversy and
divergence in the interpretation of the permissable, the forbidden,
and the
desirable elements of authentically-Jewish
Sufism.
Our Orthodox
character does not stop us from being promoters of religious co-existence, or
indeed: loving and warm in our relationship to those who are not Jewish, or
towards those who are not observant according to the Halakha as we see it—but
it does mean that we follow that Halakha as it would be defined by our models: R.Baḥya Ibn Pequda, R.Abraham HeḤasid, R.Abraham ben HaRambam, R.Obadyah
Maimuni, and R.David ben Joshua Maimuni.
ooOoo
The classic Jewish-Sufi
claim is that the roots of Jewish Sufi practice
are in our own Scriptures but were lost or neglected until they were
restored by the Egyptian Pietists. This may be the case (I personally
believe so) or it may have been a political device used to counter accusations
of heresy from unsympathetic Jews; or accusations of suspicious
“innovation” by both Jewish and Islamic authorities. It is also possible that the concept was a
creative way to legitimise a religious
revolution. But the fact remains: it was the belief of the
Egyptian Pietists themselves. It is for
this reason (among others) that the Jewish Scriptures and the biblical
commentaries of Rabbenu Abraham and our own Jewish-Sufi leaders and masters on are this tariqa's primary sources.
Its secondary sources
are the (often fragmentary but highly
treasured) sefarim and short texts of the Maimuni dynasty’s circle and their
subsequent followers.
To these we hope to add our own scriptural novellae....for we are attempting to
develop their legacy. For this reason it seems to me that, on our Facebook Group Page, we should be posting and reflecting
profoundly together on these and on short extracts from Jewish Sufi classics intensively, each
of us at our own level of understanding and inspiration.
The works of Islamic Sufis are discussed in great detail by scores of websites and online groups and members can consult these freely according to their own taste, but in Tariqa Eliyahu I have stipulated that that we really should not be too focussed on those Islamic texts except when they have a specific connection with our own Jewish-Sufi tradition. Having said that: The very concept of a “sufi mentality” is also something we can learn from a study of Islamic Sufism, as the Maimuni dynasty themselves have shown us, and as contemplative practitioners we have much to learn from Islamic mystics and philosophers.
Indeed, this could be said of
several classical works on contemplation and asceticism from Christian
authors—some of whom will have had an influence on both Islam and Judaism
themselves— if one can filter out the references to major problematic
theological issues. (The Desert Fathers,the Hesychasts, Juan de La Cruz, and
the Carthusian author of the Cloud of
Unknowing come to mind in various ways).
The Group’s discussions and
practices are be clearly and
primarily focussed on the Egyptian
Pietist Jewish tradition: in our history
and in our own day.
Our prayer will always be
“May His Name be One” and that His House
will be a “House of Prayer for all Nations” as we prepare for the time
when “the knowledge of the glory of G-d
will fill all the world, as the waters
cover the sea.” (Habakuk 2:14)
©
nachman davies
Safed
October 2022
___________________________________________
From time to time I will
post excerpts relating to TariqaEliyahu or Jewish Sufism here on
this Jewish Contemplatives website. This
brief article is merely to introduce the Group to you. At the moment the group is private and as stated above it is
only open to a very specific membership.
But if you are an Orthodox Jew and have
a specific desire to develop a personal Jewish-Sufi practice, or if you
are engaged in academic research into the Egyptian Pietists please feel free to
contact me via my Facebook profile on messenger ( as Nachman Davies).
There is also now a new sister-website to this one called "JEWISH SUFIS" where the general public can view certain files from the private website.
ooOoo
For those for whom the mediaeval
history and philosophy of the movement is of interest, the work of Elisha
Russ-Fishbane is a gold-mine of detailed information. There is
a very comprehensive summary of his
opinions and researches online, for
free, HERE and I recommend it, most highly, to all who wish to know more on the subject.
Other approaches to the relationship between Judaism and Islamic/Inayati Sufism can be viewed
HERE (Judaism and Sufism) and HERE (The Sufi Way of Abraham)
