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.
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.
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...
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-haqiqiyya —the 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
