(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:
“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
____________________
*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, P. Deux
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
