We have posted an essay with this title in previous years at Shavuot time, but this version is a new and greatly expanded edition taken from the (still unpublished) book "The Mitkarevim: Jewish Contemplatives and the Return of Prophecy" .
ושמתם את־דברי אלה
על־לבבכם ועל־נפשכם
“Therefore you shall lay up these words
in your heart and in your soul.” [1]
The heart is our intuitive intellect. The soul is our very life-force. 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.
Speaking of the text of the Torah, R’ Avraham Joshua Heschel writes:
“In the hands of many peoples it becomes a book; in the life of Israel it remained a voice,a Torah within the heart. (Isaiah 51:7)” [2]
The Zohar is forcefully explicit:
“The stories of the Torah are its outer garments and whoever looks upon those garments as being the Torah itself, woe to that man...Referring to this, David said, Open my eye that I may behold wondrous things out of your Torah (Tehillim 119:18), for that which is under the garments is the real Torah.The commandments of the Torah are called the “body” of the Torah... The fools of the world look on nothing save the garment... The wise, who worship the Most High King, those who stood at Mount Sinai, look only at the soul, It is the true Torah. In the world-to-come, they will look at the soul of the soul of the Torah.” [3]
The Zohar also tells us that each one of souls of Kehal Yisrael has “their own letter” in the Torah.[4] Interestingly, the Talmud Yerushalmi posits that this refers to letters in the primordial Torah written in black and white fire. [5] The Arizal concurs with this view and adds that by contemplative activity one can actually access the way one’s soul root is linked to that letter/spiritual particle in the Supernal Torah in order to set up a channel of blessing on all worlds. [6]
The Baal Shem Tov suggests that the Torah can be fractally or microcosmically presented,[7] and many sources emphasise that the Torah we see is not the whole story.[8] In Kedushat Levi, Rebbe Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev reminds us that:
“In fact, the entire Torah is G-d’s name.It originally contained combinations of letters and secret mysteries that ‘no eye has uncovered’ (Yoav 28:7). In its descent to our lowly world, the Torah must become clothed in a material garment.” [9]
The Kotzker Rebbe [10] tells us that the words of the Sh'ma are “laid on the surface of the heart” so that they may sink into those hearts which are truly receptive later on:
“And these words which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart.” The verse does not say: “in thy heart.” For there are times when the heart is shut. But the words lie upon the heart, and when the heart opens in holy hours, they sink deep down into it.[11]
This implies that the ‘words’ are only received when they are reflected upon and internalised personally—we may observe the letter of the Law, but we have not received it until we go beyond that letter to access its soul. This is done most especially in silent contemplative prayer.
I am reminded of a parallel example of this pre-condition for authenticity in the tale of the Baal Shem Tov’s encounter with the righteous and learned R' Dov Baer of Mezeritch. After asking the latter to recite holy words of Torah, the Baal Shem Tov declared Dov Baer’s recitation to be “correct” but without “true knowledge” because there was “no soul” in what he knew. [12]
I can remember when reel to reel tape-recorders and cassette players were a miraculous novelty. I can remember the invention of the internet and the shock of realising (so comparatively recently) that we have wireless and satellite infotech connections of such power and speed that the entire Tanach, Talmud Bavli, Zohar and Shulchan Aruch can be transferred onto disk drive or pen drive and printed or viewed in any synagogue or home with sufficient resources to possess the equipment with which to open and view the files.
Only a few years ago, our world did not have the wonderful treasury of Sefaria.org, an ever growing (and free) online resource of Torah texts for all. These developments in human knowledge and capability have thus attained that which previous generations had thought to be impossible or mere fantasy.
We can watch and listen in amazement as many centuries of Torah commentary and study are transferred from PC to PC, from personal email to personal email, and from smartphone to pen drive—in seconds. And by the time you read this most of those miraculous inventions will almost certainly be superseded. Even as I write, there are forms of bio-implanted data that are being developed and perfected, and I suspect it will be years rather than decades before they are commonplace human accessories.
Living in such an era, the traditional Jewish concepts concerning the transmission and the receiving of the Torah do not seem at all fanciful. Living in these times, we can easily comprehend the possibility that Moshe Rabbeinu may have received the ‘entire’ Torah in several intense download instalments,[13] and credibly— in less than a second. How much of this may have reached his conscious awareness, or how much of it he would have understood personally at the time of the revelation is, I think, another matter.
I have no difficulty in imagining the truth concealed in the tale that we each knew that same Torah in the womb—and that an angel tapped us at birth so that we should forget its Light in order to spend all our lives looking for it.[14] I also have no difficulty in considering that it is possible that, in one moment, our G-d can infuse our brain or soul with his pure word in a way that is currently beyond our comprehension—But not beyond our receptive capability, and not beyond our experience.
The Sfas Emes [15] writes:
The essence of the Torah is G-d’s pure light shining to us through its Hebrew letters. They are spread throughout the universe, and the Jewish people are assigned to find them. [16]
We all stood at Sinai. We all heard the Voice. The Words of the Living God have been laid upon our hearts, and they are a form of data which our intuitive hearts can access.
The data which forms the ‘daat’ I am referring to here is a bit like having the Talmud and the Tanach on our soul’s hard drive. Some of that data has been opened and viewed, but much of it may lie unopened in the background. There may be thousands of ‘words’ we have yet to read, or yet to understand—but they are there—and we can choose to ‘click on them’ to open their ‘folders’ if we want to.
One might even say that just knowing that they are there inside us is an act of spiritual knowledge even though we may not realise it on an explicitly conscious level. The Torah which we had seen and known in the womb (and before) was not erased. It remains in our soul’s storage system for us to discover anew—letter by letter, word by word, line by line.
We may be the type of people who need to discuss our lives with G-d frequently as though He were at our side. We may be the type of people who prefer to use the texts of prayers written by other people when we want to get closer to Him. We may be the kind of people who prefer to discuss His Words in the company of other humans. Or we may be the kind of people who can’t bear to do much of any of these activities, yet find we meet Him most intimately in acts of compassion and charity, in the ordinary events of an apparently secular life. All of these can be the way one hears and reads the Torah of the Heart.
But for the Contemplative?
Well, we are those who need, more than anything, simply to turn the receiver on and let G-d broadcast to us. We may not hear what He is saying in a way that is clear, but we can sense that, by being thoroughly attentive, we are doing what we were created to do. Standing or sitting or walking in contemplative prayer; praying the liturgy; performing ritual mitzvot—in our small way, we are attempting to both study and practice the Torah of the Heart.
R’ Avraham ben HaRambam distinguishes three levels of Torah study: the reflective,the meditative,and the contemplative, and he suggests that the contemplative way is the one followed by an 'Intimate Servant of G-d' who finds “bliss in his Maker as His sublime lights enter him” as he begins to perceive the “profound bonds with G-d that are generated by the intellect and the Torah”. [17]
When we lay tefillin and bind the written texts of the Torah on our head and arm we make a highly symbolic statement to underline this process:
“Therefore you shall lay up these words in your heart and in your soul and you shall bind them for a sign on your hand and as frontlets before your eyes.” [17]
When we lay tefillin, the Pure Words of the Supernal Torah are transmuted, laid-up, and stored in the file-system of our heart and soul. The ritual is like a daily program update that renews and refreshes our communication with our G-d. Perhaps as ‘signs’, tefillin can speak to us more clearly than words. Perhaps these signs are closer to the Pure Words of G-d Himself than we realise. Perhaps they are laid-up (stored) in our heart and soul because it is only there—beyond the limitations of our intellect— that we can hold all of His Torah.
The Torah of the Heart is the medium whereby the Supernal Torah is revealed to the individual soul. The task of the contemplative is to make this explicit by intentionally running to receive it daily.
What I have suggested in Kuntres Maarat Ha-Lev is extremely simple: During private prayer, ask G-d to speak to you and then wait in humble silence to let Him respond. It is possible that you may only be able to hold your attention on listening out for Him to ‘speak’ for a minute or so before you lose concentration. But it is also possible (sometimes after years of making this effort) that you may find yourself standing there waiting for many minutes— or even hours— and cannot account for the time passing. But believe me, the Voice of Sinai is calling still—if only we would listen. Our effort to do so may often seem to fail but we are commanded in the Sh’ma we recite daily to at least try. And try again.
In the Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot 6:2) we are told that everyday a voice goes out from Sinai admonishing the Jewish people to return to Torah.
In the Zohar we read:
"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." [18]
And the midrash in Shemot Rabbah 5:9 confirms this by pointing out that all members of the Community of Israel heard the Voice of Sinai “according to each individual’s capabilities and strengths”. This kind of inspired listening is potentially attainable every day.
ooOoo
Prayer and study are so closely interrelated in Judaism that it is often almost impossible to separate or distinguish one from the other. The most common forms of Jewish study are done during the congregational reading from the Sefer Torah, in pairs over a study text with a chavruta (partner) or by listening en masse to shiur (lecture by a sage). These days they are also enacted as group discussions in shared video conferences online. In such situations also, there is plenty of scope for accessing the Torah of the Heart.
There is a dual process of access to the Supernal Torah through study, and it seems to me that it is referred to in Devarim 30:12-13:
“It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?”Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?”No, it is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it.”
What one hears at a shiur and what one reads and discusses with a chavruta is, as it were, brought down from heaven by the act of study and discussion (mouth) and personal meditation/reflection (heart). Though the study sessions may initiate and develop direct contact with the Divine, the student may only grasp the full significance of such study texts after solitary reflection after the event.
It is, however, especially pertinent to Jewish Contemplatives to be aware that solitary study [19] also has its own respected history in Jewish tradition. This kind of activity has been practiced in isolated circumstances by countless scholars, mystics, and kabbalists who have sequestered themselves with Holy Texts in attics and hermitages (for hours, days, and even years), and by those talmidim chachamim who have arisen during the night to spend the quiet hours alone in prayerful reflective study. [20] Significantly such intense solitary study has been practiced by both Chasidic and Litvish scholars.
I call this kind of study-prayer “Hegyon Ha-Lev”—Meditations of the Heart.
For those Mitkarevim (Dedicated Jewish Contemplatives) who might wish to develop a practice of such lectio divina —I would like to present the following highly informal step-by-step guide which was originally prepared for our online community in 2010. There are many Jews who may never have tried such meditative reading, and this simple guide may be of especial use to them. Something they might build on with their own ideas:
HEGYON HA-LEV
All Jews are commanded to listen to G-d’s Voice.
Each individual according to their own ability and each in their own way.
A Dedicated Jewish Contemplative might attempt to fulfil this commandment specifically by listening to G-d in silent receptive contemplative prayer and through private meditative Torah study. We call such prayerful study/studious prayer “Hegyon ha-Lev”.
So how do we do it?
ONE
Take a psalm a day as part of your quiet time/mental prayer.
1. Make a short prayer of intention to listen/be attentive to its meanings and significance.2. Read it silently and slowly.3. Leaving a pause (perhaps after each sentence or pair of sentences),close your eyes and let the words sink in.4. There is no need to be slavish about this—just read on if you wish, pausing only when you feel like it.5. If a particular phrase jumps out at you—stay in reflection on that phrase with your eyes closed for as long as you like.
Maybe you might choose to do this with several Psalms per day. Three seems a good number to me. That was something I did one year as the basis for a regular mental prayer session of around an hour, and the rhythm seemed right. It goes without saying that the aim is to put you in a position where item 5 may happen and there will be times when a single verse will be enough to do that. Be free and just go with the flow of that.
We should not expect G-d to speak to us like the telephone, (though He can) but I guarantee that you will be amazed at the directness and appropriateness of those phrases which jump out during such meditation sessions to enable you to hear His Voice personally.
TWO
Once a week take the Torah or Haftarah portion and read a section meditatively
1. Make a prayer of intention to listen attentively2. Read the portion (or part of it) very slowly.3. Do not be distracted by the commentaries of others—simply read the words themselves slowly.4. Whenever you feel something has jumped out for your attention, close your eyes and dwell on it in prayer.5. Resist the temptation to analyse too much—just let the words sink in.
My guess is that, some weeks, you will suddenly see something which you had not realised or understood or even noticed before. Later you can check the verse which was revealed to you with commentaries and you may well be amazed to see that someone has had exactly that same ‘new insight’ you thought you alone had been given.
Because it came to you directly and not through the study of another person’s thoughts—to find that your idea was the one Maimonides or Nachmanides had also heard is not a disappointment. It is the ‘voice of approval’ I wrote of in Kuntres Maarat Ha Lev, the voice which confirms that you are on the right ‘prophetic’ track.
THREE
The above two suggested methods are the most suitable for use during prayer because they are prayer. There is another way of performing Hegyon ha-Lev where the focussed intention is to train heart and mind (intuition and intellect) to work together even more closely, and this is the method I use(d) each week to produce the set of texts for our private community Hegyon ha Lev articles.
1. Take the two readings for the week and a book of the Psalms.2. Make an intention to listen to the readings with an open heart and mind.3. Read through the entire weekly Torah and Haftarah portions slowly without using commentaries.4. On a piece of paper or in a special book ,each time a phrase or verse ‘jumps out’ as being significant to you personally in ANY way (especially if you don’t really know why!) write it down.5. When you have done that open the book of Psalms at random.6. Perhaps say the prayer “If there is anything you would like to tell me, please do.”7. See which verse has arisen (after finger was randomly pointed at it) and write it down.8. Then look deeply at the page you have written and see if there are any links between texts. Sometimes the psalm text will unite a Torah text with a Haftarah text with stunning results.
There will be times when you will be shown connections as though you were “as one who is awakened from sleep” (Zech 4:1). There will be times when you will see that the separate texts are actually speaking of the same topic, as though they were “a stone with seven facets” (Zech 3:9), and in more times than you will be able to count you will be shown things that may help illuminate your path like the menorah which sheds its light on us not just on the Sanctuary (Bemidbar 8:2).
In the end it will be part of the process which I believe we are incarnating—that contemplative prayer is action and that we are declaring the message “Not by Might or Power but by God’s Spirit” (Zech 4:6)
(I am aware that this third example may not be attractive to some Jews who prefer more scientific or cooly academic methods of study. But I am recommending it from years of positive experience. If it seems too bizarre or outlandish for you, just ignore it and move on. But try it first. You may be surprised.)
Question: Why should we practice Hegyon ha-Lev?
Answer: Because we want to train ourselves to listen to the Torah of the Heart and we want to make that a service of prayer and heed the words of the Berditchever when he reminded us that such spiritual action creates “a new sustenance” that “flows into all the universes, a sustenance that did not exist previously.”[21]
The practice of Hegyon ha-Lev is a training discipline which complements our mental prayer and enriches our formal Torah studies
Our Biblical Prophets were those who heard and spoke the Word of God— We are “neither Prophets nor Sons of the Prophets” but we seek to develop a climate of inspired awareness and attentiveness in our prayer lives. That climate is a necessary precondition for the promised return of prophecy to our nation.
All of us need to enter an interior ‘School of the Prophets’ (as it were), for it is there, in Hegyon ha-Lev that we may learn to think and speak with our intuitive minds—our hearts— as well as with our rational brains.
ooOoo
The Sfas Emes tells us:
“There are two blessings for the Torah, one before and one after reading it. The first is to connect the Torah to its roots in heaven, and the second is to connect it to our inner heart of hearts.” [22]
The Supernal and Eternal Torah whose nature we are unable ever to grasp, the Torah which was the Heavenly blueprint of Creation, and the Torah which was given at Sinai and which puts forth branches and flowers anew every day are all present in the heart of every individual Jew.
We just need to spend time with it and open our ears to its voice.
©Nachman Davies
Rosh Chodesh Sivan
Tzfat 2021
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NOTES
[1] Devarim 11:18
[2] Abraham Joshua Heschel in A Philosophy of Judaism p275; (Farrar Straus and Giroux,New York,1955)
[3] Zohar 3:152a
[4] Zohar Chadash, Shir HaShirim 74d
[5] Talmud Yerushalmi, Shekalim 6:1, Midrash Tanchuma (Bereshit 1)
[6] This idea is expounded at length by the Shelah (R' Isaiah Horowitz 1555-1630) in Shnei Luchos HaBris.
[7] Ben Poras Yosef 23b states that the entire Torah is included in every single word. Other sources cite the Baal Shem as saying that the entire Torah is present in a single one of its letters.
[8] Notably Tikkunei Zohar 21b. R' Chaim Vital (1543-1620) conceptualises the facets of the Torah as “PaRDeS” (pshat-remez-drush-sod).
[9] In Kedushas Levi: Parashas Beshallach. The idea is also to be found in the Zohar at Zohar II:87a, and III:98b as well as in the Ramban’s “Introduction” to his Torah Commentary.
[10] R' Menachem Mendel of Kotzk (1787-1859)
[11] ‘Tales of the Hasidim’ vol 2, Martin Buber, trans. Olga Marx, page 278, ( Schocken Books Inc,New York, 1949)
[12] See ‘Tales of the Hasidim’ vol 1, Martin Buber, trans. Olga Marx, page 99, (Schocken Books Inc, New York, 1949)
[13] Gittin 60a-b. see also Berachot 21b
[14] In the Midrash Nidda 30b
[15] R' Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter of Ger (1847-1905)
[16] Translated by Moshe A.Braun in ‘The Sfas Emes’, page 70 (Jason Aronson inc, Northvale, 1998)
[17] ‘Sefer HaMaspik’ Chapter 1, Rav.Avraham ben HaRambam, trans R' Yaakov Wincelberg in ‘The Guide to Serving G-d’ page 13,( Feldheim,Jerusalem/New York,2008)
[18] Devarim 11:18
[19] Zohar 1:90a
[20] Pirkei Avot 3:2
[21] See Zohar III 12b and 13a;
Zohar II 19b;
Reshit Chochmah (Gate of Love Chapter 3); Rules of Mystical Piety (in L.Fine 'Safed Spirituality', Paulist Press 1984,New Jersey. especially pages 34 and 68)
[22] The Chassidic Masters, R'Aryeh Kaplan, page 73 (Moznaim Publishing Corporation,New York/Jerusalem, 1984)
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