My Vigil - expanded
Jul. 20th, 2006 04:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trystinnPlanned quiet evenings around here have a way of turning into insane hodge-podges of friends, dogs and rabbits. Despite all that, last night I managed to to sneak away and finish the Vigil, sending the flame on to its next home. This is the way it is in the lives of many women, small moments of peace and reverence in the midst of chaos of friends and fur. Lots of fur. What follows are my thoughts during that time.
****
About twelve hours into my vigil, as it gets dark very, very late here on the Island. Tuesday is considered a particularly auspicious day for Jews, it is the day G-d created the Heavens, remarking "it is good" twice, and I mention this, because I began my vigil on Tuesday. I've been reading "Kaballah, A Love Story" by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, which seems like an unusual choice for a Brighid Vigil. However, let me assure you - they have much in common.
The both begin with a spark.
"The Torah tells us that G-d created light from darkness on the first day, the Botzina d'gardinuta - the spark of light, the seed {Tree of Life: Chochma}. However, KBLH (specifically the Zohar) explains to us that in order for that first spark to occur, dark had to have been created first. A spark of darkness. There must first be recognition of darkness, something each Jewish woman does at Shabbas, covering her eyes to remind her of the darkness that was before Creation. Then the spark is lit. Separation of the dark and the light, though ever mindful, that the light cannot exist without the dark and so even the brightest flame contains darkness.
The sun wasn't created until the fourth day...so what happened with that original Light, you may ask? Well, we're living in it now. All of Creation is that first, eternal Light. All of it. Creation has never stopped, we are still being Created. From that first moment in the Womb, (Alma d'atay - the Mother womb of Being {Tree of Life: Binah} to the day we die, we are Creation and Creator, both.
Midrash, the stories that not only illuminate the Torah, but change it explicitly forever, tells us that Adam & Eve had a unique perspective of this Light, as they could see through it to Forever. And having seen the Future, they chose not to see it again. Can you imagine that? All the knowledge, the wisdom, all events and they chose not to see it. They chose instead, to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, and by doing so, stopped seeing Forever.
And this lies at the heart of KBLH, that no one has True Will. From the Talmud, folio 33b: "Everything is in the hand's of Heaven except for one thing: Whether or not you're reverent". True Will is a delusion of grandeur. Instead, we have one simple choice: Reverence or not. We can see the deep spirituality of every experience, every moment, every person, everything. Or not.
Lighting the Brighid's flame does this: it gives us a moment of Reverence, a practicum of True Will, of recognizing once again the Eternal Light of Creation. During the 24 hours of my Vigil, I spent my time studying and considering the nature of reverence and the spark of Light as the Shammas - the Caretaker/Keeper {who keeps the Vigil, the Da'at(h)}.
A last thought to leave you with, from the Zohar (in Hebrew: bright light or radiance, the Book of Illumination, regarding epiphanies, paraphased)- "The beginning of the Holy One's interpretation was the scoring of a glyph in the supernal purity: a dark spark, a hardened flash of light. It issued from what is beyond comprehension, from the secret of the One without End...Beyond that point, nothing can be known"."
x-posted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
forgeandwell
****
About twelve hours into my vigil, as it gets dark very, very late here on the Island. Tuesday is considered a particularly auspicious day for Jews, it is the day G-d created the Heavens, remarking "it is good" twice, and I mention this, because I began my vigil on Tuesday. I've been reading "Kaballah, A Love Story" by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, which seems like an unusual choice for a Brighid Vigil. However, let me assure you - they have much in common.
The both begin with a spark.
"The Torah tells us that G-d created light from darkness on the first day, the Botzina d'gardinuta - the spark of light, the seed {Tree of Life: Chochma}. However, KBLH (specifically the Zohar) explains to us that in order for that first spark to occur, dark had to have been created first. A spark of darkness. There must first be recognition of darkness, something each Jewish woman does at Shabbas, covering her eyes to remind her of the darkness that was before Creation. Then the spark is lit. Separation of the dark and the light, though ever mindful, that the light cannot exist without the dark and so even the brightest flame contains darkness.
The sun wasn't created until the fourth day...so what happened with that original Light, you may ask? Well, we're living in it now. All of Creation is that first, eternal Light. All of it. Creation has never stopped, we are still being Created. From that first moment in the Womb, (Alma d'atay - the Mother womb of Being {Tree of Life: Binah} to the day we die, we are Creation and Creator, both.
Midrash, the stories that not only illuminate the Torah, but change it explicitly forever, tells us that Adam & Eve had a unique perspective of this Light, as they could see through it to Forever. And having seen the Future, they chose not to see it again. Can you imagine that? All the knowledge, the wisdom, all events and they chose not to see it. They chose instead, to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, and by doing so, stopped seeing Forever.
And this lies at the heart of KBLH, that no one has True Will. From the Talmud, folio 33b: "Everything is in the hand's of Heaven except for one thing: Whether or not you're reverent". True Will is a delusion of grandeur. Instead, we have one simple choice: Reverence or not. We can see the deep spirituality of every experience, every moment, every person, everything. Or not.
Lighting the Brighid's flame does this: it gives us a moment of Reverence, a practicum of True Will, of recognizing once again the Eternal Light of Creation. During the 24 hours of my Vigil, I spent my time studying and considering the nature of reverence and the spark of Light as the Shammas - the Caretaker/Keeper {who keeps the Vigil, the Da'at(h)}.
A last thought to leave you with, from the Zohar (in Hebrew: bright light or radiance, the Book of Illumination, regarding epiphanies, paraphased)- "The beginning of the Holy One's interpretation was the scoring of a glyph in the supernal purity: a dark spark, a hardened flash of light. It issued from what is beyond comprehension, from the secret of the One without End...Beyond that point, nothing can be known"."
x-posted to
forgeandwell
