Spirit over the waters
I
- What can we use to understand what it is?
- It hovers – see Deuteronomy 32:11 – the image there is of a hawk over its hatchlings!
- Rashi in Genesis – The Throne of Glory stands in the air and flutters (same wors as in Deuteronomy) over the waters through his Word, like a dove that flutters over the nest.
- In Deuteronomy, Rashi explains the image of “He flutters over his nestlings{ as, "He does not lie on them heavily, but lightly scrapes them, touching and not touching".
- Why does he not use the image of the hawk in Genesis as well? Why use an image of a dove?
- Because contact with the Divine is momentary, light, and evanescent – Forward and Return of Ezekiel, Ch.1. It is expressed as hovers, as the lightness of a dove.
- A paradigm for the interaction of Spiritual and Physical – light, momentary, evanescent - touches and withdraws.
II.
- Described as "Ruach": means Wind as well as Spirit (as is the case in English, German and many languages).
- See R. Moshe Taku in Tamid Deim – God is like air -surrounds up, but we only rarely become aware of Him (it). See Guide 1:40, who says that the Wind in out b=verse means air. Sipporno - denotes air, completing the 4 basic substances: earth, water, fire, and air.
- Likutei Moharan – our inner selves are connected to the outside world through breathing. We inspire and expire air continuously, and immediately feel faint is we disconnect from it.
- See Wikipedia on Insufflation and New Testament John 20:22.
- A paradigm of air and wind – it surrounds up but we only become aware of it when we move, and then only for a moment. Once we stop, we don’t sense the air anymore. The wind is momentary, passing awareness of the spiritual. That is why Wind and Spirit are so intimately related.
- Christians sometimes interpret this verse as speaking of the Holy Spirit. Christian mystics experience that momentary touch of the Divine but conceptualize it in a different way than Jewish Mystics. Compare:
Acts 2 on Pentecost and the spirit of the Mishna that appeared to the Holy Fellowship of R. Yosef Karo on Shavuot (Pentecost) and spoke through his mouth (the parallels are striking)– both describing similar phenomena, except that Jews understand it as a wholly connected manifestation of the continuous and integrally One divinity and Christians disconnect it into independent divinities.
I quote the description here since it is not easy to find (
Sh'nei Luchot HaB'rit, by Rabbi Isaiah Halevi Horowitz ("Shelah")
Translation adapted from Rabbi Dr. Alan Brill's Kavvanah Blog
(https://kavvanah.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/shavuot-night-syndrome/)
The pious one [Rabbi Yosef Karo] and I resolved to make a mighty effort to keep sleep from our eyes on Shavuot night, and not to stop learning for even one second. Thank God we were successful. When you hear what transpired, it will enliven your souls.
For the night of Shavuot, this is the order of study I prepared…. [Verses from Scripture *] All this we did in a spirit of great fear and awe, with melody and trepidation. But what will be told next won’t be believed.
After all the verses, we recited aloud all the Mishnah’s of Zera’im (the first of the Six Orders), and then we started again, learning it in the way of true learning, and we completed two tractates. At that moment, the Creator graced us and we heard a great voice coming from Rabbi Karo, the words unintelligible. The people nearby heard but could not understand. The voice was very pleasing but at the same time was growing continually stronger, and we fell on our faces from the great awe. No one dared to lift his eyes and face to see.
The voice spoke:
Fortunate are you…because you took it upon yourselves to crown Me… “Listen my beloved, those who most glorify the Creator, my loved ones, peace to you. Fortunate are you and fortunate are those that bore you. Fortunate are you in This World and fortunate you will be in the World to Come, because you took it upon yourselves to crown Me on this night. It has been many years since my crown has fallen, and there has been no one to comfort Me. I had been cast to the dust embracing the filth, but now you have restored the crown.
Strengthen yourselves my dear ones; forge ahead my beloved; be happy and joyous, and know that you are among the exalted. You merited to be in the King’s palace. The voice of your Torah and breath of your mouths arose before God and pierced through the surroundings and many firmaments, until the messenger-angels on high were quieted, and the fire-angels hushed and all God’s lofty army listened to your voices.
I am the Mishna that admonishes mankind. I have come to speak to you. If only there were ten of you, you would have ascended higher. Even so, you have elevated yourselves and those who bore you. You are fortunate, my dear ones, for because of you, sleep passed from the eyes of those who bore you. I have been summoned this night through those gathered in this great and prestigious city. You are not like those lying on their beds, sleeping a sleep that is one-sixtieth of death, besmirching their beds. You bound to the One and have pleased Him.
If you could imagine even one thousandth myriad of my pain, no joy could enter your hearts, no laughter could escape your mouths, considering that on your account I have been cast to the dust. Therefore, strengthen and fortify yourselves my children, my dear ones who glorify Me. Do not halt your efforts, for the thread of kindness is drawn to you, and your Torah is sweet before Him.
Therefore, stand my sons, my dear ones, on your feet and elevate me. With a loud voice, as on Yom Kippur, declare, ‘Blessed is the name of his glorious kingdom for ever and ever.'” Move to the Land of Israel…Do not value your belongings, for you will partake of the best of the supernal levels…
Standing on our feet, we recited aloud, as bidden. The voice then resumed:
Fortunate are you, my children. Return to your learning and do not stop one minute. Move to the Land of Israel, because not all times are equal, and there is no preventing salvation, whether by much or by a little. Do not value your belongings, for you will partake of the best of the supernal levels.
And if you desire and will obey, the choicest of that land you will consume. Therefore, hurry and travel there for I am the cause that sustains you, and will continue to sustain you. Peace to you in your houses, and peace in all there is to you. Eternal God gives strength to His people and blesses them with peace’.
