Sunday, December 1, 2013
Preparation and Inner
Strength . . .
Chanukah 2013, aka Thanksgivukah, brought us together to
learn on a Sunday afternoon followed by an evening of latkes, candles, and deep
sharing.
I Kings I, 7:21 “Jachin . . . and Boaz”
Solomon appointed a master coppersmith, Hiram, to work on
the temple ornaments and utensils. Hiram
was to Solomon and the building of the temple as Bezalel was to Moses and the
building of the Tabernacle, a master craftsman embued with Hochmah, Binah, and
Da’at – the wisdom, understanding, and knowledge that could translate the primordial
Divine thought into physical manifestation of art and beauty. He built 2 massive columns of copper over 30
ft high (18 cubits to be exact), with ornate tops or capitals, copper meshwork,
and designed with images of pomegranates and flowers. In architectural history, columns were a
major invention, and the Egyptians were the first to use them and use flower
motifs to adorn them. This implied
connection to Egypt in the Temple architecture is interesting, as we had of
course come out of Egypt almost 5 centuries earlier, and Solomon’s first wife was
the daughter of the current Pharoah of Egypt.
Hiram named the 2 pillars.
The one on the right, to the South, the side of the Menorah, he named “Jachin”,
meaning establishment or preparation, from the root of the word Kavannah,
intention. The pillar on the left,
North, the side of the Bread Table, He named Boaz, meaning “strength is in
it”. Thus, in entering the sanctuary,
the part of the Temple just outside the Holy of Holies, one passed through this
portal of intention and inner strength, perhaps homiletically acknowledging
that establishing and maintaining the intention to Divine connection brings an
inner strength, to the individual and to the people who carry that intention.
I Kings, 7:25. “It (the Sea) stood on 12 oxen, 3 facing
north, 3 facing west, 3 facing south, and 3 facing east”
Hiram next built a huge, round copper “sea”, 10 cubits (~20
feet) in diameter, one handbreath thick, supported on the backs of 12 copper
oxen. This sea of Mayim Chayim would be
used for the Cohanim to wash and purify themselves for sacred service (Avodah). The structure replicates the directions
occupied by the 12 tribes during the journey through Sinai, suggesting the
waters are only held aloft for their sacred purpose when the entire community
is involved. And the ox, or water
buffalo, is the totem of the tribe of Joseph (as well as the tribe of Ephraim,
once Joseph split into the tribes of Ephraim and Menasheh, whose totem was the
oryx). The Buffalo in general holds the
direction of the West in Hebraic indigenous cosmology, based on Ezekiel’s mystical
vision of the Chariot (Ezekiel, Chapter 1), as well as Ephraim/Joseph’s
position in the wilderness. This
suggests the healing role of the water being held in the Sea, as West is the
direction of healing, the place of Raphael (“healer of God”). And calling this structure “sea” brings to
mind the crossing of the Red Sea 840 years earlier, that healing moment in the
life of the Hebrew people when we stepped out of the narrow limitations of
physical oppression and towards the path of Spirit. Copper is an element of passion in our
tradition, thus these waters in the copper sea were embued with the passion for
life, for relationship to Spirit, that would cleanse and heal those who would
wash in it.
It is noteworthy that the text describes the positions of
the oxen in the counterclockwise direction, starting in the North, the place of
mystery; moving to the west, the place of blending, merging, and healing; then
to the South – place of clarity; and finally to the East – place of new
beginnings. This counterclockwise movement
can also be seen as the unfolding path of our life journey: receiving some new
influx of mystery from Spirit (North), blending it into ones being (West), clarifying the meaning of the new
piece one has received (South), leading to a new integration, a new beginning,
a new way of being in the world (East), only then to begin another cycle of the
journey with a new piece of mystery unfolding from the North (see Winkler,
“Magic of the Ordinary”, pg 55). Perhaps
then, the Cohanim approached the Sea each time to wash knowing they were about
to do ceremony with the kavannah of bringing the people closer in connection to
their Divine wholeness.
I Kings I, 7:27: “He made 10 copper stands . . . ”
Having made the Sea, Hiram next constructed 10 ornate copper
stands to carry 10 lavers, smaller water-containing vessels. These stands are clearly physical
manifestations of the images of the Chariot, seen by Ezekiel in his vision over
300 years later, with images of lions, oxen, and embracing human figures. The latter are described cryptically in the
Hebrew, and imply the embrace of lovers, alluding to either intense human love,
the archetypal unification of Masculine and Feminine, or the d’vey’kut (intense
connection) of the Divine with Israel.
All of these themes are expressed in Solomon’s opus, the Song of Songs,
and were manifested in this instance in the passionate copper of the 10 laver
stands. Why 10 stands? No doubt a desire to include within the
physicality of the Temple the 10 Sefirot, Divine Emanations, described in Sefer
Yetzirah and much later by the Kabbalists of the Middle Ages.
It is awesome to read these passages and experience directly
the power of the sacred symbology of the Hebrew people, manifested from our
very inception, grounded in indigenous wisdom, transmitting through the ages the
energies of Spirit in the forms of animal beings, plant beings, human beings,
minerals, water, earth. We are therefore
the beneficiaries, those who can receive these transmissions from our ancient
ancestors, and gain an understanding of their connection to Spirit, how they
understood YHVH from before a time when our people were physically removed from
our land, displaced, oppressed and disconnected from our roots. These symbols of Divine relationship have
survived in our texts, hidden in our prayers, offering a path to reconnect to
the energies of our ancient ancestors and prophets, a way to reclaim our
indigenous, original connection, a Great D’vey’kut, to the Holy One.
I Kings, 8:3 “All the elders of Israel came, and the
Cohanim carried the Ark . ”
Once the building of the Temple was completed, after 7 years
of construction, in the month of Eitanim (“the mighty ones” – the month of
Tishrei), there was a great procession and inauguration of the Temple. This was held just before Sukkot, the autumn
harvest festival, so many people from all over the land were no doubt there on
their pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the festival.
This was the Sukkot of Sukkots, as Solomon sought to harvest all that he
had been spiritually planting for the past 7 years. All the leaders of the people were there:
“the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the
ancestral familes.” All the sacred
implements from the Tabernacle were brought into the Temple – the Ark, the utensils,
the sacred vessels – and there were offerings made “too abundant to be
numbered”. Like father like son, this
procession of Solomon is reminiscent of the procession that occurred when David
first brought the Ark into Zion (2 Samuel 6:12-19). The Ark is placed in the Holy of Holies,
under the “wings of the C’ruvim”, the 10 cubit wingspan between the 2 golden
Cherubim Solomon had built. It is quite
something to close your eyes and imagine yourself back in that Jerusalem,
experiencing the joy and expectations of being in that procession, witnessing
that momentous event.
I Kings, 8:10-11:
“the cloud/glory of YHVH filled the
house of YHVH ”
The Shechinah, the Feminine, intimate, in-relationship
manifestation of Spirit, described here as a “cloud” in one verse, and as the
glory of YHVH in the next, fills the Holy of Holies. The Cohanim had to flee the space, not able
to be present as the Cloud entered and dwelt there. She’hech’eh’yanu - Solomon has completed his
preparations for just this moment. All
the building in the past 7 years, all the preparation, the use of the best
materials, the best artisans, the best and most intentional building methods,
have been for this moment. And even up
to the procession and the bringing of the Ark and implements to the Temple – one
wonders what Solomon was thinking about.
Could he be sure it would all be acceptable to Spirit? Hadn’t David stumbled in his first attempt to
bring the Ark to Jerusalem, resulting in human deaths? Hadn’t Nadav and Abihu, the well-meaning, priestly
sons of Aaron, stumbled in their over-eagerness to offer incense to YHVH resulting
in their deaths? Hadn’t even as
spiritually evolved a person as Moses misconstrued the way God wanted him to
make His/Her Spirit present by striking the rock, and thereby lost the honor of
entering the Land? It is not a trivial
thing to make a home for Spirit, to make a proper offering, to be truly pure in
your intention. There are many places
where ego, arrogance, narcissism can trickle in and mess things up. Solomon, Hiram, the Cohanim, and all those
involved in this procession must have been quite pure in their Kavannah. Offering a home, a Bayit, for Shechinah to
dwell, offering it in the right way, in the right relationship, She comes in as
a mist. And the Temple from that point
on becomes a focal place for the Hebrew people, the kingdoms of Judah and
Israel unified as one kingdom under Solomon, to come and be in relationship
with Spirit.
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