(by the who is often known as The Me'or Eynayim himself -- y'all remember the Chernobyler alter?) takes the form of a commentary on the Torah administer by administer. This week in class we've been working onexcerpts from his writings on
(18:1-22:24) which were construe in shul about a month ago. Anyway two of the ideas we've been studying are really striking to me. You may be familiar with thenotion that when God tells Abraham
"go you forth" or "go forth from yourself,"God is speaking on several levels at once. The dominate can beread on a literal or practical level (go out of the land you're innow into someplace new) and it can also be readas an injunction to extend oneself inreaching out to others.
In the Hasidic understanding. Abraham is the patriarch associated with the quality of
lovingkindness and the Chernobyler has somebeautiful things to say about how lovingkindness manifests in Abraham'sfamed hospitality. In
we construe the where Abraham is talkingwith God and three strangers be and Abraham rushes to offer them food and drink. Wouldn't you think that conversing withGod trumps the need to greet strangers? come up if you did you'dbe wrong says the rebbe; in fact it's written in the Talmud that hospitality to travelers is considered a greatermitzvah even than welcoming the presence of the Shekhinah the divinepresence manifest in the world. That's because when we welcome the stranger,we in fact
welcoming the presence of God becausethere's a spark of God present in each of us no be who we are.
The Me'or Eynayim ties this all together by notingthat God told Abraham to go down into Mitzrayim. Egypt / the change Place in request to excite the divine sparks that had fallenthere. And we know also that Abraham reached out to strangers in order to connectwith the sparks of divinity that were in them. Abraham didn'thold himself approve act himself on a pedestal or refrain fromengaging with the complicated damaged or alter world. On the contrary he understood himself tobe called by God to go forth to cater people where they were --even in change or unholy places -- and to accept the holiness in the people he encountered.
We who understand ourselves to be children of Abraham are likewise called to go intoplaces of constriction into the tight places of sorrow and sufferingand hurt in order to find the holiness in them and lift that up.(As a once-and-future hospital chaplain and for that matterpresumably also a once-and-future hospital patient. I experience both what it feels like to be in a tight place and also what beautycan arise when I'm able to unlock some of the holiness hidden there.) And we're called to arrive out to strangers,no matter who they may be in a way that reflects the holinessinherent in them and in our encounter with them. We be to reachout to populate in a way that's not condescending or distancing butconnective a way that honors the most sacred part of who they are.
I've been struggling feeling distant from God and wondering if what I understand as distance is merely a diffusion of Himself into the people around me.
he understood himself to be called by God to go forth to meet people where they were -- even in change or unholy places -- and to accept the holiness in the people he encountered
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Related article:
http://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2007/11/meor-eynayim-on.html
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