A Sukkot Meditation

As we conclude Yom Kippur and enter Sukkot, I thought I'd repost this earlier instruction from the Zohar regarding meditating upon the body as a tabernacle for the Divine and attaining enlightenment through focus on the divine breath, or Elohim Chayyim. Sukkot, the Festival of Booths, is in part a celabration of the tabernacle as a house of God during the Exodus and afterwards. So this meditation seemed appropriate. Enjoy!

A House is Being Built (from February 26, 2009)


This week's Torah portion (Terumah) at first glance appears uninspiring, as it's primarily a listing of the materials to be collected for the building of the tabernacle. But the rabbis and kabbalists teach us that there are multiple levels of Torah understanding including the literal, allegorical, metaphorical and the hidden meanings. This is the case here...the inspiration to be found in this portion comes from kabbalistic interpretation.

Most scholars will tell you that the primary text of the Kabbalah is the Zohar. While its origins are in dispute, it is said to recount the travels and contemplations of the second century mystic, Rabbi Simeon Bar Yohai. Rabbi Simeon teaches his followers how to find the hidden, or true meanings within the Torah. For him, the building of the tabernacle and later the temple in Jerusalem is a metaphor for building spiritual awareness and the ascent of the soul towards merger with the divine.

Rabbi Simeon instructs his students to think of their bodies as divine temples, or tabernacles for collecting the spirit of God. This divine breath is exhaled by God and inhaled by humans. In a state of perfect concentration, the mystic can consciously accumulate this "spirit of life" and convert it into holy energy, or Ehohim Chayyim. This soul energy reduces the earth, air, wind and fire within the body to their simplest state of pure sound. At this point, the body and mind of the mystic has become so still that his body is a hollow channel, vibrating with divine energy. He, or she has transcended the limited perceptions of human thought and ascended towards unity with the divine.

Rabbi Simeon referred to this spiritual practice as "the House is being built." Our greatest sage, Moses, was said to be a master of the art and it's greatest practicioner.

So even the building of the tabernacle can become a meditative exercise for spiritual ascent. This is an example of what I meant in my last post, when I discussed how, for me, Kabbalah opened up a whole new dimension of meaning and inspiration within Judaism. It revealed that Judaism was so much more than the simplistic and sometimes dull faith we are taught in Sunday school. It set me on a journey home that continues to this day and which I hope to share here with you.

I hope you enjoyed this and found some level of inspiration within it. If you'd like to read more, my source for this was the book "Kabbalah...The Way of the Jewish Mystic" by Perle Epstein. She was a student and devoted follower of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan.

Until next time....