Fwd: [Chasidus w/o Borders] Chayyei Sarah -- from Kabbalah and Ecology
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Aharon Varady
Nov 6, 2015, 10:29:57 AM11/6/15
to opensiddur-talk
From Open Siddur Project contributor, Rabbi David Seidenberg, author of Kabbalah and Ecology (Cambridge University Press, 2015):
--
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Seidenberg <rebdu...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 6, 2015 at 10:21 AM
Subject: [Chasidus w/o Borders] Chayyei Sarah -- from Kabbalah and Ecology
To: "rav...@listserv.rabbinicalassembly.org" <rav...@listserv.rabbinicalassembly.org>, "nhc-d...@lists.havurah.org" <nhc-d...@lists.havurah.org>, "Kol-...@jtsa.edu" <kol-...@jtsa.edu>, ohala...@clergy.ohalah.org, Green Hevra <green...@googlegroups.com>, ha...@googlegroups.com, Shmita Network <shmita-...@googlegroups.com>
May I share with you all a short section from my book "Kabbalah and
Ecology: God's Image in the More-Than-Human World" related to Chayyei
Sarah? It deals with the verse, "And Isaac went out to reflect in the
field" (Gen 24:63). ~ David Seidenberg
_________
On Chayyei Sarah -- from "Kabbalah and Ecology", pp.330-1
The Midrash teaches that the more-than-human world is full of conversation:
"And every growth/si'ach of the field" (Gen 2:5) -- All the trees as
it were (k'ilu) are conversing/m'sichin, these with these. All the
trees as it were are conversing with the creatures (`im hab'riyot).
All the trees were created to give pleasure to the creatures...All the
conversations of the creatures are about nothing except the land...and
all the prayers of the creatures are about nothing except the land.
(Genesis Rabbah 13:2)
Nachman of Breslov claims that true speech, as exemplified by prayer,
is actually a gathering up of this speech of the more-than-human
world:
Know that when a person prays in a field, then all of the
grasses/plants together come into the prayer, and they help him, and
give him strength within his prayer. And this is what it means when
prayer is called "conversation/sichah": it refers to "the growth of
the field / si'ach hasadeh", [meaning] that every shoot from the field
gives strength and helps his prayer. And this is [what the verse means
when it says,] "And Isaac went out to reflect in the field / lasu'ach
basadeh" (Gen 24:63): that his prayer (sichah) was made with the help
and strength of the field (si’ach), that all the plants of the field
gave strength and helped his prayer. (Likutey Moharan 2:11)
Prayer, which Hasidic thinkers often take to be the essence or
purification of human language, is rooted in the earth itself, in the
conversation of the plants. One could say that human beings are not
the creators of language but tools of the creatures to fashion their
language into prayer. We enter into sichah, conversation, which is
also prayer, as Rebbe Nachman and the Midrash teach, and find that the
creatures are already m'sichin, in conversation.
Nachman calls the conversation of the grasses "song" in another teaching:
Know that every shepherd has a unique melody/nigun according to the
grasses and the place where he herds. For every animal/b'heimah has a
grass unique to her that she needs to eat, and also a shepherd isn't
always in one place, and according to the grasses and the place where
he herds, so he has a nigun. For every grass there is a song/shirah
which it speaks . . . and from the song of the grasses is made the
nigun of the shepherd . . . And this is the dimension of "From the
edge/wing/kanaf of the earth we heard songs/z'mirot" (Is 24:16) -- [it
means] that songs and nigunim come out from "the wing of the earth",
for by means of the grasses growing in the land a nigun is made. And
since the shepherd knows the nigun, by means of this he gives strength
to the grasses . . . and there is pasture for the animals. (Likutey
Moharan 2:63)
Nachman seems to be describing his lived experience, even if he props
up his thinking by scripture. Embedded in this teaching is the
recognition that each ecosystem or place might make its own unique
contribution to human prayer and melody, and so uniquely reveal
divinity.
Note that the shepherd creates melody out of song. The difference
between shirah or song and nigun or melody is that a song has words
but a nigun may not. There is a paradox in this teaching: humans
extract melody from the song of the grass, but not the "verbal" part,
whatever that may be. Elsewhere, Nachman teaches that song and prayer,
encumbered by words, cannot reach the highest levels, but that nigun,
without words, can even cross the empty space that separates the
universe from God, reaching all the way to Eyn Sof, to the infinite,
primordial source. (Likutey Moharan 1:64, Bo' El Paro`)
Together, these passages describe a kind of ecosystem of language and
song in which the human being is an essential organ of a complex
cycle that nurtures Life and divinity.
Understanding that we are in dialogue with the world around us –
understanding this not just as metaphor but as phenomenology – opens
new dimensions of experience. It is more than just psychological
projection to say that the world has language. Rather, human language
emerges from the rhythms and fluidity of a world that is constituted
by relationship. In this sense, the challenge is not to learn to speak
with the more-than-human world, but to realize that we are already
speaking with it.
________
P.S. For further reading, see David Abram, "The Spell of the Sensuous"
on the phenomenology of our relationship and bodily conversation with
the more-than-human world. David Abram coined the term
"more-than-human world" to replace the dualistic idea that Nature and
human culture are separate or separable.
--
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If you have information you would like to share with the members of this list, or a song you'd like to add to the site, send it by email to rebduvid86 at gmail dot com.
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From: David Seidenberg <rebdu...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 6, 2015 at 10:21 AM
Subject: [Chasidus w/o Borders] Chayyei Sarah -- from Kabbalah and Ecology
To: "rav...@listserv.rabbinicalassembly.org" <rav...@listserv.rabbinicalassembly.org>, "nhc-d...@lists.havurah.org" <nhc-d...@lists.havurah.org>, "Kol-...@jtsa.edu" <kol-...@jtsa.edu>, ohala...@clergy.ohalah.org, Green Hevra <green...@googlegroups.com>, ha...@googlegroups.com, Shmita Network <shmita-...@googlegroups.com>
May I share with you all a short section from my book "Kabbalah and
Ecology: God's Image in the More-Than-Human World" related to Chayyei
Sarah? It deals with the verse, "And Isaac went out to reflect in the
field" (Gen 24:63). ~ David Seidenberg
_________
On Chayyei Sarah -- from "Kabbalah and Ecology", pp.330-1
The Midrash teaches that the more-than-human world is full of conversation:
"And every growth/si'ach of the field" (Gen 2:5) -- All the trees as
it were (k'ilu) are conversing/m'sichin, these with these. All the
trees as it were are conversing with the creatures (`im hab'riyot).
All the trees were created to give pleasure to the creatures...All the
conversations of the creatures are about nothing except the land...and
all the prayers of the creatures are about nothing except the land.
(Genesis Rabbah 13:2)
Nachman of Breslov claims that true speech, as exemplified by prayer,
is actually a gathering up of this speech of the more-than-human
world:
Know that when a person prays in a field, then all of the
grasses/plants together come into the prayer, and they help him, and
give him strength within his prayer. And this is what it means when
prayer is called "conversation/sichah": it refers to "the growth of
the field / si'ach hasadeh", [meaning] that every shoot from the field
gives strength and helps his prayer. And this is [what the verse means
when it says,] "And Isaac went out to reflect in the field / lasu'ach
basadeh" (Gen 24:63): that his prayer (sichah) was made with the help
and strength of the field (si’ach), that all the plants of the field
gave strength and helped his prayer. (Likutey Moharan 2:11)
Prayer, which Hasidic thinkers often take to be the essence or
purification of human language, is rooted in the earth itself, in the
conversation of the plants. One could say that human beings are not
the creators of language but tools of the creatures to fashion their
language into prayer. We enter into sichah, conversation, which is
also prayer, as Rebbe Nachman and the Midrash teach, and find that the
creatures are already m'sichin, in conversation.
Nachman calls the conversation of the grasses "song" in another teaching:
Know that every shepherd has a unique melody/nigun according to the
grasses and the place where he herds. For every animal/b'heimah has a
grass unique to her that she needs to eat, and also a shepherd isn't
always in one place, and according to the grasses and the place where
he herds, so he has a nigun. For every grass there is a song/shirah
which it speaks . . . and from the song of the grasses is made the
nigun of the shepherd . . . And this is the dimension of "From the
edge/wing/kanaf of the earth we heard songs/z'mirot" (Is 24:16) -- [it
means] that songs and nigunim come out from "the wing of the earth",
for by means of the grasses growing in the land a nigun is made. And
since the shepherd knows the nigun, by means of this he gives strength
to the grasses . . . and there is pasture for the animals. (Likutey
Moharan 2:63)
Nachman seems to be describing his lived experience, even if he props
up his thinking by scripture. Embedded in this teaching is the
recognition that each ecosystem or place might make its own unique
contribution to human prayer and melody, and so uniquely reveal
divinity.
Note that the shepherd creates melody out of song. The difference
between shirah or song and nigun or melody is that a song has words
but a nigun may not. There is a paradox in this teaching: humans
extract melody from the song of the grass, but not the "verbal" part,
whatever that may be. Elsewhere, Nachman teaches that song and prayer,
encumbered by words, cannot reach the highest levels, but that nigun,
without words, can even cross the empty space that separates the
universe from God, reaching all the way to Eyn Sof, to the infinite,
primordial source. (Likutey Moharan 1:64, Bo' El Paro`)
Together, these passages describe a kind of ecosystem of language and
song in which the human being is an essential organ of a complex
cycle that nurtures Life and divinity.
Understanding that we are in dialogue with the world around us –
understanding this not just as metaphor but as phenomenology – opens
new dimensions of experience. It is more than just psychological
projection to say that the world has language. Rather, human language
emerges from the rhythms and fluidity of a world that is constituted
by relationship. In this sense, the challenge is not to learn to speak
with the more-than-human world, but to realize that we are already
speaking with it.
________
P.S. For further reading, see David Abram, "The Spell of the Sensuous"
on the phenomenology of our relationship and bodily conversation with
the more-than-human world. David Abram coined the term
"more-than-human world" to replace the dualistic idea that Nature and
human culture are separate or separable.
--
Thank you for staying in touch with NeoHasid.org through our Google Groups list.
If you have information you would like to share with the members of this list, or a song you'd like to add to the site, send it by email to rebduvid86 at gmail dot com.
To unsubscribe, send email to hasid-un...@googlegroups.com
For more mail options, visit http://groups.google.com/group/hasid?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NeoHasid: Chasidus Without Borders" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to hasid+un...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
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Aharon Varady
Founding Director, Hierophant
the Open Siddur Project
http://opensiddur.org
Twitter | Tumblr | Facebook | Google+
Founding Director, Hierophant
the Open Siddur Project
http://opensiddur.org
Twitter | Tumblr | Facebook | Google+
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