Kabbalistic knowledge -- or at least a tasty sample -- is offered on Bas Ayin, Hebrew for "the center of the eye." In this occasional online magazine, Israeli rabbi Eliezer Shore snips and pastes nuggets from "the great Masters of the Jewish tradition."
The simple, clean Web pages serve up well-focused insights on God -- or Hashem, "The Name" in Orthodox Judaism -- and the human response to the deity.
Some are expositions of scripture, as with Shore’s own essay "Call of the Heart."
Some are meditations on famous lives, such as the Baal HaTanya, founder of the Chabad Lubavitch movement of Hasidic Judaism.
Some are poems, including meditations on nature by Dovid Shulman. And some are parables; one speaks eloquently of the reward of serving God without expecting reward.
They all share the simple language and structure, yet the deep, crystalline insight that is typical of mystical Judaism. Here's a sample:
"According to the Kabbalah, the four colors of the eye -- white, red, blue (or brown), and black -- correspond to the four spiritual worlds. The pupil represents this world, for like the black of the eye, this world receives all of its light from beyond, from Above."
Shore also gives away free issues of the magazine; but in this day of instant communication, that may not be necessary. This Web site has archives from a half-dozen issues, each with a half-dozen articles.
No comments:
Post a Comment