You might be surprised to learn that not only is Rosh
Hashanah the Day of Judgment and the Day of Remembrance, but it is also the day
of "nesira", according to the Ari, which means literally, surgical
uncoupling. This is a term used to describe the spiritual surgery, the
sawing apart of Adam and Eve, who were originally created as a single
androgynous being, back-to-back. Though nesira means surgical
uncoupling, it only severs back-facing, addictive bonds. Its uncoupling
actually initiates a higher, willful, and more rectified recoupling.
(Sha'ar HaKavanot, Rosh Hashanah)
...Adam and Eve...were originally created as a single
androgynous being, back-to-back.
In a back-to-back relationship, the glue that binds the couple is
from unconscious, compulsive forces that may even oppose their stated conscious
intent. In contrast, a front-to-front relationship is one where the
couple shares common goals and a mutuality of desire, at least to some extent.
"As below, so above." Nesira is also the means by which the Holy One
created two-ness in the world. At one stage in the creative process,
G‑d employed the scalpel of nesira to carve out a cosmic other.
Voila! Gender appears in the universe. He is called the Blessed
Holy One (or man), and She is called the Shechinah (or
woman).
The entire course of history (and its whole point) is for this cosmic couple to
finally achieve a perfect union. They have been working on their marriage for
nearly six thousand years. Eventually they will get it right. The
Ari, says, they eventually will meet and match from the crown of their heads to
the soles of their feet. Since each of our souls is a piece of the cosmic She,
this striving for healthy (and joyous) union is also the secret (and the point)
of each one of our lives.
Yet nesira is not something that happens once and for all. It
occurs and recurs over time. In every relationship there are unrectified
layers where the couple is enmeshed in a back-facing (dysfunctional) liaison and
rectified layers where they meet eye-to-eye, heart-to-heart. With each cycle of
nesira, the relationship deepens and sweetens as it turns face-to-face.
So too does this apply to our union with G‑d. There are areas of this
relationship, where we are not earning our keep, where we are taking more than
giving. Perhaps we are not living up to our potential, perhaps we are only
serving from fear and not love (or perhaps not serving at all). In these
unconscious and unrectified places our bond remains back-to-back.
On Rosh Hashanah we receive our allocation of spiritual resources for the new
year. This means that G‑d decides what He is going to reveal to us, of Himself,
this coming year. And since "G‑d’s seal is truth," His Self-revelation
includes all that we are going to learn about life, and truth, and how to be a 'mentch'
in the world. It includes all the wisdom we are going to absorb in the
coming cycle. With each new insight our relationship becomes more
front-facing. In Hebrew, the word for face and the word for
inward derive from the same root. A front-to-front relationship is one
where each sees the other’s depths and their insides meet.
...the deepest layer of a person is will.
According to Kabbalah, the deepest layer of a person is will. In the
spiritual planes, things are close when they are similar. The relationship
between G‑d and man consummates when a person’s authentic and spontaneous
desires exactly coincide with G‑d’s will. Intimacy then occurs at the most core
level of being. This is as close as any two can get, and the pleasure of
their union surpasses all earthly delights.
Each year, when the shofar blows, man and G‑d strive for a meeting of wills.
The first shofar was G‑d’s breathing into Adam’s nostrils the soul of life.
(Sod Yesharim, 1) With that breath G‑d
conveyed to Adam all of His hopes and prayers and visions for mankind. But the
shofar is also the primal cry of the human heart longing to be good and to serve
and to receive the resources it needs to actualize its potential.
(Sod Yesharim, 1) These two shofars, one from above and one
from below, effect the nesira. Some increment of soul, as yet
unconscious, is pried loose to begin its holy turning, to face its Maker in
conscious, willful, joyful union. Next year at this time it will be seeing
through our eyes, loving through our hearts, and knowing through our heads.
Next year the Shechinah’s marriage with the Blessed Holy One will have
rectified and consummated a little more because of the growth that has occurred
in our life (which is one cell in the mystical body of the Shechinah).
I want to
bless us, as individuals and collectively, that the shofar’s cry should awaken
our heart, cells, bones and spaces to KNOW that the only thing we want is to do
what we are designed to do. We should receive a new glimpse of what that
is, and G‑d should mark out the most direct and least painful path toward its
fulfillment. As we move through this year we should KNOW that it is all
about relationship and we should find the joy that comes from that in all the
circumstances of our lives. Please G‑d, let it be a good, sweet, healthy,
joyful, peaceful, life-celebrating, heart-opening, faith-deepening,
soul-liberating, love-filled New Year for all.
[Excerpted from //astillsmallvoice.org]
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