Horizons

“And the earth shall be filled with the knowledge (of the

Lord) like the water covers the seas ”

Isa. 11.9

This is the explanation of the verse, for the sea represents

sof (the end point) [1] of all the spiritual levels (the lowest

point) which is malchut (the lowest divine sefirah of the 10

sefiros)... And this is also the archetypal middah of strict justice (din)

as cited in Talmud Gittin 10a “dina demalchuta dina” the

law of the land is (also) our law. [2]

And through using the middah of daas (holy intuition) one

can raise the spiritual manifestation of the divine in this

world from its lowest level of malchut (= sof = sea) to the

level of Bina its source above.

This changes the letter yam (malchut) to may (Binah

which is mem yud) which then makes the letters meimei

(construct of mey) or “waters of” chesed or lovingkindness.

All this transformation takes place through daas or holy

intuition. so that yam becomes mayim (yud mem becomes

mem yud mem) water.

Degel Machaneh Efraim Parshas Emor

This wonderful Torah of the grandson of the Baal Shem

Tov came to mind as I sailed this cruise ship into the

Atlantic with ocean surrounding me for 360 degrees.

His Torah equated the notion of the sea with the doctrine

of din or the archetype of strict justice, as if the sea has no

mercy, for it acts as a force of nature without regard to the

object of its “wrath”. Sometimes calm sometimes raging it

continues to respond to weather, wind and atmospheric

pressure ever since creation.

Against this fact of the natural order Rebbe comes to

teach us a spiritual lesson. That the word for the sea the

Israelites crossed as they left Egypt was Yam Suf the

Reed Sea, but suf also can be read as sof or the end, the

last one, the lowest point. In spiritual terms everything

down here on earth is a poor representation of what is

going on up there in the spiritual worlds. Suf or Sof then

represents the lowest of the sefirot the spiritual archetypes

called malchut.

Using a known pun of sof and suf with the classical

themein the Zohar equating the lowest rung on the

spiritual archetypal ladder of sefirot as malchut with din or

strict justice, he has connected the following themes:

sea=suf=sof madreigot=malchut=din

Through the inner work of the zaddik who makes use of

the hidden archetype called daas or “holy intuition”, an

experiential state rather than cognitive discursive

examination of reality, this lowest rung of spirituality

represented by pure blind justice can be elevated to its

source above, in the sefirah called Bina, represented by

the letters mem and yud or “mi”.3 The lowest rung of strict

blind justice can be elevated to the ascend to its source or

higher rung in the spiritual ladder called bina, which is

called “sweetening” by chesed that archetype that allows

for love and harmony and peace. Notice the letters mem

yud “mi” if inverted become yud mem or yam i.e sea.

Chesed is known by the character of water as in “meimei

chesed” or the waters of compassion. By transforming the

yam to mei the strict justice is tempered by the waters of

compassion in this letter mysticism.

3 I am reminded of the difference between mi meaning

who? versus mah meaning what? This is the Buberian IThou

vs I-it model of interpersonal relations. Ma

represents the discursive examination of reality typified by

the Soloveitchik’s Adam I who masters the world by

dominating it with objective science, industry and power. It

is based on the constant question mah=what? the very

basis of scientific inquiry. His Adam type II represents mi

or who? meaning the realtional-experiential form of

knowledge which is subjective rather than objective in

observation. This can only be accomplished by the

archetype of daas, intuition.

The Degel now goes back to that original verse in Isaiah:

“And the earth shall be filled with the knowledge (of the

Lord) like the water covers the seas”

How will this futuristic transformation of the world occur?

The prophet does not inform us. We are not told the

details. But Rebbe claims how this will take place. By

sweetening strict justice with kindness through that

mysterious element of daas, holy intuition. I interpret this

to mean when the world moves from the objective

experience of reality to the subjective intuitive experiential

form, then only will the strict justice and merciless “sea “ of

nature will be transformed into the mercy of a

compassionate world.

The verse he rereads now encodes this process as

follows: “umallah haaretz deah (and the earth will be filled

with knowledge) kamayim layam mechasim” (like the

water covers the sea)

umallah is an acronym for Elohim or God as working in the

world through His natural providence within nature not

beyond it. This Elohim form of the divine represents strict

jusice....like the laws of nature which appear immutable.

umallah=elohim=din=strict justice that is on the haaretzthe

earth until now, will -(through daas =) deah i.e. intimate

knowledge meaning holy intuition

kamayim layam mechasim: from

yam==sof=suf=malchut=din=strict justice be transformed

into mayim=chessed=binah=loving kindness.

Dad was right... on his way to Australia in the hold of the

Dunera.. a British merchant Navy vessel a POW ship used

to transport 2000 Jews in 1941 10 minutes a day exercise

on deck, he too saw the horizon of the Atlantic, once a

day, for 10 minutes running on deck with seamen prodding

the ragged Jews with their bayonets, in the back of the

thighs to move quicker, he too saw where heaven meets

earth 360 degrees: nothing but the blue ocean.

And now 70 years later on a luxury cruise liner I watch the

ocean around me nothing but blue the waves melt into

each other the surface undulating with dignity the cresting

surf white freshness and the pencil sharp horizon for 360

degrees once again. heaven meets earth in a visual circle

around this boat.

Those waves hypnotically force me to stare the undulation

and the wind swept surfaces that constantly move waves

and tides, currents and rivulets, swells and surf, white

caps and troughs, mountains and valleys of water never

ending in motion. Even the small effects of wind cause the

tiny ripples between the waves catch the eye in a

wondrous awe.

He told me to watch for the static electrical effects

between the surface of the water and the edge of the

metal ship at dawn and dusk he remembered those playful

lights: a son et lumiere show as he sailed towards

uncertainty leaving his loved ones behind at Hitler’s mercy.

As yet I have not seen them play for me. I am surely

unworthy of this natural display of divine humor.

This is literally the first time I have experienced the globe

the completely roundness of infinity

the border zone between the roundness of the earth the

absolute limits of my gaze as a circle

with no interruption of man’s building or even sight of land,

there are no other vessels in my sight and I am in awe of

mother earth once again in her boldness her finite

roundness facing the infinite sky

and the sheer massiveness of the great sea.

Do ships fall off the edge? or will science win out the day

in my head? I tell the steward i still belive in the flat earth

that he should warn the captain so we will not fall off the

edge. Remember those pictures of medieval sailboats

almost tipping off the map until one day a heretic taught us

otherwise and was burnt at the stake for it.

Remember the biblical water and the tehom, the deep

were already there when the Almighty lent His hand in

creating the world, so Genesis tells us, and I see how

primordial this body of water seems even now. The light

and the sun play off it with differing colors through the day

now it is pure silver other times grays of every shade. Blue

then green by the coast Mercurial in nature and hiding

another world beneath it represents the very nature of my

soul. But more than anything it teaches me abut the

horizon for we are told one can never reach the horizon

and this ancient mariner will not try the beliefs of man and

science! Yet there is it all around me so precise and

defined so razor edge thin and sharp where heaven and

earth meet 360 degrees around me on this ship.

Yet it remains forever unattainable and an image of

unreality placed within creation as an illusion but God

does not play games with us so what is its message? This

grand visual hallucination?

The infinite is beyond and for me must remain

transcendent. My work is with the finite and real but my

heart keeps pulling me there to that horizon and I know

that over there in unreality I will find peace of mind and

resolution and the place we call Eden.

It is as if I must learn to yearn without demanding

fulfillment I must learn even at this age to unlearn and

once again delay and defray look and gaze without

holding and owning without grasping and clutching to gaze

and let go repeatedly at this circle of unrealized an

unattainable infinity that surrounds me the ultimate truth.

For the Truth is like that horizon out there and a mirage

that will always escape me. Truth “out there” has always

escaped me and in my dis-belief, in my heresy

I remain sceptical of any truth. Truth went up in the flames

of Europe and in the ongoing genocides since no, I long

gave up on that doctrine.

Here I am at the center point of this mathematical mirage

in its center of the world alone for another impending

birthday looming large chronicles of wasted time and

failure appear in this ocean of life in the silence of the seas

holding their own secrets beneath.

Yet here I must remain in this center surrounded by this

infinity and accept my place and my inability to ever taste

it and somehow accept all that has happened the same

way my father sailed that fateful ship on the same ocean

with Nazi U-boats lurking beneath never knowing whether

he would ever reach shore alive.

And I must somehow transmit this secret to my children

and grandchildren the secret of this tension this paradox of

infinity and its mirage for ecstasy remains not within our

reach and we have no license to experience it in our ever

further struggling for mastery.

I must tell them that I was able to finally surrender for a

moment in time and accept my mortality my point in the

center unable to move one way or another in that giant

circle towards the infinite horizon but gaze lovingly at this

marvelous creation of paradox and learn to be for as long

as I am given and that is OK too.

Today the captain on this small catamaran allows me the

helm unexpectedly as the engine loses a cable requiring

him below I take the wheel and suddenly after three days

at sea I came alive!

Now responsible for the vacationing people on this 65 foot

vessel unaware that he has handed me the helm I feel the

wind in the sails and the blue waves flowing in from the

Atlantic around the Island of St. John.

I feel the Rebbe’s Torah reverberate “like the waters

covering the sea” and here the wind and water two of the

basic elements in this world combined to propel this boat

and myself flexing its resistant muscle in a trio so smooth

it was heaven a moment of excitement as I felt my old self

once again.

It was a cool thrill as I felt in the center of this archetypal

triangle of wind water and earth and the sun’s warmth as

chessed a divine gift the Schechina smiling for a while.

It is at these rare moments that I understand the yichud

understand the meaning of daas-intuition; the

Hierosgamos, the Holy unification above when in the

Garden of the Caribbean Eden

the warm waters and explosion of tropical life where

people are at ease and the gentle green hills meet the

water with grace here I feel the Schechina is at peace with

Her consort. here in place an time there is a sense of

eternity. Here daas informs me and sweetens the mighty

waters of the sea and din the strict cause and effect of my

life and my failure for a moment of relief.

[1] I think he means a pun on yam suf the reed sea and the word suf can be read asof, the end.

[2] This the play on the word law as din and malchuta not as literally meant meaning local legal authority rather malchut the lowest spiritual archetype of the divine. The Paradox of the Horizon.