Lover before the Sh'ma, Guardian after the Sh'ma

1. If Yetzira is the cloud layer, B'ria is the sun and the moon. In spiritual work, if Yetzira is contacting the world of dreams and preliminary psychic manifestations such as déja vu, clairvoyancies, minor prophecies, out-of-the-mouth-of-babes, and so on, B'ria is connecting with archetypes, healings of life-death consequence, prophecies that affect a whole generation, and so on. If the pathology of Yetzira is to be over-emotional, depressed, unsettled, the pathology of B'ria is to be overly distant, disocciated, comatose.

2. If the lack of attainment associated with Yetzira is to miss experiencing love, the lack of attainment associated with B'ria is to miss identifying as the Baal Shem Tov, Isiaiah, Abraham, the Rashbi, Miriam, Sarah, Hulda, Devorah, Hannah, and all other strong archetypes of Mother/Father/Child God.

3. Seeing the world through B'ria's eyes is to see the complete plans of the automobile without access to the tools, materials, substances that an automobile is made of. Yetzira and Assiya provide those tools and substance. Another metaphor is that of the world of Assiya (functionality consciousness) being the blips of light on the computer screen. Determining how those blips look is the hardware of Yetzira (mechanisms of feelings). B'ria is the design of the software program telling the hardware where to blip and where not to blip.

4. The two blessings preceding the morning Sh'ma and the one or two (dependent on whether it's morning or evening) following it are associated with B'ria. These blessings sandwiching the Sh'ma raise the consciousness of the davvener from awareness of Halleluyah (Wow!) to Kadosh (Sacred!).

5. The blessings preceding the morning Sh'ma deal with light, sacredness, and love. The blessings following the Sh'ma deal with certitude, guardianship, freedom, and redemption.

6. We each have in our relationship building area two sub-personalities Lover and Guardian.

7. The Sh'ma is placed between these two sub-personalities. The Sh'ma is the experience of unity that culminates from buildup of light, finer and more intense light, awesome sense of the sacred, the merging of two into one in love, and greater merging in greater love.

8. The Sh'ma is at the zenith of breaking down the boundaries between people, between humans and God. Once all boundaries are washed away and we all become Ekhod, One, forces of the inner Guardian go to work to prevent co-opting or channeling of the rich energies towards less than well-guided motives. The Guardian goes to work to ensure that the lack of boundaries leads us to a greater freedom and redemption and not to disassociation, loss of identity and ultimately failed hope.

We recount

9) Emet V'Yatziv validating how far out the experience of melting into the unity can be, begins the process of re-identification as a self who has experienced oneness. Ezrat evokes the experience of the help that the guardian has offerred to us saving us from co-optation by many diverse trends and enemies.

10) Mi Kamokha: reminds of the intervention by the Guardian to ensure our experience of freedom, and Tzur Yisroel, Rock of Israel, is on the one hand entirely stable and yet encourages and sets the stage for our transformation/redemption.

11) These are powerful messages to the psyche that make the Sh'ma "safe." That saying Ekhad won't result in dissipation of our built up hopes.