Meta-Siddur Packet 4.9 (2/7/97)

Meta-Siddur Packet #4.9 Here are a few notes on the current Meta-Subscription Packet. 2/7/97 (There has been a 9 month gap between the last subscription and this one. The last subscription was sent out 5/22/96). Suggestion: When you receive this packet you may wish to study it for a few days. If any teaching seems especially vital, magnetize a reduced photocopy to your fridge door. After you feel you have dealt with these teachings as much as seems appropriate, de-staple them and insert them into your Meta-Siddur. Then, read a few pages before and after each teaching until you understand why the teaching is placed in this spot. It struck me one night ... what if the various prayers each involved a particular skill that one was perfecting across lifetimes? What might that skill be? These pages are a first attempt at naming the possible skills associated with the familiar prayers. About no. 6 - lately I have been thinking of the Halleluyah section as a waking up of the inner ten Sefirot. About no. 19, and no. 20 - this is where, in many shuls, a lack of continuity in the spirituality of the prayers occurs - these namings may help to mold a new style of Torah service which extends the prayers rather than shifts to an entirely different, be it intellectual or ethical, modality. Page 32.01 Kavannah, etc. The first four are qualities listed by Buber in Legends of the Baal Shem - I added M'khilah (self-forgiveness) based on a hunch that it was needed and missing. What else is needed and missing? And what is the correct order for an inner flow? One person suggested that M'khilah be moved up, closer to the top. What do you think? Page 32.02 Hit'lahavut. I linked Hit'lahavut to Kavvanah in the manner that Joseph Campbell talks about discovering one's bliss as a longterm process. Finding one's inner Hit'lahavut needs a lot of Kavvanah over many years (for some people) and is akin to finding one's mission. Page 32.03 Avodah. From focusing on this quality I began to see that these qualities are especially useful in describing and explaining the qualities of a Niggun . Page 32.04 Shiflut. I thought Buber's words describing this quality to be so very attractive and unusual, not seeing Shiflut the conventional way, as ethical humility, anti-arrogance, but as going beyond individuality, towards emptiness. Page 32.05 M'khilah. Just a feeling thing which I thought was missing from the original four, yet augmenting them. Page 32.06 Sub-Qualities of Avodah. This set of qualities are inspired by photographs of The Mother, a Jewish born woman who co-Rebbe'd with Sri Aurobindo in India. These qualities seemed to me to fit as subqualities of A vodah. This opens the theme of subqualities, followed up on page 148.901, below. Any ideas of the subqualities of the other four? Buber's language is so seminal, so convoluted and yet precise, it's hard to read much without entering into a deep meditation. While representing the stages of Davvenen as stairs, with the Kaddish as a bridge I again named the prayers' functions. On this page I described the many prayers in the Assiyah section which are usually omitted from liberal services. A prayer for love -with - integrity of the political process in Israel. I envisioned a Siddur with four columns - Hebrew, transliteration, literal translation, and MetaCommentary. Alongside are added notes which highlight the continuity of the prayers giving the broad view and others which microscope down onto a single idea, theme, or word in the prayers. A Meta-Siddur! How will it ever get written? A basket - based commentary on the first sentences of B'raysheet. I applied the qualities developed in pages 32.01-6 to the holydays and uncovered new subqualities which add light to the themes of the Holydays. If you can, please show your Meta-Subscription and Meta-Parshiot around to those who might be interested! Zai Gezunt! A gut Purim!!! rfr Rabbi David Wolfe-Blank