Meta-Siddur Subscription Service: Notes on Packet 4.4 (3/9/95)

Meta-Siddur Subscription Service Here are a few notes on the current (4.4) Meta-Subscription Packet. 3/9/95 Page 26.05 Remaining who we are while becoming, cell by cell, absorbed into the holy is the paradox of sanctifying the world. I think of this process being like receiving a brakha or digesting a good meal which expands you slightly but doesn't blow you away. Page 26.06 The idea that we are being sought even as we seek involves a receptivity and trust which I think is worth considering. Page 86.7 Creating the diagram was a personal triumph for me. Many times I have visions of what a helpful diagram might look like but don't have the skill or equipment to create it. This is put together from a number of elements and cut and paste jobs. The idea that Boray P'ri Hagafen might suggest the coil of DNA is both serious and light-hearted. It has altered my kavvana when reciting this b'rakha from a banal-from-overrepetition boredom to something "other". Although clearly not thusly intended by the original writers, it has a quality that feels kabbalistically sound, a broadening of perspective that is appropriately shocking. Page 108.03 This is both an interpretation of Olam as well as of Ahavah. It opens up a new gateway to seek out the broader perspective of M elekh Haolam. Page 110.01 Peter Kreps gave me the idea of contrasting the upper unity with the lower unity as a kind of Havdallah blessing. Miriam Stampfer is owed a thanks for her characterization of the end of time when "consciousness will eat matter." Page 148.03-.04 What if we thought of Shabbat as an awareness level with its own stages, quite different from the thought processes of the week? I mean, we are accustomed to grant that there is a type-division between Shabbat concerns and weekday concerns, but what about distinguishing between the dynamics of awareness, i.e., Shabbosdikeh thinking and W eek-adikeh thinking? These two pages represent one possible grid of levels of Shabbat which culminate in Kiddush at their most evolved. This puts a different face on Kiddush being something which we just recite. Viewed this way, Kiddush is an awareness level which may be attained through a great deepening into Shabbat. Page 150.92-4 I had hopes of sending this as part of a Purim package which didn't materialize. In any case, La-y'hudim belongs in the Siddur, found in the Havdallah prayer. I placed it here in the Yetzirah section because of the listing of positive qualities found in this part of this section. The Meta Siddur style is to take the translation which seems the most evolved, and to push it yet further, using the commentaries of Medrash and Kabbalah as bases and jumping boards to dive into the vastnesses out of which the words originally emerged. Occasionally a good hunch will also serve as a diving board. This results in a translation which is really translation/commentary, which every translation, even the most literal, is, anyway. For example, the Habad Siddur and the Artscroll Siddur each reverse the translations of Sason and Simkha -is it joy and gladness or gladness and joy? So, all translators are in the field of translation-which-isalso-a-commentary. Meta-Siddur just goes further out than most. Many thanks to my Shabbat preparation class (Peter Kreps, Moshe Shafrir, David Shaw, R. Dan Goldblatt) for some of the ideas presented here. Page 158.4 has the feeling of a perspective change of the quality of the best Hassidic transformations of consciousness. If you can, please show your Meta-Subscriptionand Meta-Parshaharound to those who might be interested! ZaiGezunt! ?f?Rabbi David Wolfe-Blank 208 ';>Jumfiia NOTES and SPECIAL OFFER OF COMPLETELY FRESH VERSION The last packet sent was on December14. I am awarethat this has been a long wait. I have adjustedmy dates to make sure that I don't send renewalnoticesto anyonewho has not receivedten packets. The Meta-Siddurnow costs $40 becauseI have begunusing 1.5inch binderswith page lifters. If you want me to send you one, send $7. Meta-Subscriberswho have misplacedpages,or are unsureif they have every packet,or just want to see how the latest (4.4) Meta-Siddurslook, and so on: for $20 I will send you a completelyup-to-dateinsert up to version4.4 (all the pages, about 350 or so) for your binder. You can then recycleyour old pages. Meta-Subscribersonly, please.