The Book of Words , livre ebook
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2011
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84
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English
Ebook
2011
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Publié par
Date de parution
01 avril 2011
Nombre de lectures
0
EAN13
9781580235952
Langue
English
"According to the Hebrew Bible, God made the world with words. God just spoke and the world became reality. (The Aramaic for 'I create as I speak' is avara k’davara, or in magician’s language, abracadabra.) . . . This does not protect words from the numbing effects of overuse in any religious tradition. . . . We need to dust off the words, shake away the accretions, wonder again about what they originally might have meant and enable ourselves to live in the word."
—from the Introduction
With creativity and poetry (and occasional heresy) Kushner dusts off thirty classical Hebrew words, shakes them free of the effects of generations of overuse, “re-translates” them, and liberates their ancient holy power. The result is a contemporary spiritual guide for your personal religious life.
According to the Hebrew Bible, God made the world with words. God just spoke and the world came into being. Words therefore are not merely sounds signifying something else; they are instruments of creation, primary reality itself. They need only to be read, spoken, and interpreted. And to know them is to know reality itself.
Kushner has designed the book himself, seamlessly blending graphics and content. In doing so he evokes the aesthetics of an ancient manuscript and a vision of our power to shape the future.
Each finely crafted chapter begins with a Hebrew word and Kushner’s provocative English translation. At the bottom of the page is a transliteration of the Hebrew along with its more customary English rendering. In addition to his own intriguing definition, he includes a biblical citation anchoring the word, along with a more recent text showing the word’s evolution. Finally, we are offered a personal, meditative exercise designed to enable you to “live in the word.”
http://longhillpartners.onixsuite.com/resources/titles/50113100940990/extras/Book_of_Words-Table_of_Contents.pdf
INTRODUCTION....................................................................111. / AMNESIA / Unio Mysticia.................................152. / AWAKENING / Blessing.......................................193. / BEING / The Sabbath Day .....................................234. / BREATHING / The Name of God .........................275. / COMING HOME / Repentance........................316. / DUES / Sacrifices ......................................................357. / EXCHANGE / Redemption ..................................398. / FAMILY / Israel........................................................439. / FREEDOM / Supervision......................................4710. / GARBAGE / Gossip .............................................5111. / IMAGERY / Idolatry..........................................5512. / INTEGRITY / Sincerity .............................................5913. / LAUGHTER / Ecstasy........................................6314. / LIFE / Story.................................................................6715. / LOVE / One....................................................................7116. / MONEY / Charity.....................................................7517. / POISON / Grudge ....................................................7918. / POLITICS / Repair ......................................................8319. / REMEMBERING / Order .....................................8720. / RESPONSE / Divine Commandment .................9121. / SCRIPT / Prayer........................................................9522. / SECRECY / Faith .....................................................9923. / SELF / Soul ...............................................................10324. / TABLE / Altar...........................................................10725. / TERROR / Life..........................................................11126. / VISION / Truth .......................................................11527. / WATER / Purity .....................................................11928. / THE WAY / The Law.............................................12329. / YEAST / The Evil Urge......................................12730. / YOURSELF / Messiah .........................................131SOURCES........................................................135
Publié par
Date de parution
01 avril 2011
Nombre de lectures
0
EAN13
9781580235952
Langue
English
The Book of Words
Talking Spiritual Life, Living Spiritual Talk
2011 Quality Paperback Edition, Second Printing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information regarding permission to reprint material from this book, please mail or fax your request in writing to Jewish Lights Publishing, Permissions Department, at the address / fax number listed below, or e-mail your request to permissions@jewishlights.com .
Copyright 1993 by Lawrence Kushner
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kushner, Lawrence, 1943-The Book of Words = [Sefer shel devarim]: talking spiritual life, living spiritual talk / Lawrence Kushner.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-58023-020-2 (Quality Paperback)
ISBN 1-879045-35-4 (Hardcover)
1. Spiritual life-Judaism. 2. Jewish way of life. 3. Judaism-Terminology. 4. Judaism-Quotations, maxims, etc. 5. Selfactualization (Psychology)-Religious aspects-Judaism. I. Title.
II. Title: Sefer shel devarim.
BM723.K8672 1993
296.7-dc20
93-29004 CIP
ISBN-13: 978-1-58023-020-9
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Manufactured in the United States of America
Book and cover designed and illustrated by the author.
Published by Jewish Lights Publishing
A Division of LongHill Partners, Inc.
Sunset Farm Offices, Route 4
P.O. Box 237
Woodstock, Vermont 05091
Tel: (802) 457-4000
Fax: (802) 457-4004
www.jewishlights.com
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to thank Stuart Matlins, Publisher of Jewish Lights, for initially suggesting that I write this sequel to The Book of Letters as a primer on spirituality for the 90 s. More of his example than he realizes has infused the following pages. His vision and energy is a treasure of the Jewish people. I also want to express my gratitude to Rachel Kahn, the Art Director of Jewish Lights, for her keen eye and creative flexibility and to Marie Cantlon, my editor of these past many years, for her continued support, wisdom, and sense of humor. Finally I want my wife, Karen, to know that she is still for me a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters.
LSK Sudbury, Massachusetts 30 July 1993 12 Av 5753
Erev Shabbat Nahamu
for
Michael B. Rukin
DEAR FRIEND
(Kha vaer )
Jewish Lights Books by Lawrence Kushner
The Book of Letters: A Mystical Hebrew Alphabet
The Book of Words: Talking Spiritual Life, Living Spiritual Talk
Eyes Remade for Wonder: A Lawrence Kushner Reader
Filling Words with Light: Hasidic Mystical Reflections on Jewish Prayer
with Nehemia Polen
God Was in This Place I, i Did Not Know: Finding Self, Spirituality and Ultimate Meaning
Honey from the Rock: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism
I m God; You re Not: Observations on Organized Religion Other Disguises of the Ego
Invisible Lines of Connection: Sacred Stories of the Ordinary
Jewish Spirituality: A Brief Introduction for Christians
The River of Light: Jewish Mystical Awareness
The Way Into Jewish Mystical Tradition
For Children
Because Nothing Looks Like God
with Karen Kushner
The Book of Miracles: A Young Person s Guide to Jewish Spiritual Awareness
How Does God Make Things Happen?
with Karen Kushner
(SkyLight Paths Publishing)
In God s Hands
with Gary Schmidt
What Does God Look Like?
with Karen Kushner
(SkyLight Paths Publishing)
Where Is God?
with Karen Kushner
(SkyLight Paths Publishing)
Fiction
Kabbalah: A Love Story
(Morgan Road Books)
TABLE of CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
1. / AMNESIA / Unio Mysticia
2. / AWAKENING / Blessing
3. / BEING / The Sabbath Day
4. / BREATHING / The Name of God
5. / COMING HOME / Repentance
6. / DUES / Sacrifices
7. / EXCHANGE / Redemption
8. / FAMILY / Israel
9. / FREEDOM / Supervision
10. / GARBAGE / Gossip
11. / IMAGERY / Idolatry
12. / INTEGRITY / Sincerity
13. / LAUGHTER / Ecstasy
14. / LIFE / Story
15. / LOVE / One
16. / MONEY / Charity
17. / POISON / Grudge
18. / POLITICS / Repair
19. / REMEMBERING / Order
20. / RESPONSE / Divine Commandment
21. / SCRIPT / Prayer
22. / SECRECY / Faith
23. / SELF / Soul
24. / TABLE / Altar
25. / TERROR / Life
26. / VISION / Truth
27. / WATER / Purity
28. / THE WAY / The Law
29. / YEAST / The Evil Urge
30. / YOURSELF / Messiah
SOURCES
About Jewish Lights
Copyright
INTRODUCTION
According to the Hebrew Bible, God made the world with words. God just spoke and the world became reality. (The Aramaic for I create as I speak is avara k davara , or, in magician s language, abracadabra .) Not only are words the instrument of creation, in Judaism they are primary reality itself.
We ordinarily think of words as signifiers-a few syllables which denote something really real. But in Hebrew the word for word , davar , also means thing. The word does not need to be made real, it already is. It needs only to be read, spoken, and interpreted. To know the word therefore is to know reality itself.
This, of course, does not protect words from the numbing effects of overuse in any religious tradition. Spoken too often, even the holiest reality begins to sound hollow and loses its ability to create anew. Indeed, some of our most sacred words have come to feel like sawdust in our mouths, no longer able to instruct, inspire, chasten, or nurture. We need to dust them off, shake away the accretions, and wonder again about what they originally might have meant.
The following chapters offer my occasionally unconventional definitions of thirty classical Hebrew words, words that describe the spiritual dimension of life, whatever one s faith. Taken together they describe much of Judaism s spiritual spectrum. The definitions do not pretend to be complete, or even lexicographically accurate. Instead, they hopefully offer a way back to the spiritual reality of the words themselves.
Each chapter of The Book of Words begins with a Hebrew word and my own English translation. At the bottom of the same page, in smaller type, is a transliteration of the Hebrew along with its more customary English rendering. The transliteration scheme is my best attempt to help the non-Hebrew reader to accurately pronounce each word. In addition to my own definition-essay, each chapter also includes both a biblical citation to anchor the word and a passage from a more recent text indicating the word s growth. Finally, the chapter concludes with a kavanah , or personal, meditative exercise designed to enable the reader to live in the word. Bibliographical sources are listed by phrase and page in a separate section at the end of the book.
The whole world is full of God. (Isaiah 6:3)
But you that cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day. (Deuteronomy 4:4)
B eing at One with the Holy One of Being is not about becoming the same as God, but about forgetting the boundaries of self. You now realize who you have been all along. You forget, at least for a moment, the mind game of where you end and Creation begins. You understand that you are an expression of Creation: it is in you and you are everywhere in it.
There are many ways we reach for the Holy One (ness). We can attain self-transcendence through our mind in study, through our heart in prayer, or with our hands in sacred deed. We say, in effect, that through becoming God s agent, through voluntarily setting God s will above our own, we literally lose our selves and become One with the One whom we serve. It rarely lasts for more than a moment.
The primary obstacle to becoming one is self-awareness, self-consciousness, talking to oneself. And for this reason, high awareness involves stopping, ignoring, forgetting the conversation we routinely carry on inside our heads between different parts of our personalities. Such amnesia is another word for self-unification.
When the one who asks and the one who hears are the same, we are who we are. We realize, to our embarrassment, that we have been ourselves all along and only linguistic convention tricked us into thinking that we were someone else. In thinking, praying, and doing what God wants, we become one with God and the Universe. The outer person is an illusion, a figment of language. Only an un-self-awareness remains.
(d vey koot ) Unio Mystica
MICHEL OF ZLOCZOV
They would be attached to Him with cleaving, desire and wish. And they would consider themselves to be nothing, understanding that truly without the power of the Creator, blessed be God s Name, who created them and who keeps them in existence, they are nothing just as before the creation; consequently there is nothing in the world but the Creator, the Holy One of Blessing.
Living Spiritual Talk
K A V A N A H
Since the primary obstacle to self-transcendence is an involuntary attitude or mind set, some trick or method of outwitting your normal way of thinking will be necessary.
Do anything with such intensity that you do not realize, until you are finished, that it was you who was doing it. But, of course, this suggestion itself only creates a mental obstacle to its stated goal. For this reason, disregard all advice. Try to do nothing. Whenever you can, be a servant of the Nameless One. And if all this fails, then perform some religious act, over and over again, until it becomes almost a mime. In this way, even habituation can be pressed into the service of holiness.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day: I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life that you and your offspring should live by loving the Lord your God, heeding God s commands and holding fast to God. (Deuteronomy 30:19)
B lessings give reverent and routine voice to our conviction that life is good, one blessing after another. Even, and especially, when life is cold and dark. Indeed to offer blessings at such t
