6.16.2008

Between Your Eyes and Mine

So, I'm reading this really interesting collection of modern Midrash tales (go ahead L ....start rollin' those eyes!) and came across something beautiful that really made me think. The question was asked "why did the Ark of the Covenant (the throne of God, for those of you not raised in the Judeo-Christian tradition) have two Cherubim facing each other on it, even though the Hebrew people traditionally frowned upon graven images?" The answer was stunning:

Because it serves as a reminder that God is in the space between two people. When your eyes meet mine, there God dwells.

Very, very similar to the traditional meaning ascribed to Namaste: "I honor the place in you in which the entire universe dwells. When you are in that place in you and I am in that place in me, we are one." Also brings to mind the Victor Anderson saying "I am God and God is self and God is a person like myself."

So anyway, that's my happy thought for the day: we don't need to look far away in other realms to connect with Deity. We simply need to look deeply into one anothers eyes and realize that Deity is already and always there.

5 comments:

Lea said...

Beautiful.

It is also said that contained in the written letters of Torah are the laws, but the spaces between the letters hold the lessons.

L ~ professional eye-roller

Lea said...

Of course, your post and lesson is all well and good (and true)

Until...

You realize that the fat baby "angelic type" cherubim are christian icons, not Judeo at all.

Judaic angels are unlike human child forms.

And... the eye rolling continues ;)

Chava Tzefira said...

As someone who was forced to learn about (eye roll) "Angelic Eschatology" at my Evangelical junior high, most modern Christians know that Cherubim aren't the fat little babies that are portrayed on tacky french furniture, LOL. They are seen as divine super-beings that are beyond human form. I think it was the multi-eyed, multi-winged, multi-wheeled (??) creatures described in Ezekial, was it? I dunno...I've been too busy being a good Pagan to keep the it all straight. But yeah...I know they're not cupids, LOL. :-)

(Hey...I got to eye roll for a change!)

Lea said...

LoL I Lurve you!

Chava Tzefira said...

You lurve me why? Because I have just enough Evangelical upbringing to be adorably rebellious? Or because I'm *just* literate enough in the Hebrew Scriptures to get it all horribly wrong...but make it sound good?

Or is it because I compared semi-Divine beings to tacky french furniture? C'mon....didn't you see Marie Antionette?

(evil early morning giggle)