WISDOM
The Ba’al Shem Tov teaches that each word of tefillah is a doorway into a world of thoughts, feelings, dreams, yearnings, and imaginations. This is why, he teaches, the word in Hebrew for word, תיבה – teivah, is the same word as ark. The parsha that Noach is taught to build the teivah is also a guide for learning to daven. It teaches us how to build our words and how to enter inside them. We don’t just say the words of davening, we travel inside them.
INTEGRATION TOOL
This week’s practice is simple: Choose a word in davening. As you say this word, imagine you are walking up to an ark. A massive, fully constructed ark and you open its door. Step inside and close the door behind you. You are now inside. Fully surrounded. There is a lot of space around you. Perhaps it is dark. But light is streaming in. It is bare, but there is much to be discovered. You can walk around. But there is the spaciousness of this word. But there is a presence. A Presence. What does this Presence feel like to you? Maybe it is warm and comforting. Personable and gentle. Calm and caring. Or perhaps it is intimidating, overwhelming. Powerful. Majestic. Maybe it is enchanting, intriguing, mysterious. What do you feel?
Think about the meaning of the word you said. How does that animate what you feel and what you discover inside the ark? As you walk around, what do you find? What are you thinking about, what are you feeling?
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 34 Komarna Yahrtzeit Edition.
