This weeks folktale involves the story of a Rabbi and his son who live in the time of the Babylonian exile. They too, like the Rashbi and his son, who wrote the Sepher HaZohar studied the sacred writings during the day and in the dark of the night they studied the starry sky which also they could read like a book. A precious book is a theme in this story, for the King of Babylon kept a golden book next to his throne which was divinely given according to legend to the prophet Daniel when he was in the Lion’s den. Only a person in touch with their pure soul could open and read the book. The King was looking among the Jews for a person who could read the book. The rabbi and his son needed to purify themselves in order to be the ones to open the book. The only way to become that profoundly purified, would be with the precious waters of Miriam’s well which happens to be surrounded at that time in exile, by venomous serpents. They therefore also needed the Tambourine of Miriam to chase away the snakes and have the well available. To find the prophetess Miriam they must go through a beautiful garden into a hollow tree and then enter a cave which leads to the shore of the sea where Miriam resides. They accomplish all of this, purify themselves and are able to access the golden book and with their influence on the King of Babylon they keep their Jewish people safe from persecution in the exile. The precious waters are the very being herself of Miriam as she holds the Chayah/life soul of all of humanity. She is the holy Silence who is in eternal embrace with the Depth/Omak of HaShem. Silence and Depth; the voices of the Song of Solomon. From the Zohar for this week’s parsha Vaeira we have the blessed “Couch of Solomon” where these two “voices” find each other: “And I will confuse Mitzrayim/Egypt with Mitzrayim(Isa.XXIX,14) that is to say, celestial Mitzrayim with terrestrial Mitzrayim. For the celestial legions are in charge of the terrestrial ones, and they both are altogether thrown in disorder. They were confused on high so that the people of mitzrayim could not derive inspiration from the celestial sources as formerly. …Observe that whatever is engendered on earth grows through the stimulus of a celestial chieftain who has charge over it, and that all on earth is shaped after a celestial pattern. There are on high seven firmaments and seven zones of earth.. Correspondingly , in the lower world there are seven graded firmaments and seven zones of earth. These as the Companions have expounded, are arranged like the rungs of a ladder, rising one above the other, and each zone has ten divisions, so that there are seventy in all. Each one of these is presided over by a chieftain, and these seventy chieftains have under their charge the seventy nations of earth. These seventy earth divisions, again, border on and surround the Holy land, as scripture says: “ Behold, it is the couch of Solomon; threescore mighty men are about, of the mighty men of Yisrael”(S.S, III,7) there being in addition to the three score mentioned, ten concealed among their number. All these surround the Holy Land.” Zohar II 30b(trans. After Sperling) The secret of the ten concealed is now becoming clear to our eyes(Vaeira=appeared) in these very days today. With the Holy Land indeed encompassing the entire earth and the chieftains of the seventy nations all serving HaShem, the source of the precious waters; the ten become visible in the directions of the body of our very physical living dancing Earth. What was secured in the upper worlds as the “Couch of Solomon” is being revealed in an Earth become a Holy land. Exile now is only an illusion like the pit dug by the demons in last weeks story around the Enchanted Tree. When we experience the sacred Tree of Life the well also appears and the waters that purify. These seven weeks of Shovavim are a time of immersion in the waters of Miriam’s well. We are opening to what redemption is in every moment in these incredible times. Like the rabbi and his son in the story, the starry vault of sky is also speaking to us with a Kochav/comet whose close approach to earth is a fortyfive day period(from perihelion to apogee) that covers exactly the 42 days of shovavim out of an orbit that is in the thousands of years. Heaven and earth are always singing to us, The "morning stars are always singing" The Peace and being that is Torah. “ All Her ways are Peace”(Proverbs) The book of geulah that sits next to the “Royal Chieftain” opens for us and the moving waters from the root of the Tree, that feeds the great rivers of the nations including the “Nile” and the “Euphrates” and the "Mississippi"can be heard. “"Let righteousness flow like a mighty river, and justice roll down like an everlasting stream..." AMEN!
(The events from the story "Miriam's Tambourine" is from the book "Miriam's Tambourine" Oxford University Press; compiled by Howard Schwartz)
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