On Rosh Chodesh Elul, the month of return, the Moon dragon moves into the mazal of the gedi/kid. This is the ingress of what is called the true node of the moon. As previously mentioned the "mean" node moved into the kid in the first week of the month of Av but the mean is only an ancient approximation of the movement of the lunar nodal axis. The ancients did not have the sophisticated means of calculation of the very difficult position of the moon’s nodal axis, where the plane of the moon's orbit slices the plane of the earth' orbit.The axis/teli of the celestial dragon of kabbalah, the “curled” one as mentioned in the Song of Songs(see below for quote) moves into the kid as we begin the sacred month of Elul, the month of love. We are only beginning to feel this great change. This week we have the full moon of the month of the Lion/Av and this was celebrated as an ancient feast of loving desire in the vineyards of Ayin(fount)of gedi(kid). Remember this next year 5770(Heh-Tav-Shin-Ayin) contains the letter ayin in it's name/number, which means sacred fount or spring. This full moon is the culmination of the unfolding flower of time and cycle as this weeks Torah parsha of Eikev hints at the rewards that HaShem bestows on those who turn toward the direction of HaShem in their personal unfoldment of their soul journey in this world.This journey and unfoldment is like the helical crook of the Shofar, the rams or goats horn that we sound every morning in Elul as we approach the great change of the wheel of the shanah/year. The word eikev means reward as well as heel, it is the root of the name of Yaakov/Jacob. What is our reward/eikev in this world called exile/goliot whose root also means to unfold(As Rabbi Gershon Winkler always reminds his students)? In this weeks torah parsha we are told that one tribe, the people of Levi were not to share in the reward of land like all the other tribes. Their heritage would be HaShem-YHVH!
8 At that time the LORD separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister unto Him, and to bless in His name, unto this day.
ט עַל-כֵּן לֹא-הָיָה לְלֵוִי, חֵלֶק וְנַחֲלָה--עִם-אֶחָיו: יְהוָה הוּא נַחֲלָתוֹ, כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לוֹ. 9 Wherefore Levi hath no portion nor inheritance with his brethren; the LORD is his inheritance, according as the LORD thy God spoke unto him.--
This is an awesome declaration in Torah and was the basis of the elevation of the status of the priestly tribe in the writings of the Qumran/dead sea scrolls.
To inherit YHVH is to come into Geulah, redemption as our unfolding becomes like that of the Levanah/moon in her fullness as we celebrate at TuB’Av this week. To have YHVH, the very Heart of heaven(from last weeks post and parsha) as a heritage is to take the eikev/reward of the heel/eikev of all time and history and to become wealthy with the many blessings mentioned in this weeks parsha including rain in the proper season and the free flow of the mighyt stream of life. To achieve complete undfoldment, geulah/redemption is to have HaShem as a living heritage within our Earth temple world of unending unfoldment of desire and beauty. The haftorahs of these weeks are from the navi Isaiah and in his chapter 27 we have three great dragons who are often mentioned in the circles of the mekubalim.
Isaiah Chapter 27
א בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִפְקֹד יְהוָה בְּחַרְבּוֹ הַקָּשָׁה וְהַגְּדוֹלָה וְהַחֲזָקָה, עַל לִוְיָתָן נָחָשׁ בָּרִחַ, וְעַל לִוְיָתָן, נָחָשׁ עֲקַלָּתוֹן; וְהָרַג אֶת-הַתַּנִּין, אֲשֶׁר בַּיָּם. {ס}
1 In that day the LORD with His sore and great and strong sword will punish leviathan the slant serpent, and leviathan the tortuous serpent; and He will slay the dragon that is in the sea. {S}A Hebrew - English Bible
According to the Masoretic Text
and the JPS 1917 Edition
© 2005 all rights reserved to Mechon Mamre for this HTML version
They do have an association with the three realms mentioned in last weeks post and they hold a clue as to the heritage of reward that we are speaking about now. The first dragon is the piercing dragon as of the linear straight movement of the continuum of time. This one is “slain” by HaShem(the end of time as a constrainer). The third dragon is of the sea and spoken of as biting his own tail and this one too is “slain” by haShem(we come to possess our own souls). The second dragon is the key to our great mystery, it does not directly mention this one as being “slain”. This is the famous “crooked” dragon, the word for crooked/aykalaton not being used anywhere else in Tanach. A serious student will discern that like the axis/Teli, the gilgul/wheel and the lev/heart of the mekubalim( from sepher HaBahir and Yetzirah and mentioned in last weeks post) these three correspond to space, time and soul/being. Herein is hidden the great raz/secret of the mekubalim for we are told that the locks of the teli/dragon of space are taltalim/curled as is mentioned in the lover of the Song of songs(5:11):
10 'My beloved is white and ruddy, pre-eminent above ten thousand.
יא רֹאשׁוֹ, כֶּתֶם פָּז; קְוֻצּוֹתָיו, תַּלְתַּלִּים, שְׁחֹרוֹת, כָּעוֹרֵב. 11 His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are curled, and black as a raven.
This brings us back to the special “crook” or twist of the Shofar whose sound is getting stronger as it permeates the unfolding of geulah/redemption in our sacred earth olam/world. Our eikev/reward in this eikev/heel of the walk of history of Yaakov/"he who grabs the heel"; is the blessing of the heritage of the Heart of Heaven in our walk on sacred Eretz/Earth. “walk in beauty”!
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Photo credit: SOHO/MDI
This Shabbos we bless the new coming month of love and return, Rosh chodesh Elul. We are now not only listening - Shema - for; but also looking - seeing, Re’eh- for the miraculous blessings that is the gift of life.This Re’eh-See! Is the name of this weeks Torah parsha. We are now to look for the very embodiment of Torah, sacred lettering, in our human walk on earth as we are in the heel of the year, in Elul, the last month and the heel of all history. The heel carries the entire body of completed humanity but it also is notoriously insensitive to feeling for protection and so as the native American elders warned for these times, people would not be good listeners. To fully listen we need to feel and see, and this is the test for us now.The 5770th verse of Torah is Devarim/32:18.” This hints at the year 5770 that we are listening for now in our walk:
On Rosh Chodesh Elul, the month of return, the Moon dragon moves into the mazal of the gedi/kid. This is the ingress of what is called the true node of the moon. As previously mentioned the "mean" node moved into the kid in the first week of the month of Av but the mean is only an ancient approximation of the movement of the lunar nodal axis. The ancients did not have the sophisticated means of calculation of the very difficult position of the moon’s nodal axis, where the plane of the moon's orbit slices the plane of the earth' orbit.The axis/teli of the celestial dragon of kabbalah, the “curled” one as mentioned in the Song of Songs(see below for quote) moves into the kid as we begin the sacred month of Elul, the month of love. We are only beginning to feel this great change. This week we have the full moon of the month of the Lion/Av and this was celebrated as an ancient feast of loving desire in the vineyards of Ayin(fount)of gedi(kid). Remember this next year 5770(Heh-Tav-Shin-Ayin) contains the letter ayin in it's name/number, which means sacred fount or spring. This full moon is the culmination of the unfolding flower of time and cycle as this weeks Torah parsha of Eikev hints at the rewards that HaShem bestows on those who turn toward the direction of HaShem in their personal unfoldment of their soul journey in this world.This journey and unfoldment is like the helical crook of the Shofar, the rams or goats horn that we sound every morning in Elul as we approach the great change of the wheel of the shanah/year. The word eikev means reward as well as heel, it is the root of the name of Yaakov/Jacob. What is our reward/eikev in this world called exile/goliot whose root also means to unfold(As Rabbi Gershon Winkler always reminds his students)? In this weeks torah parsha we are told that one tribe, the people of Levi were not to share in the reward of land like all the other tribes. Their heritage would be HaShem-YHVH!
