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Looking Up To Hashem
By Cheryl Glover, New
Thought Kabbalah
Greetings
This weeks newsletter is about
the concept of bowing to the Divine Light. Why we do it, and what does
it means. Many people do not realize that prostrating yourself has it
origins deeply ingrained in Judaic tradition. The Torah says that
Abraham and Isaac prostrated themselves to El Shaddai. In fact this is
the nightly prayer translated from the Hebrew:
"....And we prostrate ourselves before the King of Kings, The Holy
Blessed One.
...
And all mankind shall then cal out Your Name and You shall turn back
to Yourself all the wicked ones of the earth. Then all the inhabitants
of thaw world shall recognize and know that, for You, every knee bends
and every tongue bows. Before You, Hashem, our God, they shall kneel
and fall and shall give honor to Your glorious Name. And shall accept
the yoke of Your Kingdom and You shall reign over them, forever and
ever.
... As it is written in the Torah: Hashem shall reign forever and
ever, and it is also stated: Hashem shall be King over the whole world
and, on that day, Hashem shall be One and His Name One. (Zecharyah
14.9)
In Chabad, very religious sects and Kabbalah prostrating still occurs.
It has been replaced by reformed Jews to say (praise Hashem--no
bowing.) What is the Kabbalistic significance of bowing down. In
Kabbalistic terms it is not because Hashem would want that kind of
attention, obedience or praise. It is also, not because we are lowly
and need to show our humbleness before our Master. We bow for one
reason: it is to bring ourselves from our place on the Tree of Life
(Malchut, the lowest level--on the floor), to Keter the highest level
up high. We prostrate ourselves to remind ourselves that Malchut is
physical, is low, is dense-- and that our divinity, our higher-selves,
our higher consciousness, our higher soul-- is not on the ground. In
fact, we bow to remind ourselves to be "Looking Up To Hashem." We
remind ourselves to get out of our ego, look towards the Light, do not
stay where the negativity is, but raise ourselves.
Each of the specific bows in the Kabbalistic ritual is to connect us
with the Name of Hashem. Each bow is a connection to the divine name,
reminding us that we are all interlocked and in actuality One Soul:
Adam. And it is this reminder that brings us our humanity. We
therefore, understand that the good we need to perform is at the
Malchut level by bringing the divine energy to that level by keeping
our eyes on God.
May the blessing of Light shine on you, |
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