The Textualization of Eros or the Erotics of Text: Marc Gafni

To See These Three…

The major players in the Temple drama were the priests. In truth, the self perception of the Kabbalists is that they are the inheritors of the spiritual work of the priests. Just as the Priests would gaze at God so the Kabbalists would gaze at God.

With this in mind, we conclude the first way of Hebrew Tantra with a text which we are now in a position to study together. Use everything you have learned thus far and together we will unpack he text. This is the erotic process of Hebrew text study. The text reads:

“Whomever sees these three things and remains unmoved, his eyes become dimmed — The rainbow, the Prince (Nasi) of the Court of Seventy Elders, and the Priest.”

Each one of these represents an erotic incarnation of the spirit. First, the rainbow in its arching beauty and splendor has been an erotic symbol of the divine in virtually every culture throughout time. The Prince of the Court stands as the archetype of the sage. He is the key catalyst in the process of erotic textual creativity and tradition.

The major move of the Talmudic masters is what I would call either the textualization of Eros — or — the eroticisation of text. What this means is that the text —as we saw at the end of section one — was a living organism which revealed her secret to the sage only if he was willing to submit and erotically merge with her.

This erotic rendering of the creative process shaped the attraction and power of the Talmudic study hall for the last 2000 years. It was into the cradle of this tradition that I was spiritually born and raised. He represents both the creative arousal of study as well as the received tradition of wisdom from the ancestors. In both of these ways, the sage is also a symbol of the divine.

But what of the priest? In what way is this apparent religious functionary any symbol of the spirit? In what way is he an erotic incarnation of the spirit?

On the priest see next blog…a gorgeous day to you!

marc gafni
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