Marc Gafni -RECAPITULATION

Marc Gafni
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Let us take a moment to see the full beauty of where we’ve gone on our journey thus far. Till now we have understood that the Temple is the archetype of eros. We have understood eros, the Greek term for loving, as the experience of being on the inside. This is the name of the Temple’s Holy of Holies — lefnai lefnim – the inside of the inside, the face of all faces. The experience of Shechina — the sensual divine force which rests between the cherubs in the Holy of Holies — is the erotic experience. In fact the mystics often use the word Shechina as a synonym for eros.

Now lets add one dramatic step: The Hebrew word for Temple is Mikdash — literally translated as Holiness. If you put it all together it is radical, revolutionary and overwhelmingly relevant to our lives.

What it means is that the erotic and the holy are the same thing, or to put it in more mathematical form:

Eros = = Shechina = the Inside = Zohar = Holy.

Finally, we have a definition of holiness. So many people use the word holy but virtually no one knows what it really means. Ask someone for a definition and you will likely get a fuzzy, nebulous response which will leave you no richer than before. So here —at last- is a definition of holiness. To be holy is to be on the inside. The opposite of holiness therefore is not un-holiness or anti- holiness. It is not impurity or the demonic possession of the devil. The opposite of the holy is the superficial. Eros is about depth. Depth is an inside experience. It has its own unique nuance, texture and richness. The superficial is bland and common.
Holiness is eroticism. Sin is superficiality.