KNOCKING FROM THE INSIDE – Marc Gafni

Marc Gafni
posted on marcgafni.com
please share comments at info@marcgafni.com

In the Hebrew mystical tradition, language is not the mere random designation of sounds and letters in a particular pattern
. For the mystic, words are vital portals to meaning. Language is the spiritual DNA of reality. Thus when one root word is used for seemingly disparate ideas you can rest assured that these different ideas are in fact integrally related. So let’s watch for a moment as the magic of languages dances before us.
The Hebrew term for the Holy of Holies is lefnie u’lefnim. Literally rendered into English this means ‘the inside of the inside’. This was not merely a reflection of the physical fact that it was the inner most point in the Temple. Indeed, teach the mystics, the opposite is true — it was situated in the inner most physical point in order to evoke the sense of interiority that is the very key to eros.
In another architectural expression of this idea, the Temples of the Masonic order have doors which open only from the inside. One must insert their hand through an opening in the door to grasp the handle on the inside. The point — in order to open the portals to mystery, one must approach from the inside. What’s more, this opening was shaped like a heart. Eros — the yearning for the inside – is the essence of love. The Masonic order of course springs from the Templars, a monastic order of Christian mystics in Jerusalem who fell in love with and understood deeply the eros of the Temple. We keep knocking at the door until we remember that we are knocking from the inside.
END