Marc Gafni – SUN AUG 17 – Part 2

Marc Gafni
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To live erotically is to be fully present
to each other’s richness, complexity and ultimate grandeur. It is to fully wait for the other to appear. The Shechina in the Temple is termed the indwelling presence. The erotic is always the experience of full presence. The Shechina, say the mystics, is waiting for us to show up.
The Shechina is presence waiting for us to be present
. She is eros, standing outside of our window, waiting. Waiting for us to feel her presence. Waiting for us to be overwhelmed by her love. Waiting for us to run out and behold with wonder – her face.
How many people have come up to me after those uncommon sessions of looking into another’s face. They come in tears, in joy, in awe, each with a different story. But they all share a common theme. ‘First I felt uncomfortable. I kept shifting my gaze. Looking at her necklace, her earlobes, her hair, but it was so hard to look at her face. Finally, our eyes fell into sync. It was uncomfortable, but we kept at it. Eyes — brown, with freckles of color. A funny, imperfect face. And then suddenly, something gave. A rush of emotion. A moment of release into the other person’s gaze.’ Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t. But when it does, you never forget it.
Have you ever looked, but really looked, into another person’s face? Have you ever witnessed that moment when the soul comes rushing up from its inner chambers and opens wide the windows of the eyes to see you, seeing her? To greet you like the day light? This is the mystery of love, of the eyes and their eros.
Feel the face of your partner as a sculptor would his clay. Run your hands — erotically, not sexually- over the skin, the bone structure, and then look again deeply into the eyes. In the eros of face touched and felt, the God point of the other emerges and we are moved with full heart to sing praise.