Marc Gafni – The Spell of Spelling — Panim

Marc Gafni
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The last post however was just for starters. Hold on, for the magic of language, the spell of spelling — has just begun. The Hebrew word for “inside,” panim, has two other meanings as well. The first not surprisingly, is face. Face is the place where my insides are revealed. There are forty five muscles in the face. Most of them unnecessary for the biological functioning of the face. Their major purpose it would seem is to express emotional depth and nuance. They are the muscles of the soul. Every muscle of the face reflects another nuance of depth and interiority. When I say, “I need to speak face to face,” I am in erotic need of an inside conversation. At this point all of the cell phones and sophisticated internet hook-ups won’t give me what I need, for while amazingly efficient and effective, they are non-erotic. True erotic conversations rarely happen on the Internet.
The spell continues. There is a third meaning to the Hebrew root panim. In a slightly modified form it means ”before,” in the sense of appearing before God. Specifically, the biblical myth text in Leviticus tells of the Temple’s high priest — who on the biblical Yom Kippur, the Day of At-one-ment, appear Lifnei Hashem: ‘Before God’
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Read in the English this appears similar to a summons to appear “before” a judging court, generally not a joyous occasion. For the Hebrew mystics, however, rooted as they are in the magic and spells of language, it is an entirely different affair. Remember that all three English words, face, inside and before, share the same Hebrew root. The essence then of the day of at-one-ment then is not a commandment to appear ”before God” in the magistrate sense. It is rather an invitation to live on the inside of God’s face. Once the journey to God is finished, the infinite journey in God begins