The Lovers Prayer: marc gafni

When something is far from you, you have to open your eyes really wide to see it. As it gets closer you squint your eyes; when it gets really really close, you close your eyes. Closing eyes is when we see way beyond seeing. Close and Close are the same word. Closeness — intimacy — higher vision — is all when we close our eyes.

That’s why when we recite the lovers prayer in Hebrew liturgy – which affirms that all is one and interconnected — we close our eyes. It is also why, when making love —in the moment of rapture in that moves us beyond sexual seeing to lovers union- we close our eyes.

For the Hebrew mystic Cordevero the Lovers Prayer achieve is erotic Union with Being precisely in the same way sexual love achieves erotic union with the beloved. The highest perception of loving is the realization that I am part of God.

marc gafni
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