Who Is Seeing Who: Part One: Marc Gafni

The End is in the Beginning
and
The Beginning is in the End

We return now, full circle to the Cherubic mystery of love. When the pilgrims came to the Temple in Jerusalem three times a year, the biblical verse tells us that they came to “see and be seen.”

The festivals are great gatherings of Eros and vision.
Ecstatic dance. Camaraderie, the Temple service and overflowing joy characterized these great convocations. The two contemporary images which most closely approximate these great spiritual erotic festivals would be a rock concert or a large sports event.

Both participate in the same erotic energy which was the very fabric of the “holidays of seeing.”

The grammar in the biblical text is unclear. ‘The holiday of seeing.’ But who is seeing whom? The deep inside understanding is that two different mystical processes are happening at the same time. In an erotic circular loop one feeds into the other. One the first level the pilgrim comes to be seen by God. “To be seen before God.”

To be seen is to be loved. When the pilgrim would make his entrance into the Temple, one of the priestly greeters would call out, “So and so has arrived from village x to bring the appointed offering.” His name would echo through the Temple! Perceived upon entry!

marc gafni
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