Why IS this night different then all other nights: Rabbi Marc
a Post in honor of Passover dedicated to holy brother k.d.
why IS this night different then all other nights…
The night of the biblical myth ritual is called “Leil Shimurim — A Night of Guarding/Watching.” Instead of being the audience of the spectacle of history and humanity, we turn into the actors of the drama; it is God who turns into the watcher; the wide-eyed, hand-clapping audience to our recollections.
The divine promise is to remain silent but present during the drama. Usually the human being is called to be God’s witness. Here God returns the favor and silently witnesses our telling of our stories.
One of the inheritors of biblical myth consciousness was Josef Bruer in Vienna, who collaborated with a man named Sigmund Freud in developing what they called the talking cure. In the telling, the forgotten or repressed tatters of the story are re-claimed and integrated into the whole self. At the time of Leil Shimurim, it is as if God sits in the in the practice of witness, silent but listening, healing us with a cosmic hearing.
A more mystical approach to this interaction happens among the initiates of Hasidism who make pilgrimages to pray at the graves of the Righteous Ones. They do more than pray there. As the hidden tradition goes, they narrate their entire life stories before the resting-place of the Righteous.
The promise of the process is that the devotee, through this telling, will be “returned” to a state of wholeness. The Righteous Ones, resting in their graves, are understood to be the silent but present witnesses of the tale.
In the story-telling ritual, we reclaim both our greatness, which frightens us, and our failures, which embarrass us. There is a Hebrew word — shalem — that denotes what is holistic, complete, inspiring equilibrium and integrity. Only when our story is complete do we have the inner equilibrium and integrity necessary for healing and growth. When we leave behind sections of our story, we can never realize our soul print.
with love
marc gafni
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posted on marcgafni.com
