Chapter 6:12
And oh, before I knew it,
She sat me down in the most noble of chariots.
The chariot moves between worlds. It is the vehicle that connects
the finite with the infinite,
Earth and Heaven, Human and Divine.The chariot holds the mystery
to the consummation of the Great Love.
In the Fever of Love ©2008 Shefa Gold. All rights reserved.
Illustrations ©2009 Phillip Ratner, courtesy of the Dennis & Phillip Ratner Museum and the Israel Bible Museum collection. All rights reserved.
Practice
Chant: Before I Knew It
Commentary
The preconscious is the part of the mind below the level of immediate conscious awareness from which memories and emotions that have not been repressed can be recalled. Our spiritual practice can facilitate that recollection.
When we receive the Divine gaze and let in love, and feel seen and known, we realize our true identity. We re-member, allowing the truth of our nobility to rise up from the preconscious into glorious awareness. When that remembrance happens, we can take our place in “the most noble of chariots,” which is the vehicle that allows us access to all worlds and dimensions of being.
Bridge to Torah
Parshat Massei is the last section of the book of BaMidbar, the story of our wilderness journeys. Nearly at the end of the journey, we look back in amazement, and wonder how we got here. The journey has transformed us and has delivered opportunities for self-knowledge and for a glimpse of the Promised Land. Massei provides us with a geography lesson about that dream, a land flowing with milk and honey.
We are shown the Levitical cities and the cities of refuge, secret places within us that will give our souls room to breathe and express our Divinity. The Song of Songs offers us the vehicle, the Merkava, that can help us find those precious places within. When the Song of Songs sits us down in “this most noble of chariots” we can receive everything we have learned from the journey and let it send us to The Promised Land.
Click to see Numbers 33:1–36:13 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985) or the associated Torah Journeys page.
Questions for Contemplation
What is it that I know deeply yet tend to forget? How can I live in a way that is more aligned with that inner knowing?
Resources
View Love at the Center Resources.
Click to see Song of Songs Chapter 6:12 in Hebrew with the English JPS (1985) translation.