Chapter 6:11
I went down to the nut grove,
To see the new green by the brook,
To see if the vines had blossomed
And the pomegranates had bloomed,
My garden is ever-greening,
ever-blossoming, ever-fruiting.I am hidden, even to myself.
The secret is revealed in the unselfconscious flow of my love.
As it blossoms you make me known to myself.
In the Fever of Love ©2008 Shefa Gold. All rights reserved.
Practice
Chant: Going Down To See
Commentary
We usually go up to a higher place to see… but sometimes we need to go down. We need to descend into our own depths and use a different kind of vision to penetrate the complexities within. We enter the nut grove with an eye toward cracking that nut whose hard exterior hides a delicious treasure. And our inner journey takes us to the nachal, which is a kind of stream that flows intermittently. (The Arabic word would be a wadi; the Spanish word, an arroyo.) The “new green” that sprouts up in that nachal is mysterious and miraculous… . found only by those who have the insight and courage to “go down” and explore the hidden places.
Bridge to Torah
Parshat Matot takes us to some deep dark places in Torah. Moses raises an army and launches a war of revenge against the Midianites. He is revealing to us our shadow and guiding us towards a path of healing and integration. Matot means “tribes” and its Torah sends us to explore the layers of our identity. Moses was both a Hebrew slave and an Egyptian prince who then escaped to the land of the Midianites, where he married and had a family. Legend tells us that he was a shepherd there for 40 years before he heard the call to free his people.
Being a Midianite was a layer of his identity. So, the cruel war described in Matot is personal, internal. The Song of Songs reaches out to Moses and to the Moses within us, and says, “Go down to the nut grove”… go down beneath the layers of identity and tribe, and find there the new green, the potential for verdant life beyond tribalism. The pomegranates you find there, represent the complexity within that will reveal a hidden sweetness.
Click to see Numbers 30:2–32:42 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985) or the associated Torah Journeys page.
Question for Contemplation
Can I “go down” into my own hidden places, and find what is just beginning to blossom?
Resources
View Love at the Center Resources.
See also SHS Commandment 6.
Click to see Song of Songs Chapter 6:11 in Hebrew with the English JPS (1985) translation.