Lee Diamond – The Physical in Spirituality
A.B Heschel was my teacher. Without a doubt he sought the spiritual element within the Jewish world view . He was perhaps one of the leading Jewish thinkers of our time.
For Heshel, the Shabbat and holidays were “Palaces in Time”. Only time is קדש in Heshel’s estimation.. Physical objects can never carry holiness within them.
Once a Seder Torah fell from the ark in a religious service that I attended and at which Heshel was the rabbi. The shock was immense for all of the participants who saw and heard the thud and sight of a crashing Torah. Heshel gently lifted the Torah, Kissed it , replaced it securely in the ark and declared that each of us should respond to this moment with an act of Tzadaka.
Heshel led me along wth other students of the Jewish Theological Seminary on the famous Selma March with Martin Luther King. He walked arm in arm with King in the front row of hundreds of thousands of us .
The moment was holy! But so were the entangled arms and the joint pace that carried us on the “wings of eagles” toward toward the “promised land” on that fateful day.
Yes the physical embrace and pace of this unique space was holy “קדש” on that day. This physical holiness was to bring us a step closer to the image of God within humanity.
While eternity uttered a day called Shabbat and Shabbat keeps us holy, we are each a flame of the Divine essence and we reflect its holiness in our own unique physical being. Our “physicalness” is the vessel of our holiness. When the Torah asks us to be holy, it is asking of each of us in our lives to shine forth with the Devine spirit that we contain. When any of us falls, we need to be gently lifted, kissed , replaced and awarded an act of Tzadaka ,
Is the fallen Torah that was kissed and which demanded Tzadaka, HOLY?
Was Selma with our ‘footsteps on the ground”, HOLY?
Is there truly a holy land called Eretz Yisrael and Medinat Yisrael that contains and inspires toward Holiness?
Can we be holy in our physical selves?
Can we be a holy nation? A Physical nation? Of AmYisrael?
Is it true that Torah will come forth from the reality of Zion and the word of God from earthly Jerusalem.
Yes —if we will it, it’s not a dream
Holiness is within and not hidden elsewhere .
It’s God Given and only needs to be reflected
And the light is very bright once released.
