In Parsha Ki Tissa we read of a religious liturgy which took place in the period between the destruction of the golden calf and the erection of the Sanctuary. It would seem from Exodus 33:7 that Moses had set up a special “Tent of Meeting” outside the camp specifically for his private contemplative prayer. (The community was in a state of defilement after the calf incident and this seems to be the reason for the tent’s extra-mural location). This tent was guarded by Joshua who seems to have been in full-time retreat there (Ex.33:11) and so it may have had a wider cultic usage. It certainly provides a good contemplative model.
We read of the “liturgy” I refer to in Ex.33:8-11:
As Moses leaves the community to speak with God in the Tent, he is respectfully observed by all the Israelites who are positioned, each one, at the door of their own tent. When Moses enters the Tent of Meeting, the Pillar of Cloud descends and takes up a position at the door of the Tent of Meeting. At this point the community prostrates in worship while facing the Pillar of Cloud-each at the door of his own tent.
The significance of the threshold, (the doorway of a tent or the mouth of a cave) is something which links this “liturgy” with the Theophany to Moses in the cleft of the rock, the Theophany to Elijah at the mouth of the cave, and to the Temple ceremonies of Yom Kippur.
The interior of the Tent of Meeting may be said to represent the “realm” of God Himself.
The Pillar of Cloud may be said to represent the Shekinah, God’s Presence as we encounter it.
This encounter takes place for us at the point represented by “the door of the Tent of Meeting.” The door of “our own tent”, our own interior centre of prayer, is in some way at exactly that same point when we worship.
Moses is said to have spoken with God “Face to face” inside the Tent.
Each of us is encouraged by the possibility of such Human/Divine contact and that is symbolised by the way the ordinary Israelite “faced” the Tent of Meeting and followed Moses’ movements.
When we pray as Jewish Contemplatives, we have located ourselves at the threshold of the Tent of Meeting by having oriented ourselves in that same “direction”. We are, as it were, standing at the “point” inside the Pillar of Cloud which is the “M’arat Ha-Lev”, the Cave of the Heart.
We are standing at the threshold of that “cave” looking IN.
ooOoo
You can see an extended essay on this subject HERE