Witch Ma'agal: Circle Magic

(14) David mi-karer/whirled with all his might before the Divine; David was belted with a linen apron.

(14) Strength resides in his neck; power ta-dutz/dances before him.

(8) Hark! My beloved! There he comes, mi-daleg/leaping over mountains, bounding over hills.

(26) [The prophets of Baal] took the bull that was given them; they prepared it, and invoked Baal by name from morning until noon, shouting, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no sound, and no one who responded; so vayi-paschu/they performed a hopping dance about the altar that had been set up.

(4) A time for weeping and a time for laughing, a time for wailing and a time for rikod/dancing;

(1) Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to Oneness. They said: I will sing to Oneness, for It has triumphed gloriously; Horse and driver It has hurled into the sea.... (20) Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, picked up a hand-drum, and all the women went out after her ube-machalot/in dance with hand-drums. (21) And Miriam chanted for them: Sing to Oneness! For It has triumphed gloriously; Horse and driver It has hurled into the sea....

(19) As soon as Moses came near the camp and saw the calf umicholot/and the dancing, he became enraged; and he hurled the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain.

(6)When the [troops] came home [and] David returned from killing the Philistine, the women of all the towns of Israel came out, the singers viha-micholot/and the circle dancers,* to greet King Saul with timbrels, with shouting and "threes" (sistrums** or a kind of dance?).(7) The women sang as they danced, and they chanted: Saul has slain his thousands; David, his tens of thousands!(8) Saul was much distressed and greatly vexed about the matter. For he said, “To David they have given tens of thousands, and to me they have given thousands. All that he lacks is the kingship!”*non-mainstream translation supported by the unusual presence of the definite article "hay"**A sacred instrument generally used in surrounding cultures exclusively by women and priestesses in worship of the Goddess

(1) Turn back, turn back, O maid of Shulem! Turn back, turn back, that we may gaze upon you. “Why will you gaze at the Shulammite in (or like) the Mahanaim/camps or groups micholot/dance?”(2) How lovely are your feet in sandals, O daughter of nobles! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of a master’s hand.

(3) Let them praise His name in bi-machol/dance; with timbrel and lyre let them chant His praises.

(34) When Yiftach arrived at his home in Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him, with hand-drum and ubi-micholot/dance! She was an only child; he had no other son or daughter.

(20) So they instructed the Benjaminites as follows: “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards.(21) As soon as you see the daughters of Shiloh coming out to join bamicholot/in the dances, come out from the vineyards; let each of you seize a wife from among the daughters of Shiloh, and be off for the land of Benjamin.

...The mishna taught: As on them the daughters of Jerusalem would go out in white clothes, and on the fifteenth of Av they would go out to the vineyards and dance. The Sages taught this tradition in greater detail: The daughter of the king borrows white garments from the daughter of the High Priest; the daughter of the High Priest borrows from the daughter of the deputy High Priest; the daughter of the deputy High Priest borrows from the daughter of the priest anointed for war, i.e., the priest who would read verses of Torah and address the army as they prepared for battle; the daughter of the priest anointed for war borrows from the daughter of a common priest; and all the Jewish people borrow from each other. Why would they all borrow garments? They did this so as not to embarrass one who did not have her own white garments...
The daughters of the Jewish people would go out and dance in the vineyards. A tannataught: One who did not have a wife would turn to there to find one.... Ulla of the city of Bira’a said that Rabbi Elazar said: In the future, in the end of days, the Holy One, Blessed be He, will arrange a michol/dance of the righteous, and He will be sitting among them in the Garden of Eden, and each and every one of the righteous will point to God with his finger, as it is stated: “And it shall be said on that day: Behold, this is our God, for whom we waited, that He might save us. This is the Lord; for whom we waited. We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation” (Isaiah 25:9)...

The Sages said about Rabbi Yehuda bar Elai that he would take a myrtle branch and dance before the bride, and say: A fair and attractive bride. Rav Shmuel bar Rav Yitzḥak would base his dance on three myrtle branches that he would juggle. Rabbi Zeira said: The old man is humiliating us, as through his conduct he is demeaning the Torah and the Torah scholars. When Rav Shmuel bar Rav Yitzḥak died, a pillar of fire demarcated between him and everyone else, and we learn through tradition that a pillar of fire demarcates only for either one person in a generation or for two people in a generation.Rabbi Zeira said: His branch [shotitei] was effective for the old man, as it is due to this mitzva that he fulfilled so enthusiastically that he was privileged to receive this great reward. And some say that Rabbi Zeira said: His nonsense [shetutei] was effective for the old man. And some say that he said: His method [shittatei] was effective for the old man.Rav Aḥa would place the bride on his shoulders and dance. The Sages said to him: What is the ruling? Is it permitted for us to do so as well? He said to them: If brides are comparable for you to a beam, fine, but if not, no, you may not...
§ The Sages taught: One reroutes the funeral procession for burial of a corpse to yield before the wedding procession of a bride. And both this, the funeral procession, and that, the wedding procession, yield before a king of Israel. They said about King Agrippa [Agrippas] that although he was not required to do so, he rerouted his entourage before the wedding procession of a bride, and the Sages praised him for doing so...

Rava bar Rav Ḥanin said to Abaye: We learned in a mishna: The Rabbis decreed that one may not clap, nor strike a hand on his thigh, nor dance (mirakdin a different word then michol) on a Festival, lest he come to repair musical instruments. But nowadays we see that women do so, and yet we do not say anything to them.

(7) Thus, in the Future, all sickness will be remedied through joy. And then God will head the ChoLeh (circle)—i.e., be head of the maChoL (circle dance)—because joy is the remedy for the ChoLeh (one who is ill). This is the reason that joy and dance are called ChoLeh, because they are the remedy for ChoLaat (illness).

(4) Thus it is that by dancing—when he drinks the wine of joy, which is the root of the gevurot in [feminine Divine Mother]Binah, and they are drawn below within the legs, namely, he dances—he thereby expels the external forces from there. This is the excitement in dance, “an offering by fire, a pleasing fragrance to God” (Numbers 28:8).

(3) Thus the Bride [ie Goddess] is still in the category of naara, the three hundred and twenty judgments, and must be mitigated and rectified. This is achieved by dancing, because the legs correspond to Netzach and Hod. They are lifted up by the heart, i.e., through the joy of the heart. This is seen empirically, that through the joy of the heart we dance. As is written about Yaakov (Genesis 29:1), “Yaakov lifted up his legs,” and Rashi explains that his heart carried his legs. And the heart is Binah, as is written: Binah is the heart, and with it the heart understands (Tikkuney Zohar, Introduction).
(4) Therefore, one has to intend while dancing to draw the alephs in the heart to the bride by means of the legs. She is the aspect of five times din (judgment), which is numerically equivalent to three hundred twenty and to naara. And through the light of the heart that is drawn to Her, She becomes naarah, with a heh, and five times Adonoy .

(3) And when the feet are lifted up in dance /rikudin, corresponding to “his heart carried his feet,” haughtiness—i.e., idolatry—is eliminated. Through this, Divine judgments/decrees are mitigated. For “As long as there is idol worship in the world, there is charon af (Divine anger) in the world” (Sifri 13:18). But when idolatry disappears, Divine anger disappears and chasadim (benevolences) are drawn [to the world]. Then the feet are “the feet of ChaSiDav (His pious ones)” (1 Samuel 20:9) —i.e., the aspect of ChaSaDim. This corresponds to (Isaiah 55:3), “… the kindnesses of David are faithful.” Specifically “faithful,” because heresy and atheism are eliminated.

(12) It is a wonderful thing when people dance for joy for the sake of a mitzvah! ... As your joy begins to radiate, it will spread to your legs and you will literally start to dance for joy. This will banish the forces of the Other Side, which grip the legs. The force of severity and harsh judgements will be broken, and then you will be able to receive blessings. The fire with which we dance is “a fire offering, a sweet savor to the Lord” (Numbers 28:8). But when one dances in the heat of the evil inclination, it is a “strange fire” (Leviticus 10:1) and the wine which he drinks is the “wine of drunkenness,” which gives a hold to the forces of the Other Side. But dancing with holy intentions has as much power to sweeten the harsh judgements as a redemption. (41).