The Ivri Path
Ivri:
(13) A fugitive brought the news [of Abraham's nephew's capture] to Abram the Ivri...
(ח) וַיָּבֹא הַפָּלִיט (בראשית יד, יג)... וַיַּגֵּד לְאַבְרָם הָעִבְרִי, רַבִּי יְהוּדָה וְרַבִּי נְחֶמְיָה וְרַבָּנָן, רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר כָּל הָעוֹלָם כֻּלּוֹ מֵעֵבֶר אֶחָד וְהוּא מֵעֵבֶר אֶחָד.
(8) “The refugee came and told Abram the Ivri,... (Genesis 14:13). ... “And told Abram the Ivri – Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Neḥemya, and the Rabbis, Rabbi Yehuda says: The entire world was on one side and he was on the other side [aiver]...
יְדִיד אֲתוּי עֵֽבֶר יִדַּעֲךָ בָּעוֹלָם...
Your beloved Ivri made you known in the world....
Path:
(1) Oneness said to Abram, “Lech lecha/Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
(1) When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Oneness appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am El Shaddai/Breast Power. Walk before Me and be complete."
(יז) דְּרָכֶ֥יהָ דַרְכֵי־נֹ֑עַם וְֽכׇל־נְתִ֖יבוֹתֶ֣יהָ שָׁלֽוֹם׃
(17) [Chochmah/Wisdom/Torah/Goddess] ways are pleasant ways, and all Her paths, peaceful.
1. HINEINI
Speak from where you are
Acknowledging the limitations and
gifts of every perspective
(9) The Divine called out to the earthling and said to him, “Where are you?” (10) He replied, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
(1) Where are you. You are no longer seen in the garden like before, since you are now hiding, which you did not do before.
Situated Knowledge
'Situated Knowledge' refers to the idea that objective knowledge, including scientific knowledge, is influenced by the specific material, social, and cultural contexts in which it is produced, challenging the notion of universal and purely objective truths.
Dr. Donna Haraway
Situated Knowledge: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective, Feminist Studies 1988
[T]he god trick of seeing everything from nowhere...
[O]nly partial perspective promises objective vision....
[T]his essay is an argument for situated and embodied knowledges and an argument against various forms of unlocatable, and so irresponsible, knowledge claims...
Relativism and totalization are both "god tricks" promising vision from everywhere and nowhere equally and fully...
Positioning is, therefor, the key practice in grounding knowledge organized around the imagery of vision, and much Western scientific and philosophic discourse is organized in this way. Positioning implies responsibility for our enabling practices. It follows that politics and ethics ground struggles for and contests over what may count as rational knowledge...Otherwise, rationality is simply impossible, an optical illusion projected from nowhere comprehensively....How to see? Where to see from? What limits to vision? What to see for? Who gets blinded? Who wears blinders? Who interprets the visual field? I am arguing for politics and epistemologies of location, positioning, and situating, where partiality and not universality is the condition of being heard to make rational knowledge claims.... Only the god trick is forbidden...
[L]ocation is about vulnerability; location resists the politics of closure, finality...
We seek not the knowledges ruled by phallogocentrism (nostalgia for the presence of the one true Word) and disembodied vision. We seek those rules by partial sight and limited voice--not partiality for its own sake but, rather, for the sake of the connections and unexpected openings situated knowledges make possible. Situated knowledges are about communities, not about isolated individuals. The only way to find a larger vision is to be somewhere in particular...
Situated knowledges require that the object of knowledge be pictured as an actor and agent, not as a screen or a ground or a resource...
“I saw God”: As it is taught: All of the prophets observed their prophecies through an aspaklaria shelo meira/obscure looking glass. Moses our master observed through an aspaklaria meira/clear looking glass,
Eleanor Barraclough
Embers of the Hands
[L]ooking at the past is like looking through a glass darkly: We can see shadowy images on the other side, but also our own reflections staring back at us.
Franz Kafka
Conversations with Kafka
Life is as infinitely great and profound as the immensity of the stars above us. One can only look at it through the narrow keyhole of one’s personal existence. But through it one perceives more than one can see. So above all one must keep the keyhole clean.
Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying
There is no 'the truth','a truth' - truth is not one thing, or even a system. It is an increasing complexity. the pattern of the carpet is a surface. When we look closely, or when we become weavers, we learn of the tiny multiple threads unseen in the overall pattern, the knots on the underside of the carpet.
Some of the places where characters say "Hineni" in the Torah:
(1) Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test, saying to him, “Abraham.” He answered, “Hineini/Here I am.” (2) “Take your son, your favored one, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the heights that I will point out to you.”
(7) Then Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he answered, “Hineni/Here I am my son.” And he said, “Here are the firestone and the wood; but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?”
(1) When Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” He answered, “Hineini/Here I am.” (2) And he said, “I am old now, and I do not know how soon I may die. (3) Take your gear, your quiver and bow, and go out into the open and hunt me some game.
(17) Then she put in the hands of her son Jacob the dish and the bread that she had prepared. (18) He went to his father and said, “Father.” And he said, “Hineini/Here I am. Who are you, my son?" (19) Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your first-born; I have done as you told me. Pray sit up and eat of my game, that you may give me your innermost blessing.”
(2) God called to Israel in a vision by night: “Jacob! Jacob!” He answered, “Hineini/Here I am.”
(יג) וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יִשְׂרָאֵ֜ל אֶל־יוֹסֵ֗ף הֲל֤וֹא אַחֶ֙יךָ֙ רֹעִ֣ים בִּשְׁכֶ֔ם לְכָ֖ה וְאֶשְׁלָחֲךָ֣ אֲלֵיהֶ֑ם וַיֹּ֥אמֶר ל֖וֹ הִנֵּֽנִי׃
(13) Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers are pasturing at Shechem. Come, I will send you to them.” He answered, “Hineini/I am ready.”
(4) When the Divine saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him out of the bush: “Moses! Moses!” He answered, “Hineini/Here I am.” (5) And [the Divine] said, “Do not come closer! Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground!”
(3) “Why, when we fasted, did You not see? When we starved our bodies, did You pay no heed?” Because on your fast day you see to your business and oppress all your laborers! (4) Because you fast in strife and contention, and you strike with a wicked fist! Your fasting today is not such as to make your voice heard on high. (5) Is such the fast I desire, a day for people to starve their bodies? Is it bowing the head like a bulrush and lying in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call that a fast, a day when Oneness is favorable? (6) No, this is the fast I desire: to unlock fetters of wickedness, and untie the cords of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free; to break off every yoke. (7) It is to share your bread with the hungry, and to take the wretched poor into your home; When you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to ignore your own kin. (8) Then shall your light burst through like the dawn and your healing spring up quickly; Your Vindicator shall march before you, the Presence of Oneness shall be your rear guard. (9) Then, when you call, Oneness will answer; when you cry, [God] will say: Hineni/Here I am. If you banish the yokef rom your midst, the menacing hand and evil speech,
(19) Hineni! I will do something new; Even now it shall come to pass, suddenly you shall perceive it: I will make a road through the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
PRACTICE
Red string qesher
INCANTATION
|
אָ֤ז תִּקְרָא֙ וַיהוָ֣ה יַעֲנֶ֔ה תְּשַׁוַּ֖ע וְיֹאמַ֣ר הִנֵּ֑נִי |
Az tiqra v’Yah ya’aneh tishava v’yomar hineini |
Then when you call out Life will answer when you cry out She will say: hineini, here I am |