Saturday, October 28, 2006

Rectified Binah & My Sephardic Connection

I dreamt.

I was in a cafeteria line (seder) gathering up a meal (shulchan oruch). There was a cauldron [1] of beef [2] and noodles [3]. I tried to dip with the cauldron's ladle [4] to get a portion of mostly noodles for myself. I tried to get mostly noodles (since I like noodles) and just a little bit of meat (since I'm not a big meat-eater).

Everytime I attempted to do it, nearly all of the noodles would fall off the ladle spoon and alot of meat would somehow manage to work itself up onto the ladle spoon. I would dump the spoon and retry again. This would happen each time I tried, so that I each time I ended up with mostly meat and very few or no noodles on the ladle spoon. That meat had kavanah! by golly!

The people behind me in the line were getting impatient. Ok, fine! I dumped the next ladle full of meat onto my thin paper [5] plate. It looks like I'm going to have to eat meat.

Next, I came to the soda fountain. I filled my large styrofoam cup up with ice, then with cola. As I started to put my cup of sodapop onto my cafeteria tray, all of the cola in my cup disappeared. The ice [6] remained. Only the cola vanished. I filled my cup up again with sodapop. Again, the cola disappeared. Ok, fine! I'll drink water.

I filled up my cup with water. The water didn't disappear. I moved on down the line and found a seat at a table in the cafeteria.

I woke up.

Footnotes:

[1] The cauldron symbolizes the Divine Feminine principle, the power of transformation and the "place" where Divine Knowledge and Inspiration (Hashra'ah) are brewed. See Samhain as the Scholars' Festival for women.

[2] Ashkenazi custom (Vilna Gaon) prohibits roasted meat at a seder, but Sephardi custom does not necessarily prohibit it. This detail of my dream suggests that I may also have some Sephardic ancestry (through my paternal Native American ancestry perhaps, or even through my maternal Jewish-British family line, the Grunwalds, since I've only assumed the entire Grunwald clan to be Ashkenazi because they came from England). It could also mean that my bashert has some Sephardic ancestry as well.

[3] Noodles are usually found in kugel dishes over pesach and shabbat. Also, lokshen (noodles) is a Yiddish term, where Yiddish is an Ashkenazic phenomenon. Consequently, given the "pot roasting meat" over "noodles", the dream is deliberately pointing out a Sephardic connection to me (see fn. 2).

[4] A ladle is likened to a Torah scholar. Sanhedrin 52b, perek dalet mitot. (see fn. 1 above)

[5] Samhain (sundown October 31 - November 1) marks the time when the veil between worlds is the thinnest.

[6] See Zohar #301. "If water is poured on them (the ice, like in my dream), the ice absorbs it. By the waters turning into ice, they have become a vessel to receive additional waters." In my dream, the ice remained as a vessel upon which water was accepted, but the sodapop was rejected and disappeared. Consequently, this detail of the dream speaks to the purity of my "ice vessel" to accept only pure water (of Atzilutic Torah and shefa) and to discern correctly (as ice "originates" from Binah). In other words, the dream is confirming that the Binah acting within my dreams is rectified Binah.

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1 comment:

lana said...

hello my dear, i was doing a little reading up on my father's last name, hence grunewald..(with or without the "E") and i smiled when i read this on your webpage.."the Grunwalds, since I've only assumed the entire Grunwald clan to be Ashkenazi because they came from England).

as i pondered that, grunwald being a british name..i know my great grandfather would have smiled at that..as for grun is german for the color green, and hence wald is german for wood...now there you have it ..grunewald/gruenwald/grunwald however one spells it..,is very much indeed as the colors states..german in nature. now i must say, i have visited your webpage in the past, for various reasons, and i have always been very inspired, not to mention, enlightened. and so thank you, may God bless, and as always, take good care..

Dare to be true to yourself.