Encore Archive
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Tikkun Hatzot, Night Mending, A Ceremony
Lynn Gottlieb (Shma 9/176, September 7, 1979)
The House fell at midnight
stone by stone
fire burned the Inner Place
part of God became exiled-in-the-world.
She is called: Shechinah: She-Who-Dwells-Within
In the desert She made a home of the Mish-kan.
In Jerusalem She made a home of Bet HaMikdash.
She dwells within each of us
She is that part which yearns
for wholeness
restoration
and mending: Tikkun.
How do we bring Her into the world
and into ourselves?
What rituals do we use
what words
what deeds
what intentions?
The mystics used the stories of Rachel and Leah
to bring Shechinah into the world and into
themselves.
They called this ritual: Night Mending: Tikkun
Hatzot: repairing and bringing together through
the stories of Rachel and Leah.
Rachel represents sorrow, dispersion, weeping,
exile: Galut.
She weeps for all that is separate and undone, for
the uncaring way of the world, and through the
weeping Rachel releases Rachamin: the
compassionate aspect of God, the watery flow
until the weeping itself becomes the comfort
and leads you out of sorrow. . . and allows you to
see. Leah represents joy, coming together,
laughter, return: TIKKUN. As we pass through
the weeping (for we are the Hebrews, the ivrim
the ones who pass through) we work on our
vision of wholeness;
We intend the sexual coming together of Yisrael-
Leah like the joining of Shechinah with all other
God aspects: Y'hud Shechinta we intend to
understand the mystical meaning of the names
Leah gave to her children
Rachel-Ya-akov: the heel, the grounded one, the
earthbound, the one, who loves Rachel outside the
land, the one who follows her children into
exile ... Leah-Yisrael: the God-seer, the released
vision, the dreamer of ladders, in the land ...
The following is a selection from the ritual of
Tikkun Hatzot taken from versions of the 18th -
19th centuries and woven together with Binah,
with the intuitive landscape, with the midrashic
imagination of this author ...
Rachel-Leah, the known and the unknown, the
revealed and the hidden, two sisters, two aspects
of Shechinah may they come together quickly in
our days. . . amen.
Tikkun Rachel: Mending through Rachel's tears
At midnight
rise
go to the door
take off your shoes
wrap your head
touch ashes to brow
in place of tefillin
roll your eyes in the dust
just as Shechinah herself-without eyes
blind from weeping.
Sit
on a stone scattered road
in between by ways
near the crossing of two streams
and weep
for all that is separate and undone
for loss and pain
weep for the sadness of exile
until dust
turns to praise.
Shechinah remembers the first time
Her people were exiled
the Inner House open to the world
the Outer House in flames
She was forced to wander ...
The halls of heaven began to fill.
They assembled before the throne
the sages and prophets, the judges and royalty
the righteous ones, even the angels and the holy
souls of the unborn ... all pleading with their
own righteous deeds
begging God to return the people to Jerusalem,
to rebuild the House.
But no one could stir God from the aspect of
harsh judgment to the aspect of compassion,
no one, not even the letters in the Torah,
not even Abraham, Isaac, Jacob
not even the messiah.
When all seemed lost, as the veil of Harsh
Judgment turned to stone
Our mother, our sister, our friend Rachel
wailed out to the wall of God:
Adonai
remember when your servant Jacob served seven
years to attain my love in marriage
and on the night of my wedding, my father
planned to replace me with Leah, and I warned
Jacob of the plan and we exchanged signs to
know each other ...
but afterwards, when I saw Leah, and saw her
shame I knew I had to give my signs to my sister
so I allowed her into my tent, with my lover…
and if I, who am a flesh and blood woman
overcame jealousy with compassion for my own
enemy then how can You, the Loving Merciful
One allow Yourself to be jealous of idols, of
wood and stone.
Rachel began weeping
one of her tears broke down the wall of stones
and touched the throne of God
God turned into compassions watery
flow,Gathered the torn shreds of wandering
And returned Israel to the land.
Here ends Tikkun Rachel.
Song of Ascent
spiraling song of return
Tzion dreamers
spilling joy
the nations remark: their Lord did well with them
our Lord did well with us
a great thing returning us
stream by stream to the desert of our birth
we went laying our seed cry in the ground
we come home carrying the smile harvest
of return ..."Behold, in the morning, it was Leah."
Leahsoft eyedseeing the inside truth of things
symbol of Binah
Mother Source of intuition
holding thought
until it ripens into word-deed
Leah
concealed in the upper worlds
hidden behind soft eyes
veiled in marriage
joined to Ya-acov in darkness
buried with Yisrael in a cave
her name contains the yearning
of Shechinah for Oneness
to be revealedand restored to her rightful place
above the Keter-Throne of God.
Ya-acov loved Rachel
and hated Leah
he did not understand her
he had no dreams outside the holy land.
but Leah understood his dream of ladders
Leah saw Yisrael inside of Ya-acov.
Leah saw the vision of Shechinah
passed down to her by her mother at the well.
This is Leah's story:
Mother
when you died
the women came
hair tearing
hand wailing
clothes shredded black
tongue noises rising
their voices stirred up the hidden signs
which I alone remember.
I remember
once after the rains
you took us on a journey far from home
we walked with the moon for many days
our steps turned sand to fire
our path brought us to a distant land
I remember one morning
as the sun broke on the edge of the world
You sat near a well of waters
smiled a memory
and spoke of the old one
Rachmaya the womb flow
the old one who came here
before joining-man time
before entering man's tent.
The old one revealed the secret of the well
the hidden signs of She-Who-Dwells-Within
Shechinah.
Mother touched hand to water
and sang us Shechinah's song
which she heard from Rachmaya by this well:
"I am She-Who-Dwells-Within
and seeks the Lover beyond
I am She who waits for mountain of fire
to merge with flowing springs
I am She who streams with the hidden lights
and calls at the gate of the world to Him beyond
when will He answer My calling
when fire joins water
and holy land joins holy people
when the world's great yearning
for a lost One
releases the flow upward.
Go spread My word to those who wait by the
well
for one of you will hear and understand.
One of you will unite your seed with a man
who knows Me by a different name.
I will make you a great nation
but my covenant with you will be revealed
through the hidden way,
Go, tell them
Shechinah sends you
She-Who-Dwells-Within
Shechinah . . . "
In her old age, alone with her daughter Dinah, her
seventh child, alone in the land, Ya-acov in exile
following Rachel's children down into Egypt, into
the narrows, Leah passes the well story to her
child of journeys, Dinah:
One within the other
God within God
God surrounding God YeHU-D-ah
one sees
undresses the moment
sees again
peels off another layer
hinting at the mystery which lies above
climbing the ladders
onebodymind inside another
She-Who-Dwells-Within
unfolds God in the world ...
Guider of the World,
with strenuous intentions
and a devoted heart
I intend my whole being
a chariot for Tiferet
a House for Shechinah
so that I can
blend, restore, unite
the male and female Presence
in the name of all Yisrael
to create in myself and the world
the return of the first Adam-androgynous being
the One of all generations
amen selah.
morning breaks
on the wings of Mother
Shechinah rises up with the dawn
selah hallelujah!
here ends Tikkun Leah
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