"As I received it in a whisper, so I told it to you in a whisper."


Rabbi Shim’on son of Rabbi Yehotsadak asked Rabbi Shemu’el son of

Nahman, “How did the blessed Holy One create the light?”

He replied, “He wrapped Himself in a white tallit, and the world shone from His

light.” He said this to him in a whisper.

[Rabbi Shim’on] said, “Isn’t that stated explicitly in the Bible: Wrapped in light

like a cloak (Psalms 104:2)? [I’m surprised that you whispered it.]”

[Rabbi Shemu’el] replied, “As I received it in a whisper, so I told it to you in a

whisper.”

The Book of Splendor, Sefer Ha Zohar, Daniel Matt (trans.)

Image: Eduardo Klingman, Abrazo


Is there anything we learn, really learn, outside of personal relationship? I am not sure. I know that we can memorize and apply information from abstractions, to a certain degree. But I am not sure we can fully learn anything at a cellular level, in the depths of the psyche, without a sense of belonging to knowledge, of having community with it, of relating to it. I am not sure at all. The other options make me shudder a bit. I look back on moments where exchange of life and breath happened between myself and someone I was learning from as those when I grew the most. The breathing together of teacher and student is called ham dam in Persian, a principle of the Sufi way on the Naqshbandi path. A similar concept is called hah oh in the Tewa language of the Southwestern native peoples, which Dr. Gregory Cajete describes as "breathing in knowledge." The two have remarkably similar meanings and are similar in their onomatopoeic qualities.

I am going to use this page to add thoughts on this in n asynchronous and ongoing way. Rather than adding a new post, I may come back to this with for some time, updating it. These types of learning relationships have impacted me the most and I continue to seek them out, both in my teaching and learning, a dual process that never ends. I hope to keep learning and teaching for as long as I live. Elena Avila, who has had a lot of mentions in this blog, described "empacho" as something that you could have if you don't express something essential to your soul. She was sharing its deeper meanings beyond the usual association of physical stomach aches that many people know, which is also one of the things meant by this "folk disease." I know that if I am not learning and sharing what I learn, I get an empacho of the soul. 



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