Chapter 5:2-3
I was asleep but my heart stayed awake.
There it is… the sound of my lover knocking:
Open to me, my sister, my friend,
My dove, my perfect one!
My head is wet with dew,
My hair drenched in the damp of night.
But I have taken off my robes,
How can I dress again?
I have bathed my feet,
Must I dirty them?
I am asleep,
lulled by the news and the constant din of media and commerce.
I am in a trance,
I collude with agreed-upon reality. I am trapped,
I am stranded on the dry surface of my life, while an underground river flows beneath me unseen and untouched.
Yet there is a place in my heart that has stayed awake and is constantly awakening through the power of its yearning, through the pulse of its desire. e eyes of my heart blink open and the ears of my heart remain vigilant, attentive to the call of Love. e sound is elusive yet persistent in its effort to break through the din of confusion and busyness that surrounds and fills my daily routines.
e sound of my lover knocking—the momentary startle of finding myself so alive and vulnerable and touched by a color, a tender breeze, a word whispered to me in the darkness, a vivid memory or a sudden knowing.
With my heart awake I hear the call to Love which is the call to glowing and lucid aliveness.
In that state of aliveness, I hear the call of Love, God-as-Love entices me with His sweetness
and reminds me that I must let Him in. In my forgetfulness and distraction,
I have closed the door.Everything depends on the simple gesture of opening,
of turning,
of letting God in.
Every relationship depends on my ability to open, to
hear the real question that is left unspoken. When I am open, I can know and respond to the desires of my beloved whose desire may be hidden even from himself.
I knock.
I call out to the world, with all my sweet longing,
“Open to me…
Let there be a space for what I yearn to give, Let me find the door to fulfillment,
adventure, comfort, enlightenment, honor.
World, I call on you as my friend,
my kin, my ally,
Lover, let me in.”
In the Fever of Love ©2008 Shefa Gold. All rights reserved.
Practice
Chants: Pathway of Covenant, I Was Asleep
Commentary
My Beloved is knocking at the door of my heart, saying “Let me in, open to me; You have shut me out; you have locked the door.” And I am knocking at the door of a larger Reality saying “Let me in, open to me; I have been imprisoned here in my dream of separation.”
With this practice we establish a pathway of covenant through four stages of connection:
- My sister — my own flesh — my secret identity in God revealed to me as myself.
- My Friend — love stirring in me and reaching out to the Divine Other.
- My Dove — my special and precious one — my heart begins to melt in the sweetness of encounter and connection.
- My Pure One — I melt into the One who has embraced me.
Bridge to Torah
The Torah of Emor instructs us in the ways of our Priesthood and in the cycles of Shabbat and the Festivals. To take on the mantle of Priesthood, we must rise to the sacred responsibilities of holiness through space and time. The Song of Songs awakens us to that possibility. The Beloved is knocking at the doors of our hearts. When we hear that knock, we are called to awaken to the holiness of right here, right now, stepping onto the path of Awareness. When we respond to that knock, we can step into our wholeness and priesthood in order to celebrate the holy passages of birth, incarnation, liberation, revelation, death and arrival. The Song helps us to purify ourselves of ambivalence, resistance and doubt as we walk this path of holiness.
Click to see Leviticus 21:1–24:23 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985) or the associated Torah Journeys page.
Question for Contemplation
Can I listen for the sound of My Beloved knocking, and respond with the fullness of my presence?
Resources
View Love at the Center Resources.
Click to see Song of Songs Chapter 5:2-3 in Hebrew with the English JPS (1985) translation.