Chapter 8:6-7
Set me as a seal upon your heart,
A sign upon your arm,
For Love is as strong as Death
Its passion is as harsh as the grave,
Its sparks become a raging fire,
A Divine Flame.
Great seas cannot extinguish love
No river can wash it away,
If a man tried to buy Love
With all the wealth of his house,
He would only be scorned.
Yes, I have tried to buy Love,
with my wit, my charm,
with my know-how and elbow grease, with my determination, ambition, agility, beauty and humor.
And yes, I have been scorned—
Not because I am undeserving of Love,
But because the Love I seek is already mine.The Divine Flame dances on,
just below the surface of Tragedy,
That raging fire throwing out tiny sparks of Wisdom Is the vast truth of Me.Yet Tragedy pulls me with her drama. Death lures me, enticing my vulnerable shadow with a fascinating story.
Here is what saves me:
I close my eyes
And breathe into my own waiting heart.
The spark becomes a flame,
the flame becomes Light,
the Light becomes a gentle Radiance that reaches out
to hold my whole world
in her loving embrace.Here is what saves me:
I know in my bones that
through the devastation of loss,
the scope of my Love is revealed.
My Love is the hidden treasure that longs to be known.
In the Fever of Love ©2008 Shefa Gold. All rights reserved.
Illustrations ©2009 Phillip Ratner, courtesy of the Dennis & Phillip Ratner Museum and the Israel Bible Museum collection. All rights reserved.
Practice
Chants: Heart-Seal and Love/Death
Commentary
When God, my Beloved instructs me to place the sign of Divinity on my heart, I take it as an opportunity to lay my heart bare and surrender to the truth of my inner identity. With this practice I receive the imprint of God’s love, and I surrender to that love.
Death is both the greatest challenge to Love and her greatest teacher.
In the face of Death, it is possible to close our hearts, constrict the contours of identity and defend the small self, out of that terror of not-being. And yet, death teaches us to treasure each moment, value each breath and come into a heightened awareness of the preciousness of this moment of love.
In the awareness of Death, the fullness of love blossoms. We surrender all that we are. It is a kind of ego-death. We are consumed by the passion of loving. We die to the past, invite in the unknowable Mystery of Love, open to the possibility of ego-annihilation, knowing that Love is as strong or stronger than any ambition, idea, conception or self-image.
Bridge to Torah
The Torah of Nitzavim calls us to stand before God, the Great Mystery, in our vulnerability and in our wholeness. At each moment, we face the choices of Life or Death, Blessing or Curse. We can only choose wisely through the power of Love, for when we choose from Love, Life and Blessing will rise to meet us.
The Song of Songs reminds us that Love is as strong as Death; in fact it is stronger that anything life may give us. It is the Divine flame that cannot be extinguished.
Click to see Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985) or the associated Torah Journeys page.
Questions for Contemplation
What is the truth that I would want to be sealed upon my heart? How can I open to that deepest Divine imprint at my core?
Resources
View Love at the Center Resources.
See also SHS Commandment 6.
Click to see Song of Songs Chapter 8:6-7 in Hebrew with the English JPS (1985) translation.