[Jewish] [Mindful Torah] Psalm for Monday: Psalm 48, Verse 4

[Rabbi Steven Nathan]

God is known in her palaces as a stronghold.
The psalm continues to extol Jerusalem, God's holy city. However, my
commentary continues to focus on the "heavenly Jerusalem."
I ended last week's commentary (May 10, 2010) with the following: "Our
goal in each moment is to be mindful and pay attention to our own
spiritual self so that we can find the hidden place within. That hidden
place will enable us to enter that realm where there are no separations
or divisions, where there is only unity. Then the challenge is to bring
that sense of oneness and unity back to the world in which we all live
and to make it a reality here as well."
This week's verse speaks of the palaces of Jerusalem. The Hebrew word
used here is armon ארמון, which can also be translated as a citadel or
fortified tower. But whatever this structure is, the psalmist makes
clear that its strength comes not from the bricks or stones from which
it is made, but from God's presence within. In the heavenly Jerusalem,
since there are no actual physical structures, this makes perfect
sense. But what about in the physical world in which we live? Within
this world I see the palace or citadel not as referring to any
building, but to the universe itself. We, human beings, animals and all
of the created world, are the bricks from which this majestic structure
is made. We are part of a structure, a unity, that is glorious as a
palace and strong as a citadel. But what gives this structure it's
glory and strength? It is the reality that we are part of the Oneness
of the universe. In that way, God, or the Divine flow in the universe,
is indeed our stronghold.
But should one of us separate ourselves from the One, then we lose that
strength that comes from the Divine. We are like a stone that has
dislodged itself from the walls of palace. When this happens we are
most vulnerable to the ego's manipulations and snares.

That is when we are must likely to falter and become lost. But if we
remember that hidden Presence within each of us, then we will once
again find that the Divine is our stronghold and we are once again part
of the glorious structure that fills the Universe with beauty and
holiness.



--
Posted By Rabbi Steven Nathan to Mindful Torah at 5/17/2010 09:04:00 PM
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.hampshire.edu/pipermail/jewish/attachments/20100517/1aae1e1d/attachment.htm>