BS"D

WELL I GOT A PEACEFUL, EASY FEELING...

Sunday. Today was definitely spent in first gear. It was a nice break after the furious amount of writing I had to make up for from being on the road, & slowly being discovered by seekers at Elat Chayyim who wanted to share more & more of my time, barukh haShem & keyn eyna hora, of course.

Dave got smikha, rabbinic ordination, from Reb Mordechai this morning. I was exhausted last night after Havdalah, when I first laid eyes on the document I was to copy out, glaring at me from Reb Mordechai's desktop. I wrote it out in cursive Hebrew by hand & then laid out the final work with pencil on veggie parchment which I happened to be travelling with - you never can be sure when you might need to suddenly write out a holy document for somebody :)
& I was thrilled to have been asked by Reb Mordechai to write out what amounts to an excellent friends marriage contract with his Judaism.
There must have been 60 of us in that yurt, all encircling Dave as Reb Mordechai invoked the Tur, the Rosh, & so many of our Chazal (Sages of blessed memeory) & praised Dave's character & Torah learning & life. It was such a powerful ritual, the likes of which I may never yet have seen, nor can commit to this blog. The beauty & sincerity of the love in that round room gushed out the windows & doors...kosi revayah...as we sang & blessed our friend & leader as the Rabbi laid hands on him & conferred upon him his hard-earned authority. He danced with blinding joy as we circled & sang him, so many souls connecting in truth - I saw the Otiyot join him! What a privilege to have written the holy words of this document, & what a privilege to be present for such a secret celebration, & what a privilege to simply know of this deeply lovingly intimate soul.

I think I ate up enough soul food for a month...& certainly this will visit me in the future.

Today was pack-it-up & move it out day, so that left me free to cruise the grounds alone & then spend the afternoon lazing on a picnic table in the shade with Shir-Yaakov, Joel, Shoshanah, Benny & Dave. Benny & I had great conversations about kabalah as it extends into & influences Jewish magical practice & superstition. We traded analyses of various old books we'd each studied on the subject (he's doing his doctorate at JTS/Columbia on it) & he told me some crazy stories about demonology books written by ancient rabbis which live in the JTS rare book room. I came away with a list of places in Williamsburg where I could find excellent seforim.
There's nothing like taking a day to relax, truly connect with similar souls & comiserate with chipmunks.
Dave was good enough to stay at Elat Chayyim & give me the keys to his flat on the upper west side, so I would have a quiet, private place to work & rest in Manhattan, barukh haShem.

When it was time to go there was just quiet, & an emptiness that so soon after meeting these gorgeous souls that I would be separating from them without the opportunity to fully connect, but I did leave with the knowledge that I would touch them again. G@d willing, soon.