Other Modern Views"So, Friedman obviously comes from the school that said you can’t talk about these things, you can only experience this reality. But Dr. Friedman also said, ‘Maybe I can help you experience it. Come, take a walk with me.’ Okay?" the Rabbi gazed back at me. "Others, who are modern in their point of view," Rabbi Stern continued, "would use contemporary fulfillment kinds of terms — self-fulfillment terms, authenticity terms, peak experience terms — the kind of jargon that has grown out of Gardner and Maslow — some of these kinds of people. "The only other group in contemporary Judaism that talks in terms of ecstasy would be the Hasidic Jews, and I’m just not familiar enough with their literature in that regard. I would suggest that you either talk with Hasidim or that you read their literature to see the kind of vocabulary they employ." The Rabbi sat back in his chair. He continued, "But the Hasidic Jews have a word in Hebrew tradition called Shekinah. Shekinah is a Hebrew word which means the presence of God, or God force— however you term it in English. Shekinah is that part of God which we apprehend in the course of our existence, and there are lots of lovely notions about man’s relationship to the Shekinah, how we experience the Shekinah and what that does to us, and so on. |
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