Saturday, October 16, 2010

Experiencing Another Being

Lech-Lecha

שָׂרַי אִשְׁתְּךָ, לֹא-תִקְרָא אֶת-שְׁמָהּ שָׂרָי
As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai ... Bereshit 17:15

Robin Artisson writes in The Witching Way of the Hollow Hill -

Truth or Naming refers to creating words that have a mystical value, in the sense that they bring the person who hears the words into a sort of state where the inner nature of the thing referred to is experienced, normally in a wordless, direct manner ...

Whatever the essence of the woman - the man's wife - the name Sarai tells us only of his experience of this woman, a nameless Being of many names whose essence extends beyond this particular moment in time, as time pivots around the Thread of Fate which She Is.