Rabbi Meir used to say: How is Techeles [blue color used in Tzitzis] different from all other colors? The Techeles looks like the sea, and the sea looks like the sky and the sky looks like a sapphire stone and the sapphire stone looks like the Throne of Honor (of the Almighty).
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Chullin 89a. One of the leading orthodox lecturers on Jewish thought, Rabbi Yissocher Frand, explains why we are given this relatively long chain of association: Because we all must take one step at a time. Brilliant color and light can stimulate us, inspire us, and like all things that compel the soul make us want to absorb them and transcend. We are swept up by beauty and want to meld with it. This is after all a kind of love. (Read more.)
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3 comments:
Spoken like a poet. You CAN'T be a lawyer...!
THANK YOU REB CHAIM
I really like the idea of a long chain of associations sparking the mind through a sequence of related thoughts that culminate in a moment of transcendence.
Thanks for planting that seed.
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