Rabbi Shabtai Teicher
Shabtai Teicher, was born in Brooklyn in 1946 and settled in Jerusalem in 1970. He studied for over 7 years with one of the outstanding and renowned kabbalists of our generation, Rabbi Mordechai Attiah, and also studied deeply in various other fields of Jewish scholarship. He was a specialist in Lurianic Kabbala, edited and annotated the first eleven chapters of our English rendition of “Shaar HaGilgulim.”
He authored the “The Saba of Mishpatim” translation and commentary of the passage in the Zohar which deals with reincarnation.
WENT TO DEMONSTRATE
…went to demonstrate
totally useless exercise
completely wasted time
a propellor blowing in the wind
a delusion on a pedestal
amid a swamp of hate
At least I won’t feel so lonely,
I’ll know that there are other
Official maniacs, like me.
Suddenly, he asked me there,
“Are you the father of Brian Neebeucher?”
I said, “No.
I am the father of other people,
But not he.”
It was only later
After he was stomped by the police
Along with others I learned
That he
was
Brian Neebeucher.
I should not be surprised
In another lifetime
Brian Neubeucher
Was me.
MEDITATION ON THE SHEMA
A pellet of light
Was going to come out
From superb anonymity.
Kicking from within
It refracted through
The Supreme Mother’s Matrix.
As if through a prism
Into seventy lights.
These seventy lights
Becoming the seventy branches
Of the Tree of Life.
This tree gives up a scent.
Then all the trees of the Garden of Eden
The Garden of Delights
Send up smells
That themselves praise their Master,
Their very existence
A song in His Honor.
In the midst of the Garden –
Then the girl gets dressed to go to the chuppah.
All the seventy supernal lights
Join together with one desire,
In unison will
To be one
Without any separation.
And Her husband gets ready
for Her,
To go to the chuppa
With the same unification –
To be together with the Queen.
Believe it or not
At this point She seems to falter,
Loses Her cool, is afraid to move
That we have to move Her
To arouse Her from dread
So we say Shema Yisrael
And this is what we mean:
“Hear O Israel,
Get yourself ready
Who was destined to be your husband
Is coming to you
Dressed in all his finery
Carrying many good qualities.”
“The Name our G-d, the Tetragrammaton is One.”
One unification, one will.
Without separation
All these lights joining together
Into One, going into one…
Desire.
When Israel says “Hashem is One”
There are six words
Six sides
The three dimensions of space
They become one
They go into the center point
With one…
Desire
The bride dressed, adorned in Her jewelry
The grooms come to her
To take her
To her husband
In great secrecy
And we whisper,
“Blessed is the glory of His Kingdom
(That is Her)
forever and ever.”
Jerusalem, Tevet 5762
[Based on a commentary (Sulam 125, “Terumah”) on the Zohar, one of the fundamental works of Kabbala.]