Yet Another Letter That Will Go Unanswered

There is such a striking (seeming) disconnect between religious mystical expression, often in erotic terms, and law- based piety or kashrut. I would go as far as to say it represents a paradox. Perhaps this paradox is necessary. Piety taken to excess is darkness and sterilility and only leads away from Hashem. On the other hand, using sin as a means of closeness to Hashem (Mitzvah ha-ba'ah ba-Averah) is also extremely problematic. My argument against piety is that it leads to fruits which, on the whole, are more evil and insidious than the fruits of misguided over-indulence.

Over-indulgence leads rather quickly directly to either repentance or physical death (in AA we say we have to "grow up or die"). When you eat too much ice cream you get a belly ache. Piety, however, often leads to spiritual death or paralysis. Piety is conducive to the worst sins of the religious: judgement of others, self-righteousness, unkindness, shunning,  hypocrisy, persecution, extremism, supremacism, and sinning against others in various other ways.  Piety rests upon control and self-will and is a spiritual death trap. The role of passion in the relationship of the soul to Hashem empowers one by allowing one to let go of control, die to self-will, and to engage in self-abandonment, all of which are necessary to approach the Divine. A famous quote by C.S Lewis states "in relation to God we are all female". Piety, then, would have an essentially male character, because it represents self-will,  domination, abuse of power, and unforgiveness (Gevurah). 

The goal of the mystical encounter with Hashem as lover is to become utterly vulnerable, all defenses disabled; to RECEIVE, (which is the feminine role; Hashem is masculine because He provides all and He "pursues the female"), in a way impossible to experience with another human person. 

When we experience "being in love" we cease to enagage in our survival, we lose the ability to function, everything becomes unimportant in relation to the Beloved; we do not seek control, we don't care what the outcome may be, no matter how destructive and we DON'T CARE IF WE DIE. We experience a complete dependence or surrender. Only this is the appropriate posture of the human soul before the Divine. Only in this way does the soul attain union. The use of piety, on the other hand, only increases and exaggerates the worst flaws of the religious and distance from the Divine. Rather than leading to self-abandonment,  it leads to an ever and ever extreme (one could say sphincter) drive to control, diminishment of empathy, loss of identification with other human beings, and destruction of one's humanity in general. 

So it could be said that taking a masculine (pietistic) approach to Hashem is not going to work because one is then seeking to BE G-d rather than to RECEIVE G-d and nobody beats G-d.  G-d always wins. When G-d seizes us (if we are lucky), we can only surrender.

Some of the stories of I.B. Singer illustrate the "dark side" of the religious expression of passionate love. Those tales read like warnings, but I believe they have a deeper message: vulnerability,  self-abandonment, loss of control are preferable to pietistic excess. Ecstatic prayer, contemplation, recollection, dance, creative expression, passionate love are the best avenues to union w Hashem. David danced before the Ark, while others were embarrassed to see him do that.  David was closer to G-d than they were. 

Obviously the soul engages in different methods at different times. But in the end, I believe a person does better losing piety in their search for authentic humanity and closeness to Hashem than they do if they lose passion.

1. King David. Gustave Moreau 

2. David plays harp for Saul, Lucas Van Leyden