Healing Well of Miriam

ב״ה

 18 Tishrei 5771

When my daughter heard about the work I’ve been involved with, she (and others) told me that I needed to read Dan Brown’s book The Lost Symbol, a well-written mystery, starring again his now famous Harvard professor of symbology, Robert Langdon.   But the reason this was a “must-read” for me was the exploration of Noetic Sciences.  I looked this up on the internet and found Wikipedia’s definition: 

The theory of noetics centers around the idea that the human mind is capable of affecting work or events or even doing work in the physical world. It is suggested that thought and spirit are not, in fact, imaginary, but are Bose or photon based meaning essentially that the mind can be quantified by formulae which describe quantum materials such as light.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noetic_theory

Throughout the book Prof. Langdon is, again, having his faith shaken by the repeated ideas of the power of the human soul…and of its very existence.  I found the format of the book reminiscent of my teacher’s telling us that knowledge is coming into the world in a concealed way, through popular books and movies, that the preferred way would be through study of Torah, but since this is unlikely for most people, it is coming clandestinely “from the ether.”  This book is yet another example.  And the Noetics research is another.

 The reality of the soul, and its power in the world, is a core belief of every religion.  So, too, is the concept that we are created in the image of G-d.   But WHAT does that mean?  Clearly many have misunderstood this idea and taken it to diabolical ends…which the author of this book illustrates with his villain.  However, just because some people misunderstand and misappropriate the idea does not invalidate its true meaning.  So Noetic science delves into this theory—the potential of the human mind.

 Is this really a secret?  Is this really something only the great sages of history could know?

 When the people of Israel came out of Egypt their first stop was a place called Marah, which the water was bitter.  Hashem told Moshe to throw a tree into the water, and afterward, it was drinkable.  (If the tree was bitter, this is an example of homeopathy…like healing like.)  The most important event at Marah, however, was a new revelation of Hashem Himself:  “I am Hashem, your Healer.”  This was the beginning of the journey to Sinai, where the people of Israel would receive the Torah.  The promise of Hashem was that this would be a “manual on being human in the world”, for obeying these commandments would ensure that “any of the diseases that I placed in Egypt, I will not bring upon you” (Exodus 15:26).  The journey took the people 49 days.  During that time they drank the water from the well of Miriam that flowed from the rock and ate the manna that fell from Heaven each morning.   This divine food was refining their physical beings as receptacles of their souls.  49 days, paralleling the 49 levels of degradation in Egypt; 49 days, paralleling the numerical value of the Hebrew word for “sick”—choleh.

ח ו ל ה

5 30 6 8

Like the tree in the bitter water, the trek for 49 days purified the effects of the 49 levels of Egypt’s degradation that caused physical illness.  This indicates the connection of the physical with the soul—not that the body needs to be mortified, but rather purified and elevated so it can be vitalized by the soul.

 The whole population of Israel, along with whatever Egyptians joined them, journeyed together to Sinai.  The whole population drank the water and ate the manna.  The whole population experienced the elevation that manifested in total physical wellness and enabled them to stand at Sinai and hear the voice of G-d speak.  Torah relates this experience as a microcosmic picture of Redemption of all Mankind.  ALL.  Just as all the population of Israel were elevated to a higher consciousness—a Torah consciousness—this is the promise for all Mankind.  And this elevated consciousness brings with it freedom from the prison of physical illness, as well.

 This is something that Noetics is surprised to discover…something that Torah has promised over and over…not allegorically, but literally.  It is interesting to see the shift in science from being skeptical of “religious beliefs” to seeking to prove them.  But that is a sign of our time, a sign that many of the sages of Torah predicted.  True science would catch up, and Mankind would find that “miracles” are quite “natural” in the ideal world G-d created.  This is a step into our role as ADAM, who was created with Torah consciousness from the beginning…in the image of G-d

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Miriam Ben-Yaacov © September 2010