Healing Well of Miriam

The Divine Name of Keter appears only once in the Torah, when Moses encountered God at the burning bush and asked His Name.  He was told EHYE ASHER EHYE—“I will be what I will be.”    

Keter has three inner soul experiences:  Ratzon (desire or will), Emunah (faith), Ta’anug (pleasure).  This sefirah is called the realm of Ratzon, for it is here that the desire of God arises.  When we talked about bitachon (confidence) in the sefirah Netzach, we said bitachon is the test of emunah.   We can look at these three experiences as a process: We have the emunah (faith) to submit our ratzon (will) to God’s, and then we are able to experience true ta’anug (pleasure).    

We began this journey with the quest to see the image of God within ourselves.  It began in Malchut, where even the inner soul experience of shiflut (selfness) still holds the consciousness of self.  Then we went up to Chochmah, where the inner soul experience of bitul (selfness) transcends into the blank slate for God-consciousness.  Yet even higher is Keter, which is known as ayn (nothing).  Many meditative traditions teach focusing on the dot that precedes everything or on the breath or on nothingness.  This nothingness of Keter is the place that precedes thought.  Yet although we call it “nothing,” it is actually the beginning of everything.  It is the place of losing oneself in selfness in order to find oneself again in the Image of God.  This is the Oneness we find in the silent void where we find God within ourselves.  Here we might meditate:

For You silence is praise.