When I was in Israel recently with a cohort of rabbis, Dror
Eshed, husband of Professor Melila Hellner-Eshed, died following a long
illness. I had never met him,
though I have gotten to know his wife as one of our teachers, a passionate,
brilliant expositor of Kabbalah.
At his funeral, she shared an insight that I want to bring to our congregation.
The Jewish mystical tradition maintains the notion that
God’s energy and presence somehow flow into the world as a kind of emanation,
the word for which is atzilut. Dr. Hellner-Eshed pointed out that the
Hebrew word contains the same root as the word etzel which means “next to” or “near.” Some people, she said, associate spirituality with things
that are remote and esoteric, thinking of it as a hidden force that we wait for
to appear and flow into us. But
maybe the essence of spirituality, she suggested, is that it is near us and
that often it flows from us, not just to us.
She went on to describe how her husband inspired people by
being near them and often by inviting them in. He was an artist who had a studio near Jerusalem. Frequently he worked with young people
who came from disadvantaged homes, giving them opportunities to work in his
studio and to gain the confidence that they had lacked. Dror, she told us, brought atzilut to people because he was etzel, accessible, near them.
