The Vessel Between Us

The Light is shining—we need not chase,

We build between us the meeting place.

Not in my wisdom, not in my pride,

But where I make room for you inside.

The Creator waits where hearts unite,

Where broken desires turn toward the Light.

I cannot hold Him inside of me—

Between us is where He wants to be.

So crush the distance, bury the “I,”

Raise up the friends and don't ask why.

The Light does its work from up above—

Our work below is building love.

Ten separate hearts cannot reveal,

Until what divides us begins to heal.

Then from the darkness the truth breaks through:

The vessel is me making room for you.

SHECHINA IN EXILE (The Dust)

 

SHECHINA IN EXILE

(The Dust)

The Light never changed,

It never withdrew,

The Dweller still waits

For the vessel made new.

The heart was created

A dwelling to be,

A place for His glory,

A place He could see.

But look what we filled it with—

Garbage and lust,

Leaving the Shechina

Alone in the dust.

We traded the holy

For pleasures that rust,

Then wondered why heaven

Was hidden from us.

Shechina in exile,

Shechina brought low,

Waiting inside us

For somewhere to go.

So clean out the heart,

Raise love above lust,

Give Him a dwelling—

Raise Her from the dust.

Not for what I can take,

Not for what I receive,

But to give Him contentment

In all that I breathe.

Let the vessel be ready,

Let bestowal begin,

Till the Shochen and Shechina

Are dwelling within.

No more exile.

No more disgust.

Raise the Shechina—

Raise Her from the dust.

 

NONE ELSE BESIDES HIM

When the left hand throws me to the ground,

The right is already pulling me around.

When every door looks sealed and tight,

He hides Himself to build my sight.

The fall is His, the rise is too,

There ain't another pulling you.

No other hand, no other claim,

Behind the dark—He stays the same.

He lets me taste how weak I am,

Until I quit believing I can.

Until the heart is forced to cry,

“Creator, without You—I die.”

The distance builds the true demand,

The broken heart reaches for His hand.

Every descent strips away my pride,

Till there's nowhere left for “me” to hide.

And when He lifts me from the floor,

And suddenly I taste Him more,

I cannot say, “Look what I've done.”

He drew me close—there's only One.

So when I'm low, I won't complain,

Or make myself the cause of pain.

The Shechina aches when we're apart;

Her exile is what breaks my heart.

And when I'm raised and joy appears,

When light replaces all my fears,

My joy is not that I am free—

It's that the whole draws closer through me.

The will to receive will always remain,

But now we turn its course again:

Not what can I take, not what can I own,

But how can I bring contentment to His throne?

So throw me down or pull me near,

Give me darkness, give me clear—

Through every state, through thick and thin,

There is none else besides Him.

 

One Thought, One Source

What is better in me today?

Did something change along the way?

Not what I learned, not what I knew—

But did the Creator become more true?

Did His greatness rise above my mind?

Did I leave my little “I” behind?

Because when His greatness rules the heart,

My thoughts, my life, begin to restart.

There is one Thought behind it all,

Behind every rise, behind every fall.

One force acting through every state,

One purpose pulling us toward our fate.

Wicked or righteous—what do we see?

Only what is revealed inside of me.

If I refuse what creation demands,

I remain a servant in ego's hands.

But revelation does not come from me,

It comes from Above so I can see.

And what was hidden begins to show:

There is nowhere else I need to go.

Arvut isn't built alone inside,

It comes through brothers standing side by side.

The groups awaken what I cannot find,

Until one heart begins forming one mind.

A thousand groups across the earth,

Different languages, different birth—

But distance cannot split the soul

When one source leads us toward one goal.

If we drink from a different well,

Different stories are what we'll tell.

But when one lesson feeds us all,

The walls between the brothers fall.

Same day, same source, the same direction,

Each group strengthening the connection.

And may teachers rise in every land,

To help the world begin to understand.

There is one Thought. There is one way.

Make it greater in me today.

Not yesterday's fire, not yesterday's view—

Creator, make Your greatness new.

And when the whole world begins to see

That none of us were meant to be free

From one another—but free from the “I,”

We'll build one Kli beneath one sky.

 

ARVUT — KILL THE I

I came here looking for something more,

tired of knocking on the same damn door.

This beastly life had run its course,

but I still couldn't find the source.

Then came the friends and made it clear,

the thing I needed was already here.

Not in myself, not in my mind,

but in the brothers I left behind.

Advertise the goal until I see,

there ain't no road that's meant for me.

Raise the greatness of the Creator high,

until there's nowhere left for the I.

Friend tells friend and group tells group,

until we're pulled into one loop.

Each one building the other's desire,

each one throwing wood on the fire.

I don't need Arvut to save my skin,

I need Arvut to bury what's within.

That stubborn bastard screaming, “ME!”

that keeps my heart from being free.

So crush my pride with brutal love,

and raise the greatness from above.

Let me disappear inside the ten,

and find my true existence then.

The deficiency must fit the plan,

not what the ego wants from man.

The thought of creation sets the aim—

to make us one, not praise my name.

And when the world has had enough

of empty promises and useless stuff,

it too will finally ask us why:

What do we gain when we kill the I?

Then we can show what we came to prove:

connection is not something you improve.

It's where the shattered pieces start—

Arvut is one collective heart.

Searching For Truth

 As the skies clear and the rain subsides,

There is no reason to continue to hide.

When the heart opens and new thoughts come in,

Giving each person a place to begin.

Searching the Reshimo for something clear,

A spark from within that is drawing us near.

A memory awakened, a point in the heart,

Calling us forward, showing where to start.

It wasn't by chance that the question appeared,

Or all of the walls we struggled and feared.

Each fall left a mark, each sorrow a clue,

Until something deeper came breaking on through.

The Reshimo awakens—but I cannot climb,

Alone in myself, wasting my time.

I need all my brothers, their hearts joined with mine,

For only together do sparks start to shine.

So let the rain fall, let the old world depart,

The road to the Creator begins in the heart.

We search not alone for the truth we pursue—

I find Him in them, and they find Him in you.

Don't Hide Your Face

DON'T HIDE YOUR FACE

If your head is in the right place,

Don't hide your face.

Don't regret the past,

Those sensations won't last.

What happened before

Don't carry no more.

You stumbled, you fell,

But you lived through that hell.

Yesterday's gone,

So get yourself on.

There's nothing to chase—

Just stand in your place.

The scars that you wear

Say that you were there.

So straighten your back,

And don't you look back.

If your head is in the right place,

Don't hide your face.

Let yesterday pass—

Those sensations won't last.