Made possible by a grant from the Hadassah Foundation
by Rabbi Goldie Milgram
One particularly helpful method of Torah study and teaching is the Four Worlds model. This develops four dimensions of mind-body-spirit exploration (i.e. safe, grounded mysticism, the four worlds comes from traditional Jewish Kabbalah), so we can expand the meaning of a text for ourselves and experience its relevance to our lives. The method that follows is my adaptation of the model.
Dimension
One: World of Assiyah (tachlis,
basics, action)
Key question to explore: What is the actual text?
Read the text out loud in the language
that works for you.
Look at the actual words and phrases, story line and characters very
carefully, see it for what it is.
What is happening in the text? Who is speaking? What did they say/do?
In a group, I find it works best for the facilitator to read the text aloud dramatically. Some groups prefer going around in a circle with everyone taking a line or paragraph.
Dimension Two:
World of Yetzirah (kishkes)
Key question to explore: What are the actual feelings this text brings
up in you?
Express out loud with facial, body and hand motions, and words if desired, the strongest sensations within your body that the text brings up for you.
Suggested way to handle this in a
group:
After reading a segment of text out loud (try, for example, the first
24 lines of Parshat Emor in Leviticus). Invite each person to identify
through a word and a replicable motion of their hands/face/body the most
powerful sensation the text brought up in them.
Go around. Let each person say the phrase or words that describes the sensations the text evokes and make the relevant symbolic moments. The whole group repeats that person's sensing phrase as one voice and also enacts the same movements.
Then look at the speaker and say "shama-ti"* and their name " ".
(*Shama-ti means "I have listened", it comes from the Unity of All Being prayer which is found in Deuteronomy: "Sh'ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheyu, Adonai Echad.")
It is very validating and expanding to have a group repeat your sensation and the motion of your senses about "all this". It also feels bonding and wonderful to see all eyes upon you during the "shamati" and to hear your name recited as a giver-over of Torah to the group.
Dimension
Three: Beriyah (Yiddishe
Kup - thought - intellect)
Key question to ask: What are the questions we want to ask of this
text, characters and author(s)?
You might begin to write down your questions.
In a group, use the same method above. Each person gets a turn to dramatically pose their most urgent question. The group repeats the question with the asker's inflection, says "shama-ti" and the person's name. NO answers are given....the field of inquiry simply becomes much richer by the sharing.Dimension Four:
Atzilut (Unification with the Source -
Becoming the text)
Key question to ask: Whose voices, issues and experience in the text
could be mine?
Become the text by
empathetically taking on the voice of one of the characters or symbols.
Enter into dialogue with another of the characters or symbols. Notice
important relationships and characters who may not be present in this
particular section of texts, invite them into the story. Become their
voices. If you are studying on your own, you might write down these
dialogues.
The revelation/vision for the future and understanding of your own past
through this experience will create an interpenetration of the metaphors
and world the Torah with the Torah of your own life. This is a form of
Yechidus, closeness to the Oneness. Notice your experience in all
the dimensions we have covered. It is more layered than linear as an
experience, there is complexity and richness. All dimensions are
occurring simultaneously, yet informed by the sequential focus on
each....like an opera of exploration and knowing.
(Important Note: Exploring on the Fourth Dimension is a very delicate
thing to do in a group (and on one's own, this is powerful stuff.) For
groups an experienced biblio-drama or psychodrama facilitator is
important. I believe in a Torah study group one needs to keep boundaries
at the level of raising awareness and not push such an experience into
the realm of therapy.) It can be very wonderful!
Continue with a Guide to Classical Chevruta (Partner) Study of Torah
or Any Jewish Sacred Text