Soul as parched as thirsty land
“Water, is taught by thirst.
Land—by the Oceans passed.
Transport—by throe—
Peace—by its battles told—
Love, by Memorial Mold—
Birds, by the Snow.”
Emily Dickinson
Thirst, a recurring theme in the poetic landscape of the biblical terrain is never just about the body. Poets of all times and places know what it is like to feel the need for nourishment, for life, for every drop of meaning without which none of this matters at all.
Today’s psalm is placed inside the Judean desert, as David flees from Saul, finding himself desolate in the wilderness, thirsty for water, protection, salvation -- and the knowledge that he is not alone. For mystics, the theme of thirst is also recurring, a metaphor for the longing for the divine presence, for swimming, or even drowning in the womb of all. It is both about the body - and about the idea of the body, both about a literal thirst and the notion of yearning to be one with the body of God:
מִזְמ֥וֹר לְדָוִ֑ד בִּ֝הְיוֹת֗וֹ בְּמִדְבַּ֥ר יְהוּדָֽה׃
אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ אֵלִ֥י אַתָּ֗ה אֲֽשַׁ֫חֲרֶ֥ךָּ צָמְאָ֬ה לְךָ֨ ׀ נַפְשִׁ֗י כָּמַ֣הּ לְךָ֣ בְשָׂרִ֑י בְּאֶֽרֶץ־צִיָּ֖ה וְעָיֵ֣ף בְּלִי־מָֽיִם׃
A psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah.
God, You are my God;
I search for You,
my soul thirsts for You,
my body yearns for You,
as a parched and thirsty land that has no water.
Ps. 63:1
The verses themselves hint at the multiple possible meanings, echoing the previous psalm, using the Hebrew word ‘Nefesh’ that may mean ‘soul’, but may also mean ‘body’, or even ‘being’.
Robert Alter translates this as “My throat thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You”, and explains that
“The multivalent nefesh could conceivably mean “being” (King James Version, “soul”), but the parallelism with “flesh” suggests the anatomical sense of the term. The speaker’s longing for God is so overwhelmingly intense that he feels it as a somatic experience, like the thirsty throat of a man in the desert, like yearning flesh.”
Whether this text was composed by a thirsty David on the run, or used as literary metaphor, the opening verses of this psalm have become quite known and emblematic of a type of religious practice that is identified with Jewish mystical vocabulary, found primarily kabbalistic and Hasidic texts. The art of the mystic has been described by scholars and practitioners alike as “cognitio dei experimentalis,” knowing God through experience.”
When the body meets the soul in true craving, the differences dissolve, and the thirst is the link, as the water is the source of inspiration.
What are we thirsty for today?
In a world where there is real thirst for water, and scarcity is man-made as a result of greed and cruelty - how can we yearn and thirst and manifest a better reality, divine and kind, where all our yearnings of the body are met by the blessing of being, nurtured, and fed? How can I quench some thirst today to satisfy myself, and benefit another?
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