the speaking tree - Seeds: The Transcendent Stuff Of Life
Blu Greenberg
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It was from a young boy that i learnt about the transcendent nature of seeds. I was working on a graduate school paper, the hypothesis of which was that Orthodox Jews believed in the existence of God in the universe. Of course, my respondents, 30 random members of my synagogue, affirmed this as an article of faith; but when came time for proof or certainty , there was plenty of equivocation. Only one person the cantor of the synagogue whose heartfelt prayer had led the community for almost three dozen years had no doubts whatsoever. God was his intimate father, present in his life every single day , all day.One evening, still curious about the other 29 religious souls, those who carefully observed the commandments, i returned home to find my 10-year-old son waiting for some conversation. I decided to test out the God questions on him. “Of course there is a God,“ JJ answered. He went on to offer his proof.“You see those cucumbers? Well, one tiny seed becomes a cucumber, and another tiny seed grows into a tomato, and another becomes a banana. Someone is making that happen. Someone is making the difference. That someone must be God.“
Without using those words, JJ was talking about the DNA of a seed key to the universe in a speck of an object. What JJ was saying was that God's intelligence and power are encompassed in a single seed, a specially marked, carefully programmed unit, all the more remarkable because of its infinitesimal size.
Seeds are the transcendent stuff of life; our lives come from seeds. Seeds are what enabled life to be maintained from primitive times unto today: every human being ever born came from a seed; so too, all animal and plant life that sustained us as food, all that humans wore on their backs before synthetics, all aspects of shelter, all original tools of culture such as writing, music and art indeed everything that we depended on to continue the generations.
Given the importance of seed, it is not unfair to say that in our everyday lives we tend to take for granted their power and importance. We discard seeds as garbage without a thought of the mysteries they hold; we pay more for watermelons and lemons engineered to be free of those “pesky“ things.
Judaism partially compen sates in acknowledging the masterminding ability of seeds in their end product, as my son did. Among my favourite aspects of Judaism are the blessings we recite during the course of each day, blessings over the wonders of nature food, natural events such as thunder and lightning and great oceans, scenes of beauty , persons of great wisdom, change of seasons, and more.Interestingly , as regards the blessings over food, we are taught to recite not one global blessing for all food but differentiated formulations of thanks to God.
Before biting into an apple, we recite a blessing on this fruit that grows on a tree; we recite a different blessing on a cucumber that grows in the ground or a grape that comes from a vine or bread that comes from a wheat stalk in the earth. It is not the fullest recognition of the brilliance of seed, but it does heighten awareness that nature is an exquisitely designed, variegated entity that connects us to the Divine.
JJ's life was taken a dozen years ago, at age 36, in a bicycle accident.
I never think of seed without thinking of God, and of JJ. Seeds are the transcendent stuff of life, for so much about our lives comes from seeds. From `Sacred Seed', published by The Golden Sufi Centre.
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Without using those words, JJ was talking about the DNA of a seed key to the universe in a speck of an object. What JJ was saying was that God's intelligence and power are encompassed in a single seed, a specially marked, carefully programmed unit, all the more remarkable because of its infinitesimal size.
Seeds are the transcendent stuff of life; our lives come from seeds. Seeds are what enabled life to be maintained from primitive times unto today: every human being ever born came from a seed; so too, all animal and plant life that sustained us as food, all that humans wore on their backs before synthetics, all aspects of shelter, all original tools of culture such as writing, music and art indeed everything that we depended on to continue the generations.
Given the importance of seed, it is not unfair to say that in our everyday lives we tend to take for granted their power and importance. We discard seeds as garbage without a thought of the mysteries they hold; we pay more for watermelons and lemons engineered to be free of those “pesky“ things.
Judaism partially compen sates in acknowledging the masterminding ability of seeds in their end product, as my son did. Among my favourite aspects of Judaism are the blessings we recite during the course of each day, blessings over the wonders of nature food, natural events such as thunder and lightning and great oceans, scenes of beauty , persons of great wisdom, change of seasons, and more.Interestingly , as regards the blessings over food, we are taught to recite not one global blessing for all food but differentiated formulations of thanks to God.
Before biting into an apple, we recite a blessing on this fruit that grows on a tree; we recite a different blessing on a cucumber that grows in the ground or a grape that comes from a vine or bread that comes from a wheat stalk in the earth. It is not the fullest recognition of the brilliance of seed, but it does heighten awareness that nature is an exquisitely designed, variegated entity that connects us to the Divine.
JJ's life was taken a dozen years ago, at age 36, in a bicycle accident.
I never think of seed without thinking of God, and of JJ. Seeds are the transcendent stuff of life, for so much about our lives comes from seeds. From `Sacred Seed', published by The Golden Sufi Centre.
Post your comments at speakingtree.in
