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Notes

Source notes and further reading

2 min · Adam G.

The references below identify the scriptural, rabbinic, philosophical, and mystical passages discussed. The book’s exercises and extended spiritual applications are its own Godward synthesis. Transliterations are simplified for readability; short English renderings are paraphrases unless quotation marks indicate otherwise.

  1. Proverbs 3:5–7, 13; Rashi on 3:5. Hebrew text, translation, and commentary. Text.
  2. Brown-Driver-Briggs, entries for el and bataḥ. Directional grammar supports the language of orientation without establishing an exclusive mystical meaning. Text 1; Text 2.
  3. Brown-Driver-Briggs, sha’an, the root behind the instruction not to lean on one’s understanding. Text.
  4. Brown-Driver-Briggs, lev, encompassing mind, will, and heart. Text.
  5. Brown-Driver-Briggs, yada’, including the grammatical form da’ehu in Proverbs 3:6. Text.
  6. Tanya, Likkutei Amarim, chapter 3, on da’at as binding and connection through sustained contemplation. Text.
  7. Tikkunei Zohar, introduction, 17a, Pataḥ Eliyahu. The prayer’s refusal of conceptual grasp coexists with its language of sefirot. Text.
  8. Nefesh HaḤayyim, Gate II, 4:13, on the recipient of prayer and the refusal to address a particular sefirah independently. Text.
  9. Numbers 21:8-9, the serpent on the standard. Text.
  10. Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 3:8, the rabbinic interpretation of looking upward and directing the heart toward the Father in heaven. Text.
  11. II Kings 18:4, Hezekiah’s destruction of the serpent and its association with Nehushtan. Text.
  12. I Kings 8:27-30, divine uncontainability and prayer toward the Temple. Text.
  13. Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 30a, geographical orientation and the heart directed toward the Father in heaven. Text.
  14. Qur’an 2:144, 2:115, and 2:177, on qiblah, east and west, and righteousness. Text 1; Text 2; Text 3.
  15. Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit, chapter 27, especially section 66, on eastward prayer and Paradise. Text.
  16. Babylonian Talmud, Yevamot 105b, eyes downward and heart upward. Text.
  17. Sefer Yetzirah 1:8, on restraint and return; read within chapter 1’s wider contemplative inquiry. Wording and numbering vary among recensions. Text.
  18. Qur’an 42:10-11, trust, return, and divine incomparability. Text 1; Text 2.
  19. Bhagavad Gita 12:5, on the difficulty of approaching the unmanifest for embodied beings. Text.
  20. Majjhima Nikaya 22, Alagaddupama Sutta, the raft simile. The comparison here concerns the use of teachings, not a Buddhist doctrine of a Creator. Text.
  21. Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed I.59, on descriptions of God and silence in praise. Text.
  22. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Human Dispositions 3:2-3, on intention in ordinary life and Proverbs 3:6. Text.
  23. Brown-Driver-Briggs, yashar, on straightness and rightness. Text.