Welcome to our monthly newsletter!

We open our selection with the long due addition of a text by the English mystic William Law, from his book, Wholly for God: the True Christian Life, about turning to the heart, how to do it and what is found there.

Thou needest not, therefore, run here, or there, saying, “Where is Christ?” Thou needest not say, “Who shall ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above? or who shall descend into the deep, to bring Christ up from the dead?” for behold the Word, which is the Wisdom of God, is in thy heart.

• In his article “Visualization of Colors according to David ben Yehudah he-Hasid’s Kabbalistic Diagram”, Moshe Idel considers the doctrinal and historical implications of recently found manuscripts by an early master of Jewish esoterism, discussing and representing with diagrams the visualization of colors as part of the kavvanah or “intention” during prayer.

There are ten sefirot that are circles and spheres, like a wheel, and some of them are like branches that expand from the root. And the example of it is the encompassing sphere of the spheres, and the example of it is the tree that has branches and branches of branches, and branches of branches of branches of branches.

• We invite you to listen to the latest addition to our Sacred Audio Collection, a Syriac Orthodox Chant, “Like the Merchants” (Akh tagorye), in which the power of the ancient musical form and the Aramaic phonetics is added to the traditional lyrics about the sanctification of menial work. Click here to listen to two interpretations.

Like the merchants, the martyrs entered into battle. They shed their blood in order to obtain spiritual wealth, in the manner of skilled merchants.