page_title: Devekut
section_title: The natural experience of Nature, and the mystical experience of Nature
hierarchical_section_title: Devekut / In Hasidism / The psychological experience of devekut / The natural experience of Nature, and the mystical experience of Nature
caption_attribution_description: Română: Zori în Văleni, Maramureş pe deal spre Călineşti privind peste Valea Izei
context_page_description: Devekut, debekuth, deveikuth or deveikus is a Jewish concept referring to closeness to God. It may refer to a deep, trance-like meditative state attained during Jewish prayer, Torah study, or when performing the 613 mitzvot. It is particularly associated with the Jewish mystical tradition.
context_section_description: For one who has studied the texts of Hasidism, and has responded to their "Wellsprings", they can then carry this mystical perspective into daily life. Especially opportune, in traditional Hasidic life, was seeking times of solitude amongst Nature. In Breslov Hasidism, the simple prayers of one's heart in such a setting (Hitbodedut) becomes of central importance. Rabbi Nachman of Breslav poetically depicts the spiritual lifeforce in the grasses of the field as joining and helping in one's prayers. Psychologically too, the aesthetic beauty of Nature becomes elevated by seeing the Divine transcendence reflected in it. To a sensitised soul, a tree can take on the extra dimension of a mystical beauty, that unites the Divine immanence of God with the transcendence. Divine transcendence and immanence are traditional notions in Jewish thought. The Panentheism of the Baal Shem Tov gave new emphasis on the theology and perception of the immanent Divine in all things. This carried earlier Kabbalistic notions, that saw Nature as a manifestation of God, to their theological conclusions. (The Kabbalists explain that one of the Hebrew names of God "Elo-h-im", representing Divine immanence, is numerically equivalent in Gematria with "HaTeva" meaning "Nature"). In the second section of the Tanya, Schneur Zalman of Liadi articulated the philosophical explanations of this. Similarly, the Baal Shem Tov gave a new interpretation of Divine Providence, that described how the movement of a leaf in the wind is significant in the Divine plan. A tale of the Baal Shem Tov also depicts the relationship between consciousness of the Divine immanence in Nature, infused with the higher light of Divine transcendence:
  Once, when the Baal Shem Tov was on a journey, Sabbath overtook him on the highway. He stopped the wagon, and went out into the field to perform the services that welcome the coming of Sabbath, and to remain there until the Sabbath was ended. On the field, a flock of sheep were grazing. When the Baal Shem Tov raised his voice and spoke the prayers that welcome the Sabbath as the coming of a Bride, the sheep rose upon their hind legs, and lifted their heads in the air, and stood like people listening. And so they remained in wrapt attention for two hours, all the while that the Baal Shem spoke.
  In the tale, the sheep become aware in their instinctive feelings of the existence of a Divine transcendent reality. According to the tale, the Baal shem Tov's prayers could be holy enough for even instinctive creatures to perceive this.
caption: Hasidic stories recount the travels of Tzadikim Nistarim (hidden Tzadikim) and Hasidic Rebbes among the Shtetls and countryside of Eastern Europe
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "KONICA MINOLTA", "Image Model": "DiMAGE A200", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "203", "Image YResolution": "203", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2006:10:10 22:11:32", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 4, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, 22, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 5, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0]", "Image ExifOffset": "320", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1122", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3897", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:07:24 06:56:51", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:07:24 06:56:51", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "89/10", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Daylight", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "93/10", "EXIF SubjectArea": "[1280, 960, 333, 255]", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2560", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1600", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "996", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "36", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "3"}