Shviti shehinah l’negdi tamid
I will set the presence of God across from me always
Tzeitl Locher of Groenekan, the Netherlands, teaches how to give this gift of holy wholeness to yourself or another, and her work is adapted below.
- Find a willing partner, someone upon whom you are going to visualize the yud hey vav hey.
- Begin to see a glowing yud upon your partner’s forehead. י
- See the light to the yud filling this person’s mind.
- Visualize the hey of your partner’s shoulders, arms, and fingers filling with Presence, with shehinah energy. ה
- Now visualize the top part of the vav touching and opening your partner’s heart and then filling the spine downwards. ו
- Visualize the hey of your partner’s hips and legs filling with Presence, the shehinah energy flowing down to his or her toes. ה
- Continue chanting until your partner is filled in this way a second time.
- Now have your partner chant this full sequence to you.
- Then simultaneously start to chant to each other.
This is a way to fulfill the mitzvah found in Deuteronomy 6:5, “to love G*d with all your heart, your soul, and all your ability.”
This can also be done alone, imagining someone you are concerned about who is far away, or you can focus upon your own body.
— Goldie Milgram in Meaning & Mitzvah