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THE NATIV – YOUR PRIVATE PATH
RDS 8/6/23
The principle of your own spiritual path is a fundamental one. In the Jewish world, that’s behind the word “Nativ”. It comes from one of the oldest texts of Jewish Mysticism, the Sefer Yetzirah, or Book of Creation: With 32 “mystical” paths of Wisdom , Engraved Yah, the Lord of Hosts, . . . Whose name is Holy . . .” The Hebrew word for “paths” here is Netivot, the plural of Nativ. Nativ a word that is actually very rare in Hebrew texts. Much more common is the word “ Derekh”, meaning a way or road. But as the primary text of Kabbalah, the Zohar, states, there is an important difference: A Derekh is a Public road, a road used by all people. A Nativ, on the other hand, is a personal route — a path through the forest known only by you, blazed for your personal use, hidden and without markers or signposts, which you must discover and tread by means of your own devices. The 32 paths of Wisdom are therefore called Netivot — private paths, which must be found by you alone, for you alone. There is no open highway, no freeway to enlightenment, no guidebook, no seven easy steps. It is up to you. In the words of the 20th century Jewish philosopher and scholar Martin Buber, explaining the teachings of the great 18th century mystics ,
Every person born into this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique. As the great rebbes taught, ‘It is the duty of every person to know and consider that they are unique in the world in his particular character and that there has never been anyone like them in the world, for if there had been someone like them there would have been no need for them to be in the world. Every single person is a new thing in the world . . . Every person’s foremost task is the actualization of their unique, unprecedented and never recurring potentialities, and not the repetition of something that another, even the greatest, has already done.”
The same idea was expressed succinctly by a great 18th century teacher, Rabbi Zusya when he said, a short while before his death: ‘In the world to come I shall not be asked: “Why were you not Moses?” I shall be asked: “Why were you not Zusya?” That’s what worries me the most”.
Buber continues:
A rabbi once asked his teacher, ‘Show me one general way to the service of God” The great teacher replied: ‘It is impossible to tell people what way they should take. Everyone should carefully observe what way their heart draws them, and then choose this way with all their strength.’ . . . But what it is that can and shall be done by just this .person and no other, can be revealed to a person only in themselves.
The Nativ is not just taking “the road less travelled” as in the poem by Robert Frost, or the popular book. Both roads diverging in the woods are Derechs – public paths , one more well worn than the other, but both established and conventional for the spiritual seeker. No, the Nativ is the path un-taken by anyone before, not exactly the same. Going to this place of uniqueness, though perhaps intimidating, and recognizing the necessity of finding our OWN path is the necessary precursor to spiritual growth and devotion.
Shalom (peace),
Robert
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