6/30/2009
Yesterday afternoon, he said, “Sala lakad tasba Ab apag”–or some variation on those spellings; I was coming down with a cold, and things were a little fuzzy.
I finally translated all but the last word as, “Pray to capture God’s power…” But I couldn’t find “apag”, or another close that made sense, in the lexicon. A little later he seemed to correct himself (or me), and said, “agab”–or so I thought. The word, in Hebrew, means “(inordinate!) lust”, or to be lovers. Pray to capture God’s power through lust? Interesting idea, but I had a feeling that wasn’t quite right.
But in the middle of the night (I’m not even sure how awake I was, as I’d taken some cold medicine) it suddenly occurred to me that he’d been trying to say, “agape”. It’s a Greek word for love, perhaps Eros’ counterpart, but it describes a love that is divine, selfless, unconditional, compassionate, and all-encompassing. It’s the word Yeshua used when he spoke about loving God with all one’s heart, and loving one’s neighbor as oneself, and about loving one’s enemies.
It made much more sense–”Pray to capture God’s power by loving…”–well, as God loves.
