Devakut (דְּבָקוּת)
Thursday, May 1st, 2008by John Parsons
www.hebrew4christians.com
The Hebrew word devakut (דְּבָקוּת) means “cleaving” and refers to communion with God (in some Jewish thinking, devakut approximates the “beatific vision” in Christian mystical tradition). This word is derived from the Hebrew word davak (דבק), meaning devoted to God (the word for glue is devek which likewise comes from the same root). Davak is used to describe how a man cleaves to his wife so that they become basar echad – “one flesh” (see Gen. 2:24), and is also related to the word for bodily joint (debek), suggesting that we are to stick as closely to the LORD as our bones stick to our skin (Job 19:20). The devakim were those who “held fast” or “cleaved” to the LORD throughout the wilderness wanderings (Deut. 4:4) and all of us are likewise commanded to revere the LORD and cleave to Him (Deut. 10:20).
In the Kabbalah, devakut is considered as the highest mystical step on the spiritual ladder back to God, though (in contradistinction to this) Jesus emphasized that he is the true sullam, or Ladder, to God. Just as Jacob saw the ladder reaching to heaven with the angels of God ascending and descending upon it, so Yeshua told Nathanael that He is the sha’ar hashamayim - the Way into heaven (John 14:6).
Chaverim, יֵשׁ אֹהֵב דָּבֵק מֵאָח — yesh ohev davek me’ach — “there is a friend who sticks (davek) closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24). His Name is Yeshua, the true Lover of our souls…
Blessed be His Name.