(Response to 2.C.1 From the Gospel of John, Chapter 3, presented by Piotr Sikora)
I would like to reflect on this text from the perspective of someone who practices ritual immersion in water on a regular basis. Mikve is a standard practice in Judaism, mostly for women, but in spiritually oriented circles also for men. Full immersion in water is understood as a rebirth. One reenters the cosmic waters, or the waters of the womb, and emerges reborn. Such practice likely lies at the basis of this text, that replaces rebirth through water, with rebirth through spirit (would NT scholars concur?). But precisely here I am struck by how little this theme of rebirth actually figures in my own spiritual life, and for that matter in the broader Jewish spiritual tradition, primarily hassidic, that forms me. Surely, those who undergo extreme conversion may be thought of in terms of rebirth. However, a clear experience underlies this text, and I do not find this experience to be one that my tradition pushes for, hence how rare it is, perhaps almost non existent. Why is that? Is the spiritual life envisioned, instead, in terms of incremental advances, rather than a sudden breakthrough (compare also Ruben Habito’s Zen piece)? Should we distinguish between rebirth as a metaphor for purification and rebirth as a formative experience of the spiritual life? How much of our experiences are conditioned by our texts, traditions and expectation?
