Parshah Summary – P’shat (literal level)
The parshah opens on Mount Sinai (b’har – “on the mountain”) with the laws of the Sabbatical year: every seventh year, all work on the land should cease, and its produce becomes free for all to take, human and beast alike…
Seven Sabbatical cycles are followed by a fiftieth year— the Yovel, the “Jubilee” year, on which, in addition to ceasing work on the land, all indentured servants are set free, and all ancestral estates that have been sold revert to their original owners. Additional laws governing the sale of lands, and the prohibitions against fraud and usury, are also given…
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
What is non-duality? Or as it says in the language of Torah, that God is One? The affirmation of Divine Oneness is the central practice of Judaism underlying everything else – but what does it really mean? And what is the connection between non-duality and the festival of Lag B’Omer? There is a wonderful hint in a Torah verse from Parshat Behar, which talks about the Sabbath of the earth that happens every seven years: וַיְדַבֵּ֤ר יְיְ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה בְּהַ֥ר סִינַ֖י לֵאמֹֽר׃ דַּבֵּ֞ר אֶל־בְּנֵ֤י יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ וְאָמַרְתָּ֣ אֲלֵהֶ֔ם כִּ֤י תָבֹ֙אוּ֙ אֶל־הָאָ֔רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֲנִ֖י נֹתֵ֣ן לָכֶ֑ם וְשָׁבְתָ֣ה הָאָ֔רֶץ שַׁבָּ֖ת לַיי׃ שֵׁ֤שׁ שָׁנִים֙ תִּזְרַ֣ע שָׂדֶ֔ךָ וְשֵׁ֥שׁ שָׁנִ֖ים תִּזְמֹ֣ר כַּרְמֶ֑ךָ וְאָסַפְתָּ֖ אֶת־תְּבוּאָתָֽהּ׃ The Divine spoke to Moses on Mt. Sinai saying, “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall rest – a Shabbat for the Divine. Six years you shall sow your fields and six years you shall prune your vineyards and gather in your yields…’” - Vayikra (Leviticus) 25:5-6; Parshat Behar
What does this Shabbat of the earth have to do non-duality and Lag b’Omer?
Lag b’Omer means the “thirty-third day of the Omer,” referring to the practice of counting the days between Pesakh and Shavuot. Lag is lamed ל – gimel ג, thirty-three. (Hebrew letters have numerical values; lamed ל is thirty, gimel ג is three.) These two letters, lamed ל – gimel ג, also have meanings: Lamed ל means “learn.” To learn means to go from a state of less knowledge to more knowledge; it is forward moving in time, filling a lack, going from incomplete to more complete without end, never reaching completion (since there is, of course, always more to learn). Gimel ג has the opposite connotation. As a verb, the word gamal means to “pay back.” When you’re able to pay someone back, then not only do you have enough for yourself, but you have extra to pay back someone else – so in this sense, gamal represents not only a state of completeness but of overflowing-ness. As a noun, a gamal is a camel, which carries its water in its hump as it traverses the desert; again, a symbol of being already-complete-within-oneself. These two opposite meanings – the never-complete of lamed ל and the always-already-complete of gimel ג – point to two dimensions of our experience, right now. On the level of form, we are ever-incomplete. Our bodies need constant nourishment and exercise, and our minds must actively learn new things and have new experiences to stay sharp. This is reflected in the ongoing spiritual practice of studying texts and contemplating meanings with the thinking mind. And this brings us back to the first half of our verse: שֵׁ֤שׁ שָׁנִים֙ תִּזְרַ֣ע שָׂדֶ֔ךָ וְשֵׁ֥שׁ שָׁנִ֖ים תִּזְמֹ֣ר כַּרְמֶ֑ךָ וְאָסַפְתָּ֖ אֶת־תְּבוּאָתָֽהּ׃ Six years you shall sow your fields and six years you shall prune your vineyards and gather in your yields…’” Six years you shall sow (tizra) your fields… Tizra תִּזְרַ֣ע, “sowing” or “seeding” is the work we must do on the “fields” of our minds. This is lamed ל, “learning.” But on the level of consciousness, the open space of awareness within which all experience comes and goes, there is a direct sense of completeness to this moment; there is a wholeness available to us when we “arrive” into the present. This is the gimel ג. But to experience this fullness, we paradoxically need more emptiness; we need to “prune” away excess thought, so that we can sense the underlying Presence beneath our thoughts – which brings us to the second part of our verse: וְשֵׁ֥שׁ שָׁנִ֖ים תִּזְמֹ֣ר כַּרְמֶ֑ךָ – six years you shall prune (tizmor) your vinyards… Tizmor תִּזְמֹ֣ר, “pruning,” is the work we must do on “grapevine tendrils” of our own thinking minds; this is meditation. “Sowing” and “pruning,” learning and meditation, thinking and not-thinking, are non-duality in practice, because together they comprise two sides of the same transformative coin. Now let’s look at the repeating phrase that introduces both sides of this inseparable duality: שֵׁ֤שׁ שָׁנִים֙ תִּזְרַ֣ע שָׂדֶ֔ךָ וְשֵׁ֥שׁ שָׁנִ֖ים תִּזְמֹ֣ר כַּרְמֶ֑ךָ Six years you shall sow your fields and six years you shall prune your vineyards… The word shanim, “years,” also can mean “change.” “Six” also represents change, as in the story of the “six days of creation” in which the universe is developed stage by stage. Furthermore, the Hebrew letter that represents the number six is vav ו which, as a prefix, means “and” – again, implying adding, transforming, doing the dual spiritual work of “sowing” and “pruning.” But there is also a level at which all work stops. It stops not because the “sowing” and “pruning” are no longer happening, but because at this deep level, there is the recognition that is not “me” who does the work; there is the recognition that everything comes from and returns to the same Reality; we can’t “take credit” for any of it. This level is represented by Lag B’Omer. In terms of the sefirot, Lag B’Omer is Hod Sheb’Hod, or “Humility of Humility.” What is humility? The essence of humility is not some kind of self-deprecation or belittlement; it is the recognition that the “me” comes from beyond “me.” Existence is a gift, everything I have and everything I am is a gift; this is the inner dimension of Shabbat. וְשָׁבְתָ֣ה הָאָ֔רֶץ שַׁבָּ֖ת לַיי: – The land will rest a Shabbat for the Divine… This is the deeper, non-dual dimension of the practice, which we do not instead of sowing and pruning, learning and meditating, but while we’re learning and meditating. It is the simple recognition of the One in the midst of duality. And not just in learning and meditating, but you can “let the land rest a Shabbat for the Divine” any time. Before you learn, before you meditate, before you do the dishes, whatever – take a moment to recognize Reality, to simply stop, to let the “me” dissolve and let this moment be One. This is non-duality – the recognition of Divine Oneness, in and as this moment, just as it is.
Read past teachings on Behar HERE
Learn Integral Jewish Meditation
Get Free Guided Meditation Below:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Free Integral Jewish Meditation Instructional Recordings Here.
Daily Meditation on Zoom: Experience our growing community Here Archives
July 2026
|
RSS Feed