Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with Pharaoh changing his mind about allowing the Children of Israel to leave Egypt, and chasing after them to force their return. The Israelites become terrified, finding themselves trapped between Pharaoh’s armies and the sea. God tells Moses to raise his staff over the water; the sea splits allowing the Israelites to pass through, and then closes over the pursuing Egyptians. Moses and the Children of Israel sing a song of praise and gratitude, while Miriam and the other women play drums.
In the desert the people suffer thirst and hunger, and repeatedly complain to Moses and Aaron. The bitter waters of Marah miraculously become sweet when Moses throws wood into it, and later Moses brings forth water from a rock by striking it with his staff. A miraculous kind of bread, “manna” (man) rains down from the heavens before dawn each morning, and quails appear in the Israelite camp each evening.The Children of Israel are instructed to gather a double portion of manna on Friday, as there will be none on Shabbat, the day of rest. Some go out on Shabbat to gather manna anyway, but find nothing. Aaron preserves a small quantity of manna in a jar, as a testimony for future generations. In Rephidim, the people are attacked by the Amalekites, but when Moses stands on a hill with his hands raised to heaven, Israel begins to win the battle, and when he becomes tired and lowers his hands, Israel starts losing. So, Moses’ brother Aaron and an Israelite named Hur supports Moses’ hands on either side, and Israel is victorious.
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
דַּבֵּר֮ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵל֒ וְיָשֻׁ֗בוּ וְיַחֲנוּ֙ לִפְנֵי֙ פִּ֣י הַחִירֹ֔ת בֵּ֥ין מִגְדֹּ֖ל וּבֵ֣ין הַיָּ֑ם לִפְנֵי֙ בַּ֣עַל צְפֹ֔ן נִכְח֥וֹ תַחֲנ֖וּ עַל־הַיָּֽם׃ Speak to the Children of Israel – they should turn back and encamp before Pi Hakhirot, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. - Shemot (Exodus) 14:2, Parshat B’shalakh
We often hear the advice that we should get out of situations, jobs, or relationships that don’t serve us…which is good advice; for sure we should be in situations that are supportive and healthy. But sometimes staying in a situation, even if it feels bad, is the right thing. For example, when a father abandons his family, doesn’t he do it because the responsibility feels bad to him? Doesn’t he just want to be free? In that case, it’s obvious that “freedom” in the ordinary sense is not the highest value. Because, freedom in the spiritual sense doesn’t necessarily mean leaving behind that which imprisons us; rather, if we really want real inner freedom, we must turn toward our bondage. This may feel counterintuitive; if we want freedom from pain, it’s natural to want to get away from whatever is causing the pain.
Just as in the Exodus from Egypt – the Israelites cry out because of their suffering, and Moses leads them out of Egypt to freedom. That’s the ordinary way of thinking – leave Egypt behind. But there’s a hint of something different in this week’s reading: וְיָשֻׁ֗בוּ וְיַחֲנוּ֙ לִפְנֵי֙ פִּ֣י הַֽחִירֹ֔ת – they should turn back and encamp before Pi Hakhirot… When we think of the Exodus story, it’s common to imagine the Israelites fleeing Egypt, then coming to the Sea of Reeds and getting trapped with the Egyptian army behind them and the sea in front of them. But look at the text: they had already past the Sea of Reeds – they were already on their way, when Hashem tells them: v’yashuvu – turn back! They deliberately turned around and back tracked, coming to camp at Pi Hakhirot, in front of the Sea of Reeds. There the Egyptian army caught up with them, and there the miracle of the parting sea occurred. Pi Hakhirot means “Mouth of Freedom.” It’s a description of the splitting sea. The message is: If you want to truly leave bondage behind and go through the “Mouth of Freedom,” you have to first fully turn back toward your “oppressor.” Is there something or someone that “triggers” you, that stresses you out, that makes you angry or uncomfortable? Those feelings are within you; they are only brought to the surface by the external trigger. Until you can be present in the face of those feelings arising and not get caught, not get seduced, you will be in bondage, no matter far you flee from the external trigger. Instead, shuv – return – return to this moment, be present with any discomfort, and make friends with it, because that is the “Mouth of Freedom.” Ordinarily, we keep emotional pain alive by feeding it with our thoughts. Just as the soldiers of Pharaoh rode after the Israelites on their horses, so the mind is the “rider” and the emotion is the “horse,” pursuing us and seeking to drag us back into bondage. But stop feeding the emotion with thought, and instead become present with your feelings – bring your awareness to your actual experience without adding extra interpretation – and the “army drowns in the sea” – this is meditation. The “army drowns” because all your pain, all your constriction, is nothing but a form of awareness. Bring your awareness to the Mitzrayim – to the constricted form of awareness. It may hurt a bit at first, but the constriction cannot persist in the light of Presence; through being conscious, it will let go. Then you too will be able to sing: אָשִׁ֤ירָה לַּֽיי כִּֽי־גָאֹ֣ה גָּאָ֔ה ס֥וּס וְרֹֽכְב֖וֹ רָמָ֥ה בַיָּֽם I will sing to the Divine, Transcendent an Exalted, horse and rider are cast into the sea… that is, mind and feeling, thought and emotion, are cast into the sea of consciousness, dissolved in an ocean of bliss. The middah we need to accept this moment with simplicity is trust – embodied by the letter yud. Try it now – trust this moment to be as it is.
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Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah begins with last three of the Ten Plagues: a swarm of locusts devours all the crops and greenery; a thick darkness envelops the land; and on the 15th of the month of Nissan at midnight, all the firstborn of Egypt die.
The first specifically Jewish mitzvah is then given to the Children of Israel: to establish a calendar based on the monthly rebirth of the moon. The Israelites are also instructed to bring a “Passover offering” – a lamb or goat is to be slaughtered, and its blood sprinkled on the doorposts and lintel of every Israelite home, so that God should “pass over” (Pesakh) those homes when the plague of the firstborn takes place. The roasted meat of the offering is to be eaten that night together with matzah and bitter herbs. The death of the firstborn finally breaks Pharaoh’s resistance, and he drives the Children of Israel from his land. So hastily do they depart that there is no time for their dough to rise, hence the practice of eating matzah in commemoration of the Exodus. Before they go, they ask their Egyptian neighbors for gold, silver and garments—fulfilling the promise made to Abraham that his descendants would leave Egypt with great wealth. The Children of Israel are instructed to consecrate all firstborn, and to observe the anniversary of the Exodus each year by removing all hameitz, leaven, from their possession for seven days, eating matzah, and telling the story of their redemption to their children. They are also instructed to wear tefillin on the arm and head as a reminder of the Exodus and their commitment to God as the Power of Liberation…
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וַיַּ֣עַל הָֽאַרְבֶּ֗ה עַ֚ל כָּל־אֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם And the locusts came upon all the land of Egypt… - Shemot (Exodus) 10:14, Parshat Bo
Nowdays there are two popular horror images – Zombies and killer robots. Both cultural motifs – the undead as well as dangerous rogue machines – are so powerful not only because we are automating more and more of our external world with AI, but also because they point to a particular reality of our inner world as well: the world of unconscious impulses, desires, and passions.
Like most of our external automations, our desires are mostly useful. When we feel the impulse to breath, for example, we can generally trust that impulse. We don’t have to pay much attention to it; we can let it “take over” and dictate our next breath. However, when we swim under water, the impulse to breath can be deadly. In that case, we’ve got to be aware of the impulse and not succumb to it until we come up for air. Similarly, the impulse to eat is crucial to our survival. But if you work in a bakery and you’re surrounded by cake all day long, you might have to watch your impulse to eat. The same goes for many other impulses we have. The problem is not desire; desire serves our survival. The problem is unconsciousness of desire, of letting the desire take control, of becoming the victim of our desires. A good example of this are the many accidents we hear about nowadays with driverless cars: they could be helpful, but we shouldn’t lose our attentiveness completely; we still have to watch. All of this is true for anyone in ordinary situations. But for the aspirant who wants to become more conscious, attentiveness has a whole other dimension. It’s not merely for the sake of averting danger, it’s also for its own sake. Ordinarily, it is important to be aware of our breathing only if we are under water. But spiritually, it is beneficial to be aware of our breathing constantly, because it is through the deliberate cultivation of awareness that we come to know ourselves as awareness and thus become free in the spiritual sense, which really means free from feeling trapped by any experience. In fact, awareness of our impulse to breath or eat is itself a kind of breathing and eating; through awareness of our desires, awareness itself is deeply nourished. There is a hint of this in the parshah: וַיַּ֣עַל הָֽאַרְבֶּ֗ה עַ֚ל כָּל־אֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם And the locusts came upon all the land of Egypt… (Shemot 10:14). Then is says: And they ate all the greenery of the land and all the fruits of the trees which the hail had left, so that nothing green was left of tree or grass of the field, in all the land of Egypt. These locusts are the embodiment of desire, consuming everything in their path. They are also insects, which are often considered to be disgusting by humans and generally unfit for eating: כֹּ֚ל שֶׁ֣רֶץ הָע֔וֹף הַהֹלֵ֖ךְ עַל־אַרְבַּ֑ע שֶׁ֥קֶץ ה֖וּא לָכֶֽם׃ – All winged swarming things that walk on fours shall be an abomination for you. (Leviticus 11:21) Insects are generally not kosher. And yet, when it comes to locusts, the taboo against eating insects no longer applies: …אַ֤ךְ אֶת־זֶה֙ תֹּֽאכְל֔וּ מִכֹּל֙ שֶׁ֣רֶץ הָע֔וֹף הַהֹלֵ֖ךְ עַל־אַרְבַּ֑ע אֶת־הָֽאַרְבֶּ֣ה– But this you shall eat from all winged swarming things that walk on fours… the locust! (Leviticus 11:22) The locust, the symbol of desire and consumption, is good to consume! The hidden message here is that we must “eat” our “eating” – we must “feed” our consciousness by being present with our impulses and desires. How do we do that? בֹּ֖א אֶל־פַּרְעֹ֑ה Bo el Paro – Come to Pharaoh means that the Divine is within Pharaoh, beckoning us to “come” – meaning, to bring awareness to the feeling of the impulse in order to reclaim the consciousness trapped within it. הִכְבַּ֤דְתִּי אֶת־לִבּוֹ֙ – I have hardened his heart… The “hardness” of our impulses is not merely for keeping us alive. Its deeper purpose is to give our consciousness something to wrestle with, so that it may be strengthened and thus awaken to its full potential. That is the greatest miracle – the miracle of coming to know what we truly are – alive, spacious and free לְמַ֗עַן שִׁתִ֛י אֹתֹתַ֥י אֵ֖לֶּה בְּקִרְבּֽוֹ – so that I may place My signs among them… What are these signs? In the plain meaning, they are the ten plagues that will show everyone that God is in charge. But the word for sign is ot, which is also the word for “letter,” and each of the Hebrew letters represents a certain quality of consciousness – for example, aleph is openness to feeling fully, bet is hospitality, and so on. When a person embodies these qualities in their actions, their actions become outward “signs” for these inner spiritual realities. Interestingly, the last letter of the aleph-bet, ת tav, also means “sign.” Tav is connected with the quality of אֶמֶת emet, “Truth,” hinting that this final letter tav is the “sign,” or “testimony” of all the preceding letters. In other words, tav represents our ability to embody the spiritual qualities in the way that we live, moment to moment. This is the culmination of all our learning and practice, all our Torah and meditation: the quality of our actions. How do we grow in the quality of our actions? There is an essential ingredient: self-awareness. We must be in touch with the truth of our experience, not resist or be in denial, if we wish to grow in our ability to embody all the middot (spiritual qualities) in our lives, moment to moment, in real time. This is the ultimate fruit of meditation.
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Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with Hashem telling Moses, “Va’era – I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” and promising to bring the Children of Israel to the Promised Land. Moses and Aaron repeatedly come before Pharaoh to demand, “Let My people go,” but Pharaoh refuses. In response, Aaron’s staff turns into a snake and swallows the staves of the Egyptian sorcerers which had also turned into snakes, but Pharaoh remains obstinate.
A series of plagues then begin to descend upon the Egyptians: The waters of the Nile turn to blood; swarms of frogs overrun the land; lice infest human and beast alike; wild animals invade the cities; a pestilence kills the domestic animals; painful boils afflict the Egyptians. For the seventh plague, fire and ice combine to descend from the skies as a devastating hail. Still, “the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he would not let the Children of Israel go…”
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְיְ֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה רְאֵ֛ה נְתַתִּ֥יךָ אֱלֹקִ֖ים לְפַרְעֹ֑ה וְאַהֲרֹ֥ן אָחִ֖יךָ יִהְיֶ֥ה נְבִיאֶֽךָ׃ Hashem said to Moses, “See – I have made you God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet… - Shemot (Exodus) 7:1, Parshat Vaeira
The Talmud relates the following story: Rabbi Yohanan was a great miracle-worker and healer. When he visited a sick person, he would ask, “Are these afflictions dear to you?” If they would answer, “Neither they nor their reward,” then he would take them by the hand and they would be instantly healed.
One day, Rabbi Yohanan fell sick. Rabbi Hanina went to visit him and asked, “Are these afflictions dear to you?” Answered Rabbi Yokhanan, “Neither they nor their reward.” Just then, just as Rabbi Yohanan had done for so many others, Rabbi Hanina offered his hand and healed Rabbi Yohanan. The Talmud then asks, “Why did Rabbi Yohanan need Rabbi Hanina’s help? Let him heal himself!” It then answers its own question: אֵין חָבוּשׁ מַתִּיר עַצְמוֹ מִבֵּית הָאֲסוּרִים – A prisoner cannot release himself from prison! - BT Berakhot 5a Just as a prisoner needs someone else to open the jail cell from the outside, so too a teacher can help us get free in the spiritual sense. But just as the prisoner still has to walk out of the jail cell on their own, so too a teacher can “unlock” our inner prison by imparting knowledge, but we still have to “walk out of the jail cell” ourselves by doing the inner work of meditation. And yet, in the case of getting free from our own minds, there must be a part of ourselves that is already free. Otherwise, it would be impossible to see beyond our limited perspective and we would be stuck forever. The part that “sees” was never stuck in the first place: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיְ אֱלֹקֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם שֶׁלֹּא עָשַֽׂנִי עָֽבֶד – Blessed are You, Divine Being, our own Divinity, who has not made me a slave… - Morning Blessings. No matter how stuck we become, our essential identity is still bigger than the “me” – bigger than the patterns of thoughts and personal stories with which our consciousness tends to identify; our essential identity, beyond the “me,” is always already free. Of course, when we are stuck, we lose consciousness of this fact; we call this being unconscious: הֵ֤ן אֲנִי֙ עֲרַ֣ל שְׂפָתַ֔יִם וְאֵ֕יךְ יִשְׁמַ֥ע אֵלַ֖י פַּרְעֹֽה׃ – “Behold, I have sealed lips – how is Pharaoh going to listen to me?” -Ex. 6:30 But Hashem reassures Moses in an incredibly surprising way: רְאֵ֛ה נְתַתִּ֥יךָ אֱלֹהִ֖ים לְפַרְעֹ֑ה – See! I have made you God (Elohim) to Pharaoh...” Moses is God? What does this mean? But the key is in the first word: רְאֵה Re’eh – See! That which sees, the awareness that looks through your eyes, is the master over all the other elements of the “me” – it is the God within, your essential identity. If you don’t know that, you identify with all those other elements – with feelings, with thoughts, with memories, with ideas – all those strands that make up the web of the personality, of “Pharaoh.” But as soon as you hear the Divine command to see (meaning, receive the teaching to be aware), then the Exodus can begin, and your essential identity can start to awaken. And even deeper – your awareness is not only the master over your personality; it is much more than that: וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר אֱלֹקִ֖ים אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֑ה וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֵלָ֖יו אֲנִ֥י יְיְ׃ – Elohim said to Moses, “I am Hashem.” Shemot (Exodus) 6:2. The first Divine Name, Elohim, means the divine personality; it is the deity. The second Name, the unpronounceable Yod-Hei-Vav-Hei, is far more expansive – It is Existence Itself, not a divine being merely within Existence. The message here is that your אֲנִ֥י ani, your essential identity, is not something separate from the rest of Existence. Your essential identity is Existence, waking up as you, within yet beyond the “me.” The awakening of your essential identity beyond your personality is actually something very simple. And while it may take years of learning and practice for this awakening to stabilize, it takes no time at all to shift into an awakened state – that is, to become present; this is meditation. Over time, this practice of seeing the fullness of this moment as it is leads to a shift in identity, a shift into knowing yourself as the seeing, and even deeper, as Being Itself, the Divine, seeing through your eyes. This realization one of the many fruits of meditation. In this week Shabbat Va-eira, the Sabbath of Appearing, may we practice bringing our wakefulness into every encounter, moment by moment, bringing ourselves and our species closer to our Divine potential…
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Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with the Children of Israel prospering and increasing in Egypt, while a new king now sits on the throne. Threatened by their growing numbers, this new Pharaoh enslaves them and orders the Hebrew midwives, Shifrah and Puah, to kill all male babies at birth. When they do not comply, he commands his people to cast the Hebrew baby boys into the Nile. A child is born to Yokheved, and she puts him in a basket on the river, while the baby’s sister, Miriam, stands watch from afar. Pharaoh’s daughter discovers the boy, raises him as her son, and names him Mosheh, Moses.
As a young man, Moses leaves the palace and sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, and kills the Egyptian. The next day he sees two Hebrews fighting; when he rebukes them, they reveal they know of his murder of the previous day, and Moses is forced to flee to Midian. There he rescues Jethro’s daughters, marries Tzipporah, and becomes a shepherd of his father-in-law’s flocks. Hashem appears to Moses as a burning bush, and instructs him to go to Pharaoh and demand: “Let My people go.”
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וְאֵ֗לֶּה שְׁמוֹת֙ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל הַבָּאִ֖ים מִצְרָ֑יְמָה אֵ֣ת יַעֲקֹ֔ב אִ֥ישׁ וּבֵית֖וֹ בָּֽאוּ׃ And these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each coming with their household. - Shemot (Exodus) 1:1, Parshat Sh’mot
A disciple once asked Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Heschel of Apt: “It says that the seven years Jacob worked to marry Rachel seemed like a few days to him because of his love for her. How does this make sense? If he loved her so much, the seven years should seem even longer, not shorter! I would think that every minute he had to wait would feel like an eternity!”
The rabbi of Apt responded: “There are two kinds of love: the kind that attaches you to the object of your love, and the kind that is given freely to your beloved. We are most familiar with the first kind – we love someone or something, and the love enslaves us; that’s the kind when every minute away from your beloved seems like an eternity. But Jacob had the second kind of love – his love was given away freely to Rachel, and so he too was free. In that freedom, he wasn’t longing for the future, he was simply being in the moment; so, the entire seven years seemed like only a moment, because throughout that time he had always been in the moment!” On the physical level, we are absolutely slaves, in constant need of external support to survive. This is reflected in the story – the children of Israel are driven to Egypt by the famine and the promise of food: “To sojourn in this land we have come…for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan...” But once they’re there, they became enslaved: Egypt enslaved the children of Israel with crushing labor… Egypt is Mitzrayim, which comes from the root that means “constriction” and “suffering,” hinting that on the physical level we are ever incomplete, ever in need of external nourishment, without which we suffer and die. But the physical, form-based dimension of experience is not all there is. The very fact that we can feel suffering at all means there is awareness that feels. That awareness, that dimension of being without which there cannot be any experience at all, is itself beyond Mitzrayim, beyond constriction. Spacious and free, awareness is the ever-present openness within which all experience arises. How do we access this dimension of freedom? Love the moment you’re in. It is true, we are often acting to bring about results that we need for our survival; even our next breath is toward this end. But our actions need not only be aimed at the narrow and conditional goals of the future; we have the power to also be in this moment lishma, for its own sake, to offer our Presence to the inner goodness of this moment, as it is. This is the second kind of love the Rabbi of Apt speaks about: the love that sets us free. To bring forth the love that sets us free, we must remember that the inner goodness of this moment is easily hidden by our goals in time, by our Mitzrayim-based aim to secure something for ourselves. There is a hint of this in the passage about Moses’ birth: וַתֵּ֤רֶא אֹתוֹ֙ כִּי־ט֣וֹב ה֔וּא וַֽתִּצְפְּנֵ֖הוּ – She saw that he was good, so she hid him… She feared for Moses’ life, because Pharaoh threatened to kill him. Moses represents the pathway to freedom, the goodness of being, while Pharaoh represents the encroaching and deadening power of ego that kills this simple goodness. So, Moses is hidden away. Why? Because if the inner goodness were not hidden, there would be no desire for it, no longing in the heart for release from Mitzrayim – we would just take it for granted. It is only because it is hidden that desire for freedom is born: דִּרְשׁוּ יְהֹוָה וְעֻזּוֹ בַּקְּשׁוּ פָנָיו תָּמִיד: – Seek the Divine and Its Power; search for Its Presence constantly… And this is the promise: when we sincerely seek, we find – because It is not elsewhere; It is hidden within this moment, hidden as the Presence of Being within all being. Give your attention to this Presence and you draw it forth; this is meditation. Just as Pharaoh’s daughter drew forth Moses from the river, so too we draw forth the light of the present from the river of time; it shines like a soft glow at first, then like a fire that blazes forth but heals rather than burns. All we need do is give our attention to It, to love this moment for Its own sake, for the inner goodness to appear. This inner goodness, hidden away in plain sight, is represented by the letter ט tet.
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