Parshah Summary – P’sha
The parshah opens with Moses taking a census of the Children of Israel. Each person who is counted must contribute a makhazit hashekel – a half shekel of silver to the Sanctuary. Instructions are also given regarding the making of the Sanctuary’s water basin, anointing oil and incense. The “wise-hearted” artisans Betzalel and Aholiav are singled out as possessing hokhmat halev – “wisdom of the heart” – and are placed in charge of the Sanctuary’s construction.
Moses does not return when expected from Mount Sinai. The people lose faith, and make themselves a golden calf to worship. Hashem grows angry and proposes to destroy the errant nation, but Moses intercedes on their behalf. Moses descends from the mountain carrying the “tablets of the testimony” engraved with the Ten Commandments. But when he sees the people dancing about their idol, he breaks the tablets, and destroys the golden calf. He pleads with God: “If You will not forgive them, blot me out from the book that You have written.” Hashem forgives them, but says that the effect will be felt for many generations, and as they continue their journey, Hashem will not be with them; only an angel will accompany them. But, Moses pleads with Hashem to continue to accompanying them on their journey to the promised land. Moses prepares a new set of tablets himself (as opposed the first set which were inscribed by God). On the mountain, Moses is also granted a vision of the “Thirteen Attributes of Compassion.” When Moses returns, his face is so radiant that he must cover it with a veil, which he removes only to speak with Hashem and to teach Torah to the people.
Torah of Awakening
וְעָשִׂ֜יתָ כִּיּ֥וֹר נְחֹ֛שֶׁת וְכַנּ֥וֹ נְחֹ֖שֶׁת לְרׇחְצָ֑ה וְנָתַתָּ֣ אֹת֗וֹ בֵּֽין־אֹ֤הֶל מוֹעֵד֙ וּבֵ֣ין הַמִּזְבֵּ֔חַ וְנָתַתָּ֥ שָׁ֖מָּה מָֽיִם׃ “You shall make a basin of copper between the Tent of Meeting and the (outer) altar, and you shall put water there.” - Shemot (Exodus) 30:18, Parshat Ki Tisa
A hasid asked Rabbi Mikhal, “In Pirkei Avot (“Sayings of the Fathers” from the Mishna), we read:
אֵיזֶהוּ חָכָם, הַלּוֹמֵד מִכָּל אָדָם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר מִכָּל מְלַמְּדַי הִשְׂכַּלְתִּי... Who is wise? One who learns from every person, as it is said: ‘From all my teachers have I gained understanding…’ (4:1) “Why does it not say ‘One who learns from every teacher?’” Rabbi Mikhal explained: “The master who pronounced these words is intent on making clear that we can learn not only from those whose occupation it is to teach, but from everyone and everything. Even from one who is ignorant, or wicked, you can gain understanding about how to conduct your life.” A friend of mine used to earn a living as a handy person, doing light plumbing, carpentry, and so on. For a while, the jobs were easy for her. But one day, she was asked to do a job that baffled her. Instead of revealing that she had no idea how to fix the whatever-it-was, she accepted the job, went home, watched instructional videos about it on YouTube, then went back the next day and did the job; but that was just the beginning. After that, she began taking on more and more complex jobs. Her work became her school. There’s an analogue here to meditation: Just as the basic point of work is to receive physical sustenance in the form of livelihood, so the basic point of meditation is to receive spiritual sustenance – the inner nourishment that flows from Presence; that is, the practice of freeing consciousness from its ordinary identification with form. The most direct way to gain maximum benefit from meditation is to remove all distractions and simplify your life as much as possible. Do what you need to do to eat and have basic necessities, then devote your time and energy to your avodah, your meditation practice. But that would be analogous to taking only the easy jobs you already know how to do. Just as you could get paid the maximum amount by focusing all of your energy on working, rather than learning new skills, so too you will gain the maximum depth by focusing solely on your Jewish meditation practice and not spending time and energy on other life pursuits. But if it’s not enough to merely to get the sustenance, but rather you want to learn and grow in your ability to stay connected to the dimension of Presence even in the midst of life’s complexities, then distractions are not really distractions anymore; they are what you need to train. They are not a waste of time, they are your helpers on the path of becoming spiritually masterful. People tend toward one side or the other. Some resist the Eternal dimension available through meditation, preferring to stay busy and accomplish things. Others tend toward the other direction, seeing the drama of life as a distraction and withdrawing into solitude. Both are perfectly valid expressions of different kinds of personalities. And yet, even though these two personal inclinations are opposed to one another, they’re actually two sides of one coin. The inner sustenance that flows from solitude wants to express Itself; it wants to connect with life and sanctify it, which means to live in the world with Presence, with wisdom and love. בֵּֽין־אֹ֤הֶל מוֹעֵד֙ וּבֵ֣ין הַמִּזְבֵּ֔חַ – between the Tent of Meeting and the (outer) altar… The late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M Shneerson z’l, taught that the outer altar represents the transformation of ordinary life into a spiritual practice. The inner sanctuary represents your avodah – your meditation which is already a spiritual practice. How do we transform the ordinary into the sacred? We can do it by bringing any of the middot – any of the qualities of the Thirty-Two Paths of Presence to whatever we happen to be doing. And of all the Paths, the Path of ל Lamed, that is, the path of curiosity and learning from whatever the moment has to teach, is a wonderful place to begin (again and again), because with the Path of ל Lamed, we open ourselves to discover all the other paths which we might learn in any particular moment; the Path of ל Lamed can function as a “master path” in a sense. וְעָשִׂ֜יתָ כִּיּ֥וֹר... וְנָתַתָּ֥ שָׁ֖מָּה מָֽיִם׃ – You shall make a basin…and you shall put water there… This is why the kiyor – the water basin – is stationed between the inner and the outer. No matter whether we are engaged in meditation or in ordinary life, we need to inwardly “cleanse” our intentions so that the bright, egoless innocence of spontaneous curiosity can shine forth. How do we do that? כִּ֣י תִשָּׂ֞א אֶת־רֹ֥אשׁ בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֮ לִפְקֻדֵיהֶם֒ – When you count heads of the Children of Israel according to their numbers… Being “counted” means being part of community life, part of the chaotic push and pull of multiple agendas and intentions… וְלֹא־יִהְיֶ֥ה בָהֶ֛ם נֶ֖גֶף בִּפְקֹ֥ד אֹתָֽם׃ – so that no plague may come upon them when they are counted… This life becomes a “plague” if your deepest being, that bright, egoless innocence of spontaneous curiosity, gets covered up and obscured. This can happen simply through the chaos of noise and stress, or it can happen through the domination of ego, that separate self that needs to be right, that needs to “already-know.” יִתְּנ֗וּ כׇּל־הָעֹבֵר֙ עַל־הַפְּקֻדִ֔ים מַחֲצִ֥ית הַשֶּׁ֖קֶל זֶ֣ה – This is what everyone who is entered into the counting shall give: a half-shekel… Everyone, rich and poor alike, give the half-shekel. Why? Because our unique self (represented by the letter ה hei) which we bring to the task at hand is only “half” the equation. The other half, which we all can bring equally, is the openness – what we might call “beginners mind” – that is, innocent curiosity, the willingness to learn. Every time we sit down and meditate, we give up our expertise. In every meditation session, we start at the beginning, so to speak; we open ourselves to learn, again, how to meditate. In meditation, we all (again) become equal. When we bring this “beginners mind” to our daily tasks, together with our conditioned expertise and unique offerings (as represented in Parshat Terumah), the two halves come together; the moment becomes Whole, and our inner and outer lives become One…
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Parshah Summary – P’sha
The parshah opens with the commandment (Tetzaveh, “you shall command”) that the Children of Israel should bring pure olive oil to kindle the Ner Tamid – the “everlasting flame” of the Menorah, which Aaron is to kindle each day, “from evening till morning.” The priestly garments, to be worn by the kohanim while serving in the Sanctuary, are then described: 1) the ketonet – linen tunic; 2) the mikhnasayim – linen breeches; 3) the mitznefet or migba’at – linen turban; and 4) the avnet – a long sash wound above the waist.
In addition, the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) wore: 5) the efod—an apron-like garment made of blue, purple, and red-dyed wool, linen, and gold thread; 6) the hoshen—a breastplate containing twelve precious stones inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel; 7) the me’il—a cloak of blue wool, with gold bells and decorative pomegranates on its hem; and 8) the tzitz—a golden plate worn on the forehead, bearing the inscription “Holy to Hashem.” The parshah also describes instructions for the seven-day initiation of Aaron and his four sons—Nadav, Avihu, Elazar and Itamar—into the priesthood, and for the making of the golden altar, on which the ketoret (incense) was burned
Torah of Awakening: Jewish Meditation Teaching
וְאַתָּ֞ה תְּצַוֶּ֣ה אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל וְיִקְח֨וּ אֵלֶ֜יךָ שֶׁ֣מֶן זַ֥יִת זָ֛ךְ כָּתִ֖ית לַמָּא֑וֹר לְהַעֲלֹ֥ת נֵ֖ר תָּמִֽיד׃ You shall command the Children of Israel to bring you oil of olives, pure, crushed for illumination, for kindling lamps continuously… - Shemot (Exodus) 27:20, Parshat Tetzaveh
Once, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak began greeting everyone after prayers as if they had just returned from a long journey:“Shalom Aleikhem! Shalom aleikhem!” exclaimed the rebbe to each and every congregant. When they gave him strange looks, he responded: “Why do you look surprised? While the hazan was leading the prayers, you weren’t here at all. This one was in the market place, this one was on a cargo ship, this one was relaxing at home. When the davening stopped, you all returned, so I greeted you: shalom aleikhem!”
There is an unconscious tendency to retreat into our minds, preferring thoughts about reality over actual Reality. It is like going to a concert, but instead of listening to the musicians play, you put on headphones and listen to a recording of a performance recorded some time in the past. At best, our inclination toward inattention causes us to lack depth and Presence in our lives; at worst, it can cause depression and various forms of insanity, as we lose connection with the truth of what is happening in our immediate experience and become swallowed up by the virtual reality of thought. It seems to be the nature of the mind to constantly move; how can we overcome this tendency and become a beacon of Presence in an insane world? לְהַעֲלֹ֥ת נֵ֖ר תָּמִֽיד – for kindling the eternal flame… There is an aspect of awareness that is constant – whether we’re asleep or awake, whether we’re angry or openhearted, there is always this basic level of awareness; we don’t have to create it – it is already תָּמִֽיד tamid – constant. לְהַעֲלֹ֥ת – for kindling… But, since the tendency is for awareness to be repeatedly drawn in by the dramas of the mind and heart, we have to “kindle it” so to speak. Just as when you are asleep, you are a little bit aware, otherwise no one would be able to wake you up; but once someone does wake you up, your awareness greatly increases. So too, there is a wayלְהַעֲלֹ֥ת נֵ֖ר תָּמִֽיד l’ha’alot ner tamid – to wake up even more. And how do we do that? וְיִקְח֨וּ אֵלֶ֜יךָ שֶׁ֣מֶן זַ֥יִת – they shall bring you oil of olives… Olives have a hard, inedible pit within them. Similarly, there is ordinarily a hard, seemingly impenetrable pit at the core of who we are. From the moment we wake up in the morning until we fall asleep at night, there is that sense that “I” have woken up, “I” am going to sleep. When we feel angry at someone, there is a sense that “I” am angry. And even if we let go of the anger and we feel expansive and forgiving, there is still the sense that “I” am expansive and forgiving. That is the pit – the pit is the “I.” And, just like you can’t eat the pit, so it seems that the “I” is irreducible; no matter what the experience, it is always “I” that am having it. זָ֛ךְ כָּתִ֖ית לַמָּא֑וֹר – pure, crushed for illumination… But, just as the olive pit is crushed along with the fruit to make olive oil, so too that hard sense of “me” known as ego can be “crushed” into oil, and that oil becomes fuel for consciousness – fuel for enlightenment. How do we get the “oil” from the “pit” of self and burn it in the light of awareness? The essential thing is not to try to control your mind, not to try to be non-judgmental or to think less, but rather to simply to notice what is present in this moment; that “just noticing” is non-judgmental; that “just noticing” is the mind becoming still. You have thoughts and feelings? Just notice that there are thoughts and feelings. Let your awareness rest in the actual truth of your experience in this moment – being present with your feelings as they arise and fall, being present with your body and the rise and fall of your breathing, being the perceiving Presence behind your thoughts. In this way, we naturally let go of the urge to retreat into our minds, which is what creates the sense of “me,” the hard pit of ego, and instead feel ourselves as the Luminous Presence within which the Mystery of this moment is unfolding. בְּאֹ֣הֶל מוֹעֵד֩ – In the tent of the time of meeting… The word מוֹעֵד mo’ed means both “special time” and “meeting.” It can also be read asוְעֵד מmem v’ed – “merging and witnessing.” The letter מ mem is מַיִם mayim, “water” which represents “fluidity,” “merging.” The word עֵד ed is “witness.” Thus, we can understand מוֹעֵד mo’ed as the special time of merging through the witnessing awareness that meets the moment; in other words, meditation – the practice of sustained Presence. מִח֨וּץ לַפָּרֹ֜כֶת אֲשֶׁ֣ר עַל־הָעֵדֻ֗ת – on the outside of the concealing curtain which is over the tablets… The word הָעֵדֻת ha’eidut, indicating the tablets upon which are written the Aseret Hadibrot, the “Ten Commandments,” doesn’t actually mean tablets at all; that would be לוחות lukhot. Rather, עֵדֻת eidut is again the plural of עֵד ed, “witness.” This “witness” is behind the פָּרֹכֶת parokhet – behind the curtain – you can’t see the “witness.” This is exactly the nature of consciousness. Consciousness sees everything else, but just like the eyeball, it cannot see itself. It is a mystery to itself, indicating that the fruit of spiritual awakening is not any new piece of information or expanded knowledge, but rather the awareness of the Nothing – the is-ness beyond all understanding that is forever behind the “curtain,” so to speak. And yet, you are the witness – you are behind the curtain. You can’t understand consciousness, but you can be conscious – you can be present – and in doing so, you can awaken out of the “dream” of the mind. זָ֛ךְ כָּתִ֖ית – pure, crushed… But to do this in a way that is truly זָ֛ךְ zakh, “pure,” the olive pits have to be כָּתִ֖ית katit – “crushed.” This means that when suffering comes our way, when things go wrong, when we suffer loss, when we experience anger or worry or fear, we must bring awareness into our feelings. Let the feelings be there, without elaborating upon them too much in thought, without blaming or trying to figure out how to avoid them in the future. לַמָּא֑וֹר –for illumination… Instead, let their energy crush the pit of ego, the pit of taking-for-granted, the pit of resistance to what is, and return to humble receptivity. The feeling of pain is not necessarily pleasant, but it is temporary, and it is the suffering that leads to greater מָּא֑וֹר ma’or, greater illumination. This Presence-in-Suffering, for the sake of illumination, is the Path of נ Nun. In this week of Shabbat Tetzaveh, the Sabbath of Command, may we receive this mitzvah – this commandment – to ignite the eternal flame of awareness with the oil that is pressed from us through the suffering comes our way. And as our light increases, so too may we transform our actions and “crush” any stuck patterns that create more negativity in ourselves and in our relationships. May the blessing of this consciousness feed the movement of evolution speedily in this broken world, bringing forth our yet-unrealized potential for lasting peace…
Read past teachings on Tetzaveh HERE.
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Parshah Summary – P’sha
The parshah opens with Hashem calling upon the Children of Israel to contribute thirteen materials toward the building of the Mishkan, the Sanctuary — gold, silver and copper; blue, purple and red-dyed wool; flax, goat hair, animal skins, wood, olive oil, spices and gems. On Mount Sinai, Moses is given detailed instructions on how to construct this Sanctuary so that it could be readily dismantled, transported and reassembled as the people journeyed through the desert. Within the Mishkan’s innermost chamber, behind a woven curtain, the ark containing the tablets of the testimony engraved with the Aseret Hadibrot (the Ten Commandments) would be housed. Upon the ark’s cover would be two winged keruvim (cherubim) hammered out of pure gold.
In the outer chamber would be the seven-branched menorah, and the table upon which the Leḥem haPanim, the “showbread” (literally the “Bread of the Faces”) was arranged. These sacramental loaves were to always be present, and thus might more accurately be translated as “Presence Bread.” The Sanctuary’s three walls would be fitted together from 48 upright wooden boards, each of which was overlaid with gold and held up by a pair of silver foundation sockets. The roof would be formed of three layers of coverings: tapestries of multicolored wool and linen; a covering made of goat hair; and a covering of ram and “takhash” skins. Across the front of the Sanctuary would be an embroidered screen held up by five posts. Surrounding the Sanctuary and the copper-plated altar in front of it would be an enclosure of linen hangings, supported by 60 wooden posts with silver hooks and trimmings, and reinforced by copper stakes.
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
דַּבֵּר֙ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וְיִקְחוּ־לִ֖י תְּרוּמָ֑ה מֵאֵ֤ת כׇּל־אִישׁ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר יִדְּבֶ֣נּוּ לִבּ֔וֹ תִּקְח֖וּ אֶת־תְּרוּמָתִֽי׃ וְזֹאת֙ הַתְּרוּמָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר תִּקְח֖וּ מֵאִתָּ֑ם זָהָ֥ב וָכֶ֖סֶף וּנְחֹֽשֶׁת׃ Take for Me an offering; from every person whose heart moves them, you shall accept gifts for Me. And these are the gifts that you shall accept from them: gold, silver, and copper… -Shemot (Exodus) 25:2, Parshat Terumah
There is a story of Reb Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev, that whenever he would celebrate the Passover Seder and come to the passage about the Four Children, he would stop at the child who doesn’t know how to ask. “That’s me, Levi Yitzhak – I am the child who doesn’t know how to ask! I don’t know how to ask what this is all about, why we are here, and what the purpose is of all this suffering. And even if I did, how could I bear the answer? I do not want to know why I suffer as I do; I want to know for sure that my suffering is for You. And just as it says in the hagaddah, ‘you shall answer your child…’ so You, my Father, must answer!”
In this story, while suffering is certainly not the meaning of existence, it is the thing that causes us to ask the meaning of existence. And further: it is not the philosophical question of why that is of ultimate concern, but for Whom. In other words, it is a question not of the mind, but of the heart. This points to a central truth: the question of meaning is fulfilled only through the heart. That is the only reason to endure the suffering of life, because love is the ultimate meaning – shining even and especially at the very depths of our suffering. The mind searches for the question of meaning, but it can never really be satisfied with any conceptual answer, no matter how convincing. Trying to find meaning through the mind is like trying to taste food with your hands; no matter how much food you smear on your hands, you will never be satisfied. Only actual eating can satisfy hunger; only actual love can satisfy the hunger for meaning. וְיִקְחוּ־לִ֖י תְּרוּמָ֑ה מֵאֵ֤ת כׇּל־אִישׁ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר יִדְּבֶ֣נּוּ לִבּ֔וֹ – Take for Me an offering from every person whose heart moves them… Through the movement of the heart, life can become a sacred offering – a life in which, since the heart desires to give for the sake of love, giving is actually a form of receiving. And, since everything we receive is taken as an expression of Divine love for us, receiving is also a form of giving: זָהָ֥ב וָכֶ֖סֶף וּנְחֹֽשֶׁת – gold, silver and copper… See – there are three levels of experience, which we can discern right now in our own awareness: thought, feeling and sensory perception. The feeling level determines the quality of experience – its mood – attraction and revulsion, adoration and anger, curiosity and boredom. This is the level of the heart from which love arises, and hence from which the meaning of existence is fulfilled. We might think, then, that the heart is the level of זָהָב zahav – “gold” – but it is not. Why? Notice: our feelings, as primary as they are, are ultimately determined by our thoughts – by how we interpret our experience. Think good, feel good; think bad, feel bad. Often, people will assume the opposite: we start to feel bad, and so we start thinking in a negative way. But wake up out of the seductiveness of your feelings by being present with them and accepting them, and realize: You can actually decide which thoughts to nurture and which thoughts to dismiss. That decision is itself a thought, arising from a deep wisdom beyond the gravity of feeling and the seductiveness of the mind. That wisdom is awareness itself – hokhmah – beyond both thought and feeling. That is why the mind, though it cannot ultimately bring us any real fulfillment by itself, is primary and the heart secondary: the mind rules the heart. Thus, the mind is זָהָב zahav, gold, and the heart is כֶּסֶף kesef, silver. The word for “money” in general is also כֶּסֶף kesef, hinting: it is ultimately the heart from which true value arises. The third level is sensory experience, corresponding to action. Action is an expression of the heart, which is in turn ruled by the mind. We don’t act unless we are motivated to act; we have to first want on the level of heart, and that determines our action. Thus, action is the third level of נְחוֹשֶׁת nekhoshet, copper. Interestingly, the word for copper, נְחוֹשֶׁת nekhoshet, is related to נִחוּשׁnikhush, “guess,” hinting at this basic quality of action: our deeds are often “guesses,” approximations of the heart, not perfect expressions. For example, after discerning the true desire of our heart, we make take a job which seems to give us the opportunity to express that desire. But after some time, we may realize that the job isn’t right for us; we learn through doing, and we refine our actions through “guessing” what to do, doing it, and seeing what happens, As it said in last week’s Parshat Mishpatim, נַעֲשֶׂ֥ה וְנִשְׁמָֽע na’aseh v’nishmah – “We will do and (then) we will hear!” This is also instructive in understanding that the essence of Torah is its principles, not its specific prescribed actions. The Torah says, tzedek tzedek tirdof – “Justice, justice you shall pursue.” Some of the mitzvot are good expressions of justice today, but some are not, such as the legality of slavery. This debatable nature of action is not a new idea, but is in the Torah itself; debate is, of course, the most Jewish thing: when God tells Abraham that Sodom and Gemorah must be destroyed for their sins, Abraham argues with God that total destruction would not be a good expression of justice. In Parshat Yitro, Moses’ father-in-law Yitro (Jethro) suggests appointing wise leaders to make decisions of law and action, and Moses does so, further reinforcing: the Torah does not contain perfect prescriptions for action, but principles from which we must continue to “guess” which action is the right path, seeing the result, and then making the next decision. How do we do that וְיִקְחוּ־לִ֖י תְּרוּמָ֑ה – Take for Me an offering… We guess and discern again and again with the mind; this is the level of זָהָב zahav, “gold” because it is source of intention. With thought, we can decide to frame our action in the world as an offering, guess what our offering should be, and then discern whether our guess was accurate. If not, we can then guess a new path of action, until we get it right. But how do we frame our actions as offerings? מֵאֵ֤ת כׇּל־אִישׁ֙ – from every person… The key is to dedicate our actions to the benefit of people – both to the of benefit others, and to the benefit of ourselves: רַבִּי אוֹמֵר, אֵיזוֹהִי דֶרֶךְ יְשָׁרָה שֶׁיָּבֹר לוֹ הָאָדָם, כֹּל שֶׁהִיא תִפְאֶרֶת לְעוֹשֶׂיהָ וְתִפְאֶרֶת לוֹ מִן הָאָדָם. Rabbi said: which is the straight path that a person should choose for oneself? One which is an adornment to oneself, and also which earns adoration from others. - Pirkei Avot 2:1 But, there are an infinite number of paths that our minds might guess will be of benefit to oneself and others; how can we possibly choose? אֲשֶׁ֣ר יִדְּבֶ֣נּוּ לִבּ֔וֹ – whose heart moves them… Again, the heart is the key; meaning, we must listen to the truth of what we truly love. But to do this, we must be alert and not be fooled by the sometimes overpowering and unconscious impulses of the heart; what we truly love is often not the same as what feels comfortable, what we think will protect us from that which we fear, and so on. To be motivated by the heart in a true way means to transcend the heart, to know that we are transcendent of the heart, and transcendent of the body and the mind as well; we transcend all three levels, because we are the awareness within which they arise; this is the fruit of meditation. Without this knowledge of what we really are, beneath our thoughts, feelings and sensory experience, our thoughts are sometimes ruled by the unconscious impulses of our hearts, leading ultimately to unconscious and reactive actions – in other words, bad guesses! But being aware that we are the awareness behind all experience, we can choose our thoughts, and thus guide our hearts to our true and wholesome desires, and then guess our course of action from that place of radiant love, shining through all of it. Then, Life can become a Sanctuary of Presence for That which dwells within us, as us. This is the Path of ק Koof – the sanctification of all of Life, moment to moment…
Read past teachings on Terumah HERE.
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Parshah Summary – P’sha
The parshah continues with the giving of mitzvot at Sinai, this time focusing on civil laws, including the laws of the Hebrew slave (or indentured servant), the penalties for murder, kidnapping, assault and theft, redress of damages, the granting of loans, the responsibilities of the “Four Guardians” (unpaid guardian, paid guardian, renter and borrower), the rules governing the conduct of justice by courts, and laws warning against mistreatment of the ger, the stranger – “for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
Also included are other ritual laws: the observance of the seasonal festivals, the agricultural gifts that are to be brought to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem; the prohibition against cooking meat with milk, and the mitzvah of prayer. The parshah also contains the special words that the Children of Israel proclaim at Sinai: נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמָֽע na’aseh v’nishmah – “We will do and we will hear.” It concludes with Moses ascending the mountain and remaining there for forty days and forty nights to receive the rest of the Torah...
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וְאֵ֙לֶּה֙ הַמִּשְׁפָּטִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר תָּשִׂ֖ים לִפְנֵיהֶֽם׃ כִּ֤י תִקְנֶה֙ עֶ֣בֶד עִבְרִ֔י שֵׁ֥שׁ שָׁנִ֖ים יַעֲבֹ֑ד וּבַ֨שְּׁבִעִ֔ת יֵצֵ֥א לַֽחׇפְשִׁ֖י חִנָּֽם׃ These are the judgements that you shall set before them: When you acquire a Hebrew slave, six years they shall serve-- and in the seventh year they shall go free, without payment… - Shemot (Exodus) 21:1-2, Parshat Mishpatim
Rabbi Yaakov Yitzhak of Peshischa didn’t have the happiest of marriages; his wife would frequently grow extremely angry at him and scold him at length. Normally, he would say nothing, and simply endure her words in silence, unaffected. But one time, he snapped at her. Taken aback, she stopped her abuse and left the room. A disciple witnessed the whole thing asked the rebbe: “Master, you always endure her anger in silence. Why did you snap back this time? Did you lose your equanimity – your kabbalat isurim – and become angry?”
“Not at all,” the Rebbe replied, “I could see that she was growing more and more angry that I wasn’t reacting, so I pretended to get angry to help her feel better.”
גְּדוֹלָה תוֹרָה יוֹתֵר מִן הַכְּהֻנָּה וּמִן הַמַּלְכוּת...
וְהַתּוֹרָה נִקְנֵית בְּאַרְבָּעִים וּשְׁמֹנָה דְבָרִים... קַבָּלַת הַיִּסּוּרִין... Greater is learning Torah than both the priesthood and royalty… Torah is acquired by forty-eight things…(and one of them is) acceptance of suffering… - Pirkei Avot 6:6
There are two common images that are often used to describe the state of equanimity brought forth through meditation; that is, the ability to be present with one’s own negative emotions without being caught by them. The first is the image of dwelling within the center of your own being. When you are at the center, reactivity may arise – anger, fear, jealousy, anxiety, and so on, but you are not “caught” by any of that because the emotions are simply bubbling up around you, while you remain in the “eye of the hurricane” so to speak. In this image, the chaos is external, and you are the calm center that sees the chaos, unmoved by it. The second is the image of being a vast space within which the reactivity arises. In this image, the chaos is within you, but you are so much more vast and spacious than whatever feelings are bubbling up, that they powerless to compel you in any way.
Both of these images actually point to two different meditation practices for transcending reactivity and realizing freedom it: being present with your body, on one hand, and knowing yourself as the vast space of awareness both within and infinitely beyond your body, on the other. In our Jewish meditation practice, these two images are different stages of the same practice, based on a verse from our parshah which describes the Children of Israel standing together at Sinai, while the mountain smokes and quakes, engulfed in cloud and fire: וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ כֹּ֛ל אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּ֥ר יְהוָ֖ה נַעֲשֶׂ֥ה וְנִשְׁמָֽע – And the people said, “Everything that the Divine speaks, na’aseh v’nishmah, we will do and we will hear.” - Exodus, 24:7 The ordering of the words in this verse, נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמָֽע na’aseh v’nishma, is strange. You would think that the words should be the opposite – first you would hear, and then you would do. But the fact that the words are reversed – “we will do” and then “we will hear,” teaches a key insight: If you want to experience the vastness of your own being as the borderless space of awareness within which all experience arises (v’nishma) – you must first bring your awareness deep into your own body (na’aseh). In connecting with your body, with your heart and with your breathing, your consciousness is drawn out from its ordinary activity of incessant thinking, and into its own nature as open space. There is another hint of this unity between the center of your being and the vastness of your being earlier in the parshah, where it discusses how a Hebrew slave must be set free: וּבַ֨שְּׁבִעִ֔ת יֵצֵ֥א לַֽחָפְשִׁ֖י חִנָּֽם – And in the seventh (year), he shall go out free, without charge. וּבַשְּׁבִעִת – And in the seventh… In the image of the Star of David, the six rays represent the six directions in space and the six days of the week, while seven is represented by the center of the star. This is Shabbat – the “eye of the hurricane” in time, essentially a day of meditation. Seven, then, is the inner sanctum, the holy center – the drawing of awareness into the temple of the body. יֵצֵא לַֽחָפְשִׁי – he shall go out free… And yet, through connecting with the center, yeitzei – there is a “going out” to freedom. This is the felt sense that the awareness dwelling within your body is not confined to your body. Rather, it is a vast field within which everything you perceive arises; the air around you as well as the stars in the sky are all equally arising within the one vast field that you are. חִנָּֽם – gratis, free of charge, an act of grace – This freedom is not something you have to work for or somehow create; it is what you already are. How do you access it? Pay close attention to your actual experience in this moment and see – you are the freedom of awareness, right now. Whatever experience is arising within you, be it positive or negative, is arising within the spaciousness of consciousness; this is meditation. Experiences are unstable; they change moment to moment, revealing a basic lack which leads to one to movement. But on the level of consciousness, this space within which experience arises is inherently whole and complete, abundant in its openness and stillness; this fundamental sufficiency at the root of our being is represented by the Path of ג Gimel.
Read past teachings on Mishpatim HERE.
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Parshah Summary – P’shat
Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro (Yitro), hears of the great miracles which God performed for the Children of Israel, and comes from Midian to the Israelite camp, bringing with him Moses’ wife and two sons. Jethro advises Moses to appoint a hierarchy of magistrates and judges to assist him in the task of governing and administering justice to the people.
The Children of Israel camp opposite Mount Sinai, where they are told that God has chosen them to be a “kingdom of priests” and “holy nation.” The people respond by proclaiming, “All that God has spoken, we shall do.” On the sixth day of the third month (Sivan), seven weeks after the Exodus, the entire nation of Israel assembles at the foot of Mount Sinai for the Giving of the Torah. The Presence of God descends on the mountain amidst thunder, lightning, billows of smoke and the blast of the shofar, and Moses is summoned. God proclaims the Ten Commandments, instructing the people of Israel to be aware of God, not to worship idols or take the Name in vain, to keep Shabbat, honor their parents, not to murder, not to commit adultery, not to steal, and not to bear false witness or covet another’s property. The people cry out to Moses that the revelation is too intense for them to bear, begging him to receive the Torah from God and convey it to them instead…
Torah of Awakening: Jewish Meditation Teaching
וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר אֱלֹהִ֔ים אֵ֛ת כׇּל־הַדְּבָרִ֥ים הָאֵ֖לֶּה לֵאמֹֽר׃ אָֽנֹכִ֖י֙ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑֔יךָ אֲשֶׁ֧ר הוֹצֵאתִ֛יךָ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם מִבֵּ֣֥ית עֲבָדִ֑ים׃ God spoke all these words, saying: I am Hashem your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage… - Shemot (Exodus) 20:1, 2 Parshat Yitro
Once, Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowicz of Peshischa (known as “the Yehudi”) was asked to examine the thirteen-year-old Hanokh in the Talmud. (Hanokh later became the rabbi of Alexander). It took the boy an hour to think over the passage which had been assigned to him before he could expound it. Once he had done so, the tzaddik cupped his hand around Hanokh’s cheek and said: “When I was thirteen I plumbed passages more difficult than this in no time at all, and when I was eighteen, I had the reputation of being a great Torah scholar. But one day it dawned on me that a person cannot attain to perfection through learning alone. I understood what is told of our father Abraham: that he explored the sun, the moon, and the stars, and he did not find God, yet in this very not-finding, the Presence of God was revealed to him. For three months I mulled over this realization. Then I explored until I too reached the truth of not-finding.”
The function of the mind is too “find” – to navigate through time by creating an inner context through which we can conceptualize who and where we are, what we are doing, and why; this is essential. But, this creates the side effect of seeing reality through the screen of that map. The mind sees the surface of things – a collection of related but separate parts, and the mind also feels itself to be separate from what it sees. וַיְהִי֙ ק֣וֹל הַשֹּׁפָ֔ר הוֹלֵ֖ךְ וְחָזֵ֣ק מְאֹ֑ד מֹשֶׁ֣ה יְדַבֵּ֔ר וְהָאֱלֹהִ֖ים יַעֲנֶ֥נּוּ בְקֽוֹל׃ And it was that as the voice of the shofar louder and louder, Moses spoke, God answered him in that voice… But there comes a time when that inner map breaks down, and we are confronted by the naked present, in all its Mystery. When we are shaken from the continuity of mind-created context, and the “familiar” disappears, we step out of the Mitzrayim of the known, out of our conditioned mental patterns of separateness. This “wilderness” can be terrifying. And yet, in the unknown there is the possibility of receiving Reality in a very direct way, a way that knows Being as a Whole, as a Oneness; this is meditation. אָֽנֹכִי יי – I am Hashem… According to our tradition, this Divine declaration of identity is the first of the Aseret Hadibrot, the “Ten Sayings,” otherwise known as the “Ten Commandments.” But what exactly is the commandment? According to Maimonides (b. 1135- d.1204 CE), in his work Sefer HaMitzvot, this first commandment is simply to believe in God. אֲשֶׁ֧ר הוֹצֵאתִ֛יךָ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם – who brought you out of the land of Egypt… But if we look at the second part of the verse, there is a deeper message that is not about mere belief, not about events of the past, but rather it is about this moment within which we now find ourselves, this moment through which we too may be brought out of Mitzrayim. אָֽנֹכִי יי – I am Hashem means that the Anokhi – the “I” – is actually Hashem – Divine. Meaning, our own inner identity, and in fact the inner identity of all things, is the Ultimate, Living Presence of Existence; that is what the Divine Name actually means. חָבִיב אָדָם שֶׁנִּבְרָא בְצֶלֶם. חִבָּה יְתֵרָה נוֹדַעַת לוֹ שֶׁנִּבְרָא בְצֶלֶם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (בראשית ט) כִּי בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים עָשָׂה אֶת הָאָדָם. Beloved are human beings, for they were created as images for the Divine. But they are extra beloved that it is made known to them that they are created as images for the Divine, as it is said: “for in the image of the Divine humans were made.” - Pirkei Avot, 3:18 The Israelites are shaken by the terrible awesomeness of the natural world around them, and in that heightened state, the inner identity of nature reveals Itself as their own inner identity. It is not about believing in the idea of a divine entity; it is not about adding another concept to the mind’s ideas about reality. It is about subtracting the conditioned sense of the ordinary imposed by our minds, and recognizing Existence Itself – recognizing That which the mind cannot map. This “knowing” through not finding, that is, not mapping with the mind, is itself liberation – liberation from the burden of time and conditioned identity. וְכׇל־הָעָם֩ רֹאִ֨ים אֶת־הַקּוֹלֹ֜ת – and all the people saw the voices… It does say they heard the voices, but saw! In other words, they perceived everything in a completely new way. It is a kind of awakening. Physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about how we can imagine our “cosmic address.” The first step is to notice we are on planet Earth. Next, we can expand our perspective to see that Earth is part of our Solar System. Then, we expand further to see that our sun is one of hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Even further, we can see the family of galaxies to which the Milky Way belongs, called the Local Group. Then, even further, we expand to see the Local Group as part of a larger cluster of galaxy families, called the Virgo Supercluster. And even further, the Virgo Supercluster is one of the many clusters that make up the Observable Universe. But what comes after that? We have come to limits of our map, beyond which is simply Mystery. Perhaps, says Tyson, our whole universe is merely a single bubble in an infinite ocean of bubbles, each one a complete universe. Now consider: where would that “ocean” of universes be? The imagination reaches out toward infinity and comes to stillness. כָּל יָמַי גָּדַלְתִּי בֵין הַחֲכָמִים, וְלֹא מָצָאתִי לַגּוּף טוֹב אֶלָּא שְׁתִיקָה. וְלֹא הַמִּדְרָשׁ הוּא הָעִקָּר, אֶלָּא הַמַּעֲשֶׂה. וְכָל הַמַּרְבֶּה דְבָרִים, מֵבִיא חֵטְא: All my days I grew up among the sages, and I have found nothing better for a person than silence. Study is not the point, but practice; whoever indulges in too many words brings about great error. - Pirkei Avot, 1:17 Ultimately, we don’t and can’t know where or what or why any of this is. And yet we do know: Hinei! Here it is! This practice of finding the limits of thought, beyond which is the simple Mystery of Being, is the Path of ר Reish, of Awe, of Wonder. May our efforts in this Path add momentum to the awakening of our species from the mind-created madness that gives rise to our present plagues of violence and suffering.
Read past teachings on Yitro HERE.
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