Parshah Summary – P’shat
Parshat Haazinu (“Listen,” from ozen, “ear”) consists of a song delivered by Moses to the Children of Israel on the last day of his earthly life. Calling heaven and earth as witnesses, Moses warns against the pitfalls of abundance:“Yeshurun grew fat and kicked…he forgot the Divine who created him…” And yet, in the end, God and the Children of Israel will become reconciled. The parshah concludes with God’s instruction to Moses to ascend the summit of Mount Nebo, from which he will behold the Promised Land before dying on the mountain. “For you shall see the land opposite you; but you shall not go there, into the land which I give to the Children of Israel.”
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
יְסֹֽבְבֶ֙נְהוּ֙ יְבֹ֣ונְנֵ֔הוּ יִצְּרֶ֖נְהוּ כְּאִישֹׁ֥ון עֵינֹֽו: It surrounded him, imbued him with understanding and preserved him like the pupil of an eye… - Devarim (Deuteronomy) 32:10
From youth until old age, Rabbi Yitzhak Eisik suffered from an ailment which caused him great physical pain. His physician once asked him how he managed to endure such pain without complaining or groaning.
He replied: “You would understand if you thought of the pain as scrubbing and soaking the soul in a strong cleaning solution. In that case, you would try to simply accept the pain with love and not grumble. With practice, you would gain the ability to be with whatever pain was present. Of course, the pain of the moment is all that matters; pain of the past is no longer present, and who would be foolish enough to concern themselves with pain of the future?” This hasidic teaching on the power Presence is not merely a way of getting through physical pain; it is the essential path for coming to know our deepest being. The “pain,” of course, is not just physical pain; physical pain is a metaphor for the unsatisfactory, which is a fundamental feature of human life; we cannot escape it. And yet, it is through developing the skill of Presence, which means learning to not resist the unsatisfactory, that a deeper joy is attained: ט֥וֹב כַּ֖עַס מִשְּׂח֑וֹק כִּֽי־בְרֹ֥עַ פָּנִ֖ים יִ֥יטַב לֵֽב׃ Sorrow is better than laughter, for through sadness arises the goodness of the face the heart. - Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) 7:3 But how is this so? Why should suffering lead to “goodness?” Because acceptance is a function of our essential being, prior to getting bound up in thoughts and feelings of resistance, and we cannot practice acceptance without having something to resist… ט֥וֹב כַּ֖עַס מִשְּׂח֑וֹק – Sorrow is better than laughter… The more we practice this art of being awareness, rather than being the activity of thought and feeling, the more our thoughts and feelings come to reflect that openness; this is meditation. And the more our thoughts and feelings reflect that openness, the more we can recognize the transitory nature of suffering, letting pain come, and also letting it go, whether it be physical pain or the deeper emotional pain. And from this deep allowing, the quality of That which allows, what we might call our Diving nature, can blossom. כִּֽי־בְרֹ֥עַ פָּנִ֖ים יִ֥יטַב לֵֽב׃ – … for through sadness arises the goodness of the face the heart. How do we do this? יְסֹֽבְבֶ֙נְהוּ֙ It surrounded… “Surround” the fullness of your experience, right now, with consciousness; let your awareness connect with everything that arises in your field of perception, without pushing anything away. יְבֹ֣ונְנֵ֔הו – imbue with understanding… Understand that everything you perceive – from sensory impressions, to emotional feelings, to thoughts – are all arising within the field of consciousness, and literally are consciousness; everything we experience are nothing but different forms of the Same Thing… יִצְּרֶ֖נְהוּ כְּאִישֹׁ֥ון עֵינֹֽו: –…and preserved him like the pupil of an eye. Just as the pupil of an eye is a simple opening through which light can flow, so too the full spectrum of Reality as you experience it now flows through this open field of awareness, and you are this field. Return yourself repeatedly to knowing that you are consciousness, that you are essentially an open space, beyond and infinitely more vast than all thoughts and feelings; this is the secret of Renewal through which we can Return Again, back to the beginning and root of experience; this is the Path of א Alef.
Read past teachings on Ha' Azinu HERE
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