Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with Jacob returning home to the land of Canaan after a 20-year stay in Haran. He sends angels ahead of him to meet his brother Esau in hope of a reconciliation, but they report back that Esau is on the warpath with 400 armed men. Jacob prepares for war, but also sends Esau a large gift (consisting of hundreds of heads of livestock) to appease him, and then intensely prays for salvation. That night, Jacob sends his family and possessions across the Jabbok River, while he remains behind and encounters a mysterious being with whom he wrestles until daybreak. Jacob suffers a dislocated hip but vanquishes the supernal creature, who bestows upon him the name Yisrael, Israel. When Jacob and Esau finally meet, they break down, hugging and kissing, but then part ways.
Jacob purchases a plot of land near Shekhem, whose crown prince—also called Shekhem—abducts and violates Jacob’s daughter Dinah. Dinah’s brothers Shimon and Levi avenge the deed by killing all male inhabitants of the city, after rendering them vulnerable by convincing them to circumcise themselves in order to intermarry with them. Again fearing for his life after what his sons had done, Jacob and his family flee. Rachel dies while giving birth to her second son, Benjamin, and is buried in a roadside grave near Bethlehem. Jacob arrives in Hebron, to his father Isaac, who later dies at age 180.
Torah of Awakening
וַיִּשְׁלַ֨ח יַעֲקֹ֤ב מַלְאָכִים֙ לְפָנָ֔יו אֶל־עֵשָׂ֖ו אָחִ֑יו אַ֥רְצָה שֵׂעִ֖יר שְׂדֵ֥ה אֱדֽוֹם׃ Jacob sent angels ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. - Bereisheet (Genesis) 32:4, Parshat Vayikhlakh
One Friday afternoon, when Rabbi David of Lelov was on a journey in a horse-drawn carriage, the horse stopped and refused to go on. The driver began to beat the horse, but the rebbe objected. “Rabbi,” cried the driver, “the sun will soon be setting and Shabbos is almost here!”
“You are quite right,” answered Rabbi David, “but what you have to do is make the animal understand you. Otherwise it will someday summon you to court in Heaven, and that will not be to your honor.” The horse and driver are classic symbols of the body and mind. Beyond the plain teaching of being kind to animals, Rabbi David is teaching us not to force our bodies, but to be lovingly present with our physical nature. This duality of the mind and body are also expressed in the Jacob story: Jacob and Esau are twin brothers, representing opposite archetypes. Esau was a hunter, a man of the field. Jacob, on the other hand, “dwelled in tents” where, according to the tradition, he would study Torah. In other words, Esau represents the body, and Jacob the mind. Esau wants to kill Jacob because Jacob used his cunning intelligence first to convince Esau to sell him his birthright, and later to trick their father Isaac into giving Esau’s blessing of the first born to Jacob. And this what the mind often must do: The body has its needs – not very complicated or profound – it needs good food, fresh air, good rest, and so on. But our minds have other more sophisticated and ambitions and plans. And because of all the things we want to accomplish and experience, all the things we “think” are more important, we can end up polluting our bodies, not getting enough rest or exercise, and pushing ourselves in ways that can make us sick – not to mention the damage we cause to others in the process. Eventually, Esau will rebel; the body rebels, and that’s when life can fall apart. What is the solution? It is to realize, first of all, that there is a much more profound dimension to our minds than our thoughts, ideas and ambitions; and that is our sensitivity, our awareness, our Presence. Just as Jacob sends the malakhim – the angels – to Esau, so you can “send” your awareness into your own body. That is literally how our bodies feel loved, because awareness is the carrier wave for love; it is the whole basis for love. After all, before we do anything loving for anyone, we first have to be present with them, we have to pay attention to them. Sometimes, attentiveness is all that is needed; and it is the same for our own bodies. Some people like to pamper their bodies with spa days, putting on various lotions, makeup, and so on. To a “spiritual” person this may seem materialistic and vain, but actually it can be a way that one expresses Presence, and hence love, to the body. Loving Presence in the body activates our innate healing potential; that is why some people don’t feel good unless they “put on their face.” They may think it’s the makeup that makes them feel good, but it’s actually the attention itself which puts the body at ease and activates a feeling of wellbeing… וַיִּשְׁלַ֨ח יַעֲקֹ֤ב מַלְאָכִים֙ לְפָנָ֔יו – Jacob sent angels before him… But of course, once we understand this, we don’t really need the outer garments of attention; we can go right to the essence, sending our “angels” before us, into our bodies – this is meditation. וַיָּ֨רׇץ עֵשָׂ֤ו לִקְרָאתוֹ֙ וַֽיְחַבְּקֵ֔הוּ וַיִּפֹּ֥ל עַל־צַוָּארָ֖ו וַׄיִּׄשָּׁׄקֵ֑ׄהׄוּׄ וַיִּבְכּֽוּ׃ Esau ran to greet him. He embraced him and he fell on his neck, and he kissed him; and they wept. In the text, the word kissed, וַׄיִּׄשָּׁׄקֵׄהׄוּׄ has dots over all the letters, and there is a dispute about the meaning of the dots. Rashi explains that some say the dots are there to imply that the kisses were done not with the whole heart, while Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai said, “Is it not well-known that Esau hated Jacob? But at that moment his pity was really aroused and he kissed him with his whole heart. (Sifrei Bamidbar 69.2) Similarly, there is a paradox in our relationship with our bodies: when we bring the mind out of its imaginary worlds of ambition and projection and down into our physical bodies, then with practice, our bodies will reflect back to us that quality of love and attention as a feeling of blissful spaciousness, showing us the true nature of our own Being, of our consciousness. And this is the paradox: the body, with its constant needs and aches and pains, is ordinarily experienced as a kind of impediment to spiritual transcendence. But when we “kiss” our bodies with loving Presence, we can receive back that sense of blissful transcendence; our bodies “kiss” us in return. But to rest our loving attention in our bodies, we need patience; we need to be able to put aside the urgency of our thoughts in order to fully rest the mind and meditate in stillness; this is the quality of the letter ח het – patience, listening, Presence-with:
אֶלָּא שְׁתִיקָה. וְלֹא הַמִּדְרָשׁ הוּא הָעִקָּר, אֶלָּא הַמַּעֲשֶׂה.
וְכָל הַמַּרְבֶּה דְבָרִים, מֵבִיא חֵטְא. Shimon, his son, says: All my days I have grown up among the sages, and I have found nothing better for the body than silence. Study is not the main thing, but practice, and all who increase words bring error. - Pirkei Avot 1:16
Silence – that is, silent, loving Presence, is what the body needs; it is the foundation of healing. So in this week of Shabbat Vayishlakh, the Sabbath of Sending, may we practice “sending” our loving attention deeply into our own bodies. May our appreciation of the body nudge the world closer to the eradication of needless violence and violations of this precious human temple of consciousness within which we dwell. And as we approach the time of Hanukkah, may our loving attention toward others ever increase like the lights of the menorah; may peace come speedily.
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Parshah Summary – P’shat
Jacob leaves his hometown of Be’er Sheva and journeys to Haran. On the way, he stops to sleep and dreams of a ladder spanning earth to heaven, with angels ascending and descending upon it. In the morning, Jacob raises the stone upon which he laid his head as an altar and monument, pledging that it will one day become a house of God.
In Haran, Jacob lives and works for his uncle Laban, tending Laban’s sheep. Jacob loves Laban’s younger daughter, Rachel, and Laban allows them to get married, in return for seven years of work from Jacob. But on the wedding night, Laban switches Rachel with his elder daughter Leah—a deception Jacob only discovers in the morning. A week later, Jacob marries Rachel as well, after agreeing to work for another seven years. Leah gives birth to six sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun, as well as a daughter, Dinah, while Rachel remains barren. Rachel gives Jacob her handmaid Bilhah as a wife to bear children in her stead, and two more sons, Dan and Naphtali, are born. Leah does the same with her handmaid, Zilpah, who gives birth to Gad and Asher. Finally, Rachel’s prayers are answered and she gives birth to Joseph. Jacob has now been in Haran for 14 years, and wishes to return home. But Laban persuades him to remain, offering him sheep in return for his labor, and Jacob becomes wealthy by breeding the sheep in a seemingly magical way. After six years, Jacob flees Haran in stealth, fearing that Laban would prevent him from leaving with his family and property. Laban pursues Jacob, but is warned by God in a dream not to harm him. Laban and Jacob make a pact on Mount Gal-Ed with a pile of stones as a witness, and Jacob proceeds back to Canaan, where he is met by angels…
Torah of Awakening
אָכֵן֙ יֵ֣שׁ יי בַּמָּק֖וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה וְאָנֹכִ֖י לֹ֥א יָדָֽעְתִּי “Surely the Divine is present in this place and I didn’t even know it!” - Bereisheet (Genesis) 28:16
Once, when Rabbi Hanokh was eating with his hasidim on one of the nine days which precedes Tisha B’Av (the Ninth of Av, the day of lamenting the destruction of the Temple), he said to them: “Formerly when these days came around, everyone was shaken with anguish because, since the Temple was destroyed, we have had no sanctuary in which to make our offerings. But now the hasidim sit and eat their meals as if they were making an offering, and say: "Hashem was, is, and will be; the sanctuary was, is, and will be."
In this remarkable teaching of Rabbi Hanokh, he seems to be declaring a new phase of consciousness. In the past, the “Three Weeks” during which the destruction of the Temple is remembered was a commemoration of loss; the destroyed Beit Hamikdash was the nexus of Divine Presence on earth, and that nexus was now gone. What could be a greater tragedy than losing that structure, and hence losing the earthly connection with the Divine Presence? But in his time, the simple table upon which they ate had become their altar, because Hashem “is, was and will be” – in other words, God is not limited to a special time and place. God is Being Itself, the Ever-Present, and any place can become a sanctuary for those sensitive to this realization. This recognition of God as Being is expressed in our tradition as both a verb and a noun. As a verb, God’s four letter Name is based on the root “to be,” ,היה as in the hymn:
וְהוּא הָיָה וְהוּא הֹוֶה, וְהוּא יִהְיֶה בְּתִפְאָרָה
V’hu hayah, v’hu hoveh, v’hu yiyeh b’Tifarah It was, It is, It will be in Splendor!
This Name of God as the verb to be is not mere theology; it is a practical instruction: we find God by moving from our ordinary mode of doing, and particularly the action of thinking, to the mode of being, and particularly the state of wakefulness, of perceiving. But, God can also be expressed as a noun, “The Place.”
וַיִּפְגַּ֨ע בַּמָּק֜וֹם – He encountered The Place… Jacob does not merely encounter a place; that would be: וַיִּפְגַּע בְּמָּקוֹם – Vayifga bemakom. Rather, he encounters The Place: בַּמָּקוֹם BaMakom. This has a double meaning – on one hand, he is coming to a specific place on his journey, but on the other hand, it is an encounter with the Divine, Who is sometimes called, הַמָּקוֹם HaMakom, “The Place.” Why is God called The Place? לֹ֥א יָדָֽעְתִּי – “I didn’t even know it!” The word for knowing, דַעַת Da’at, isn’t the same as the English word for knowing, which implies an intellectual understanding. The Hebrew word is the same word used in the Garden of Eden story: וְהָ֣אָדָ֔ם יָדַ֖ע אֶת־חַוָּ֣ה – And Adam knew Eve… This is the knowing of intimacy and connection, not the mind and thinking. אָכֵן֙ יֵ֣שׁ יי בַּמָּק֖וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה וְאָנֹכִ֖י לֹ֥א יָדָֽעְתִּי – “Surely the Divine is present in this Place and I didn’t even know it!” The ordinary way of understanding the verse is that he realizes the Presence of God is there in the place he stopped for the night, but that he didn’t know It was present before. But when we understand דַעַת Da’at as intimate connection, we can also read it as saying, “The Divine is in this Place, but I wasn’t knowing the Place,” meaning, he couldn’t sense the Divine before, because he wasn’t present in the place where he was. After all, he was running away from his brother; the place he stopped was merely a step on his journey from one place to another. This is symbolic as well: “running away from his brother” means running from the past, resisting the truth of his life situation. But now that he has become intimate with the place in which he finds himself, he also finds God – God and the “place” are not two separate things. That is why God is called הַמָּקוֹם HaMakom – “The Place.” This Name of God as a noun is also a practical instruction on how to “find” God. What is the instruction? Know – דע da – that the ultimate unfolding of Reality is right here, right now in this place; taste this moment, do not distract yourself with the currents of mind that sweep you away from this moment, from God’s revelation of Itself as this moment. וַיֵּצֵ֥א יַעֲקֹ֖ב – Jacob went out… Like Jacob, we can “go out” from our ordinary, conditioned relationship with experience, into God – into the miracle of This Place in which we Now find ourselves. This recognition of the Divine as This Place is the meaning of the sefirah of Malkhut, also called Shekhinah, “The Presence” – the perception of the world as the “Kingdom” of God. In this week of Shabbat Vayeitzei, the Sabbath of Going Out, may we remember to frequently “go out” from our ordinary conditioned perception, and to meet the world as Malkhut, as Shekhinah. May we swiftly come to a time when all people recognize the sacred gift of Being; may this world be transformed into a Sanctuary of Presence for all people, so that violence and war evaporate permanently from our species.
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Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with Isaac praying for a child after Rebecca had been unable to conceive, and immediately his prayer is answered. But, she experiences a difficult pregnancy as the “children struggle inside her.” She prays that the cause of her suffering be revealed, and Hashem responds that “two nations in your womb.” Esau emerges first, and Jacob is born clutching Esau’s heel. (Yaakov, Jacob, means “heal.”) As they grow up, Isaac favors Esau because Esau hunts and feeds his father game, but Rebecca loves Jacob more. One day, when Esau returns home exhausted and hungry from the hunt, he sells his birthright to Jacob for a pot of red lentil stew.
In Gerar, in the land of the Philistines, Isaac presents Rebecca as his sister, out of fear that he will be killed by someone coveting her beauty. He farms the land, reopens the wells dug by his father Abraham, and digs a series of his own wells. Esau marries two Hittite women. Isaac grows old and blind, and wants to bless his first born Esau before he dies. While Esau goes off to hunt for his father’s favorite food, Rebecca dresses Jacob in Esau’s clothing, covers his arms and neck with goatskins to simulate the feel of his hairier brother, prepares a similar dish, and sends Jacob to his father. Jacob receives his father’s blessings for “the dew of the heaven and the fat of the land,” as well as mastery over his brother. When Esau returns and the deception is revealed, Isaac blesses him as well with the “fat of the earth and dew of the heaven,” but also that he shall live by the sword and serve his brother, though there will come a time when he will “break the yoke” from his neck. Jacob leaves home for Haran to flee Esau’s wrath and to find a wife in the family of his mother’s brother, Laban. Esau marries a third wife—Makhalat, the daughter of Ishmael…
Torah of Awakening
וַיִּתְרֹֽצְצ֤וּ הַבָּנִים֙ בְּקִרְבָּ֔הּ וַתֹּ֣אמֶר אִם־כֵּ֔ן לָ֥מָּה זֶּ֖ה אָנֹ֑כִי וַתֵּ֖לֶךְ לִדְרֹ֥שׁ אֶת־יְהֹוָֽה׃ וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְיְ לָ֗הּ שְׁנֵ֤י גוֹיִם֙ בְּבִטְנֵ֔ךְ וּשְׁנֵ֣י לְאֻמִּ֔ים מִמֵּעַ֖יִךְ יִפָּרֵדוּ וּלְאֹם֙ מִלְאֹ֣ם יֶֽאֱמָ֔ץ וְרַ֖ב יַעֲבֹ֥ד צָעִֽיר׃ The children struggled within her, and she said, “If so, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the Divine. Hashem said to her, “Two nations are in your womb; two peoples from within you shall be separated. The strength shall pass from one to the other, and the older shall serve the younger.” -Bereisheet (Genesis) 25:22-23
Here in Tucson, the Catalina mountains rise majestically in the north of the city. When we first moved here, I would look up and think, “I wonder if those mountains will ever seem normal and unimpressive?” You may have experienced: when you visit a new place where you have no history or baggage, there is a brightness to everything – even dirty things are bright, vivid, and rich. But after you’ve been somewhere a while, the nervous system tends to clump everything together. You look at the tree you’ve seen a million times, but instead of seeing the miracle of the tree, instead you see your laundry, the bills, the broken sink, maybe broken relationships. All your past experiences of a place seems to fuse together; you become conditioned.
Conditioning is not in itself a bad thing; it is how we build memories, and part of the richness of a place consists of the experiences we have had there – a place is not only a repository for the stresses of life, but also positive memories, treasures collected on our journey through time. But it is also important to know that there is an aspect of our experience that is unconditioned. You can see and feel that unconditioned aliveness in children – their wonder, their innocent excitement about things. And of course, along with that exquisitely innocent and unconditioned consciousness comes naivety. That is why we, the old and the conditioned, need to protect them from themselves. The older must serve the younger… וְרַ֖ב יַעֲבֹ֥ד צָעִֽיר – “And the older shall serve the younger...” And that is as it should be – the experience of the old and the conditioned must preserve and protect the fragile, the bright, the unconditioned quality youth. But this truth applies not only in the external realm of protecting children, but also in the inner realms of consciousness. For there is a level within our own being that is still completely unconditioned. Like the child, it is bright, alive, and curious. וַיִּתְרֹֽצְצ֤וּ הַבָּנִים֙ בְּקִרְבָּ֔הּ – But the children struggled within her… You may struggle against yourself: “But I am old – my conditioning is too heavy, my trauma is too great, my life has been too difficult – how can I get rid of all the oldness to discover my inner youthfulness? How can I reach the unconditioned?” The Good News is: You don’t have to “reach” it, and you don’t have to “get rid” of your conditioning. That which sees all your conditioning, is itself Unconditioned… וּלְאֹם֙ מִלְאֹ֣ם יֶֽאֱמָ֔ץ – The strength shall pass from one to the other… You can shift the “strength” from the conditioned to the Unconditioned: instead of saying, “I am old” – instead of saying, “my conditioning” – simply notice the feeling of oldness, or the feeling of whatever is present in your experience. Notice the impulse to think or judge things in a certain way. Notice the feeling that arises when you see the tree that you’ve seen a million times. The seeing itself – that is the Unconditioned; staying in the noticing is meditation. If you practice staying in the seeing, in the noticing, without getting absorbed into the reaction, you will also begin to notice: there is an inner vastness that is untouched by the old thoughts and old feelings. That vastness is your Presence, your Awareness. You don’t need to find it, you are it – but you need to be with all that conditioning instead of being the conditioning. Then, you will see: the mountain is new, every day – a wonder, a miracle. This simple awe at the miracle of the moment, called יִראָה yirah, is represented by the letter ר reish, which means both “head” and “beginning.” It has the shape of a bowed head, hinting reverence for That which is beyond the grasp of the mind, opening us to see as if for the first time – a new beginning. There is a story that the disciples of Rabbi Elimelekh came to him and asked: “In the Torah we read that Pharaoh said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Show a wonder to you.’ How are we to understand this? He should have said, ‘Show a wonder to me.’” Rabbi Elimelekh explained: “Magicians know what they want to accomplish and how to accomplish it. It is not a wonder for them – only for their beholders. But for those who are merely a vessel for the miracle that God accomplishes through them, their own wonder arises from their deeds and overwhelms them. And that’s what Pharaoh meant: ‘Don’t show me your conditioned expertise! Show me the wonder that arises out of your Unconditioned innocence…’ In this week of Shabbat Toldot, The Sabbath of Generations, may we open and see the miraculous eons of conditioning that are creating our experience right now. May we know that the seeing and the opening is Itself Unconditioned – Hadeish yameinu kikedem – may our days be fresh and new as they were at the beginning, before the story began. And as we enter the month of Kislev and Hanukah, the Holiday of Dedication, may we dedicate ourselves ever more deeply to a path of ever increasing healing and Light…
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Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with Sarah’s death at the age of 127, after which Abraham buries her in the Cave of Makhpelah in Hebron, which he purchases from Ephron the Hittite for four hundred silver shekels.
Next, Abraham sends his servant Eliezer to find a wife for Isaac in Haran. At the village well, Eliezer asks God for a specific sign: that when the maidens come to the well, he will request water from them. If one of the women gives him water and offers to water his camels as well, then she should be the one destined for his master’s son. Rebecca, the daughter of Abraham’s nephew Bethuel, appears at the well and passes the test. Eliezer is invited to their home, where he tells her family everything that has happened. Rebecca returns with Eliezer to the land of Canaan, where they encounter Isaac meditating in the field. Isaac marries Rebecca and is comforted over the loss of his mother. Abraham marries another woman named Keturah, and they have six more sons. When the sons grow up, Abraham “sends them off to the east with gifts.” Abraham dies at age of 175 and is buried beside Sarah by his two eldest sons, Isaac and Ishmael.
Torah of Awakening
וְהָיָ֣ה הַֽנַּעֲרָ֗ אֲשֶׁ֨ר אֹמַ֤ר אֵלֶ֙יהָ֙ הַטִּי־נָ֤א כַדֵּךְ֙ וְאֶשְׁתֶּ֔ה וְאָמְרָ֣ה שְׁתֵ֔ה וְגַם־גְּמַלֶּ֖יךָ אַשְׁקֶ֑ה אֹתָ֤הּ הֹכַ֙חְתָּ֙ לְעַבְדְּךָ֣ לְיִצְחָ֔ק וּבָ֣הּ אֵדַ֔ע כִּי־עָשִׂ֥יתָ חֶ֖סֶד עִם־אֲדֹנִֽי׃ “Let the maiden to whom I say, ‘Please, lower your jar that I may drink,’ and who replies, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels’—let her be the one whom You have decreed for Your servant Isaac. Thereby shall I know that You have done kindness with my master.” - Bereisheet (Genesis) 18:1
Back in the summer of 1988, I was home from music school after Freshman year. One night, I went out with some high school friends to a diner. One of them surprised us with the news that he had met the girl of his dreams and they were getting married. “Really? Are you sure it’s the right thing?” we asked. We were only nineteen. The idea of getting married was inconceivable to us.
“I know it’s the right thing,” he replied. He then went on to recount all the serendipitous events “proving” to him that she was his perfect life partner. “I’ve never been so sure about anything in my entire life,” he said. Having never experienced that kind of certainty myself about anything, I was suspicious, but I didn’t question it further. The next summer, in 1990, we all went out again, and he told us what horrors had transpired after they were married: She had stolen his car, emptied his bank account and disappeared. So much for serendipity! Sometimes, in our enthusiasm to “trust the universe,” we give away our power to make decisions. Rather than ask ourselves the crucial questions, we instead look for signs and coincidences to confirm that we’re on the right track, that things are beshert…
וְהָיָ֣ה הַֽנַּעֲרָ֗ אֲשֶׁ֨ר אֹמַ֤ר אֵלֶ֙יהָ֙ הַטִּי־נָ֤א כַדֵּךְ֙ וְאֶשְׁתֶּ֔ה
וְאָמְרָ֣ה שְׁתֵ֔ה וְגַם־גְּמַלֶּ֖יךָ אַשְׁקֶ֑ה “Let the maiden to whom I say, ‘Please, lower your jar that I may drink,’ and who replies, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels…’’’
At first glance, it might seem that Eliezer is making this same kind of mistake, relying on an external sign to tell him what to do, rather than using his own intelligence to find the right wife for Isaac.
Or is he? If Eliezer had prayed that the girl should be wearing a purple dress, or have a really big hat, certainly that would have been arbitrary. But what does he say? He says that she should offer water to him and his camels. In other words, she should be a mentch – a kind and generous person. He’s not giving away his power in favor of superstition; he’s actually specifying the exact criteria by which to make his decision: she should be kind and generous; she should embody Hesed, loving-kindness. He doesn’t want Isaac to marry someone who will steal his money and his donkey! If she’s not a mentch, he’s not interested. If you want to live with clarity and purpose, if you want to truly say “yes” to your life, you’ve got to be able to say a clear “no” as well. The “yes” and the “no” go together. Saying “no” can be really difficult. So many things can get in the way: stories in your head telling you what you “should” do, feelings of guilt for letting others down, or lack of trust in yourself. But, there are decisions that only you can make. Take your power in your hand and meet your destiny! Don’t be blown around by the winds of fate! This quality of being able to set boundaries and define your intention is Gevurah – inner strength – and it is the counterpoint to Hesed, (loving-kindness). To be decisive doesn’t mean you shouldn’t trust. Trust your ability to make your decision. Then, after you’ve made your decision, trust whatever happens next. Surrender to what happens. Ultimately, we have no control over how things unfold, but we always have the power to choose. Surrender to what happens is part of Jewish meditation – as Rashi said, “Accept what happens with simplicity.” Are there decisions you are avoiding? Or, after you make decisions, are you easily derailed because you can’t say “no” to other things that come along? Do you ever blame others for your inability to follow through on your own decisions? Remember – your life is like a boat. The steering wheel is in front of you. Take it and steer; don’t wait for someone else, don’t blame anyone else. The ocean has its own currents, but you are the captain. And, if you’re not sure yet which decision to make, that’s fine too. Be uncertain. Sometimes it’s wonderful to just go with the currents. Sometimes life really can be a magical tapestry of serendipity, effortlessly bringing you to good things. But sooner or later, that kind of magic ends, and the currents leave you drifting aimlessly, or even worse, headed toward the rocks. When that happens, take the wheel and decide which way to go; then, a new kind of magic begins Each of us has a completely unique path with unique decisions to be made. But there is one decision that is completely universal. It’s the decision that each of us faces at all times: the decision to fully inhabit this moment. To fully inhabit this moment, the “yes” and the “no,” the Hesed and the Gevurah, must become one: “Yes” to what is, “No” to resisting what is. And yet, if a feeling of “resisting what is” arises, you must say “yes” to the presence of that feeling – because in that moment, “resistance to what is” – is what is! In this way, resistance is transformed into non-resistance; the “yes” and the “no” are completely one – Hesed and Gevurah are merged. What is this moment like? Is it peaceful? Is it tense? Is it gentle? Is it harsh? Are you willing to decide, right now, to say “yes” to this moment, as it is? This is actually the most important decision you will ever make, because it’s the foundation of all other decisions. Without this decision, there is unrest; there is struggle. But with this decision, your potential for real peace becomes manifest. With this decision, Moshiakh, the Messiah, is born within yourself, and we come a little closer to its birth in the world. Martin Buber, in his essay Judaism and the Jews, tells the story that when he was a child, he read a Talmudic tale: Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi met the Prophet Elijah. He said to him, “When will the Messiah come?” Elijah answered, “Go ask him! The Messiah sits at the gates of Rome, waiting among the poor, afflicted with disease.” - Sanhedrin 98 Buber says that he later came upon an old man whom he asked, “What does he wait for? The old man answered, “He waits for you.” In this week of Shabbat Hayei Sarah, the Sabbath of Life, may we remember our power to decide for this life, for this moment. May our efforts help move this world from its patters of violence to a new consciousness for humanity, and may a true and lasting peace be swiftly born in the world for love, wisdom and healing.
Read past teachings on Hayei Sarah HERE.
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Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with Abraham sitting by his tent on a hot day, when suddenly Hashem appears to him, along with three mysterious guests (angels), so he rushes off to prepare a meal for them. One of the guests announces that Sarah will give birth to a son. Sarah laughs, hinting at the name of their future son, Yitzhak, which means “will laugh.” It is revealed to Abraham that the wicked city of Sodom is to be destroyed, but he pleads with Hashem to relent and not punish the innocent along with the guilty.
Two of the three angels arrive in the doomed city, and Abraham’s nephew Lot attempts to protect them from a violent mob. The angels reveal their destructive mission, instructing Lot and his family to flee and not look back. But, as they flee, Lot’s wife does look back and turns into a pillar of salt. While taking shelter in a cave, Lot’s two daughters get their father and become impregnated by him. The two sons born from this incident father the nations of Moab and Ammon. The Philistine king Abimelech takes Sarah—who is once again presented as Abraham’s sister—to his palace. In a dream, God warns Abimelech that he will die unless he returns the woman to her husband. Abimelech confronts Abraham, who once again explains that he feared he would be killed over the beautiful Sarah. Sarah miraculously becomes pregnant and gives birth to Isaac. Ishmael torments Sarah, so Sarah banishes Hagar and Ishmael from their home to wander in the desert, and Ishmael nearly dies of dehydration. Hashem hears the cry of the dying lad, shows his mother a well and they are saved. Meanwhile, Hashem tests Abraham’s devotion by commanding him to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah. When Abraham raises the knife to slaughter his son, a voice from heaven calls to stop him; a ram, caught in the undergrowth by its horns, is offered in Isaac’s place.
Torah of Awakening
וַיֵּרָ֤א אֵלָיו֙ יי בְּאֵלֹנֵ֖י מַמְרֵ֑א וְה֛וּא יֹשֵׁ֥ב פֶּֽתַח־הָאֹ֖הֶל כְּחֹ֥ם הַיּֽוֹם׃ The Divine appeared to him in the plains of Mamre; he was sitting at the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day. - Bereisheet (Genesis) 18:1
Once, when Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev was traveling, he stopped to spend the night in the town of Lwow. He knocked on the door of a very wealthy man and asked for lodging. “I have no use for vagrants like you! Why don’t you stay at the inn?” said the man. “I am not able to afford the inn,” replied Levi Yitzhak. “Please, I won’t be any trouble, let me stay in one of your rooms just for the night.” “Well then, if you can’t afford the inn,” said the miserly rich man, “go around the corner to the schoolteacher. He likes to take in vagrants like you – he’ll give you a room and food.” So, Levi Yitzhak went around the corner to the schoolteacher. But, on his way there, someone in the town recognized him, and began to spread the word that the great Rabbi Levi Yitzhak was at the schoolteacher’s house. Before long, there were throngs of people crowding the house, trying to get a blessing from the master. Among the crowd was the miserly rich man, who pushed his way to the front. “Master! Master! Please forgive me! I didn’t know who you were! Please come and stay with me. All the great rabbis who come through town stay with me!”
“Do you know,” replied Levi Yitzhak, “why such a fuss is made over Avraham and Sarah for their hospitality of opening their home to the visiting angels and giving them food and drink? Didn’t Lot also invite them in and offer to feed them? But in the Torah’s description about Lot, it says: וַ֠יָּבֹ֠אוּ שְׁנֵ֨י הַמַּלְאָכִ֤ים סְדֹ֙מָה֙ – two angels came to Sodom. “But with Avraham it says: שְׁלֹשָׁ֣ה אֲנָשִׁ֔ים נִצָּבִ֖ים עָלָ֑יו – three men were standing over him. Lot saw majestic angels, whereas Avraham saw only dusty wayfarers…” There is an aphorism often heard in spiritual circles: “Be in the world, but not of the world.” What does this mean exactly? There are at least two questions: First, what does it mean to be in the world? Aren’t we always already in the world? Second, what does it mean to not of the world? Aren’t we all of this world? What other world would be of? To understand, consider how we spend our time: Usually we are acting upon things or being acted upon; we try to bring about certain results, and things happen to us; this is true for everyone. However, there can be enormous differences between people in the quality of their actions and responses. Are we demanding, aggressive and entitled, or are we sensitive, empathetic and wise? If we want to be the latter, our impulse to act upon the world needs to be balanced by the element of Presence With the world; there needs to be awareness and receptivity. This is being in the world; it doesn’t mean merely existing, it means doing the activity of Presence With – being receptive, aware, and open. But, this is not always easy, because sometimes the world is not as we would like it to be. How can we be receptive, aware, and open when we encounter a world that causes us suffering? The key is to remember: we need not be trapped by any experience. Remember: you are not the experience; you are the consciousness within which the experiences arises. You can remain fully open to whatever comes, but also remain free from it. Let things come and let things go. This is being not of the world in the sense that you don’t let any experience define who you are. וַיַּ֗רְא וַיָּ֤רׇץ לִקְרָאתָם֙ מִפֶּ֣תַח הָאֹ֔הֶל וַיִּשְׁתַּ֖חוּ אָֽרְצָה …he saw and ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them and he bowed toward the ground. Avraham is recovering from his circumcision described at the end of the last parshah. But rather than shut himself up in the shade of his tent, he goes and sits at the entrance. When the strangers appear, he runs and bows, inviting them to rest, wash, and eat…but also אַחַ֣ר תַּעֲבֹ֔רוּ – afterward, go! Not only does he invite them in; he also invites them to leave. The “tent” is our sense of self, which can either be closed or open to what is now emerging in this moment. The tent sits in the “plains” – that is, our sense of self sits in the vastness of the field of awareness that we are at the deepest level. So, even in the “heat,” meaning even in times of difficulty and suffering, we can know ourselves as that openness. Like Sarah and Avraham, we can welcome whatever comes, and afterward, let it pass on and return our attention back to the openness; we need not cling to the majestic angel, nor push away the dusty wayfarer. Why? וַיֵּרָ֤א אֵלָיו֙ יי – The Divine appeared to him… It says that God appeared, but then Avraham looks up and sees the three strangers. What happened to God? But that’s the point: when we are open to the fullness of this moment, there can be the recognition that every appearance is literally an appearance of God. Everything emerges from the vastness and eventually returns. So, welcome what is, right now. There is only one “God,” and This is It!
Read past teachings on Vayeira HERE.
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