Parshah Summary – P’sha
The parshah opens with Yitzhak/Isaac praying for a child after Rivkah/ Rebecca had been unable to conceive, and immediately his prayer is answered. But, she experiences 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.” Esav/Esau emerges first, and Yaakov/Jacob is born clutching Esau’s heel. (Yaakov, Jacob, means “heal.”) As they grow up, Isaac favors Esau, 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, and 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, Lavan/ 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 יְה–ֹוָ֜ה לָ֗הּ שְׁנֵ֤י גוֹיִם֙ בְּבִטְנֵ֔ךְ... 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…” - Bereisheet (Genesis) 25:22-23
A young man came to the rabbi of Rizhyn with a question: “What can I do to break all of my distracting impulses that keep me in a state of restless anxiety and sorrow, so that I may have true inner peace?” The rabbi chuckled and his eyes twinkled: “You want to break your impulses? You will break your back and hip, but you will never break your impulses! Nevertheless, if you meditate and learn and pray in a spirit of simplicity, your distracting impulses will vanish on their own.”
There is a paradox in the rabbi’s answer. On one hand, he is instructing that we should meditate with a spirit of simplicity. But isn’t the very organizing of our lives to accommodate spiritual practice itself a complex matter? וַיִּתְרֹֽצְצ֤וּ הַבָּנִים֙ בְּקִרְבָּ֔הּ – The children struggled within her… The conflict between Yaakov and Esav within Rivkah’s womb can be seen as embodying this fundamental paradox: וַיְהִ֣י עֵשָׂ֗ו אִ֛ישׁ יֹדֵ֥עַ צַ֖יִד – Esav became a man knowing the hunt… “Knowing the hunt” means complexity – it means using the mind to extract benefit from the world. Just as the hunter uses knowledge to go out into nature and kill animals for sustenance, so too we, from the moment we wake up every day, must use our intelligence to navigate the complexities of the world and “capture” what we need from it…. וְיַעֲקֹב֙ אִ֣ישׁ תָּ֔ם יֹשֵׁ֖ב אֹהָלִֽים׃ – Yaakov was a simple man, dwelling in tents… The word “simple,” תָּם tam, conveys the opposite of the cunning we need to secure benefit from the world; it implies accepting the world as it is. This attitude of acceptance is the quality necessary for recognizing the dimension of reality we call the Divine, which is represented by אֹהָלִֽים ohalim, “tents.” We see this understanding of תָּם tam explicitly in the psalm: מִי־יָג֣וּר בְּאָהֳלֶ֑ךָ: הוֹלֵ֣ךְ תָּ֭מִים... Who may dwell in Your (God’s) tent? One who walks in simplicity (tamim)… - Psalm 15 We can also see the connection between “tent” and the Divine in the words themselves, which are exactly the same letters, in a slightly different order: אֱלֹהִים Elohim – God אֹהָלִֽים Ohalim – tents And this is the paradox, the inner duality of being human: to exist in this world, we must cultivate intelligence for navigating and extracting what we need. And yet, if we wish to enjoy the fruits of the spirit, we must also learn to “dwell” in the deepest level of our being, that simple, open space of consciousness which is tam by nature; we must learn to dwell in the אֹהָלִֽים ohalim of אֱלֹהִים Elohim, the “tents” of the God. But how can we do this, if we are immersed in a world that requires being an אִ֛ישׁ יֹדֵ֥עַ צַ֖יִד ish yodea tzayid, using our minds to navigate the “hunt”? וְאֵ֗ת עֹרֹת֙ גְּדָיֵ֣י הָֽעִזִּ֔ים הִלְבִּ֖ישָׁה עַל־יָדָ֑יו וְעַ֖ל חֶלְקַ֥ת צַוָּארָֽיו׃ She covered his hands and the hairless part of his neck with the skins of goats… Just as Yaakov tricks his father Yitzhak by disguising himself as Esav in order to steal the blessing, so it with us: If we wish to “steal” the blessing that transcends the world, we must “disguise” our practice in the clothing of the world; we must treat it as an agenda on the to-do list. This is counterintuitive and difficult for many people. We tend to not want spirituality to just another thing on the to-do list. Presence is not an agenda; Presence does not get you somewhere; it’s not an achievement, it’s not a badge you can wear, it’s not something you can accomplish and then cross off your bucket list. Presence is a way of Being. It is an approach to this moment right now that sets you free. And, as such, it very easily gets psychologically overshadowed by nearly everything else in life. It’s not hard at all to taste the freedom of Presence, but it can seem nearly impossible to make it into a Way of Being, rather than just an occasional experience, until you learn the Art of Disguise. Meaning: we must “dress us” Presence in the clothing of time-bound agendas. That means, prioritizing: setting aside time for meditation and prayer, perhaps even setting aside time to revisit and absorb this lesson. You’ve got to work it into your schedule, just like everything else, even though it’s fundamentally not like anything else. And this brings us to the second strategy: once we prioritize spirituality, how do we motivate ourselves? Just as Yaakov wouldn’t give Eisav any stew until he gave up his birthright, so too, we can use our natural impulses as a cue to surrender, to become תָּם tam. You have an impulse to eat, to satisfy your hunger? First, stop. Say a brakhah. Realize that it’s not a given that we should always have food to eat. Realize that this moment could be your last, that this moment is all we truly have. Give thanks for the gift of nourishment, and for the privilege of Being. Then eat; then give Eisav his stew. But this strategy can go far beyond saying a brakhah before you eat. You can take any of your common activities, and attach them to taking a moment of Presence, so that Presence becomes habit. Before bed at night, you can stop and meditate even for a few moments. However it works for you, the key is to train yourself, just like you would a child. You might feel lazy or you might feel that everything else is more important, but if you want real transformation, you’ve got to make Presence into a regular habit. Disguise it as an agenda and trick yourself into doing it! This is Netzakh, the sefirah of Persistence. Then, once you’re inside it, surrender; become תָּם tam; this is Hod, the sefirah of gratitude and surrender. Because in this moment, there is no agenda, there is no movement, there is no time. There is only the blessed space of Being within which everything is unfolding, and you are that blessed space.
Read past teachings on Toldot HERE
Learn Integral Jewish Meditation
Get Free Guided Meditation Below:
0 Comments
Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with Abraham sitting by his tent on a hot day, when suddenly Hashem appears to him. He looks up and sees three mysterious guests (later described as angels), so he rushes off to prepare a meal for them. One of the guests announces that the old and barren Sarah will give birth to a son! Sarah laughs, hinting at the name of their future son, Yitzhak, Isaac, 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. Hashem agrees not to destroy the city if ten innocent people are found, but they are not.
Two of the three angels arrive in the doomed city, and Abraham’s nephew Lot invites them in and 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 (believing that they and their father are the only ones left alive in the world) get their father drunk and become impregnated by him. The two sons born from this incestuous incident become the progenitors of the nations of Moab and Ammon. Avraham moves to Gerar, where 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 Avraham, who once again explains that he feared he would be killed over the beautiful Sarah. Sarah miraculously becomes pregnant and gives birth to Yitzhak, Isaac. Avraham is one hundred years old and Sarah is ninety when Yitzhak is born and circumcised at the age of eight days. Yishmael torments Sarah, so Sarah banishes Hagar and Yishmael from their home to wander in the desert, and Yishmael nearly dies of dehydration. Hashem hears the cry of the dying lad, shows his mother a well and they are saved. Meanwhile, Abimelech makes a treaty with Avraham at B’er Shava, and Avraham gives him seven sheep as a sign of their truce. Hashem tests Avraham’s devotion by commanding him to sacrifice Yitzhak, Isaac, on Mount Moriah (traditionally believed to be the site of the Temple Mount). Yitzhak is bound and placed on the altar, and Avraham 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 Yitzhak’s place.
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וַיֵּרָ֤א אֵלָיו֙ יְהֹ–וָ֔ה 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
A friend of mine once said to me, “I don’t understand this idea about being in the ‘present moment.’ What if I don’t like what is happening in the present moment? Why would I want to ‘be in the moment’ if the moment is terrible?”
The famous hasidic rabbi brothers, Zushya and Elimelekh, were the sons of an unusually hospitable couple, who ran a village inn. One day, a band of beggars came to the doorstep of their inn. The couple received them warmly, served them food and drink, and prepared them a place to sleep. Seeing that their guests wanted to bathe, they went down to the bathhouse and heated water for them. Among the beggars was a pauper whose entire body was covered with repulsive sores, and none of the other vagrants were willing to help him wash. The innkeeper’s wife had compassion and helped him, whereupon he turned to her and said: “In return for your kindness, let me bestow upon you my blessing – that you will bear sons who will be like me.” Dismay came over her – sons like him? But within seconds, this man and all his companions along with their wagon vanished before her very eyes. Years later, when her sons grew up, it then dawned on her: she had been put through a test, in order to bestow upon her the gift of saintly sons. When Reb Shneur Zalman of Liadi once recounted this story, one of his listeners asked him: “Who was that leper?” But the rebbe gave not a word of reply. The middah of hospitality is not about only welcoming guests who appeal to us. To truly embody hospitality, we must be free from ulterior motive; then we can embody the middah for its own sake. Similarly, the point of welcoming the present moment isn’t that we like that content of the moment, it is that the practice of being a welcoming presence has the power to liberate us from the preferring self, also called, ego. וַיֵּרָ֤א אֵלָיו֙ יְהֹ–וָ֔ה...כְּחֹ֥ם הַיּֽוֹם׃ The Divine appeared to him…as the heat of the day.” The usual translation says that God appeared to Avraham “in the heat of the day.” But, the Hebrew doesn’t actually say that: “In the heat of the day” would be: בְּחֹם הַיּֽוֹם – B’khom hayom. But here the Hebrew says, כְּחֹ֥ם הַיּֽוֹם – K’khom hayom”- AS the heat of the day. Read literally, the pasuk is saying that the Divine appeared to him as the discomfort of the heat! Furthermore, the word הַיּוֹם hayom which means “the day” can also simply mean “today” – that is, this moment. In other words, yes – the present moment sometimes appears as discomfort, as ugliness, as pain. But the crucial thing to remember is: everything that arises in your experience is a gateway to the Divine, if you open to it. וְה֛וּא יֹשֵׁ֥ב פֶּֽתַח־הָאֹ֖הֶל …and he was sitting at opening of the tent… The אֹהֶל ohel, the “tent,” is your identity – your individual self, meaning, the preferring self, the ego… פֶּֽתַח־הָאֹ֖הֶל כְּחֹ֥ם – the opening of the tent in the heat… The פֶּֽתַח petakh, the “opening,” is the willingness to open to Reality as it presents itself, even when it appears as חֹ֥ם hom, “heat” – that is, as discomfort. In that willingness, in that openness, is the appearance of the Divine. Why? Because in the open space between the “me” and “the world,” there is no distinction between the “outside” and the “inside” – between the inner world of thought and feeling and the outer world you take in through your senses. Everything that happens in your experience – the outer world and the inner world – are part of one experience. And your one experience is nothing but your one consciousness, constantly taking on different forms, yet all the forms, all the experiences, are nothing but the one consciousness. When you really see this, when you realize that all of your experiences are always only One Experience, and that your One Experience is ultimately made out you – meaning, made out of your consciousness – there can be a relaxing of resistance, a relaxing of the “me” that is separate, that’s judges, that prefers, that wants. After all, why would you resist yourself? That just creates inner tension, unnecessary suffering. וַיֵּרָ֤א אֵלָיו֙ יְהֹוָ֔ה – The Divine appeared to him… Than you can see – there is simply this Reality, ever-present, the Divine appearing as the form of this moment, suffering and ugliness, beauty and wonder, all of it… אֵֽין־אֹ֭מֶר וְאֵ֣ין דְּבָרִ֑ים בְּ֝לִ֗י נִשְׁמָ֥ע קוֹלָֽם׃ There is no speech, there are no words, their voices are not heard. - Tehilim (Psalms) 19:4 There are no thoughts to comprehend, no words to describe this mysterious Reality that is appearing, just now. And yet, here it is; welcome it as it is. This is meditation through the Path of ב Bet, the middah of hospitality, of welcoming the moment...
Read past teachings on Vayeira HERE
Learn Integral Jewish Meditation
Get Free Guided Meditation Below: 
Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with God telling Avram to leave his birthplace and travel to a land where his descendants will become a great nation. So, Avram and his wife, Sarai, accompanied by their nephew Lot, journey to the land of Canaan. Avram builds an altar there, but a famine forces them to flee to Egypt, where Avram and Sarai present themselves as brother and sister, out of fear that Avram would be killed on account of Sarai’s great beauty. Sarai is taken to Pharaoh’s palace, but a plague prevents the Egyptian king from approaching her. Pharaoh then somehow understands that Sarai is Avram’s wife, and he reunites her with Avram, giving them gold, silver and cattle.
When they return to the land of Canaan, Lot separates from Avram and settles in the evil city of Sodom, where he falls captive when the mighty armies of King Kedarla-omer and his three allies conquer the five cities of the Sodom Valley. Avram sets out with a small band to rescue his nephew, defeats the four kings, and is blessed by Malkitzedek, the king of Salem (Jerusalem). Avram seals a strange covenant with God involving a vision of fire descending and moving between severed animal pieces, in which the exile and persecution (galut) of Avram’s descendants is foretold, and their eventual return to the Holy Land is affirmed. Still childless ten years after their arrival in the Land, Sarai tells Avram to marry her maidservant Hagar. Hagar conceives, but becomes insolent toward her mistress, and then flees when Sarai treats her harshly. An angel convinces her to return, and tells her that her son will also become a great nation. Ishmael is born in Avram’s eighty-sixth year. Thirteen years later, God changes Avram’s name to Avraham (Abraham, meaning “father of multitudes”), and Sarai’s name to Sarah (“princess”). A child is promised to them whom they should call Yitzhak (Isaac, “will laugh”). Abraham is instructed to circumcise himself and his descendants as a sign of the covenant. Abraham does so for himself and all the males of his household.
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהֹוָה֙ אֶל־אַבְרָ֔ם לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ׃ Hashem said to Avram, “Go for yourself from your land, from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you…” -Bereisheet (Genesis) 12:1
Rabbi Hanokh was asked about the verse:
וַיִּשְׂאוּ֩ בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֨ל אֶת־עֵינֵיהֶ֜ם וְהִנֵּ֥ה מִצְרַ֣יִם נֹסֵ֣עַ אַחֲרֵיהֶ֗ם וַיִּֽירְאוּ֙ מְאֹ֔ד וַיִּצְעֲק֥וּ בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל אֶל־יְהֹ–וָֽה׃ The Children of Israel lifted up their eyes and, behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they were very frightened; and the Children of Israel cried out to Hashem. - Sh’mot (Exodus) 14:10 They asked him, “Why were they so afraid, since they already knew that God was helping them?” Rabbi Hanokh answered: “When they were in Egypt, the experience of slavery was all they knew; they couldn’t see how deeply they were affected by it. But now that they had a taste of freedom, they thought they had left that all behind, and that they were fully liberated. Instead, they ‘lifted their eyes’ and saw their slavery ‘coming after them.’ They were terrified to learn that they weren’t really free yet. So Moses responded: וַיֹּ֨אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֣ה אֶל־הָעָם֮ אַל־תִּירָ֒אוּ֒ הִֽתְיַצְּב֗וּ וּרְאוּ֙ אֶת־יְשׁוּעַ֣ת יְהֹ–וָ֔ה אֲשֶׁר־יַעֲשֶׂ֥ה לָכֶ֖ם הַיּ֑וֹם כִּ֗י אֲשֶׁ֨ר רְאִיתֶ֤ם אֶת־מִצְרַ֙יִם֙ הַיּ֔וֹם לֹ֥א תֹסִ֛פוּ לִרְאֹתָ֥ם ע֖וֹד עַד־עוֹלָֽם׃ And Moses said to the people: Do not be afraid, stand still, and see the Divine liberation which will happen for you today – for as you see Egypt today; your seeing of it shall not continue anymore, forever.’ “This means that when you really see your own bondage, when you can truly perceive how stuck you are, the seeing itself saves you; the seeing itself is the Divine help!” This remarkable teaching of the 19th century Hasidic master Rabbi Hanokh reveals the inner dynamic of spiritual liberation: while the tradition imagines God as a separate entity that liberates us, this teaching hints at the greatest mystery which is hidden in plain sight: the awareness that “sees” is itself Divine; to “stand” with attentiveness to our entanglements is to realize our freedom from them. This is Jewish meditation – so profoundly simple, but not necessarily easy to implement. Like the Israelites who couldn’t see their own enslavement while they were in Egypt, the shift from being identified with our conditioning to being able to see our conditioning can take a tremendous effort, though it is an “effortless effort.” וּרְאוּ֙ אֶת־יְשׁוּעַ֣ת יְהֹוָ֔ה אֲשֶׁר־יַעֲשֶׂ֥ה לָכֶ֖ם הַיּ֑וֹם – and see the Divine liberation which will happen for you today… This “effortlessness” is represented by the dualistic imagery: it is God that saves us; all we have to do is “see” it happen “today” – meaning, be present with this moment. But for most of us, our default is to not to see our identifications, but to see the world through our identifications. Like a person who stares constantly their phone, we fetishize the obsessions of ego, “looking up” only occasionally when the walls of the heart are accidentally breached, or when a temporary lapse in the noise of the mind allows the radiant silence to shine through, even if for only a moment. But, we need not be “screen” addicts; we can put down the “phone” of the ego anytime. Listen: The Beloved is calling you to dinner – there’s a banquet prepared. Let go of your judgments about yourself and others. Let go of how you wish things were. Let go of your obsessions, assertions, denials, angers, grudges… there is something so much better than all of that, if you would be willing to set it aside, to look up… לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵֽאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖... Go for yourself from your land, from your family… All those opinions, assertions, cravings, disappointments – they seem so real, so important. But they aren’t the real you. They are imprints from “your land” – your culture, your inherited identity, patterns from your family, your experiences, your traumas – but you need not be imprisoned by them: אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ: – to the land I will show you… We’re being called to the banquet hall and the feast is waiting. It’s true, the “call” is constant, ever-present, and things that are constant are easily ignored. But, you can tune into the message if you’re willing to wake up from the ego’s hypnosis. The key is to stop, to see the pull of the ego, to see the fullness of this moment, as it is. וַיִּֽבֶן־שָׁ֤ם מִזְבֵּ֨חַ֙ לַֽיהֹוָ֔ה וַיִּקְרָ֖א בְּשֵׁ֥ם יְהֹ–וָֽה: And there he built an altar and called upon the Name of the Divine… When we become present, we build a space in time; we create a refuge to withdraw from the ego’s momentum for long enough to get free from it and to call upon the “Divine Name” – meaning, to see things as they are, as arising from the Mystery, rather than as a mere projections of ego. This is the Path of ע Ayin – waking up from the dream the mind, into the Presence of Reality as it appears, Now; it is the path of freedom from the entanglements of ego, and communion with the One who reveals the bright new “land” of this moment…
Read past teachings on Lekh L’kha HERE
Learn Integral Jewish Meditation
Get Free Guided Meditation Below: |
Archives
December 2024
|
RSS Feed