Call For Help! Parshat Vayikra

This morning, I had yet another computer and IPhone breakdown- the latest in a string of digital tzures that has plagued me for the last few weeks. Thank God for my friend Ben! He figured it out and got me my back on my virtual feet- I'm so grateful for his expertise! I really needed his help.
 
Some kinds of help, however, are the opposite of help.
 
Take my friend Josh, for example, who is blind. When he walks around in public, it’s not uncommon for someone to grab his arm aggressively and say, “Here let me help you!” and try to force him in a certain direction.
 
No thanks!
 
There are folks who psychologically need to help others. Their kind of help is often not really help- it’s simply food for their self image.
 
It reminds me of an old Sesame Street episode, where Grover is straining to carry a really heavy brick. The brick has the word “HELP” carved into it. As he moans and groans trying not to drop the brick, he keeps yelling, “Help! Help!”

The great trickster Ernie walks up and says, “Oh, Grover, you need some help? I’ve got some help for you, hold on just a minute.” He bends down and picks up another big heavy brick, also with the word “HELP” carved into it, and piles it on top of the first brick, increasing Grover’s burden.

“HELP! HELP!” Grover yells louder.
 
“Oh, you want more help??” says Ernie. Ernie then picks up yet another big heavy “HELP” brick and piles it on top of the two that Grover is already holding. 

This goes on a few more times- Grover yelling “Help!” and Ernie just making it worse and worse by piling on more and more HELP bricks. Finally, Grover just screams and falls backwards, all the bricks falling on top of him.
 
Have you ever noticed a strong desire in yourself be the helper?
 
Or, instead of needing to be the helper, have you felt that you needed to achieve something, or experience something, or be right about something?
 
If you so feel strongly, you’ve got to check in with yourself- are you seeing clearly what’s needed, or are you unconsciously trying to satisfy your own need to be a certain way, achieve a certain goal or have a certain experience?
 
The root of the problem is not helping or achieving or having. It’s identifying with what you’re doing. It’s seeing your “self” as the “doer.”
 
When my daughter was three, she liked “helping” me cook in the kitchen. The “help” usually entailed holding my wrist while I stirred something in a hot pan, or holding my arm while I lifted something much too heavy and dangerous for her to lift. She felt like she was helping, but she wasn’t really the doer.

That’s actually our situation.
 
We go through motions, thinking “I am doing such-and-such,” but actually the act is being done by Everything- we’re only apparently doing it.
 
When you turn on the car, it may seem like the key is turning it on. But is it the key? Is it the starter? Is it the spark plug? There’s no single thing doing anything; Everything is doing everything all the time. 

Yet we tend to think, “I am doing it”.
 
In thinking of ourselves as doers, we take on the most profound burden of all. Like Grover, we strain and moan under the burden of life, yelling, “Help! Help!”
 
But when it comes to the burden of being the doer, any “help” you get is ultimately like Ernie’s help. You don’t need that kind of help! You just need to drop the burden.

But, you can’t “try” to drop the burden. That’s just more burden! The “me” that tries to drop the burden is itself the burden. 

So how do you drop the burden?

This week’s reading, Parshat Vayikra, talks about how the various sacrificial offerings were performed. When bringing a sacrifice, it says that one should bring it- 
 
“… el petakh ohel mo’ed… yakriv oto lirtzono- 
            “… to the opening of the Tent of Meeting… bring it close, willingly.”

The word for “bring it close”- “yakriv”-  is the same root as “korban”- the word for the sacrificial offerings.  So the meaning of the offerings is not actually “sacrifice,” but “drawing close.”
 
What is the Tent of Meeting?
 
The “Tent of Meeting” is the place we meet Reality.
 
Where is that?
 
It’s always only where you are!
 
But, just because you’re here now, doesn’t mean you’re connected to the Here and Now. You need to willingly come to this moment-
 
“...el petakh ohel mo'ed yakriv oto lirtzono-
     "...draw near willingly and meet the openness of this moment.” 
 
Draw your attention willingly into the petakh- the "openness" that is the present. Don’t hold it as a burden that you need to change or control; offer yourself to it. That’s the key.

There’s also a hint of this practice in the next verse- 
 
“V’samakh yado el rosh ha’olah- 
     “One should lean one’s hand on the head of the burnt offering.”
 
“Leaning” is the exact opposite of "carrying."
 
To carry a burden, you have to put your hands under it. Here it says to lean on the ​korban- rest in the "drawing near." There's a quality of surrender, not an effortful quality- 

"...draw near willingly and meet the openness of this moment.” 

Let your awareness simply dwell with Reality as it’s appearing now. That’s letting go.

As long as you don't let go, the message will continue to come. It will come in the form of whatever situations arise, over and over again. As it says in the first verse of our parshah-
 
“Vayikra el Moshe- 
     “Called to Moses.”
 
It doesn’t say who called to Moses, it just says “called”.
 
The last letter of the word Vayikra- “Called”- is the letter Alef. Alef has the numerical value of one, and in Kabbalah, it’s also a symbol of the Divine Oneness. On a Torah scroll, this particular Alef is written smaller than all the other letters, hinting that the “Oneness” is hidden within everything, calling to us from everything, nudging you to see- it's not you who acts.
 
When you can see that it’s not you who acts, but the Divine Oneness that is Everything, you can let go of your burden. Then, the help you offer is also not a burden- it doesn’t demand anything in return, or push anybody around. It becomes a true gift- a Divine gift- with no strings attached…
 
There’s a story of Rabbi Baruch of Mezbizh, that once he was saying the blessing after his meal. When he got to the following passage, he repeated it three times with great fervor-
 
“V’na al tatzrikheinu, Adonai Eloheinu, lo lidei matnat basar v’dam, v’lo lidei halvatam, ki im l’yadkha hameleiah hap’tukha kak’dosha v’harkhavah…
 
“Please let us not need the the gifts of flesh and blood, nor their loans, but only your full, open, holy and generous hand…”
 
When he finished, his daughter asked- “Abba, why did you pray so hard that you should not need the gifts of people? Your only livelihood comes from the gifts people bring you out of gratitude!”
 
“My daughter,” he replied, “You must know that there are three ways of bringing gifts to the tzaddik. The first way is when a person thinks, ‘I’m a generous person, so I’ll bring a gift.’ This way is referred to by the words, ‘let us not need the gifts of flesh and blood.’
 
“The second way is when a person thinks, ‘I’ll give something now, and then I’ll get some reward in the future.’ Those people want heaven to pay them interest- that’s the ‘loan.’
 
“But there are some who know- ‘God has put this money in my hand to give, and I’m just the messenger.’ These are the ‘full, open, holy and generous hand...’”
 
On this Shabbat Vayikra, The Sabbath of Calling, may we hear message of Oneness that calls from all things, urging us to drop the burden of separateness and be messengers of the Divine compassion and generosity in this world...
 
Good Shabbos!!!