Parshah Summary – P’sha
The fifth and final book of the Torah opens with Moses beginning his recap of the Torah to the Children of Israel, who are all assembled on the bank of the Jordan river. He begins by recounting the events and teachings that were given in the course of their forty-year journey from Egypt to Sinai and then to the Promised Land, both rebuking them for their failings and encouraging them to remain faithful to the path he has set before them. In the course of the parshah, Moses recalls the judges and leaders appointed to ease his burden in leadership; the journey from Sinai through the vast desert; the sending of the spies and the people’s fear of entering the Land, leading to that entire generation dying out in the desert. Also recounted are more recent events: the refusal of the nations of Mo’av and Ammon to allow the Israelites to pass through their countries; the wars against the Emorite kings Sikhon and Og, and the settlement of their lands by the tribes of Reuven and Gad and part of the tribe of Manasheh; and Moses’ message to his successor, Joshua, who will take over Moses’ leadership after his death.
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
לֹֽא־תַכִּ֨ירוּ פָנִ֜ים בַּמִּשְׁפָּ֗ט כַּקָּטֹ֤ן כַּגָּדֹל֙ תִּשְׁמָע֔וּן Don’t show favoritism in judgment; (literally, “don’t recognize faces in judgment”) like the lesser as the greater, you shall listen… Devarim (Deuteronomy) 1:17, Parshat Devarim
Some disciples of Reb Pinhas of Korets once asked him why, when he prayed, was he not wildly ecstatic in his devotions the way many other hasidim were. Reb Pinhas replied, “As you know, the point of prayer is to divest oneself from all separateness, to merge with the Divine, and this is a kind of death. But, our sages tell us that there are two kinds of death: one is as hard a rope being pulled through the ring of a mast, and the other is as easy as removing an eyelash from a glass of milk. It is the second kind of death that I have been granted in my prayer.”
The Reality that we call “Divine” is nothing but the “Being-ness” of things; it is the basic “Is-ness,” Ever-Present. As such, we are never and can never be separate from It. But, most are unconscious of this fact, because the “Isness” of our own being is a quality of consciousness, and consciousness tends to be aware of objects rather than its own subject-hood. This is not to say that we don’t experience our “selves” – just the opposite. As we move through the world, we tend to split reality into two parts – “me” and “everything else.” The problem is that we don’t know who “me” really is; we assume we are our thoughts, our feelings, our stories. We feel we are a spirit trapped in our bodies, looking out. We identify with one small aspect of ourselves – the aspect of thoughts and feelings – and call that “me.” But this ordinary “me” is actually just another object among objects, perceived by and living within the vast field of awareness that we are. This field of awareness, formless and borderless, is the true “I” hidden within plane sight, the vast inner “heavens” within which the “earth” of all particular experiences come and go. ִ שִׁמְע֤וּ שָׁמַ֙יִם֙ וְהַאֲזִ֣ינִי אֶ֔רֶץ כִּ֥י יְה–וָ֖ה דִּבֵּ֑ר... Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, For the Divine speaks… - Yeshiyahu (Isaiah) 1:2, haftara for Parshat Devarim The “heavens” and the “earth” come together as our bodily temple: At the deepest level, we are the “heavens” – we are the formless awareness that “hears.” But, we are able to “hear” through the medium of the senses; that is why the “earth” gives “ear.” The aim of meditation is to bring heaven down to earth by making our bodies into vehicles for consciousness. How do we do that? לֹֽא־תַכִּ֨ירוּ פָנִ֜ים בַּמִּשְׁפָּ֗ט – Don’t recognize faces in judgment… Meaning: don’t judge one “face” over another – every being, every experience, every moment – meaning this moment, is literally a Face of God. כַּקָּטֹ֤ן כַּגָּדֹל֙ תִּשְׁמָע֔וּן – As the small, like the great, listen! Whether we judge this moment as something great and important, or insignificant and unworthy of our attention, תִּשְׁמָעוּן tishma-un – listen anyway! It is through our unconditional Presence with whatever arises that we transcend that conditional “self” and come to recognize the One behind all faces; this is meditation. In this practice of returning frequently to unconditional Presence, we “remove the eyelash from the milk” so to speak, thereby stitching together “heaven” and “earth,” the world of time with the Eternal Present, binding words to the wordless, and connecting our deeds back to the silent field within which they unfold. To do this consistently, moment by moment, requires a simple trust in the way things unfold, a trust that this, now, is where we should be, at least for Now. This quality of Trust is embodied by the letter י yud.
Read past teachings on Devarim HERE
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