Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וְהָיְתָ֥ה לָכֶ֖ם לְחֻקַּ֣ת עוֹלָ֑ם בַּחֹ֣דֶשׁ הַ֠שְּׁבִיעִ֠י בֶּֽעָשׂ֨וֹר לַחֹ֜דֶשׁ תְּעַנּ֣וּ אֶת־נַפְשֹֽׁתֵיכֶ֗ם: And this shall be to you a law for all time: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls. - Vayikra (Leviticus( 16:29
In his youth, Moshe Leib secretly changed his dress in the evening, left the house unobserved, and shared in the amusements of some young men his own age, singing and dancing with them at a local tavern. They all loved him and his most casual word was their Torah; yet he never told them what to do. When he went to Nikolsburg to study with Rabbi Shmelke in Sasov, they gave up their revelry because without him, they took no pleasure in it. After many years, one of them who had been traveling in foreign lands stopped in Sasov on his way home. In the inn and on the street everyone he talked with told him about a wonderful man, the great tzaddik Moshe Leib. When he heard the name, which was quite a common one, it did not occur to him that this could be his companion in the delights of days gone by, but his curiosity got the better of him.
He went to the rabbi and instantly recognized him. And the thought crossed his mind: “My, my, he is certainly an adept at deceiving the world!” But as he looked into Rabbi Moshe Leib’s face, a face he knew so well and that yet commanded his reverence, he realized the implication of his memories and suddenly understood that he and his friends had been guided without even knowing it, and that time and again their celebrations had been uplifted under the influence of a Torah they could not grasp. He bowed before the tzaddik and said, “Master, I thank you.” In this story, Moshe Leib is able to impart Torah to his friends without them knowing, which invites the question: what is Torah really? The text we call the “Torah” is part of our history and tradition, but it is not the Essence; we might say that it isn’t even the real Torah: Rabbi Shimon said: Woe to the person who says that Torah presents mere stories and ordinary words! . . . Ah, but all the words of Torah are sublime words, sublime secrets! . . . The stories of Torah form only the garment of Torah, and whosoever thinks that the garment is the real Torah and not something else—may their spirit deflate! - Zohar But if the text is merely the garment, what is the real Torah? כִּ֤י נֵ֣ר מִ֭צְוָה וְת֣וֹרָה א֑וֹר וְדֶ֥רֶךְ חַ֝יִּ֗ים תּוֹכְח֥וֹת מוּסָֽר׃ For mitzvah is a lamp, And Torah is Light, And the Way of Life is corrective self-discipline. - Mishlei (Proverbs) 6:32 ת֣וֹרָה א֑וֹר – Torah is Light… But what does this mean? Light does not have any substance or content in itself; rather, light is that which allows us to see substance and content. Similarly, on the inner level, Light is a metaphor for that which allows us to perceive anything at all; it is a metaphor for awareness, for consciousness itself. Seen in this way, we can understand the literal text, the “garment” of Torah as representing a meeting between consciousness and a particular moment in history. For example: today, at our present level of consciousness, we take for granted that slavery is wrong. But at the time of the Torah, slavery was a deeply ingrained reality. So, when consciousness met the reality of slavery in the time of the Torah, it couldn’t quite eliminate it then, but it did nudge it towards greater justice by giving slaves certain rights that didn’t previously exist, such as the law that if you injure your slave, you have to let them go free. To us this is totally inadequate, but for that time it was a positive movement in the right direction. And then, over a thousand years later, which is still about two thousand years ago from today, the rabbis outlawed most forms of slavery and then instituted other norms that eliminated all forms of slavery – something the rest of the world wouldn’t begin to do for another 1,800 years. In this way, the rabbis continued the process of justice that the written Torah began. So, as much as the tradition reveres that physical Torah scroll and the words written upon it, that Torah is more like a shadow cast by the Light of consciousness as it shone on a particular historical moment. The point is not the shadow – though it is wonderful that we have preserved it and trace our lineage back to it – the point is the Light; the point is consciousness. This understanding of Torah as a process of consciousness rather than a holy book is nothing new. It didn’t even originate in Kabbalah, but is in the written Torah itself: The Torah says that in every generation, the law must be reinterpreted according its core principles and applied in new ways, in new historical moments, in order to continue the process of manifesting its principles over time. It is important, then, for us to focus on the underlying universal principles through which we can continue the Torah’s process of evolution; that is the point of Torah of Awakening. And, as vast and complex as the Torah is, it really comes down to only three core principles. Or, more precisely, one core principle, applied in three basic ways. The first principle is the one we have just mentioned: צֶ֥דֶק צֶ֖דֶק תִּרְדֹּ֑ף לְמַ֤עַן תִּֽחְיֶה֙ – Justice, justice you shall pursue so that you may live… - Devarim (Deuteronomy)16:20 In other words, be benevolent; act fairly, with the aim to benefit everyone. Let your laws and institutions be based on this principle. And know that, though we have come a long way from some of the unjust elements in our texts, we still have a long, long way to go. Perhaps that is why the word tzedek, justice, is said twice – once for the application of justice that was possible in the time of the Torah, and again for the continually new applications of justice in each generation; may we all continue to evolve in this coming year. Applying this principle on the interpersonal level, we have the classic wisdom formulation: Vayikra 19:18: וְאָֽהַבְתָּ֥ לְרֵעֲךָ֖ כָּמ֑וֹךָ – Love your neighbor as yourself. -Vayikra (Leviticus) 19:18 And right before that: לֹֽא־תִקֹּ֤ם וְלֹֽא־תִטֹּר֙ אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י עַמֶּ֔ךָ – Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against the children of your people… In other words, it is an imperative for us to make peace with one another. Together, these two verses express this first principle of benevolence both in society and interpersonally. It is the outward, relational principle of consciousness in action, the principle of doing, and in this time of the Yamim Norayim, the Days of Awe, we have a special opportunity to make peace with one another, and commit to improving our own actions in this coming year. דֶ֥רֶךְ חַ֝יִּ֗ים תּוֹכְח֥וֹת מוּסָֽר – the Way of Life is corrective self-discipline. We must not see ourselves as a finished product, but continue to work on ourselves so that we might address any patterns of behavior that need to be corrected toward greater tzedek and ahavah, justice and love. Complementing this external Principle of Doing is the second principle, the internal Principle of Being. What does that mean? It means growing in our ability to be with the moment as it is, to accept the truth of whatever our experience is without resistance; in other words, it means to be present. This is the whole purpose of meditation and spirituality in general, and points the way toward liberation from the inner Mitzrayim, the inner Egypt, from our sense of self that is based on thought and feeling, which we call ego. This imperative to awaken the deeper dimension of our own being, the field of awareness beyond ego, is expressed in Vayikra 19:2: קְדֹשִׁ֣ים תִּהְי֑וּ כִּ֣י קָד֔וֹשׁ אֲנִ֖י יְהֹ–וָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃ A straight translation would be: Holy you shall be, for I, Hashem, your God, am holy. But on a deeper level, קְדֹשִׁ֣ים תִּהְי֑וּ – “holy, be” can mean: Recognize the dimension of the sacred through simply Being. Why? כִּ֣י קָד֔וֹשׁ אֲנִ֖י – because the “I” is holy! Meaning: יְהֹ–וָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם – the Divine is not something separate; It is your own deepest nature. How do we do this? We are told in the most well-known line in the Torah: : אֶחָֽד שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהֹ–וָ֥ה אֱלֹ–הֵ֖ינוּ יְהֹ–וָ֥ה Sh’ma Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Ekhad. Sh’ma שְׁמַע – Be aware, and through this act of Presence, know that Hashemיְהֹ–וָה – Existence, Reality, Being itself, is אֱלֹ–הֵ֖ינוּ, – not separate from our own innermost being. And finally, אֶחָֽד יְהֹ–וָה – there is only One Reality, and nothing is separate from That. And this brings us to our third principle: unifying the external with the internal, unifying Doing with Being. Through this we affirm: that which we call the Divine, the underlying Oneness of all of it, is not some remote deity, but is fully accessible to everyone, right now, in the present moment, simply by opening to It. The light and the dark, the wisdom and the ignorance, the justice and the process of meeting injustice with consciousness, all of it is God, and we can know that for ourselves through the cultivation of Presence and practicing Presence through meditation… וְיָדַעְתָּ֣ הַיּ֗וֹם – Know today, meaning be present – וַהֲשֵׁבֹתָ֮ אֶל־לְבָבֶ֒ךָ֒ return to your heart – meaning, return to that basic quality of love and benevolence that arises from your essence, the vast space of consciousness itself, כִּ֤י יְהֹ–וָה֙ ה֣וּא הָֽאֱלֹ–הִ֔ים – that Existence Itself is God, בַּשָּׁמַ֣יִם מִמַּ֔עַל – in the heavens above, meaning: in the vast spaciousness of consciousness that you are, וְעַל־הָאָ֖רֶץ מִתָּ֑חַת – and on the earth below, meaning: within the earthly experience of your physical body, אֵ֖ין עֽוֹד, there is nothing else, there is only God. These three principles: first, to let our actions be benevolent and to do good in the world; second, to awaken as the deepest level of our being, the vast field of awareness beyond ego; and third, to recognize that the Oneness of Being, that which we call Hashem, is ever before us, as us, intimately present – these three principles can guide us on a path of teshuvah, a path of returning from the endless tendrils of the complexities of our inner and outer worlds, to our Essence. But, spiritual and ethical growth does take practice. The purpose of these Days of Awe is to inspire some positive change in our lives. For some this might be taking better care of yourself through diet or exercise. For some it might be improving the way you are in relationship with others. It might mean shifting the way you relate with work. But the essence of all of these is growing on the level of consciousness, which is why we are here, now. And so, we Return Again, beginning at the beginning, in this moment…
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