This week’s Torah portion is the second in the Book of Exodus, Va’eira, which means, “and I appeared.” It contains an account of the first seven plagues. God speaks to Moses about the covenant previously established with the Patriarchs, and then goes on to make five more promises: “I will take you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their service; I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments; I will take you to me for a people, and I will be a God to you;… I will bring you in to the land, which I swore to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for a heritage.” These promises establish an underlying principle of the Torah: that life and the Divine Presence work on the basis of a covenantal relationship: a relationship of integrity, honor, and truth, of promised made and kept. The promises of God are juxtaposed against the actions of Pharaoh. Pharaoh shows no compassion for his people when, during the first plague, their drinking water is turned to blood. After the fourth plague Pharaoh promised to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt to worship God, but he went back on his promise and did not permit the Israelites to go. Moses even warns Pharaoh, advising him not to mock by not sending out the people. Pharaoh continues to fail to protect the lives and property of his people, which is his sacred trust as their ruler, during the fifth through the tenth plagues. After the hail, plague seven, Pharaoh again breaks his word and goes back on his promise to allow the Israelites to leave.
Rashi comments that God’s name implies that God is faithful to give reward. The two names we use for God, Adonai, the God of Compassion and Elohim, the God of Justice, remind us: of love and mercy for Adonai, and integrity for Elohim. They tell us that the actions of the world occur through love and justice and integrity. These attributes not only describe God but describe God’s world as well, being embedded in the very fabric of cause and effect. When Moses admonishes Pharaoh not to mock, Moses is telling him that his lack of integrity goes against the natural laws of life, which will bring dire consequences. Mocking Moses and Aaron, or the Israelites commits a falsehood, being based on the idea that people are not a part of God and have no innate value or importance. Indeed, the Torah teaches just the opposite: that each widow, each orphan, each stranger: not the highest person, but the least noticeable, has worth, value, importance, and is known to God. Each time we demonstrate a lack of integrity we break faith with the Universe, alienating ourselves from the Divine Presence.
There is a parable in the modern Mussar literature by Rabbi Zvi Miller, taken from ancient sources. A lion once lay in wait to spring on a fox. At the last moment the fox said, I am nothing but skin and bones. Spare me and I will lead you to a fat man who will be a succulent and satisfying feast for you. The fox led the lion to a man sitting behind a pit that was covered with branches and leaves. The lion saw that the man was praying and he said to the fox, I am afraid to attack this man. The merit of his prayer may awaken judgment against me. Don’t worry, said the fox, Neither you nor your son will be held accountable for this offense. Rather, it is you grandson who will be punished. You are hungry now, so satisfy your desires! The lion was convinced by the fox’s clever words. It approached the man from behind, and as it started its leap, it fell helplessly into the deep pit. In the story the lion was lured by its own desire to believe that he would not be held accountable for his actions. But we know that this is not how our lives work. The voices that speak to us in our minds with the words, “oh, it will probably be okay,” are the fox-like voices: of prompt gratification over lasting integrity.
The S’fat Emet writes that there is much falsehood for every point of truth…every bit of truth is surrounded by falsehood on all sides. Nevertheless, by means of struggle that point of truth can be found in every place. Our struggle to live lives of integrity is a struggle to be in consonance with God and the universe. When we honor our commitments and fulfill our words, being honest with ourselves and conscious of our true intentions, life honors us and we feel at one with the harmony of existence. In the Torah, if God is careful to be faithful and scrupulous to fulfill each promise, so much more should we strive to emulate this behavior, because it is being modeled for us to teach us be able to keep our commitments to each other. The Torah is telling us how very important this is. An aphorism about truth was repeated at the EST training: When you always speak the truth your word becomes law in the Universe. The struggle for truth in an imperfect world leads us to holiness. It is a struggle worth caring about. Each promise kept, each fulfillment of a covenant, between us and others, and between us and God, is a tool toward self improvement. It’s a step upward on the ladder that leads to goodness, peace, honor, and dignity. The harmony we then feel is simply God’s approval and God’s blessing.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Approaching Ourselves
This week’s torah portion is Vayigash, which means, and he approached. Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, approaches Joseph, Viceroy of Egypt, to plead for his youngest brother, Benjamin; and to ask to be enslaved in place of Benjamin. Benjamin has been wrongly accused of stealing Joseph’s silver cup. When Joseph learns that his brothers love and support Benjamin, Joseph reveals his identity to them and forgives them. He then arranges to bring his father and his brothers’ families to Egypt so that they will be sustained during the continuing famine. The Torah states, “Then Judah approached him and said, Bi Adoni, if you please my Lord.” Judah then makes a heartfelt speech to Joseph in which, as the scholar Nechama Leibowitz points out, the word father is used 14 times in 17 verses. Judah’s speech arouses Joseph’s compassion, culminating in, what for the brothers, was a miraculous redemption and a complete reversal of their perilous situation. What are the dynamics that allowed this transformation to occur? The S’fat Emet comments that Bi Adoni, please my Lord, also means God is within me. He goes on to explain that when Judah approached, he was approaching Joseph, himself, and also God. This teaching is an opening for us into a new possibility. We know that we have been told that our souls are from God, the Divinity within each one of us; and yet it’s so hard to live out of that reality. We have defenses that we learned how to use to protect ourselves when we were growing: defenses for the family, for school, for friends, for work. And these defenses can become our persona, the face others see and the face we see ourselves as representing. But there is a deeper personality with which Judah approached Joseph; a personality that was revealed when all of Judah’s defenses were useless, when anger, indignation, and confrontation, the walls that separate us as people, fell away. It was in that moment of vulnerability that Joseph’s compassion was stirred. Joseph identified with the humanity of his brother. Buy negating himself and his defenses, Judah allowed his soul to shine forth and affect everyone around him. By opening himself he opened the gates to the flow of Divine blessings.
When there is a difficult situation in life, there are many ways to relate to it. When there is a difficult relationship it is easy to react automatically with customary defenses. The secret of Oneness, Bi Adoni, God is within me, shows another way, which is seeking wholeness and finding the lost treasure of our souls. By negating our defenses and our ego, which is the false persona, we allow our true and whole selves to emerge. Having the courage in adulthood to unlearn and let go of customary defenses allows inner wisdom and Divine guidance to become available because they were there all along. In interacting with another person we can create the space of Divinity for each other by opening our hearts in self negation; becoming less, in order to expand into the More of who we really are. This is Martin Buber’s I-Thou relationship of two Divine entities coming together, recognizing each other, and creating understanding. In this New Year, may we truly touch each other, having the courage to be more than we think we are; showing our true selves, our radiance, our love, and our inner Divinity.
When there is a difficult situation in life, there are many ways to relate to it. When there is a difficult relationship it is easy to react automatically with customary defenses. The secret of Oneness, Bi Adoni, God is within me, shows another way, which is seeking wholeness and finding the lost treasure of our souls. By negating our defenses and our ego, which is the false persona, we allow our true and whole selves to emerge. Having the courage in adulthood to unlearn and let go of customary defenses allows inner wisdom and Divine guidance to become available because they were there all along. In interacting with another person we can create the space of Divinity for each other by opening our hearts in self negation; becoming less, in order to expand into the More of who we really are. This is Martin Buber’s I-Thou relationship of two Divine entities coming together, recognizing each other, and creating understanding. In this New Year, may we truly touch each other, having the courage to be more than we think we are; showing our true selves, our radiance, our love, and our inner Divinity.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
There is Enough
This week’s Torah portion is Vayeshev, which means, “and he settled.” It relates the beginning of the story of Joseph, Jacob’s favored son and offspring of Rachel, his favored wife. The teenage Joseph tattles on his older brothers and they hate him. He dreams of ruling over them and they hate him more. While they are far from home, the brothers plot to kill Joseph. They throw him into a pit on Ruben‘s advice, Reuben being the oldest brother, who means to save him later. Then on Judah’s advice they decide to sell him. He is sold to traders who take him to Egypt and resell him to a courtier of the Pharaoh.
There is then an important incident which interrupts the main story, concerning Judah and his family. Judah’s son marries Tamar, but his son dies. As was the custom at that time, Tamar is given to Judah’s second son, who also dies. Tamar, who is childless, impersonates a prostitute when she realizes that she will not be given to Judah’s youngest son. She arranges to have sexual relations with Judah without revealing her identity and becomes pregnant. When her pregnancy becomes known, Judah sentences her to die. But then he learns that it is he who committed the sin and relents. One of their twin boys becomes the ancestor of King David. Then the Joseph story resumes. Joseph is thrown into jail, when he the courtier’s wife wrongly accuses him of sexual misconduct.
This portion is filed with human passions. It begins with jealousy. The brothers are jealous of Joseph because they realize that their father loves him more than he loves them. In this family there seems to be a shortage: a shortage of love. Joseph’s dreams and the brothers’ reaction to them also suggest a shortage of money or perhaps power. Their feeling and actions are all about that which they lack. But we know that love is not a finite quality. It’s not limited. Power is also not finite, and really, money is not finite either when viewed over time. Money flows just as love and power do. The brothers do not seem to understand that there is Enough: there is enough love for each of them, enough personal power, even enough money for their ultimate prosperity. One of my teacher Rabbi Gelberman’s sayings, from his Chassidic forebears, is “Kol B’Seder”: all is in Divine order. We are provided for by the Divine Presence: with enough food, enough space, enough money, enough power. Sometimes I get very rushed and act as if there is not enough time, but in truth, there is even enough time. Kol B’Seder, there is enough of everything.
However, we can cause temporary shortages in money, in love in power, and in time by our actions. Divine justice is the outworking of the problems we cause. This is illustrated in the Judah story. It was Judah who proposed to sell Joseph, separating Joseph from his father. Judah then experiences Divine Justice. Later, Judah himself is separated from his two sons when they die young and before their time. In the Joseph story, the brothers kill a goatling, dip Joseph’s coat of many colors in the blood, and bring it to their father, saying, Identify if you please, is this Joseph’s coat? When Tamar is being taken to die, she sends several articles to Judah, which belong to him, saying, Identify if you please, thus reminding him of his earlier transgression against Joseph and Jacob, their father. Further along in the story, Joseph when he is sold to the courtier in Egypt and is thrown into jail becomes separated from his father, and family, and freedom, because he spoke against his brothers. By separating himself, he himself became separated.
Truly there is no lack of the things we need, but we can cause a temporary lack when we choose to act or speak against the flow of Divine love and plentitude. We stop us the flow of blessings, until such time as our mistakes and shortcomings are worked out, and the blessings begin to flow once more. There is an infinite supply of love. The more we love, the more love there is. The challenge is to be able to live it: to act as if we believed it. Truly, all the blessings we need and all the love we desire are available to us. The Torah teaches again and again that the Eternal God wants to bless us. When we are a blessing we are greatly blessed with Enough and with everything we need. May each of us be a blessing and through our love, be greatly blessed.
There is then an important incident which interrupts the main story, concerning Judah and his family. Judah’s son marries Tamar, but his son dies. As was the custom at that time, Tamar is given to Judah’s second son, who also dies. Tamar, who is childless, impersonates a prostitute when she realizes that she will not be given to Judah’s youngest son. She arranges to have sexual relations with Judah without revealing her identity and becomes pregnant. When her pregnancy becomes known, Judah sentences her to die. But then he learns that it is he who committed the sin and relents. One of their twin boys becomes the ancestor of King David. Then the Joseph story resumes. Joseph is thrown into jail, when he the courtier’s wife wrongly accuses him of sexual misconduct.
This portion is filed with human passions. It begins with jealousy. The brothers are jealous of Joseph because they realize that their father loves him more than he loves them. In this family there seems to be a shortage: a shortage of love. Joseph’s dreams and the brothers’ reaction to them also suggest a shortage of money or perhaps power. Their feeling and actions are all about that which they lack. But we know that love is not a finite quality. It’s not limited. Power is also not finite, and really, money is not finite either when viewed over time. Money flows just as love and power do. The brothers do not seem to understand that there is Enough: there is enough love for each of them, enough personal power, even enough money for their ultimate prosperity. One of my teacher Rabbi Gelberman’s sayings, from his Chassidic forebears, is “Kol B’Seder”: all is in Divine order. We are provided for by the Divine Presence: with enough food, enough space, enough money, enough power. Sometimes I get very rushed and act as if there is not enough time, but in truth, there is even enough time. Kol B’Seder, there is enough of everything.
However, we can cause temporary shortages in money, in love in power, and in time by our actions. Divine justice is the outworking of the problems we cause. This is illustrated in the Judah story. It was Judah who proposed to sell Joseph, separating Joseph from his father. Judah then experiences Divine Justice. Later, Judah himself is separated from his two sons when they die young and before their time. In the Joseph story, the brothers kill a goatling, dip Joseph’s coat of many colors in the blood, and bring it to their father, saying, Identify if you please, is this Joseph’s coat? When Tamar is being taken to die, she sends several articles to Judah, which belong to him, saying, Identify if you please, thus reminding him of his earlier transgression against Joseph and Jacob, their father. Further along in the story, Joseph when he is sold to the courtier in Egypt and is thrown into jail becomes separated from his father, and family, and freedom, because he spoke against his brothers. By separating himself, he himself became separated.
Truly there is no lack of the things we need, but we can cause a temporary lack when we choose to act or speak against the flow of Divine love and plentitude. We stop us the flow of blessings, until such time as our mistakes and shortcomings are worked out, and the blessings begin to flow once more. There is an infinite supply of love. The more we love, the more love there is. The challenge is to be able to live it: to act as if we believed it. Truly, all the blessings we need and all the love we desire are available to us. The Torah teaches again and again that the Eternal God wants to bless us. When we are a blessing we are greatly blessed with Enough and with everything we need. May each of us be a blessing and through our love, be greatly blessed.
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