This week’s Torah portion is Tzav, which means, command. God asked Moses to instruct the Priests about how to perform sacrifices. The fire on the altar was never to go out. In the mornings, the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest, cleared the ashes. In this portion there are rules for the elevation, meal, sin, guilt, and feast-peace offerings. The rules tell what should be burned and who should eat the meat and flour offerings. Fat and blood were not to be eaten. Then, at the end of this portion, the priests were sanctified for seven days and consecrated to begin their service for God and the people.
Three times in the beginning of this portion it says, “The fire on the altar shall remain aflame on it.” Twice the Torah adds, “it shall not be extinguished.” This can also be translated as, the fire on the altar shall remain aflame in him, meaning in each person. The Baal Shem Tov said, “Our heart is the altar” (Soul of the Torah, P. 196). This section of Tzav is the passage that is quoted at the beginning of Sephardic and Chassidic services, to inspire those at prayer to greater efforts toward love and sincerity.
There is an interesting statement in this portion concerning the meal offering. Part of it is called a memorial portion for God. The rest was consumed by the Priests. We might think that God would desire the largest part of the offering, giving the priest a small salary or meal to eat. But the reverse is true. God only requests a very small portion, just enough for us to remember God: to remember to thank and bless the Holy One. The greater portion is for us, for those who work in God’s service and help one another. Also, the meal offering was to be unleavened. God is satisfied with the minimum, with the ordinary, the everyday. Not the grandest offering; not a cake or loaf risen to great heights, but the most basic, real, down to earth offering, our very selves.
Also, the letter mem in the word flame is written smaller than the other letters. Perhaps this encourages us not to be showy with our dedication to God’s service; and not to be intermittent in our spiritual passion: one minute with our hearts aflame, the next indifferent. Rather, we are asked to have a small steady flame burning in our hearts, one that should never go out. The S’Fat Emet relates this to the V’ahavta prayer, that we should speak of our love for the Divine Essence inwardly, “when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up.” In other word: always. It is our hearts and minds that is important to God.
The Zohar comments on a verse from Job (1:5), “And when the days of the feast would come to their end, Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning, and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” The Zohar (II:239b) says: “this… refers to the Community of Israel, and the term ha'olah (that which ascends), to the evil thought that rises up in our minds to turn us aside from the way of truth. The verse thus continues: ‘on its fire-wood upon the altar all night’, signifying that the evil thought has to be consumed in fire so as not to allow it to grow.”
Thus the Zohar speaks about the burnt offering as an atonement for evil thoughts. This is about the ultimate mantra: a stream of consciousness that consumes our negativity, our less than worthy inner chatter, replacing them with holy words and holy thoughts. The flame of love purifies us inwardly. This Shabbat is Shabbat HaGadol, the great Sabbath before Pesach; the Shabbat, as the Apter Rebbe taught, in which the hidden is about to be revealed. The S’fat Emet said, “In the soul of every person there lies a hidden point that is aflame with love of God, a fire that cannot be put out.” When that hidden flame burns quietly and steadily in our hearts, then our transformation will be revealed in the light shining on our faces and the faces of those whose lives we touch. May we nurture and feed the inner flame of our love with the fuel of our intention, the desire to help and be of service, the desire to love and be loved, and may we with Divine guidance and blessing be purified, sanctified, and transformed.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Friday, June 14, 2013
The Vessels of God's Love
This week’s Torah portions are Vayakhel, which means and he assembled, and refers to Moses assembling the people, and Pekudei, which means reckonings. Moses called together the people to remind them that no work on the Tabernacle may be done on Shabbat. He tells them that they may being free will donations of all the materials needed to build the Tabernacle, to God; and that the work to build it will soon commence. The people brought more than enough and had to be asked to stop donating. The Tabernacle and its furniture is completed in this portion, overseen by Bezalel and Oholiab, who God endowed with the knowledge, insight, and skill to do it. The second portion contains an accounting of the free will offerings that were brought, the completion of the priests’ garments, the setting up of the Tabernacle. God’s approval was shown to the people by the miracle of the Cloud of God’s Presence filling the Tabernacle.
There is an interesting idea expressed three times in this portion. The text says, “Every person whose heart inspired him came and everyone whose spirit was willing brought the portion of God for the work of the Tent of Meeting.” Later it says, “All the women whose hearts inspired them with wisdom.” And the third example is: “Moses called for every wise hearted person, everyone whose heart inspired him to approach the work to do it.” The word, inspired, is not really the true translation, in the Hebrew. The Hebrew word, nasa, is literally carried or lifted. The verses really say, everyone whose heart carried them, all whose hearts lifted them came forward, to donate their possessions, their time, and their skill.
One thing this teaches us is to lead with our hearts. In other words, in our lives, let your heart do the heavy lifting. Judaism teaches that God guides the world with justice tempered by mercy. We pray that God’s mercy will prevail over strict justice. Our sages taught that the world could not survive without mercy. Rashi wrote, about the first verse in Genesis, that “the world could not last” with the attribute of strict judgment, so God “gave precedence to the Attribute of Mercy and joined it to the Attribute of strict judgment.” This applies to us slightly differently. We are not asked to judge others. God is the judge. In fact, the less we judge others, the better off we are. Rather, we are asked to use our reason to make determinations. But reason without compassion, logic without love would be the human version of justice without mercy.
Rebbe Aaron of Karlin said, “Wisdom of the mind alone without wisdom of the heart is worthless.” We need the teaching about leading with our hearts because God has structured the world in such a counter-intuitive way. The way the world truly works is not logical. The more we give, the more we receive. The more we keep, the less we will have. More for me means less for all. More for you means more for all. We don’t always understand it, but it appears to be true, and this is what the Torah tries to teach us. As I like to say: love is the spiritual currency of the world. Reality works on the same principle as love: the more we give the more we receive.
The S’fat Emet quotes the Song of Songs: “Vast floods cannot quench love nor rivers drown it” He comments,….”The love and attachment to God that Israel received at Mt. Sinai remain alive in them forever, even when sin prevents them from bringing this hidden love out into the open…By the act of giving they brought forth their own inner generosity, their longing, and attachment so that they were able to draw the Shechina into their midst.” Here the S’fat Emet equates a closed heart with wrongdoing and says that giving brings God’s presence into our midst.
There is an interesting detail in this portion. It says, “They brought to Moses additional free willed gifts every morning” (36:3). This tells us that letting go of our judgment and selfishness is a process, perhaps it is a life-long process, but one that brings contentment, well being, peace, blessing and great reward. The Apter Rebbe said, God’s love needs vessels, and he asks, where are the vessels for the blessings that God want to give us? The Apter answers, “The main resting place is in the human being.” May we be the vessels of God’s love. May we allow our hearts of carry us and to lift us, acting with compassion and generosity, being the givers who help each other and enrich all of life.
There is an interesting idea expressed three times in this portion. The text says, “Every person whose heart inspired him came and everyone whose spirit was willing brought the portion of God for the work of the Tent of Meeting.” Later it says, “All the women whose hearts inspired them with wisdom.” And the third example is: “Moses called for every wise hearted person, everyone whose heart inspired him to approach the work to do it.” The word, inspired, is not really the true translation, in the Hebrew. The Hebrew word, nasa, is literally carried or lifted. The verses really say, everyone whose heart carried them, all whose hearts lifted them came forward, to donate their possessions, their time, and their skill.
One thing this teaches us is to lead with our hearts. In other words, in our lives, let your heart do the heavy lifting. Judaism teaches that God guides the world with justice tempered by mercy. We pray that God’s mercy will prevail over strict justice. Our sages taught that the world could not survive without mercy. Rashi wrote, about the first verse in Genesis, that “the world could not last” with the attribute of strict judgment, so God “gave precedence to the Attribute of Mercy and joined it to the Attribute of strict judgment.” This applies to us slightly differently. We are not asked to judge others. God is the judge. In fact, the less we judge others, the better off we are. Rather, we are asked to use our reason to make determinations. But reason without compassion, logic without love would be the human version of justice without mercy.
Rebbe Aaron of Karlin said, “Wisdom of the mind alone without wisdom of the heart is worthless.” We need the teaching about leading with our hearts because God has structured the world in such a counter-intuitive way. The way the world truly works is not logical. The more we give, the more we receive. The more we keep, the less we will have. More for me means less for all. More for you means more for all. We don’t always understand it, but it appears to be true, and this is what the Torah tries to teach us. As I like to say: love is the spiritual currency of the world. Reality works on the same principle as love: the more we give the more we receive.
The S’fat Emet quotes the Song of Songs: “Vast floods cannot quench love nor rivers drown it” He comments,….”The love and attachment to God that Israel received at Mt. Sinai remain alive in them forever, even when sin prevents them from bringing this hidden love out into the open…By the act of giving they brought forth their own inner generosity, their longing, and attachment so that they were able to draw the Shechina into their midst.” Here the S’fat Emet equates a closed heart with wrongdoing and says that giving brings God’s presence into our midst.
There is an interesting detail in this portion. It says, “They brought to Moses additional free willed gifts every morning” (36:3). This tells us that letting go of our judgment and selfishness is a process, perhaps it is a life-long process, but one that brings contentment, well being, peace, blessing and great reward. The Apter Rebbe said, God’s love needs vessels, and he asks, where are the vessels for the blessings that God want to give us? The Apter answers, “The main resting place is in the human being.” May we be the vessels of God’s love. May we allow our hearts of carry us and to lift us, acting with compassion and generosity, being the givers who help each other and enrich all of life.
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