Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 2 Av, 5784
Parsha Devarim – “Words”: (Deuteronomy 1:1 – 3:22)
Third Portion: Deuteronomy 1:22 – 1:38

Good morning! We are now on the second day of Av – leading to the 9^th day. As we are slowly working our way through this darkness and into the light may we be reminded of source. The Torah. The universe. The one soul.

We continue to walk moment by moment on the journey for this 5784. Consider where we were back in September of 2023 when we started this cycle.  We’ve been through four books of the Torah. It’s been quite the cycle. Through it all? It feels beautiful that we are at this point. The darkness before the dawn.

Let’s dig in:

22And all of you approached me and said, “Let us send men ahead of us so that they will search out the land for us and bring us back word by which route we shall go up, and to which cities we shall come.”

23And the matter pleased me; so I took twelve men from you, one man for each tribe.

24And they turned and went up to the mountain, and they came to the valley of Eshkol and spied it out.

25And they took some of the fruit of the land in their hand[s] and brought it down to us, brought us back word, and said, “The land the Lord, our God, is giving us is good.”

I want to focus on this part. This was WHY they sent spies into the land:

“Let us send men ahead of us so that they will search out the land for us and bring us back word by which route we shall go up, and to which cities we shall come.”

Moses is ALSO reflecting back – to the last cycle – when they had the opportunity to enter the promised land. They came to the land. And they wanted to go in and see – so they could figure it out. And they did. And? What resulted? Was not the way in. It was not the way up. Because they were afraid.

Fear kept them from entering the promised land last time.

26But you did not want to go up, and you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord, your God.

And what did fear do?

27You murmured in your tents and said, “Because the Lord hates us, He took us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand[s] of the Amorites to exterminate us.”

It changed their perspective of Hashem. It clouded the motives they believed about Hashem (Hashem hates us).

28Where shall we go up? Our brothers have discouraged us, saying, “A people greater and taller than we; cities great and fortified up to the heavens, and we have even seen the sons of Anakim there.”

It causes us to exaggerate the threat in our mind. Make it bigger than it is.

29And I said to you, “Do not be broken or afraid of them.

30The Lord, your God, Who goes before you He will fight for you, just as He did for you in Egypt before your very eyes,

31and in the desert, where you have seen how the Lord, your God, has carried you as a man carries his son, all the way that you have gone, until you have come to this place.

It causes us not to listen to the advice of people we trust.

32But regarding this matter, you do not believe the Lord, your God,

33Who goes before you on the way, to search out a place for you, in which to encamp, in fire at night, to enable you to see on the way you should go, and in a cloud by day.”

It causes us to forget the faithfulness of Hashem getting us to this point.

34And the Lord heard the sound of your words, and He became angry and swore, saying,

35’If any of these men of this evil generation sees the good land, which I swore to give your forefathers,

36except Caleb the son of Jephunneh he will see it, and I will give him the land he trod upon, and to his children, because he has completely followed the Lord.”

Fear impacts the consequences of our actions. When we act out of fear, we get more fear. Caleb and Joshua? They were not afraid. They had courage.

Courage is the fulcrum of fear.

37The Lord was also angry with me because of you, saying, “Neither will you go there.

38But Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you he will go there; strengthen him, for he will cause Israel to inherit it.

So here is the takeaway. When we are in the darkness? And we are afraid? We need to remember what it does:

• It changes our perspective on reality – we move from believing the universe (Hashem) is for us to believing the universe is against us
• It causes us to exaggerate the threat in our own minds
• It causes us to ignore the advice of people we trust
• It causes us to forget the faithfulness of the universe (Hashem) to get us here and keep us safe.

The antidote? Courage. Courage to just believe.

• Believe the universe is for us. Has our best in mind
• See the threat for what it is, and be reminded we are safe in a moment.
• Listen to the advice of people we trust
• Remember the universe’s faithfulness

Courage. The definition is “the ability to do something that frightens one”

The definition I think I like as a paraphrase? Acting from a place of trust despite our fears.

This is the takeaway on day two of navigating the darkness of Av.  What are your thoughts?

Here are my thoughts from the past two years:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 29 Tamuz, 5783

Today is the final day of Tamuz. As the sun sets this evening, we will transition into a new Moon cycle, and a new month. I am reflecting on how this past month has sharpened my vision to “see in the darkness.”  There have been moments of shadow and chaos – things I really struggled with.  And there have been moments of blessing and light.  As I shed what I want to leave behind – and focus on what I want to take with me into this next cycle, I keep coming back to love, compassion, empathy, kindness.  For myself. And for others.  I want to focus on this as we enter into the month of Av.

The month of Av is a challenge.  The word “Av” means “father.”  For me personally, that brings up all sorts of emotions and feelings. Chabad does a great job explaining the month here: Chabad Month of Av

One of the first things they share is how it is customary to add the word “Menachem” to the month – Menachem Av. Menachem means comforter. Consoler.

You see what happened at the beginning of Av has not been fantastic for our people.  Here is a quote from the website: “In this month, both Temples were destroyed and many other tragedies occurred. Yet our Father in heaven is there to comfort and console us.”

It is a good reminder that even if we judge a moment to be “bad” Hashem is working it out for our “good.”  Every moment exists for our good. Sometimes that is revealed in a moment.  Sometimes, we need to wait to see how it will be good.

The day of “Tisha B’Av” (9th of Av) happens (that will occur the evening of July 26th until sundown on July 27th) which is the day the first and second temples were destroyed on the same day.

What are the “temples” in our lives that have been destroyed? What have we seemingly lost?  Those are things we will be asked to confront – for the first two weeks of the moon cycle.  But as soon as we hit the 9th of Av? Things will turn around and light will come – the light of the Full moon which will hit on the 15th of Av (which happens at sundown on July 31st until Sundown of August 1st).

Chabad writes this: “the 15th of Av, a day designated for finding one’s predestined soulmate, and one of the happiest days on the Jewish calendar.”

So we have darkness and light.  Where as we are leaving Tamuz – where the light and dark were integrated, Av is different in that we will be asked to use our lenses to fully see in the darkness until the 9th of Av.

This relates to our Torah portion.  Deuteronomy continues to be a reflection.  A time to reflect before turning the page of our lives.

I once heard a synagogue talk about the vision of where the board of directors saw them heading.  The used the analogy of a car which was helpful.  It is important to look in the rearview mirror – to reflect on the past – and where we’ve come from.  We need to look at it from different angles – that is what the side view mirrors are for.  We get three different perspectives of our past realities – but our main focus is on the road we are on. And the road ahead.  If we try to turn the car and drive backwards, using ONLY the rearview and side view mirrors to try and get where we are going? It’s going to be a struggle.  Despite watching the Disney movie “Cars” with my kids an infinite amount of times, I am not Mater – I can’t be agile while driving backwards.  I am moving forwards.

Moses brings us the rearview mirror before entering the promised land.  He is reflecting back on our journey to get to where we are – at the border of the promised land.  And we are reviewing the past not to stay stuck – but (in my opinion) because Moses wants us to leave ALL OF IT behind as we enter into the new chapter of our journey.  So much so, that today’s portion ends with being told we will have a new leader for this next segment – Joshua.  Joshua will be the one to lead us into the promised land. Joshua the spy who gave us the truth about the promised land prior – the leader we didn’t listen to.  Joshua will now be in charge.

So as we enter Av – we all have a choice.  Do we stay stuck on the page we are on – dwelling on what we see in the rearview mirror, trying to move our lives forward? Or do we turn the car around and make new choices? We are not bound by our patterns of behavior.  Moses tells us to look ahead. Joshua is our future. Trust him.

Where are we needing to turn the page and move forward? Where is the page we need to turn and not be locked in by old patterns because our brains have trained us to react to certain stimulus without much thought? This is the time we are in – a time of reflection in the darkness.

May our transition to this new cycle bring us joy and change!

What are your thoughts?

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 5 Av, 5782

I got a picture of the moon last night. It is interesting to me how quickly it grew from the weekend. It went from a sliver to almost a quarter in the span of a few days. I have been spending time meditating on the moon lately. The Hebrew calendar is centered around the moon and I really reflect on “why?” Our Gregorian calendar centers the sun.

I’m thinking about this; and I wonder if the idea of reflecting on the moon continues to be about cycles, and reflecting light.

Our body is not the sun. If the sun represents Hashem’s energy, the sun is inside of us. But our bodies can only reflect the light of the sun (just like the moon). And, we are destined to go through cycles – like the moon. There may be times in our lives where we are a full moon, reflecting the fullness of our Neshama – for others to light their way. Other times we are new moons, with no light reflecting – and we can grow to learn to ”see in the dark” AND/or allow others light reflected to guide our path.

We see this notion of cycles with women, don’t we? And those cycles tend to be connected to moon cycles- 28 days. That’s not scientific as (I’m guessing) most women don’t have 28 day cycles.

I want to reflect more on this as we continue in the book of Deuteronomy. The idea of cycles and reflections.

Let’s dig into today’s portion:

We have been standing at the Jordan with Moses before entering the promised land. Moses has been rebuking the people for their past. He’s going over the journeys and the cycles we’ve lived. Yesterday we left off with Moses reminding the people about the spies. God gave them the land; all they had to do was go and take it. It was theirs. But they doubted.

Today’s portion begins with reminding them of their doubts: Moses reminds them “you all approached me in a rowdy mob and said “let’s send men ahead of us who will search out the land for us and bring us back a report…”. Moses even seems to own that he thought it was a good idea as well. So this wasn’t “you messed up” it was “we miscalculated.”

The rebellion was the report of the spies. Instead of hearing how tough things were going to be and applying that to God’s power and miracles, the people decided not to go. Even with Moses trying to convince them God was big enough to do it.

He reminds them of just how much Hashem fulfills his promises. We merely need to trust. Trust the cycles of life. There are moments of darkness, and we can be afraid that the darkness will never leave; or we can trust the cycle will come and the light will shine if we allow it.

And. To close today’s portion, Moses tells the people; Joshua was going to lead them into the promised land.

So much to reflect on. What are your thoughts?