Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 26 Tishri, 5785
Parsha Noach – Portion 2

Good morning! As we set sail on the year ahead, and watch as the holy days of Tishri drift off into the distance? We can catch our breath in the freedom in front of us. The silence. The quiet. The restoration of a pacing a flow that we haven’t connected with for a few months now.

We have a lot of options before us – a lot of possibilities.

And I am reflecting this morning on how we may (let me come clean – how I MAY) navigate this freedom.

I cut options off prematurely.

I make decisions BEFORE I actually need to make them – in order to steer in the “right” direction.

When we have choices, what do we do when we become overwhelmed? We cut choices off. We decide “that direction will never work” or “that direction is going to end up blowing up in my face.” We cut those options off without REALLY knowing whether they will work out or not.

We decide our course of action on PREDICTABILITY – not on freedom.

If you had 10 choices before you, and you knew 9 choices were going to be failures, and one would lead to success? Easy choice, right?

10 choices, and you REALLY DON’T KNOW which will be successful? That becomes a much more difficult choice.

We begin to create entire BELIEF systems to assist us in making these choices don’t we? We BELIEVE certain choices will not be successful – we predict our own futures.  And possibly cut off potential surprises.

We don’t like surprises – especially when things don’t work “the way we want them to.”

And? Surprises are actually how things unfold around us. When we block surprises? We block our path forward.

Thoughts?

Here are my thoughts from last year:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 1 Cheshvan, 5784
Parsha Noah: (Genesis 6:9- 11:32) 
Second Portion: Genesis 7:1-16

Good Morning!  Today is a new moon cycle! We moved from Tishri to Cheshvan.  Did you know? This month has a smidge of confusion about what it is called.  Is it Cheshvan or Marcheshvan?  Chabad has some great history on the difference HERE.

The word “Mar” has multiple meanings (from the article):

• Bitterness (think Maror at Passover)
• A drop of Water
• Head or Master

What I personally glean from this (and wrote about this last year) is that after the “chaos” of the Holy Days in Tishri, we have a month of quiet, solitude, and silence in Cheshvan.  Depending on our work internally, this month can be:

• Bitter – If we have not done the work, the silence will connect us to this reality and it will feel “bitter” for the time we have not spent doing the work until now.
• The beginning of flow – One of my favorite movies is “The Power of One” with Morgan Freeman. The idea is that a “waterfall begins with a single drop of water.”  This month can be about how all the work we’ve done can flow.
• The beginning (The Head): Even if we have done NO work until this moment? We can begin with a single drop of water. Perhaps it is adding 2 minutes of meditation to our day? Perhaps it is spending 5 minutes journaling? How can you add a drop of water to your life today?

Once again – the choice is ours. We can be curious, or we can flow.

I wrote this as I journaled this morning:

Bitter. Flow.
Bitter. Flow.

It’s all perspective.

Scared. Trust.
Scared. Trust.

It’s all perspective.

Scared. Sacred.
Scared. Sacred.

It’s all perspective.

Sacred Trust. 

Flow.

Bitter scared.

Sacred Trust.

Flow.

Trusting our bitterness is sacred. Trusting our relationship to the sacred will lead to flow.

Let’s dig into Noah!

It’s a shorter passage but it is a fulcrum for where we are on our Torah journey.  The flood is coming.

From Genesis 7:1:

1And the Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, for it is you that I have seen as a righteous man before Me in this generation.”

On one hand, the ark was a lifeboat.  On the other? Would it not feel like a prison? To go into the ark, before the rains come, and stay with all these animals, to keep everyone safe? It would have been constricting. It would have been noisy.  You couldn’t escape.  Before the rains of abundance flowed, it may have even been bitter.  And yet we read:

            Genesis 7:5: “And Noah did, according to all that the Lord had commanded him.”

Noah did. He followed. He didn’t fight the imprisonment.  We don’t get a sense he was bitter.

And then the rains of abundance flowed.  And those who were “free” off the ark? They drowned in the abundance. Noah was spiritually free, so the physical constraints protected him from the flow.

Because think about it. We often ask for abundance. We often ask for flow.  But we aren’t always ready for it, are we?  We hear stories of stories of people winning the lottery.  And their lives are NOT better because of it.  The drown in the flow.  They become bitter.

Some are ready for the flow.  Not all become bitter after winning the lottery, or hitting it big financially.  But Noah was prepared for the flow. He wasn’t bitter. He was protected. He saw his prison as a protection. 

How are we living in this moment like Noah? Do we feel bitter? Or do we feel protected? Do we feel imprisoned? Or do we feel safe?

Because – spoiler alert – Noah did not REALLY know if the waters were going to come.  I mean, he trusted.  But until they started, and the ark lifted off the ground? How hard would it have been?  And when the first drop fell?  Did he know it was the first of a waterfall? Or did he think – ok – this is just a drop of water?

This is where we are in our journey – descending into slavery – or ascending to freedom. 

And each step of this journey, the Torah is teaching us about perspective.

Bitterness. Flow.

Sacred Trust.

Those are my thoughts!  What are yours?