Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 12 Tevet, 5785

Good morning! We have a new week today, a full moon upon us shortly (tomorrow night), and a NEW book of the Torah.

Today we start our Exodus.  We are getting ready to leave our slavery.

First up? We need to discover what is enslaving us. What is holding us back? The chaos around us – is designed for repair. What is coming to light that we feel stuck? This is our slavery. And? We get a “formula” of sorts for a way out:

Grief. 

Grief is Freedom – this is the beginning theme of Exodus. Grief is the way out of being stuck. This means a few things:

• Clarity. It is easy for us to stay in confusion. Muddy water. To see clearly, we must take an honest assessment of where we are TODAY.  And that clarity? Bound to bring:
• Anger. As a culture, we see anger is scary and dangerous. Monsters and villains get angry. We remain in our joy. False. REPRESSED anger is what is scary. EXPRESSED anger? Is something we should be encouraging.  Communicating anger brings grief. Holding sacred space for anger brings RELIEF.
• Sadness. Again, as we release our anger, we find what was behind it? Sadness and fear. This is the path to getting unstuck.

Shadow work:

Digging into things we’ve repressed or have blocked out because we aren’t proud of, we feel guilt over and shame over, and want to avoid this? This is humanity. Brene Brown does some amazing work here – navigating our guilt and shame. To find COURAGE to navigate this – and dig into what embarrasses us.

FEAR:

We all have fear. Anxiety. The question is where is our fear directed? Are we more afraid of hurting others than allowing ourselves to be hurt? Are we afraid of Hashem or Pharaoh? Where our fear is? Where we are stuck

POWER:

What we do with our power matters. When we arrive in a space of safety, what we do with that?  Are we kind? Or do we double down on our fear and repressed anger?

This is a “formula” for us as we enter the new season we are approaching!

These are my thoughts. What are yours?

Here are my thoughts from last year.

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 19 Tevet 5784
Parsha Shemot: (Exodus 1:1 – 6:1)
First Portion: Exodus 1:1 – 1:17

Good morning! It is the BEGINNING of a new week, the END of a year, the BEGINNING of a new book of the Torah, the DWINDLING of a moon cycle, and the RISING of our intents for a NEW cycle. 

Talk about chaos and repair? We’ve got it.  TODAY. 

Today is Parsha “Shemot.” This means “names.”  What I find SUPER interesting is our last Parsha in Genesis. “Ya – Vehi” – which means “And he lived.”  We asked the question last week about the word “he.”  Who is HE?  Are we talking about Hashem? Jacob? Israel? Joseph? The brothers? Us? Who lived?

The answer, I think? Yes.

The Torah is GIVING US the answer to “who lived” in this week’s portion. In the Book of Genesis – we spent a lot of time talking about Isaac (the miracle child) blessing Esau – and how GRIEF was the way to freedom. It is interesting I wrote this two years ago, and it is in line with this thought:

As we enter this period of Jewish history, when we were slaves in Egypt, the Torah I am reading says this;

“The Israelites were enslaved in Egypt for generations, but it is only when they cried out to God in anguish that the process of redemption was set in motion. God is waiting for your cry- a plea to be freed from your downtroddenness and narrow vision of yourself.”

With what we’ve learned so far in Genesis, this concept is CRUCIAL to Spiritual Liberation and Freedom. Cry. Sadness. Grief. God is waiting for our cry.  The past is merely data in our human brains. The Trauma. The Fear. We have very narrow vision of who we are. Today we enter a book that RECOGNIZES our condition.  And is here to help us out of it. I don’t know what this path entails, but it would seem where as Genesis gave us ways to AVOID slavery and then paints it as inevitable, Exodus may be the healing balm to helps us OUT of it?   

Grief is Freedom. Letting go of the past; forgiveness; repentance; trust.  This would seem to be what the “rest of the story” is about.

We get ONE BOOK in the Torah before Egypt. ONE BOOK taking us TO the promised land and then AWAY from it.  The next FOUR BOOKS are about how to get back. I think.

With this, let’s dig in.

1And these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt; with Jacob, each man and his household came:

2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah.

3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin.

4Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

5Now all those descended from Jacob were seventy souls, and Joseph, [who] was in Egypt.

I wrote extensively about the repetition of names.  We just did this in Genesis. It would seem as if the Torah is telling us this is the context for Exodus. Life. Genesis was about birth. We went from no one. To 70 Souls. Those 70 souls were now in Egypt. Outside the Promised land. They had fortune, power, land, did I mention power?

They left Canaan – the promised land – to survive. Egypt was the “second Ark” so to speak for our people. Noah built an ark that brought safety during the flood.  Egypt was now an Ark for the sons of Jacob to survive the famine. And survive they did.

Remember – Joseph was basically king.  He pretty much enslaved the Egyptians in the famine. The Egyptians ran out of money. He took their land. They ran out of everything, and Joseph made them slaves of Egypt. You’d think this would be a “happily ever after.”

Wrong.

Let’s dig in further:

6Now Joseph died, as well as all his brothers and all that generation.

7The children of Israel were fruitful and swarmed and increased and became very very strong, and the land became filled with them.

8A new king arose over Egypt, who did not know about Joseph.

Ok. The Ark was done. Joseph (the Ark built for the Israelites to bring them to Egypt) was now passed.  The people were forced “off the Ark” the way Hashem called Noah off the ark. What was once built for survival was now gone. It was no longer needed.

In verse 7, the Torah uses the word “swarmed.”  That is interesting to me. It’s a word that has a VERY Negative context. Like pests. Or bugs. And it’s contrasted with the word Fruitful, isn’t it?

Remember the closing thoughts of Genesis?   I wrote this yesterday:

This means; “Be Strong! Be Strong! And may we be strengthened!”

May this Torah discussion strengthen us all!

Be strong. Seek strength. From within.

Seek Strength. And we will become strong.

The Torah is the source.

Seek Torah, and we will become Torah.

Be Torah, and we will seek Torah.

Remember – when we become strong, others will be jealous. And – what we do with that strength? Will guide how we navigate the world. Joseph used his strength to enslave the Egyptians.  He was now gone.

Regardless of whether this new king arose who was a completely new king – or whether it was the same king, it really isn’t much of an issue FOR US.  Because in the end, the Ark was gone. The power was no longer in the hands of Israel.

This is an important takeaway for us. As we start our journey out of slavery? It would seem the Torah is saying to us “be careful what you do with the power you have, because in a moment? It can be taken away from you.”

We are EIGHT verses into Exodus – 8. And Joseph is now gone and a New King is in Charge.

Think about the amount of time – between Jacob’s death and Joseph’s death.

Eight verses. That’s all that period gets.

Looking at the Torah; here is what we know:

• Joseph was 39 when his family moved to Egypt. (Based off Genesis 41:46, 41:48, and 45:6)
• Jacob was 130 when he moved to Egypt (Genesis 47:9)
• Jacob died at 147. (Genesis 47:28)
• With math, this means Joseph was 56 when Jacob died.
• We know at the end of Genesis, Joseph was 110 when he died

So – between Jacob’s death and Joseph’s death – 54 years pass. FIFTY FOUR. Think of how much space in the book of Genesis was given to Joseph’s life – 56 years. And how LITTLE space is given to Joseph’s life AFTER Jacob died.

What was life in Egypt like during this period? We don’t often think about it, do we?

As Jews? Our people were slave masters. We enslaved the Egyptians. We took THEIR resources, saved them up during the 7 years of plenty. Then took advantage of them during the 7 years of famine.

We skip over this period in the Torah.  I am curious as to why?

Is it possible because the Torah is demonstrating to us what happens when we COGNITIVELY BLOCK trauma and memories we don’t want to wrestle with? That as the “villain” in the story, we can’t fathom what life was like during those 56 years after Jacob died. Where our Ark became a prison. We lost our freedom by taking away the freedom of others?

Yes, we can convince ourselves we were BENEVOLENT masters – we gave the Egyptians land to work, and they got to keep 80% but had to give us 20%.  But still. The Torah ignores this.

And it doesn’t.  Let’s keep going:

9He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more numerous and stronger than we are.

10Get ready, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they increase, and a war befall us, and they join our enemies and wage war against us and depart from the land.”

11So they appointed over them tax collectors to afflict them with their burdens, and they built store cities for Pharaoh, namely Pithom and Raamses.

So the new king rose and basically did to the Israelites what the Israelites did to them.  Taxed them.  The Egyptians took a page out of Joseph’s playbook – built store cities for Pharoah. 

Karma anyone?

Before we go further – we need to remember another lesson in Genesis. Reality.  When we READ Exodus – most of us put ourselves in the place of Israel reading these stories. But the reality of Israel is DIFFERENT than the reality of Egypt. Freedom is RECOGNIZING these different realities and holding space for them.

Let’s keep going:

12But as much as they would afflict them, so did they multiply and so did they gain strength, and they were disgusted because of the children of Israel.

13So the Egyptians enslaved the children of Israel with back breaking labor.

14And they embittered their lives with hard labor, with clay and with bricks and with all kinds of labor in the fields, all their work that they worked with them with back breaking labor.

The taxes were the first step.  But eventually, the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites the way Joseph did. However, the difference? They escalated the retribution.  Instead of allowing the Israelites the opportunity to work the land – it ALL went to Egypt.

Why? Because with the freedom Egypt was given here? They were AFRAID.  They were afraid Israel would become powerful.  So they enslaved them out of fear.

But this wasn’t enough. Because Israel kept growing (they must have REALLY enjoyed sex – they were basically like rabbits). 

15Now the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one who was named Shifrah, and the second, who was named Puah.

16And he said, “When you deliver the Hebrew women, and you see on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall put him to death, but if it is a daughter, she may live.”

17The midwives, however, feared God; so they did not do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them, but they enabled the boys to live.

We see fear personified.  We check in on the faith of the Israelites.  Verse 17 clearly communicates – the Hebrew women feared God more than Pharoah still. So they didn’t follow Pharoah.

And with that we come to a close of the first portion.

What are our takeaways?

• Grief is Freedom – this is the beginning theme of Exodus.
• Blocking out things we made not be proud of – to avoid feeling shame or guilt? May be more human than we realize.
• Fearing Hashem more than fearing the Pharoah is the continuation of safety.
• What we do with our power matters.

Where do these concepts show up in our lives?  Over the past year; what lessons are we needing to learn? As we enter 2024, what is the Egypt we are wanting to escape from? Are we willing to grieve?

These are my thoughts! What are yours?