Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 12 Tishri, 5785
Parsha Ve-Zo’T Ha-Berakhah – “This is the blessing”: (Deuteronomy 33:1 – 34:12)
Second portion (second time around): Deuteronomy 33:8 – 33:12

Good morning! We are once again in transition from Yom Kippur to Sukkot, which starts on the full moon Wednesday night.  Wednesday night into Thursday morning is the third of four consecutive super moons, and this one is called the “Hunter’s moon.”

The idea of this moon is that it was the moon where hunters knew to start collecting food and storing it for the winter.

As we shift into new energies, we are beginning to connect with ancestral energies during this time. Like the hunter’s moon, we can reflect on our ancestor’s and the work they did while here, and how we benefit from them.

Saying all of this, there is a part of me that ALSO wants to be angry at the ancestors for the trauma they left us. Generational trauma.

How do we connect with our ancestors? -Especially when we fail and feel like we did not accomplish our goals or dreams. When something does not work with our plan?

The energy right now is connected to failure.  The shadow of failure is designed to help us to learn to use our gift of Preservation.  The prize is the healing of generational trauma and wounds to venerate the lineages of our past and bring them into the future.

This hunter’s moon? This Sukkot? We have a choice as to how we remember our past when we are navigating failure.

When we fail, are we being reminded of our past trauma to remind us of our broken hearts?

Or are we seeing failure as part of the healing process of our healing hearts?

This is the fundamental question. Is our heart broken? Or is it healing?  What do we believe?

Last night, I went to see “My Hero Academia: You’re Next” with my almost 12 year old.  It was a really good movie (surprisingly).

There was a commercial before the movie though that struck me. Gave me chills. It’s below.

For those who don’t have time to watch it, the narrator (I believe it is John Cena, but I couldn’t see him) tells us seemingly about failure and giving up:

You won’t remember my name
this is the last time
you will see me at the top
my doubts
will destroy
my dreams
the more I seem to learn
the more I seem to lose
I want to carry on
but not today
This is the point I give up.

The music and narrator pauses, and then reads the lines backwards:

This is the point I give up
but not today
I want to carry on
the more I seem to lose
the more I seem to learn
my dreams
will destroy
my doubts
you will see me at the top
this is the last time
You won’t remember my name

It’s a beautiful reminder of the choice we get to make in a moment.

We are going to fail. The more we lose, the more we learn. We can carry on despite things not going our way.

It’s a beautiful shift of perspective for us in a moment. What does our brain do? When we fail? Will we see our lineage and ancestors as giving us trauma? Or giving us resilience? What is this gift?

Do we see the shadow of failure as the “gift” we have been given? And how far back to we see “getting” that gift?  Maybe it’s not our ancestors, but previous versions of ourselves?

Where did our “gift” of failure come from? That seems to be the energy today as we prepare for the harvest. What will we cultivate and harvest from the past year? From the new work going on as the energies moves into this new year. It’s time to see the fullness of our failures and move forward.

A new feeling I have been learning about within me, is the feeling of triumph. I have reflected on how the feeling of triumph is another one of those feelings that when it comes upon me? I want to clutch onto it and not let it go. Inevitably, it does pass, and that creates grief for me. I want to return to the triumph – like Al Bundy throwing 4 touchdowns in high school. (I will trust those not in Gen X who did not watch “Married, With Children?” to Google it).

We get stuck in the past to the times we felt triumphant – lamenting the current moment because we don’t feel that way.

And? Triumph exists in each moment – we just need to find it. Search within for this feeling.

This is the harvest.

These are my thoughts as we return to this final portion. “This is the blessing.”

Triumph. The Harvest.

These are my thoughts.

What are yours?

From last week:

Good morning! It is now day 5 of the spiritual year, and we are halfway between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  The energies right now are fairly intense. Right now, we are digging into the shadow of inadequacy – to see our own resourcefulness. This energy and resourcefulness provides WISDOM.  That is where we are!

Tonight? Things are going to shift a bit.  We are going to transition into the shadow of “unease” which will put us in touch with our gifts of intuition. This will provide us the prize of clarity. Clarity is interesting. In Tibetan Tantra, clarity is often connected to Anger – because we are left with a lack of denial. We have the data we need to be in a place where we have clarity. And sometimes, we don’t LIKE the clarity we get.

This is the shift. So we can flow with it or resist it. Our choice. With this energy, let’s dig in:

8And of Levi he said: “Your Tummim and Urim belong to Your pious man, whom You tested at Massah and whom You tried at the waters of Meribah,

I’ve written about the Tummim and Urim before – it is like Jewish Oracle cards. It helped the priests with knowing the flow of the energies of where Hashem was leading. 

9who said of his father and his mother, ‘I do not see him’; neither did he recognize his brothers, nor did he know his children, for they observed Your word and kept Your covenant.

The priests who saw the flow of the universe? Did not see their own family.  Because they concerned themselves with flow.

10They shall teach Your ordinances to Jacob, and Your Torah to Israel; they shall place incense before You, and burnt offerings upon Your altar.

Those who flow, will teach. The question for us is – will we learn?

11May the Lord bless his army and favorably accept the work of his hands; strike the loins of those who rise up against him and his enemies, so that they will not recover.”

12And of Benjamin he said, “The Lord’s beloved one shall dwell securely beside Him; He protects him all day long, and He dwells between his shoulders.”

So that is interesting about Benjamin, right? Who is “the Lord’s beloved one?” And who is this that dwells “beside” Him? And that Him is capitalized. So we KNOW the “Lord’s beloved one” dwells with Hashem. AND. Dwells between “his” shoulders. What is between our shoulders? MY first thought was my head. But that isn’t true, is it? It’s between the shoulders – but ABOVE them. What is between my shoulders? My heart.

This is the message. I believe we are talking about the Neshama. The Neshama is with Hashem at the same time it is within our hearts.

This is the foundation and grounding.

It’s a beautiful reminder for us of this process as we approach Yom Kippur. Will we see within us, how Hashem dwells within us? Between our shoulders?

What are your thoughts?