Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 19 Sivan, 5783

Good morning! I hope your week has gone well and you are getting ready for the Sabbath and the rest!

Yesterday’s portion was all about the signs for us to move.  To not remain stuck.  When to break camp and when to set up camp.

Today we discover HOW we are to break camp.  HOW we are to move.  Once we know it is time to take action in our lives and avoid being stuck, we are called to “deconstruct” our current moment and pack it all up to move to the “next segment” of our life’s journey – fulfilling our purpose in each moment.

Meditation has been an important part of my practice. It is interesting to see where I was at a year ago –

This morning, in my meditation app, 10% happier (thanks Michael Takahara) we are doing the ”healthy habits challenge” and I heard this quote; “having a spirit of experimentation is the antidote to the sense of failure, regret and shame.”

Experimentation. Curiosity. When we are feeling regret and shame – failure, experimenting and curiosity is where we can go to move forward.  That is what today’s portion speaks to me.

When Hashem told them to move, they had to deconstruct the tabernacle. Take it all apart.  Start over in a sense.

Are we being asked to move? Are we being asked to “take it all apart?”  That feels scary.  Being stuck in my regret, shame, and failure? That feels safe (for some reason).

THIS MORNING in my meditation, we went on a journey of the mind.  Instead of anchoring my breath or something else, the guided meditation encouraged us to just let the mind go – and see where it took us.   And to just pay attention.  It was a fascinating journey for me this morning -and set some ideas up for direction.

Where are you going? Or are you being asked to “slow down” and set up camp? How would you know? These are the curious questions that come with today’s Torah portion (for me).

I’d love your thoughts!

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 17 Sivan, 5782

Good morning!

So. Up until now, the Torah portions have all be theoretical. In our journey from slavery to freedom that we began on Passover, it has brought us into the desert. We have been given the instructions (Shavuot) of the Torah. We have built the tent of meeting and the Tabernacle. Today, however, this portion is going to tell us about setting out for the first time.

Before I go further, I’m reflective of where we’ve been. Hopefully you’ve been considering your own journey – where you’ve been enslaved to ways of thinking that have blocked you from your goals and desires. As you recognize the need for freedom (not many do) and cry out to God for help, and he leads you supernaturally through the parting of the sea, we are not finished. There is still a lot of work to be done.

We have wandered as we recognize the need to leave what has enslaved us. But we stumble – the golden calf. The spies. All of it. And yet we continue on. We may get stuck- camping in the wilderness for a while. And then we are given the instructions to build a tabernacle in our hearts. We construct it Inside of us. Our physical needs, emotional needs, spiritual needs.

Now it’s time to take it all apart and set out on the first leg of our journey. Or second. Or third.

This morning, in my meditation app, 10% happier (thanks Michael Takahara) we are doing the ”healthy habits challenge” and I heard this quote; “having a spirit of experimentation is the antidote to the sense of failure, regret and shame.”

The idea of deconstructing the tabernacle within and setting out on a journey feels like experimentation. What are we doing to deconstruct our sense of normalcy and reality to move out of a “sense of failure, regret, and shame?”

It is with this attitude we dig into today’s portion:

On the 20th day of the second month in the second year, the cloud rose up from over the tabernacle of testimony.

Passover was in Nisan. The first month after Passover is Iyar, when the second Passover took place. The second month would have been Sivan. I don’t believe the Torah is referring to Iyar, because of the second Passover. Given the laws of the second Passover, leaving in the middle of that Holy Day (14 of Iyar-21 of Iyar) it makes sense they were leaving in Sivan. On the 20th.

For those keeping track at home, that’s Saturday night into Sunday. It’s time to prepare ourselves to get up and go! To move! To deconstruct and then experiment.

Just my opinion.

Ok. Let’s keep going.

They set out from the camp in the Sinai desert and traveled until the cloud settled in the desert of Paran.

The camp of Judah went first. Then the tabernacle was dismantled. Then Gershon and Merari’s descendants who carried the tabernacle followed. Then the camp of Reuben. Then the descendants of Kohath who carried the holy vessels traveled.

Interesting note. The Torah tells us this was because when they arrived, Gershon and Merari’s descendants would be able to construct the tabernacle so it was ready by the time Kohath arrived.

Then the camp of Ephraim set out. Then the camp of Dan set out. This was the order of the journey.

But the Torah gives us something more. After the Israelites left; Moses’ cousin-in-law (the son of Jethro his father in law) said “good luck on your journey, we are going home” (paraphrase). Moses told them to come with the Israelites.

Here is the exact quote from Moses; “please don’t leave us! For you know all of the miracles associated with our encampments in the desert to which you have been an eyewitness. If you go with us, then we will grant you use of part of the good land which God is granting us.”

Full. Stop.

One of the hard things about being Jewish is the sense of entitlement. Growing up it is hard not to get sucked into “we’re God’s chosen people! We are special!” But the Torah. The part of the Bible many believe is exclusive is LITERALLY inviting everyone who bears witness to join us on our journey.

If you’ve been reading these Torah thoughts as a non-Jew, I know sometimes it’s a struggle to wonder whether this is for you, or whether you are just visiting this space. But Moses literally invited those who bear witness to the greatness of God to join us on our journey. You are welcome here. It’s in the Torah.

The Torah says the journey took three days. Many scholars believe God wanted to bring them to the new place immediately – so he supernaturally got them there in one day.

A “day” could be a month, an hour, a year. Because time is a human construct and measures change (thanks Meir Rubashkin for teaching me that). We don’t need to get locked into dates and times. But we should be preparing ourselves to deconstruct the tabernacle in our hearts and journey to a new place. All the time.

Those are my thoughts – what about you? What do you think?