Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 23 Tishri, 5785
Simchat Torah
Parsha Ve-Zo’T Ha-Berakhah – “This is the blessing”: (Deuteronomy 33:1 – 34:12)
Seventh portion: Deuteronomy 34:1 – 34:12

Good morning! It is Simchat Torah! Today is a day of endings and beginnings – a friend called this concept a “transient overlap.” It’s a beautiful imagery of the idea of endings and beginnings overlapping with each other. Night transitioning into day. Summer transitioning into fall. Deuteronomy transitioning into Genesis.

One of the conversations I had this morning overlapped with a conversation I had with my nine year old last night. My kid came home from school and they had been learning about refraction. How the brain takes an image and “flips” it in our minds. We actually see things reversed.

This got me thinking and discussing this morning – what if – the images we see externally? Are like the negative of a film roll? Like what if we are ACTUALLY seeing the movie negative, and we have not yet learned to “flip it” in our hearts?

So the “ending” is the “beginning” and the “pain” is designed for “pleasure” and the “grief” is designed for “love”?

So when we see things external that cause us “pain points” it is to direct us within ourselves to find the good? And the “pleasure points” externally? Are actually things designed to distract us from the pleasure within?

What do I mean by this?

So let’s say I am playing a video game? And it feels really good to play this game?  What if… that pleasure is something external – which is designed to reveal pain within us – but we can’t focus on that.  So we latch onto the external pleasure of the video game (or sports, or a romantic partner, etc) instead of calibrating within our own hearts and soul?

And? Let’s say I am experiencing external pain. Someone rejects me? Someone says something that hurts me? What if…that pain externally is designed to bring us within to find the pleasure points. The idea that someone rejecting me is not about me – it’s about them. They are free to reject me – and that has nothing to do with my royalty and worth? The rejection is a reminder of how amazing I am, and designed to bring be back to that?

What if? We have it backwards? We so get lost in our own heads and minds – we ignore our heart and body? Or we get so lost in our body, we ignore our heart? How do we continue our mindfulness journey of our body, mind, and soul? This may be what the Torah is all about. This may be the point.

What we see is the ending of the external reality, and the beginning of our internal reality.

And? The ending of our internal reality? The beginning of the external reality?

The transient overlap between our external and internal reality is designed to have us choose where our consciousness sees reality. Which is the negative, which is the photograph? Which is the film strip? Which is the movie?

The movie may be internal, with the external reality working as the strip of film that light gets refracted into us with.

Ok. Let’s jump into this final portion of Deuteronomy.  Tomorrow? We will begin the Torah cycle by covering the ENTIRE parsha in one day!

1And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, [to the] top of the summit facing Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the Land: The Gilead until Dan,

2and all [the land of] Naftali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, until the western sea,

3and the south, and the plain, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, until Zoar.

So at the end, Hashem shows Moses his legacy. The ending. And? The beginning. Because what is a legacy if not an ending and a beginning?

4And the Lord said to him, “This is the Land I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.”

Hashem seems to confirm this. This is not just the end of MOSES’ legacy.  It’s the end of Hashem’s. And? It’s the beginning of Hashem’s legacy. And the beginning of Moses’ legacy. Hashem is binding his legacy to Moses. Just like Abraham binding Isaac.

5And Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there, in the land of Moab, by the mouth of the Lord.

6And He buried him in the valley, in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Pe’or. And no person knows the place of his burial, unto this day.

He?

Who buried Moses? Hashem did. I wonder if we get a return – full circle. In Genesis, we are going to read shortly about Hashem walking in the Garden right after Adam and Chavah ate fruit from the tree. I wonder if Hashem walked with Moses in the same way.  Completing the path from destruction to salvation. Restoration of a relationship that had been separated.

7Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eye had not dimmed, nor had he lost his [natural] freshness.

This is interesting. Moses was not decrepit. He didn’t die of old age. The Torah clearly tells us – Moses died because his purpose had been fulfilled. That’s it. He lived his purpose and left this space/time.

8And the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab for thirty days, and the days of weeping over the mourning for Moses came to an end.

9And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands upon him. And the children of Israel obeyed him, and they did as the Lord had commanded Moses.

And the transfer of leadership – Moses’ legacy – was passed to Joshua. Joshua lived Moses’ legacy. Joshua lived Hashem’s legacy. And there is beauty in that.

10And there was no other prophet who arose in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face,

11as manifested by all the signs and wonders, which the Lord had sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and all his servants, and to all his land,

12and all the strong hand, and all the great awe, which Moses performed before the eyes of all Israel.

What a beautiful ending to the Torah. The Children of Israel did NOT enter the promised land. The Torah is not a series of books on “how to get into heaven.” The Torah does not seem to be about “entering the promised land.” The Torah? It’s a book of healing. It’s a book of redemption. It’s a story about LEGACY.

On this Simchat Torah? How much have we thought about our LEGACY? What do we want to leave behind when we leave this space/time? Who do we want to influence? Whose lives do we want to touch? In order to have a legacy? We need to believe we have something to offer.

Guilt? Shame? Grief? These are things that can get in the way of our legacy. Or? They can be “alchemized” into strength, loving-kindness, surrender, victory, knowledge – all on the path to our royalty.

This seems to me the story of the Torah. What are your thoughts?

Thank you for being with me on this journey. As we say at the end of every book:

Be Strong! Be Strong! And may we be strengthened!

Get ready, because tomorrow? We start over – learning to navigate our LEGACY!

Here are my thoughts from two years ago:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 20 Tishri, 5783

Shabbat Shalom! It’s Shabbat Chol Hamoed!  Today’s portion is the last one in the Torah!  This journey of slavery to freedom; from bondage to liberation all comes to a conclusion today!!!

Spoiler alert.  It does not.

Let’s dig in!

We are here. Along the Jordan! Ready to enter the promise land. Moses has given us our final blessings!  Let’s gooooooooo!

The portion today starts with Moses going up to Mount Nebo.  The hero is going to his final resting place. Of course we need to see the conclusion of Moses’ life before we get into the Promised land!

Moses ascends the mountain. God meets him there. Hashem shows him the land of promise; and gives Moses visions of what was to happen there in the future.

The Kabbalah says something interesting here: “Your consciousness is your only real address. If you stand in London but your mind is in New York, then you are in New York. You are not in London at all.”

Where our mind and consciousness is; there we are.

Let’s get back to it:

God says to Moses:

“This is the land I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you should not cross over there.”

And then…

Moses, the servant of God, died there, in the land of Moab, by (a kiss from) the mouth of God.

Moses died by a kiss from God.  I just think about a death. And a kiss. A kiss is the ultimate physical intimacy between two humans. Dying in that kind of intimacy is really special and poetic. The last conscious thought of Moses’ human form is a kiss from the mouth of Hashem. Beautiful!

But this isn’t where the Torah ends. Obviously we need to reach the promised land. So the Torah has more to say. Which brings up a significant question.

Moses wrote the Torah. So. If he dies here,  how does the rest of the Torah get written?

Rabbi Schneerson has some great thoughts on this; and it’s relatively simple:

Is it possible that Moses died, and then wrote, “Moses – died there”? Rather, Moses wrote up to this point, and Joshua wrote from here on.

Rabbi Meir says: “Is it possible that the Torah Scroll which Moses gave to the Levites (Deuteronomy 31:26) would be lacking something? Rather, God said this section, and Moses wrote it with tears” (Rashi, 11′ century).

According to Rabbi Meir, what was the purpose in God’s commanding Moses to write about his own passing?

Moses did not write these words with tears of resignation, as it may at first seem, but amid a spirit of determination and optimism. He was using these last moments in a further, practical attempt to avert the looming decree of his death, by motivating the Jewish people to beseech God on his behalf. Moses knew that when the Jewish people would read of his death written down in black and white, it would provoke an uproar. The people were sure to respond: “We will not allow this to happen! We will pray, beg and demand from God that Moses lead us into the land of Israel” and the decree would subsequently be annulled.

But when something is written in the Torah surely it must happen? By writing “Moses…died there,” wasn’t he guaranteeing his own death?

The answer is that Moses hoped that the prayers of the Jewish people would transform the decree of his actual death to an allegorical equivalent. (End quote)

That’s interesting – Moses hoped that the Israelites would become spiritually alive by praying to undo the decree of death. What a great final gift to us. Any desire in the story to have Moses stay alive gets transformed into a desire for us to become free and liberated in spirit!!!!

Let’s keep going:

(God) buried him in the valley, in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor. No person knows the place of his burial, to this day.

The people then wept for Moses. For 30 days. So they waited to go into the promised land for 30 days!  That’s a major honor for Moses!  And now…

The Torah turns to Joshua- and he “was filled with the spirit of wisdom” and the children of Israel obeyed him, and they did as God had commanded Moses.

So. I’m getting a little concerned. We have one last passage to read. Surely, we are going into the promised land?  But one paragraph? The entire Torah has been a story of the descent into slavery and then the freedom from slavery. Liberation. We get ONE paragraph about going into the promised land? I’m really chewing on that.

And. Uh. Oh. In the twist ending of all twist endings…

The last paragraph has absolutely NOTHING to do with entering the promised land!!!!!

Let’s read the final paragraph of the Torah:

Deuteronomy 34:10-12

No other prophet ever arose in Israel like Moses, whom God knew face to face, as manifested by all the signs and wonders, which God had sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and all his servants, and to all his land, and all the strength (he needed to receive the Torah with his) hand, and all the (miracles that occurred in the) great, awe(some, wilderness), which Moses performed before the eyes of all Israel.

Stop. First of all; that is one long sentence.

Second. The Torah doesn’t mention the Jews entering the promised land?? 

Third. We start all over tomorrow? There isn’t a sequel? We just rerun the story over the next year again?

Yes. I know there are other books written. But none like the Torah. The book of Joshua DOES mention the Jews going into the Promised land. But. That’s not in the Torah. The Torah never brings us into the promised land.

I think about this. And it makes sense to me.

The truth of the matter is, as long as we are here, our journey to spiritual liberation isn’t going to be completed. It’s never finished. 

And- there should be comfort in that. Because if we can never finish, we can’t really get it wrong, can we?  If we “begin again” tomorrow in Genesis (with a delay until Simchat Torah on Monday night) this is a never ending cycle.

But it’s not a circle, is it? We aren’t spinning our wheels, are we?

No. It’s an upward spiral – that’s the design. Each year as we read the Torah, we are meant to glean more on the journey to bring us closer and closer to spiritual liberation. But; as long as we are anchored in these bodies, this journey will continue.  We will never be “done.” If we stop reading the Torah, our spiritual journey will likely circle back around – but possible further away from liberation. But even then, that isn’t “wrong” because we get another go at it tomorrow.

And there is significant beauty in this (in my opinion).  We can’t really get this “wrong” because it’s never over. That’s freedom. That’s liberation.

I think my biggest takeaway from reading the Torah this year has been self compassion. Loving myself. To stop beating myself up – because we are human. We make mistakes. And each year, Hashem gives us chances to ascend the mountain with Moses; look out over the land (which may be a chance for us to survey the promise of our future) and start again.

Tomorrow comes. And we know what we are going to read. A formless earth. The Genesis of life. God re-creating us. Tomorrow is the clean slate. Everything that has happened over the past year – it dies with Moses today. We transform from Moses to Joshua. Tomorrow we are back to Adam. Not even, because he isn’t even created yet. 

But the benefit of being Adam tomorrow? We have all of the knowledge and understand this past year reading and digging into the Torah together that doesn’t die. It comes with us. But anything like guilt, like shame, like fear; that is left behind.  That dies with Moses. Tomorrow, we get to start over. At least for a few days – until Monday night, we can just stay here and reflect on the journey.

I would encourage all of us – reflect on the past year. What is it you want to bring with you tomorrow (Monday night) on this new journey? What do you want to leave behind? We have a few days to chew and reflect. Consider the things you want to bring, and the things you want to leave. You have complete freedom here.

Maybe we are leaving behind survival strategies that kept us alive this year but we are discovering that they no longer serve us; they keep us trapped and enslaved?

Maybe we are taking with us new ideas and wisdom about our connection to Hashem and how we want to make sure we build on those in the upcoming year?

Whatever it is; our story isn’t over.

I’m reminded of one of my favorite shows, the modern version of Battlestar Gallatica – “all this has happened before. All this will happen again.”  The question is; what do we do with that?

Thank you all; for being a part of this year’s journey with me. My plan for tomorrow is going to focus on the final Haftorah – I’m going to do two parts – Sunday and Monday. This is the “Simchat Torah” Haftorah- and I want to use this window to dig into it. Then on Tuesday I plan on starting over. Getting into Bersehit (Genesis).  I’m not sure how the Torah thoughts are going to look each day.

And. If anyone would like to join me this year, and want to take a portion of the torah and give YOUR thoughts; I’d love to have other minds and souls here with me. Just let me know – you can DM me. Write something on a section of the Torah Parsha of the week, or something that strikes you, and I will Incorporate it.

One last thing. It’s not quite ready yet. But it will be soon.

I’m developing a new website tikkunolam47.com

Tikkun Olam means Repair the World. Here’s a resource for you:

https://www.chabad.org/…/jewish/What-Is-Tikkun-Olam.htm

The website will be a way for me to more engage in Torah. And to help those who want more help. Who want to dig deeper. Who want to focus on healing.

The big lesson for me this year has been; I can heal the world by healing myself. That’s where it starts. My soul and body has experienced a ton of healing this year. I’ve engaged in parts of my consciousness I’ve been running away from for 30+ years.

I’ll be offering classes and spiritual coaching over the next year for those who want more. It’s not fully ready to go; but it’s on its way.

If you know people who want more; you’ll be able to connect them.

Don’t worry. I’m still going to post my Torah thoughts here. They may be links to my website. But I’m still figuring that out.

Again- the purpose is healing the world by healing ourselves. 

I wish you the best on this Sabbath. The final Sabbath of the Torah cycle. Enjoy your day!