Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 24 Elul, 5784
Parsha Nitzavim/Va-Yelekh– “Standing Firmly/He Went”: (Deuteronomy 29:9 – 30:20/ Deuteronomy 31:1 – 31:30)
Sixth Portion: Deuteronomy 31:14 – 31:19

Good morning!  Today is our final Friday of 5784. We are working our way to the new moon and Rosh Hashanah next week. We are in a transition time -Moses is turning power over to Joshua. Moses has concluded his time with the people. His last act was writing and giving the Torah to the community. Let’s dig in:

14And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, your days are approaching [for you] to die. Call Joshua and stand in the Tent of Meeting, and I will inspire him. So Moses and Joshua went, and stood in the Tent of Meeting.

Hashem recognizes Joshua needed inspiration in this transition.

My takeaway? As we transition into 5785 – what inspiration do we need from Hashem? Can we be bold as ask him for that inspiration? Something for us to assist us as we turn the page from one chapter of our life into another? What could we ask for?

Nothing. Joshua did not ASK for inspiration. Hashem knew he needed it. And here was the inspiration:

15And the Lord appeared in the Tent, in a pillar of cloud. The pillar of cloud stood at the entrance to the Tent.

16And the Lord said to Moses: Behold, you are [about to] lie with your forefathers, and this nation will rise up and stray after the deities of the nations of the land, into which they are coming. And they will forsake Me and violate My covenant which I made with them.

Um. Hashem? That…doesn’t feel….inspiring.

Basically Moses – your work? Not going to pay off. You failed, Moses.

Moses. The greatest Jewish leader we know. Failed. His legacy? What Hashem is telling him?  “Look – you did your best Moses. You got them here. And? The people are going to mess up.

I am not sure the Torah’s definition of “inspiration” is the same as mine.

Ok. Let’s keep going.

17And My fury will rage against them on that day, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, and they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will befall them, and they will say on that day, ‘Is it not because our God is no longer in my midst, that these evils have befallen me?’

18And I will hide My face on that day, because of all the evil they have committed, when they turned to other deities.

Um. Yeah. Not. Good. Hashem is going to be angry.

Abandonment wound?

And? It is for a purpose.

The people WILL connect that because they turned away from Hashem, their life will struggle.

Let’s remember. Hashem is love. If we turn away from love? We will struggle. We will experience troubles.

This is not to say there won’t be the “appearance” of struggles around us – it’s just a matter of how we navigate it. I quoted this a year ago:

From Sadhguru – who is a Hindu priest:

“You don’t need to DO anything.  Within yourself, you must come to a total sense of ACCEPTANCE of everything.”

“So, somebody said something, somebody did something, somebody stepped on your foot, somebody stepped on your head. 24 hours. A small prescription.  Only for 24 hours. Come to an absolute acceptance of everything.  Your mental things, your emotional things, your bodily things, every damn thing.  And the social things – just simply accepting it as it is. You don’t have to do anything with anybody, just within yourself.”

“If you just do this, life will happen on a larger scale.”

That is someone who is talking about “troubles” happening around them – but not TO them.

This is the shift. Let’s keep going:

19And now, write for yourselves this song, and teach it to the Children of Israel. Place it into their mouths, in order that this song will be for Me as a witness for the children of Israel.

Yes. I know! A SONG will inspire them.

(Sarcasm tone intended).

Why a song?

Never Eat Soggy Waffles.

Huh?

Never Eat Soggy Waffles.

North. East. South. West.

This is how my kids learned directions. There is a song.

Songs help rewire our brains. Help us remember. We may not be able to remember the entire portion of the Torah today. But you know what I remember from my childhood?

“we the people, in order to form a more perfect union….establish justice and insure domestic tranquility.”

That’s right. School House Rock.

Music. Songs. Help us remember.

And, that is what Hashem is about to do for us. Teach us a song to remember.

And there is a beauty to that, isn’t there?

What are your thoughts?

Here are my thoughts from the past two years:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 22 Elul, 5783

Good morning!  Today’s portion is about the transition of power. As we enter into 5784, what power will drive and guide us?  Moses served the Israelites, but now it’s Joshua’s turn.

When we look at names, Moses means “to pull out/draw out.”  All year long, we have been working through the Torah and pulling out of us the things that aren’t us.  Leaving behind MORE of who we are than we were a year ago.  We didn’t “add” to our lives this year – we let go, we were freed.

It is time to let the pulling and drawing out die.  As we transition and let go of this survival – which (according to my amazing therapist) is the ultimate form of loving our selves (because if we didn’t love ourselves, we wouldn’t fight for our survival) – and move TOWARDS a new purpose and leadership.  Joshua.

What does Joshua’s name mean?  “God is deliverance.”  Yeho – shua. God – to deliver or save.

What dies? Our effort to survive.  Spiritual liberation means allowing the universe to unfold. To just accept.

I was watching a tik tok (that’s what the kids are watching these days) from Sadhguru – who is a Hindu priest.  He said

“You don’t need to DO anything.  Within yourself, you must come to a total sense of ACCEPTANCE of everything.”

“So, somebody said something, somebody did something, somebody stepped on your foot, somebody stepped on your head. 24 hours. A small prescription.  Only for 24 hours. Come to an absolute acceptance of everything.  Your mental things, your emotional things, your bodily things, every damn thing.  And the social things – just simply accepting it as it is. You don’t have to do anything with anybody, just within yourself.”

“If you just do this, life will happen on a larger scale.”

This is the transition. This is Joshua. Moving from the work of pulling out – drawing out.  And into just total acceptance.  This is the new leadership within as we enter 5784.

Don’t worry.  We will be back here again.  And once again, we will need to ask ourselves – can we totally accept what is happening for us, around us? Or will we resist and fight it?

What are your thoughts?

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 3 Tishri, 5783

Continued from yesterday:

Next, Moses calls Joshua to him. In front of all of Israel. Moses tells Joshua the exact same thing he told the people. God has Joshua and will take care of him.

Next, we read that Moses THEN writes the entire Torah. He recounts all five books and hands them to the priests. This is interesting because God gave the Torah to Israel (through Moses) on Shavuot (which we learned about this summer). But the entire Torah was written down here. Right before we enter the promised land.

Todays portion closes with this:

Moses commanded them, telling them at the end of seven years – in the year following the sabbatical year (which by the way; 5782 was a sabbatical year- so we probably should pay attention to what Moses is telling us). So over the next year…

Moses tells them;

At the end of seven years (in the year following) the sabbatical year, during the holiday on the Festival of Tabernacles (Sukkot) when all Israel comes to appear before God, your God, in the place that He will choose:

(The king) should read this Torah before all of Israel, in their ears.

Assemble the people-the men, the women, and the minors, and the convert in your cities-in order that they will hear, and in order that they will learn and fear God, your God, and be careful to observe all the words of this Torah. Their children, who do not understand, will hear and learn to fear God, your God, all the days that you live on the land, of which you are crossing the Jordan to take possession.

So; on Sukkot (which starts sundown on October 9th) we are called to read the Torah. To pay special attention. We should get spiritually ready for this. This is the end of the Torah cycle – the last day of Sukkot runs into Simchat Torah- when we roll back the scroll and start over back in Genesis; beginning again!

To close, the Chumash I am reading from has this spiritual vitamin:

The common denominator that binds all Jews together, and serves as the basis for Jewish survival, cannot be considered in terms of territory, language or other cultural and social factors, since all these have changed over the course of history. The only things that have not changed in Jewish life are Sabbath observance, kosher food, tefillin, and all the other commandments of the Torah, both the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. The more your daily life and conduct adheres to this pattern of Jewish living, the more you are attached to the Jewish people.”

The question becomes – just how attached do we want to be to the Jewish people?

What are your thoughts?