Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 24 Tamuz, 5783

Today’s Torah portion is really interesting.  It juxtaposes entering the promised land – a land of freedom and liberation – and the idea of boundaries and driving out those who would not respect those boundaries.

A lot of this from a literal perspective seems harsh.  Hashem is basically telling Moses we will be colonizing the promised land.  Many have used these passages to justify the colonization of groups of people from a place of injustice (cough cough looking at you America).

But I am reflecting more on the internal colonization that needs to happen within each of us.  If we want to live freely – we cannot create chaos.  We need to have boundaries and borders within that we will not cross.  We need to trust ourselves despite what others externally to us may see.

It is difficult to not take personally when someone reacts negatively to a value within us that creates an emotional reaction in them.  It’s like their joy and happiness is based on us capitulating our values, and aligning ourselves with theirs.

This is not to say we can’t understand and have compassion when we are on an adventure (in terms of a relationship, friendship, etc) where we go too far out of our comfort zone – and have to communicate the need to pull back.  We should be in friendships that provide safety for that to happen – without feeling like we will be judged.  We need to own our feelings – create space for those feelings, and then decide how to proceed.

Who we align our energy with is our choice.  this gets back to sovereignty.

There are places within each of us that remain unexplored. As we dig into this – and we become more self aware – the risk of realizing we are beyond our comfort zone is great.  The risk of needing to let go of relationships and friendships that once we aligned that are no longer aligned? Significant.

But all of that creates NEW space for NEW relationships to enter into our lives – that are meaningful. Built on trust and are significant.

I have shared this before – but I want to share it again.  It is adapted from the book “Your Awesome Self” by Shterna Ginsberg:

Commentary from a year ago:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 1 Av, 5782

Today we start with the fifth reading. We just finished recounting all of the journeys the Israelites navigated from slavery and Passover to getting ready to enter the promised land.

God meets with Moses on the plains of Moab near Jericho. He tells Moses to talk to the Children of Israel; “When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, the waters of the Jordan will split for you. But this is on condition that you drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy their temples, the molten idols, and demolish their high places.”.

God continues telling Moses how to divide the land: by lottery. Larger inheritances go to larger families.

He then tells Moses what the consequences will be if they do not drive out the people from the land. He tells Moses they will harass the Israelites in the land they settle, and God will do to the Israelites what he intended to do to the people they were supposed to drive out.

God then gives Moses clear borders for the promised land. They are free, but there are still boundaries.

I’m really reflecting on this concept. Because In one sense freedom feels like there should be NO boundaries. But even in the promised land, there were boundaries.

That’s something I’m really chewing on.

Moses then relays this information to the Israelites to prepare them to enter the land.