Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for the 25th of Av.

Shabbat Shalom!

This is our final Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh Elul.  I wrote this a year ago:

The next month is a time if introspection. There are no Jewish holidays, which gives us time to reflect on our journey from slavery to freedom and liberation and begin to set intentions of what we want to navigate and work on in the spiritual year ahead. What are the areas we need to change? What do we want to do less of? More of? The next new moon after Elul will be Tishrei, which is the end of our journey and the beginning again! Like meditation, the Jewish calendar is all about “begin again”. Tishrei is the spiritual new year and FULL of Holy Days!

As the Jewish calendar goes, we are transitioning to the final month of the spiritual year.  The new moon (Elul) starts at sundown on Thursday evening this year.  So we have a little less than a week to set our intention for this final month to discover our path forward.  To reflect on where we’ve been, and where we want to go.  What do we want to create?

Let’s dig into the final portion of Re’eh – which means “see”

Today’s portion has two parts.  One is the sacrifice of the first-born animals, and the second is a review of the Holy Days.  Once again, I want to share what I wrote a year ago as I feel it is apropos for us to chew on:

First part:

He (Moses) starts with the sanctity of the first-born animals. He reminds us the first-born animal is sacred to Hashem. The first born belongs to the priest. It is holy.

I reflect on this – and think about the first “born” of our spiritual awakenings. When we have a new “aha” moment and we see fruit borne of that; we need to remember just how holy that is!!

We also need to let it go; we don’t hold on to the first born animal; we give it away. I think this teaches us to not get too tied to material objects. They are important (we do get second, third, fourth born animals) – but giving away our first-born animals (or fruit) is a way to remind our brains- we didn’t do anything here to cling to.

I’ve been learning about this concept of “clinging.” We cling on to results, we cling on to people.

We seek reassurances- and cling to whether we get them or not. The reality is; if we are not self-assured, the clinging can be draining to others and ourselves. We need to stand on our own two feet. Trust the universe to provide what we need. Do the work we are entrusted to do, and let the results be what they will be. This is true liberation!!!

As we enter the month of Elul, we must ask ourselves the question – “what are we clinging onto that Hashem wants us to let go of?” What is holding us back? What is keeping us stuck?  If we are going to journey from freedom to liberation spiritually, this is crucial.  What is the anchor around our neck that has served us well and kept us safe to this point that might be holding us back?  Because Moses is about to go through the full spiritual cycle; starting with Passover.

Passover

Moses talks to us about Passover.  A year ago I discussed Passover is a holy day we are called to remember the exodus. And one of the things we don’t spend a lot of time is discussion HOW we ended up in Egypt to begin with.   How did we end up in SLAVERY? Can we learn from this?

And – just because we are freed from slavery, doesn’t mean the journey is over, right?  Freedom from slavery is JUST the beginning.  Because NEXT Moses talks about…

The Omer

From what I wrote a year ago:

Moses then reminds us about counting the Omer.

You may remember the symbolism of the Omer

• • Week 1 of the Omer represents Hesed (love/loving kindness)
  • Week 2 represents Gevurah (discipline/strength)
  • Week 3 represents Tiferet (compassion/harmony)
  • Week 4 represents Netzah (determination/victory)
  • Week 5 represents Hod (humility/surrender)
  • Week 6 represents Yesod (bonding/foundation)
  • Week 7 represents Malkhut (dignity/manifestation)

Once freed from slavery this is the journey/these are the lessons that leads us to Shavuot; the feast of Weeks. This is where we were given the Torah. It was the beginning of our journey to liberation in a lot of ways. We had lessons to learn after being freed from slavery; and THEN we were given the blueprint to liberation!

You see?  Once we are freed from what has us stuck? We have our own internal work to do.  How does Love, discipline, compassion, determination, humility, bonding and dignity play together WITHIN us?  What we DO with our freedom from slavery matters on this spiritual journey.  Do we spend time DISTRACTING, NUMBING, AVOIDING, and just getting BUSY with life so we don’t have to think or reflect on these concepts? This is the spiritual work.

And this leads us to….

Shavuot

It is interesting we are called to work through our freedom on our own to a degree. Yes, Hashem is leading us – Moses is leading us – but we have work to do within.  And then we start to realize, what we are missing is direction.  We have been freed. We are working to love freely. To be free.  And yet, we are then given the TORAH on Mt. Sinai during Shavuot.

The Torah is the blueprint and directions to spiritual liberation.  We connect with Hashem (the universe, the one soul, whatever framework you’d like) and the Torah provides us ways an opportunities to do just this!

And then we close with….

Sukkot

We finish the holy day cycle with Sukkot – the harvest.  Where most of our friends start drinking pumpkin spice lattes and heading in the house. But as Jews? We head OUTSIDE into our booths.  We end the cycle understanding the temporary nature of life. Of the cycle. It begins again each and every year!

And what is missing from this last lecture from Moses? There is a SIGNFICANT piece of the puzzle we don’t see.  And I am curious as to why.  Moses misses the following:

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur

You see RIGHT BEFORE Sukkot, we celebrate the Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  And these are missing from the portion.  And I think that may be purposeful.

Rosh Hashanah are all internal holy days – where we reflect within ourselves. Yes we are with a community – but Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the spiritual journey.  It’s about repentance.  Looking back and cleaning up the past cycle.

Yom Kippur is about the book of good life being open for the next year (5784) and deciding who will be sovereign over our lives.  Will we give our sovereignty away? Or will we allow Hashem and the Neshama to rise up within us to lead out of love.  To “knit together” the seven dimensions of the Omer and help us draw one year and one step closer to being in Hashem’s presence.

This is a lot to process in our “year in review” – I am curious – what are your thoughts?

My full commentary from a year ago:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 30 Av, 5783

Shabbat Shalom friends!

Today is a special Shabbat because it is the Shabbat before the Rosh Chodesh (new month). Tonight is the new moon and we transition from Av, into the month of Elul.

The next month is a time if introspection. There are no Jewish holidays, which gives us time to reflect on our journey from slavery to freedom and liberation and begin to set intentions of what we want to navigate and work on in the spiritual year ahead. What are the areas we need to change? What do we want to do less of? More of? The next new moon after Elul will be Tishrei, which is the end of our journey and the beginning again! Like meditation, the Jewish calendar is all about “begin again”. Tishrei is the spiritual new year and FULL of Holy Days!

So, we’ve learned to see in the darkness during the months of Tamuz and Av, we have come to understand our journey and we are about to enter the promised land.

This next month is about taking stock. It’s sitting by the Jordan River and remembering this past year and the lessons we’ve learned. It’s taking them with us, and also, envisioning what we want our new liberated life to look like- which, by the way? Is harder than we realize.

Envisioning our liberated life requires creativity and imagination; which the world around us has shut down. It’s time to truly unlock our minds and live our liberated lives!

Ok – let’s dig in!!!

Moses is continuing his last lecture. And he’s going to hit us with quite a bit of topics here. He’s going to also review the Holy Days; from start to finish. From slavery (Passover) to Liberation (Sukkot).

He starts with the sanctity of the first-born animals. He reminds us the first-born animal is sacred to Hashem. The first born belongs to the priest. It is holy.

I reflect on this – and think about the first “born” of our spiritual awakenings. When we have a new “aha” moment and we see fruit borne of that; we need to remember just how holy that is!!

We also need to let it go; we don’t hold on to the first born animal; we give it away. I think this teaches us to not get too tied to material objects. They are important (we do get second, third, fourth born animals) – but giving away our first-born animals (or fruit) is a way to remind our brains- we didn’t do anything here to cling to.

I’ve been learning about this concept of “clinging.” We cling on to results, we cling on to people.

We seek reassurances- and cling to whether we get them or not. The reality is; if we are not self-assured, the clinging can be draining to others and ourselves. We need to stand on our own two feet. Trust the universe to provide what we need. Do the work we are entrusted to do, and let the results be what they will be. This is true liberation!!!

Ok. Let’s keep going. Moses now starts talking about the Holy days.

And he (of course) starts with Passover.

Passover is the holiday we celebrate in order to remember – first, how we ended up in Slavery (which we don’t often talk about) and then how we are FREED from Slavery! But again, as we’ve learned together this past year studying Torah, being freed from slavery is NOT the same thing as true liberation. There is an entire process we must go through – being freed is NOT liberation. That is what Passover is all about.

Moses then reminds us about counting the Omer.

You may remember the symbolism of the

• Week 1 of the Omer represents Hesed (love/loving kindness)
• Week 2 represents Gevurah (discipline/strength)
• Week 3 represents Tiferet (compassion/harmony)
• Week 4 represents Netzah (determination/victory)
• Week 5 represents Hod (humility/surrender)
• Week 6 represents Yesod (bonding/foundation)
• Week 7 represents Malkhut (dignity/manifestation)

Once freed from slavery this is the journey/these are the lessons that leads us to Shavuot; the feast of Weeks. This is where we were given the Torah. It was the beginning of our journey to liberation in a lot of ways. We had lessons to learn after being freed from slavery; and THEN we were given the blueprint to liberation!

Moses then reminds us of Sukkot – the feast of Tabernacles. This represents the bounty of the journey. The liberation! We are free to live in transition. Sukkot is all about dwelling in temporary structures!

The close of the Parsha is to remind us (in my Opinion) that this is all a journey. These holy days (Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot) we are told to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. I believe this is because studying the Torah is the blueprint for this pilgrimage!

Those are my thoughts. What are yours??

As always, Haftorah thoughts will come later today in the comments below!

Haftorah thoughts for Shabbat!

Today we read Isaiah 54:11- 55:5. Because it is a Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh we add 1 Samuel 20:18, 42

This is the third of a series of “Haftorot of Comfort” as we approach Rosh Hashanah. This means we have four weeks; one moon cycle until we come into our spiritual new year, and we start our journey over again; hopefully raised from where we were a year ago! My hope is our journey together has been a good one. We aren’t done yet, but it’s great to reflect!

The context of the Haftorah is that it was addressed by Isaiah after the exile at the end of the 6th century.

It is a portion of hope for us on our journey. Isaiah starts with an acknowledgment.

“O Jerusalem! You afflicted, storm-tossed one, who has not been comforted!”

I just want to sit with that a minute. God acknowledges we’ve had a rough go at it. Isaiah validated us. It’s been hard. We’ve been afflicted. We’ve been tossed by the storms. Let’s just soak that in for a minute. We are seen.

Just pause and reflect on this. God sees us as we are. We aren’t always going to be happy and joyful. We are going to struggle. And he sees it. This should give us comfort.

And we are told in this place of being seen:

“I will lay your floor stones upon antimony instead of sand, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your windowpanes from Emeralds, your gates from carbuncle stones, and the floor stones of all your borders will become desirable gems.”

I happened to have an emerald in my pocket so I just took a picture of it – it’s interesting connection to our passage today!

Let’s keep going.

“All your children will be extremely wise, as if they were disciples of God, and your children will have much peace.”

With six children, this is a significant promise!

“Through your righteousness you will be fit for all this. You will distance yourself from crooks who have no fear of Me at all, and from terror, for it will not come near you. Indeed, people will fear (“be in awe” is a better translation instead of fear in my opinion) no one but Me.

“Whoever attacks you will fall into your power.”

Wow. This is a powerful message in our affliction and storm tossing.

Then we are called to take action:

“Come! All who are thirsty for God’s word, go to the prophet and drink his ‘water’! Even those who have no money, go and ‘eat.’ Come and take wine and milk without paying, without charge – because the prophet’s wisdom is FREE!

Learn Torah and you will eat well and satisfy your souls with rich foods!

All we need to do in our weariness is to just listen. He still. Be quiet. And listen.

The Haftorah closes with this:

My promises to you will be fulfilled. Indeed, nations that you do not know will call upon you to serve you, and nations which never knew you will run to you to follow your orders. But they will not do this due to your own power, but for the sake of the God, your God, the Holy One of Israel, who dwells among you and who has glorified you”

This is an amazing promise. All we are asked to do is listen and learn.

The final passage comes from 1 Samuel 20:18,42

Samuel says “tomorrow is the first of the new month. You shall be missed because your seat will be empty.

Jonathan said to David, “go in peace, as both of us have sworn in the name of God, saying, ‘God be a witness between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants forever.”

This is a fascinating passage.

As we consider the new moon and the new month ahead, what relationships do we need to let go of? What do we need to be introspective of as we come to the end of our cycle of the journey from slavery to Freedom? Jonathan and David sound at peace with letting go of their relationship. Are there people in our lives where we need to release and let go of on a physical level, but whose souls we can still connect with? That seems difficult to do; but it also seems like there may be seasons where relationships need to be released; and we can remain connected in our souls. What are your thoughts?