Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 27 Shevat, 5785

Good morning!  Today’s portion of the Torah continues building the tabernacle.  The development in the Torah begins with creating the spiritual components of the temple.  We walked through the Sefirot last year, connecting these spiritual/energy centers with the items being made. The core?

Wisdom. Understanding. Knowledge.

True Knowledge – not the facts you google – but true knowledge? Comes from the intersection of Wisdom and Understanding.  We have wisdom. We have understanding. How do we bring those together within us? Because unlike something we google, when we bring wisdom and understanding together? We can’t forget it.

Once we finish these energy centers, we begin to put the structure of the human body around it.

My friends, the Torah is clear. We are the tabernacle.

And I am wondering if the mistake is believing we are the temple.

Let me expound.

The tabernacle was designed for mobility. It was designed to be moved from place to place. It was not designed to be in one place for ever.

The temple? It was more permanent.  Though it wasn’t because it was destroyed. Twice.

I hear often – our body is a temple. No. Maybe it’s not.

Our body is a tabernacle.  Our soul? Wants to live in the temple.

And this may be the war within us.

And we don’t have language or words to express it – so we stuff it within us.

Because we are not designed in these bodies  to be in one place.

I wrote a year ago about the concept of entropy. And just how beautiful it is.

We applied these principles to the shadow of Entropy (the idea that order seeks chaos because it seeks change), which produces freshness in our spiritual journey – and then results in something INCREDIBLY beautiful.

We live in a world that seeks change CONSTANTLY. This is something we struggle with, because a part of who we are WANTS and DESIRES to be planted in the temple. Permanence.  Yet, we are wanderers. We are on a journey. And if we get too comfortable? Entropy dictates circumstances DESIGNED to get us to change.

How we navigate this? Is the process unfolding around us.

To know when to break camp and move our tabernacles – or when to stay and wait. We get into a struggle when our MINDS convince us it is time to move when we are UNCOMFORTABLE with staying put. Likewise, our minds convinces us it is time to stay because it is UNCOMFORTABLE with change.

In the end, our tabernacle is designed to both be planted, and stay put.

And? How do we know when?

Knowledge. Wisdom connected to understanding.

Tenderness and Harmony. Strength connected to lovingkindness.

Foundation. Surrender connected to victory.

When we are grounded within – knowledge, tenderness, harmony – we can know when to move, and when to stay.

What are your thoughts?

What is it your soul wants to EXPRESS? Don’t repress it – because that will taint our tabernacle and weigh us down. Keep us stuck.

Here are my thoughts from last year:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 4 Adar 1, 5784
Parsha Terumah: (Exodus 25:1 – 27:19)
Third Portion: Exodus 25:31 – 26:14

Good morning! It is a continued time of spiritual celebration as we expand our consciousness beyond what we thought was possible!

It was pure bliss to start a new journey yesterday as the class on Opening Doors to Sacred Love began. We had an amazing combination digging into some of the Sefirot – the idea of Wisdom, Kindness, and Victory.  We applied these principles to the shadow of Entropy (the idea that order seeks chaos because it seeks change), which produces freshness in our spiritual journey – and then results in something INCREDIBLY beautiful.

We will likely be repeating the class in April (around Passover), so be on the lookout for your opportunity to join us!

This all relates to our passage today, as we dig into the instructions for the Tabernacle – which can be symbolic of our hearts.

Let’s dig in:

31And you shall make a menorah of pure gold. The menorah shall be made of hammered work; its base and its stem, its goblets, its knobs, and its flowers shall [all] be [one piece] with it.

32And six branches coming out of its sides: three menorah branches from its one side and three menorah branches from its second side.

33Three decorated goblets on one branch, a knob and a flower, and three decorated goblets on one branch, a knob and a flower; so for the six branches that come out of the menorah.

34And on [the stem of] the menorah [shall be] four decorated goblets, its knobs and its flowers.

35And a knob under the two branches from it, and a knob under the two branches from it, and a knob under the two branches from it; so for the six branches that come out of the menorah.

36Their knobs and their branches shall [all] be [one piece] with it; all of it [shall be] one hammered mass of pure gold.

37And you shall make its lamps seven, and he shall kindle its lamps [so that they] shed light toward its face.

38And its tongs and its scoops [shall be] of pure gold.

39He shall make it of a talent of pure gold, with all these implements.

40Now see and make according to their pattern, which you are shown on the mountain.

So before we build the actual Tabernacle (the Mishkan), we have been given the instructions for the depth of our hearts.

Yesterday the show table with challah on it – likely represented the Three upper Sefirot (the Jewish Energy Centers – kind of like Chakras for those who understand). 

These “upper” Sefirot are;

• Chochmah (Wisdom)
• Bina (Understanding)
• Da’at (Knowledge)

In western society, Wisdom tends to be the “highest” level of internalization of a concept. But this is not the idea in Judaism.  Wisdom and Understanding work together in Harmony to produce “Knowledge.”  Knowledge is not like our current understanding.  When we say someone “knows” something – its more an external knowledge.  I can “know about” Kabbalah.  But I don’t “know” Kabballah.

Knowledge – true knowledge is the highest form of these three concepts.  This is why the bible says “Adam knew Chavah” (Eve was NOT her name in the Torah).

Knowledge is internal -which is why it is connected to sex.

So today, we look at the Menorah.  For many – we have a visual of the Menorah – from Hanukkah, but this Menorah is NOT the Menorah of our hearts.  The Menorah we are looking at today, is only 6 branches (and the Shamash) instead of 8.

Why is this important?

Because we have 7 more Sefirot to look at today.  Here they are:

• Outer Left side:
  • Chesed (kindness)
  • Netzah (victory)
• Outer Right side:
  • Gevurah (severity)
  • Hod (splendor/surrender)
• Center three:
  • Tiferet (beauty/harmony)
  • Yesod (connection/foundation)
  • Malkhut (humility/manifestation)

The ideas here are:

• The understanding of severity and wisdom of kindness come together in knowing harmony to produce beauty.
• The understanding of surrender and the wisdom of victory come together in knowing connection to produce a solid foundation

There are more, but this is a simple explanation of Kabbalah 101.

It’s beautiful. The work to freedom and liberation is squarely in our hearts.

What is our takeaway? How are we uncovering the depths of our soul?

This morning I read from Mark Nepo’s the Book of Awakening.  This is what he wrote:

What Is Not Expressed

“What is not ex-pressed is de-pressed.”

It seems the more we express, that is, bring out what is in, the more alive we are. The more we give voice to our pain in living, the less build-up we have between our soul and our way in the world. However, the more we depress, the more we push down and keep in, the smaller we become. The more we stuff between our heart and our daily experience, the more we have to work through to feel life directly. Our unexpressed life can become a callus we carry around and manicure, but never remove. Experience can in effect lose its essential tenderness and poignancy, as we mistakenly conclude that life is losing its meaning. To a man unaware of the cataracts filming his eyes, the world seems dimmer, not his seeing. How often do we find the world less stimulating, unaware that our heart is diminished because of its encasement in all that remains unexpressed?

Let me give a personal example. I have, for many reasons, including issues of my own making, forever felt invisible in family or group settings. Initially, this stemmed from fearfully pleasing a self-centered mother at all cost. It led to years of unexpressed hurts and rejections that accrued into a callus that guarded the heart within my heart. I am and have always been a very open and emotionally accessible person, but at a certain depth, my core could not be touched. Though this started with Mother, it affected the level at which I could relate with anyone.

Eventually, this was not enough. I realized the world was not losing color, but that I was screening the deepest emotional colors out. That I state this so calmly and clearly in one sentence hardly reflects the difficult and slow, elusive way this awareness pained itself into my daily consciousness. Rather, it emerged in me gradually as I began to acknowledge and voice the feelings of invisibility I have carried all my life.

Whatever your own example, it seems our authenticity is tied to what is depressed and what is ex-pressed. Just as flowers need healthy root systems in order to blossom, feelings can only express their beauty when they are rooted cleanly within us, breaking ground in some manner, sprouting outside us. It is that delicate paradoxical inch of ground between surface and deep, between flower and root, between what is allowed out and what is allowed in, that continually determines whether we are living our lives or not.

This is the inner work. The depths of our hearts. The Torah lays this all out for us.  And once we have these Sefirot, the three upper, and the 7 lower? Where do we go next?

1And the Mishkan you shall make out of ten curtains [consisting] of twisted fine linen, and blue, purple, and crimson wool. A cherubim design of the work of a master weaver you shall make them.

2The length of one curtain [shall be] twenty eight cubits, and the width of one curtain [shall be] four cubits; the same measure for all the curtains.

3Five of these curtains shall be joined to one another, and [the other] five curtains shall [also] be joined to one another.

4And you shall make loops of blue wool on the edge of one curtain [that is] at the edge of the [first] set, and so shall you do on the edge of the outermost curtain of the second set.

5You shall make fifty loops on [the edge of] one curtain, and you shall make fifty loops on the edge of the curtain in the second set; the loops shall correspond to one another.

6And you shall make fifty golden clasps, and you shall fasten the curtains to one another with the clasps; so shall the Mishkan become one.

7And [then] you shall make curtains of goat hair for a tent over the Mishkan; you shall make eleven curtains.

8The length of one curtain [shall be] thirty cubits, and the width of one curtain four cubits; the same measure for the eleven curtains.

9And you shall join the five curtains by themselves, and the [other] six curtains by themselves; and you shall fold the sixth curtain before the front of the tent.

10And you shall make fifty loops on the edge of one curtain, [which is] at the edge of the [first] set, and fifty loops on the edge of the [outermost] curtain of the second set.

11And you shall make fifty copper clasps; you shall bring the clasps into the loops, and you shall fasten the tent together so that it will become one.

12And the overhanging excess in the curtains of the tent half of the extra curtain shall hang over the rear of the Mishkan.

13And the cubit from here and the cubit from there of the excess in the length of the curtains of the tent shall hang over the sides of the Mishkan from here and from there to cover it.

14And you shall make a covering for the tent of ram skins dyed red and a covering of tachash skins above.

The Torah is building the human body around the heart. You see the curtains, the coverings – none of it is solid – like rock, granite, or stone. There is metal structure for sure. But the flow of the coverings is apparent. And that this portion ends with “skins” should be a good indicator of the symbolism and deep meaning of these passages; if we look deep enough.

What is our takeaway?

How will we uncover our hearts? How will we Ex-press our hearts instead of re-pressing them? Will we ex-press and speak our hearts desires and truths, living in fullness of the knowledge of who WE are? Or will we cover them up with stone, rock, and brick to live invisible lives?

This is the takeaway, in my opinion.  But I am curious to your thoughts!