Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 28 Iyar, 5783. 42nd Day of the Omer:

Today is the last day of the Sixth week of the Omer.  Today’s theme is Malchut of Yesod – or “Dignity/Sovereignty of Bonding.”

From Chabad:

Bonding must enhance a person’s sovereignty. It should nurture and strengthen your own dignity and the dignity of the one you bond with. Does my bonding inhibit the expression of my personality and qualities? Does it overwhelm the one I bond with?

Exercise for the day: Emphasize and highlight the strengths of the one you bond with.

I reflect on this deeply.  When we form relationships, how much do we take away someone’s sovereignty? Their dignity?  Are we even mindful of this?

We see this when we see someone not living up to their potential, don’t we?  We get frustrated. We want to convince them they can do more. This is not a healthy attachment or bonding.  Yesterday, I had shared this quote; “We can only care about others to the point at which they care about themselves.”

When we try to care (outwardly) about someone beyond the point they care about themselves, we remove their dignity and sovereignty, don’t we?  They can sense our disappointment with them (most likely).  But we don’t TRY to communicate disappointment.  We just want more.

When we try to care for someone beyond their own level of care about themselves?  Whatever we are trying to give? It will not be received.  This is the “meet them where they are at” concept.

And. Let’s turn this around.  Others can only care for US to the level at which we care about ourselves, right? This is the sovereignty and dignity of bonding.

As I have been sharing (and discovering) in real time with you; this all starts with the bond we have within.  Caring for ourselves is where things around love begin.  How we do this when OUR dignity, OUR sovereignty, OUR abandonment, OUR shame, OUR Rejection are ever present within us?

This comes back to courteous goodwill. And. High Safety.  This morning as I was reading “The Book of Awakening” by Mark Nepo, he was writing about friendship.  The word “friendship” in german has it’s roots in this concept of “high safety.”

If we do not possess courteous good will and high safety for ourselves? How can we be that for someone else?

And today’s Torah portion? I believe it is DIRECTLY speaking to this.  I wrote a year ago about the sons of Levi – Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.  And I wrote how they represent body/physical (Gershon), sacred/spiritual (Kohath), and Emotional (Merari).

How bonded are we to our physical bodies? Are we treating our bodies with “Courteous Goodwill?”  Are we providing “High Safety” for our physical bodies?  Some of us don’t feel safe in our own bodies.  That may be a good place to start.

Others? How are we treating our spiritual lives/bodies?  Do we have courteous goodwill in our spirituality?  Or are we ashamed of what we believe beyond ourselves?  Do we provide our selves “high safety” to explore our spiritual beliefs and things we hold as sacred?  This may ALSO be a good place to start.

Finally? There are those of us struggling with our mental/emotional health.  Do we provide courteous goodwill for certain feelings we have?  Or are we ashamed that we feel sad? angry? Do we feel like we are an emotional burden to ourselves and others? Do we provide ourselves “high safety” to explore our emotions? The FULL range of emotions? The CONFLICTING emotions? (What? I feel happy, sad, and angry all at once? How can this be?)

These are my thoughts today.  What about you?

Here are the thoughts I wrote a year ago:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 3 Sivan, 5782 (June 2, 2022)

Today is the 47th day of the Omer.

Wow! We are close to Shavuot and the giving of the Torah!

Todays portion opens up with a head count of the tribe of Levi. The counting though for the tribe of Levi was different.

With the other tribes it was of those who were 20 years of age or older.

With the tribe of Levi, it was one month and upward.

I’m chewing on that difference.

I think it is connected to our spiritual function. Physically (the other tribes) live out our purpose starting at 20 years old (give or take) but spiritually our development starts from birth.

That’s my thought; and it could be wrong – I’d love yours!

Ok. So the Torah counts. Levi had three sons: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

Gershon had 7,500 males over one month old.

Gershon camped behind the tabernacle to the west. Their purpose and function was to care for the tapestries of the tabernacle, the cover and curtain of the tabernacle the curtain around the tabernacle and the ropes of the tabernacle.

Kohath had 8,600 males over a month old. They camped on the south side of the tabernacle. Their purpose was being the guardians. They guarded the sacred vessels. Their duties were to care for the ark, the table, the candleabrum, the altars, the sacred utensils, the partition and all associated tasks.

Merari had 6,200 males over a month old. They camped on the north side of the tabernacle. They cared for the beams, it’s bars, it’s pillars, and it’s sockets.

Now. Let me stop here because I have a thought. It seems as if the duties of Gershon were about the physical. They took care of the coverings. The duties of Kohath were spiritual. They took care of the sacred. The duties of Merari were emotional; they took care of the internal support structure.

And this is fascinating to me. Our lives (tabernacles) require priests to care for our physical, spiritual and emotional structures. How are we doing with that? Do you have friends in your lives to support those structures? People who’s support for you focuses on those areas? And they are camped around us – helping us.

And I wonder- are the numbers here corresponding to the importance of where our focus should be? Spiritual first? Physical second? Emotional third? I don’t know. But if we break down the percentages – 34% of the Levites were Gershon, 39% were Kohath, and 28% were Merari.

What are your thoughts?

But the portion closes with the answer to the question; what about the entrance? In front of the tabernacle?

We have Moses, Aaron and his sons (two of them, because two died).

So what guards the entrance of our bodies? What are the entrances? Our eyes, ears, mouth, nose? We have our skin too. But that may be part of the physical coverings. I don’t know. But four men stood in front to make sure nothing unauthorized gets in. That’s fascinating to me.

What are your thoughts?