9 Tevet, 5785 - Tikkun Olam 47

on January 9, 2025

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 9 Tevet, 5785

Good morning! We are coming to the end of Genesis. Two more portions, and we will finish on Shabbat (Saturday). Then, on Sunday, we will begin Exodus.

If you are feeling a lot of chaos around you and within you? You are not alone. There is a lot of chaos energy and it will get stronger as we approach the full moon on Monday night. The full chaos around us will culminate.

Our role is to reflect within us and see where we may be repairing our own hearts. Our relationships. Our peace.

A year ago when reading this portion I offered four blessings that seem apropos. I have shifted them a bit with what we have learned over the past year.

Ask yourself? Where is your heart? Is it at peace? Is it agitated? Is it active or passive?

Based on your answers (and it will likely fall in a continuum) – here is my revised blessings:

Do you have a Passive, Agitated Heart?

Then my blessing is moving in the direction of EITHER an active agitated heart or a passive peaceful heart. Focus on one dimension. Give voice to your agitation – find strength and power and move away from fear of expressing it.

Or? Find depth within you to remain passive and find the peace within. As I have shared from my therapist we really have four choices:

Continue to suffer
Control our controllables
Change how we think about the situation
Radical acceptance

Any one of those choices could help you find your peace.

Do you have an Active, Agitated Heart?

Then my blessing would be to encourage you to CHOOSE to either move in the direction of having an Active, Peaceful heart or a passive agitated heart.

To either find the will and space to create space for your agitation to settle so that you can respond instead of react. To be in a moment and soothe yourself to find the truth of safety within each moment. To see your feelings of agitation as safe, and not be compelled to act on them without creating space to just feel the agitation.

Or to dig deeper within and remain active – learning to love yourself in the process.

Do you have a Passive, Peaceful Heart?

Over the next year, may you rest in your passive heart and reflect whether the passive heart is because you don’t want to create external conflict to be the peace that causes agitation in others? Or to remain passive because it’s not your fight. I encourage you to lean into discernment!

Do you have an Active, Peaceful Heart?

Over the next year, may you learn more discernment about the right time to take action and the right time to remain in your peace.

Here are my thoughts from last year:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 16 Tevet, 5784
Parsha Va-Yehi (Genesis 47:28 – 50:26)
Fifth Portion: Genesis 49:19 – 49:26

Good morning! So – interesting. I made a “mistake” yesterday in my Torah thoughts. I use the word “mistake” in air quotes because there are no real mistakes. It happened exactly as it should have. But I closed the thoughts with the FIRST line of today’s portion, instead of stopping at the last line of yesterdays.

What is even MORE interesting about this line and my thoughts on it yesterday? You can see my brain made a bigger “mistake” and replaced the word “will” with the word “with.” Here is what I wrote yesterday (mistakes bolded and italicized):

Ok. And interestingly – we close with Gad:

19[As for] Gad, a troop will troop forth from him, and it will troop back in its tracks.

Um. A troop with troop forth? It will troop back? Troop? Three times in this closing verse. The eighth son of Jacob. What is UP here? Why does the portion end HERE? Troop?

Soldiers. A soldier with soldier forth from Gad. It will Soldier back in its tracks.

What is a soldier? A person who serves in an army.

This portion seems to be sending the message – look – follow the first seven sons? You will serve Hashem. Your service will activate forth from you. AND? It will come back. This is the cycle. It’s almost an infinity sign. This is the birth. This is the beginning. Serve from a place of peace. From wisdom. From cunning – and whatever you serve with? It will come BACK to you:

Serve with an agitated, active heart? You will serve me and it will return back to you with active agitation.
Serve me with an agitated, passive heart? You will serve me by waiting, and wisdom will come when it needs to and you will take action – and that action will return to you.
Serve me with a peaceful, passive heart? You will serve me and exhaust yourself where you are, and you will never move. You will be stuck. You won’t go out. And it won’t come back. You can’t keep the peace between boundaries.
Serve me with a peaceful, active heart? You will serve me with wisdom and cunning. And you will bring justice. And justice will return.

Now, going back a smidge to yesterday’s portion, it would seem the NATURAL break on this spiritual journey was the blessing of Dan. The line

18For Your salvation, I hope, O Lord!

Should have closed us. We were blessed with seven brothers yesterday. I “mistakenly” added an eighth, didn’t I? 8 is the number of supernatural – beyond nature. I have shared THIS article before. It’s fascinating.

Ok. Let’s get back to nature. Today’s portion starts with Blessing Gad:

19[As for] Gad, a troop will troop forth from him, and it will troop back in its tracks.

Gad is going to troop. As a reminder, this was the takeaway – and I am going to repeat myself here.

Serve with an agitated, active heart? You will serve me and it will return back to you with active agitation.
Serve me with an agitated, passive heart? You will serve me by waiting, and wisdom will come when it needs to and you will take action – and that action will return to you.
Serve me with a peaceful, passive heart? You will serve me and exhaust yourself where you are, and you will never move. You will be stuck. You won’t go out. And it won’t come back. You can’t keep the peace between boundaries.
Serve me with a peaceful, active heart? You will serve me with wisdom and cunning. And you will bring justice. And justice will return.

I think this idea of serving with a peaceful, active heart? It will lead us to these blessings:

20From Asher will come rich food, and he will yield regal delicacies.

21Naphtali is a swift gazelle; [he is one] who utters beautiful words.

Asher produces nourishment. Delicacies. Food. This is likely fuel for our bodies. Pleasurable food. And (in my opinion) fuel for our soul. We are to “chew” on the Torah. Often we are called to “taste and see” which Rabbi Meir calls out often – is a contradiction.

Now I wonder. Does our heart impact how we digest the Torah? If we chew on the Torah with a peaceful active heart, do we yield rich food and delicacies? Do words come to us fast – like a gazelle – beautiful for others? These are the things I am curious about.

And I am curious to know what YOU think!

Ok. Let’s keep going. We have one blessing to go:

22A charming son is Joseph, a son charming to the eye; [of the] women, [each one] strode along to see him.

We come to Joseph. Day 1 of blessings? 7 sons. Today? 4. And what does the Torah start by telling us? Joseph is the DUDE. He is charming. To the eye. Of the women. He was a DUDES DUDE. And?

23They heaped bitterness upon him and became quarrelsome; yea, archers despised him.

People were JEALOUS! They argued with him. Archers despised him. I’m curious about that. Why archers?

When I think of quarrels and archers – I think of someone who refuses to get close – refuses to get curious. And just flings arrows to protect their fortress. Many quarrels happen because people refuse curiosity and just sling arrows.

A takeaway for us – maybe – who in our lives are flinging arrows at us? Who in our lives is challenging our peaceful, active heart?

Because a peaceful, active heart? May not be as easy to maintain as we want it to be.

Let’s keep going:

24But his bow was strongly established, and his arms were gilded from the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob; from there he sustained the rock of Israel,

25from the God of your father, and He will help you, and with the Almighty, and He will bless you [with] the blessings of the heavens above, the blessings of the deep, lying below, the blessings of father and mother.

So, we started this portion with Gad trooping and will troop his troop and will troop back. We seem to be closing with Joseph being blessed with blessings – from above, from below, from the masculine, from the feminine. Bless blessings. Troop troops. These are the bookends of today’s portion.

My takeaway here is navigating conflict. The first 7 sons establish a foundation. Where are we in a moment.

Today’s portion tells us – regardless of where we land – EVEN IF we choose a peaceful, active heart? The conflict and quarrels will come. Why?

Because our active peace agitates others.

Just sit with that.

Let me say it again.

Our active peace agitates others.

We will encounter conflict.

Passive peace? That doesn’t create the quarrels and conflicts. It’s a pseudo-peace. We may not have these quarrels, but that isn’t what trooping is about, is it? Serving Love. Serving Hashem. It’s not pseudo-peace. Its active peace. And that agitates others. Always has. Always will.

That’s a big takeaway.

Our active peace agitates others.

And we close today’s portion with this:

26The blessings of your father surpassed the blessings of my parents, the ends of the everlasting hills. May they come to Joseph’s head and to the crown (of the head) of the one who was separated from his brothers.

Jacob tells Joseph – this has been going on for generations. “The blessings of your father (Jacob/Israel) surpassed the blessings of my parents (Isaac/Rebeccah).”

Then this last line is kind of confusing isn’t it?

“May they (blessings) come to Joseph’s head and to the crown (of the head) of the one who was separated from his brothers.”

There are a lot of ways the Torah could have said this; “May the blessings come to Joseph’s head and crown.” “May the blessings come to the head and crown of the one who was separated from his brothers.”

And I reflect. Why say it this way?

Joseph’s head
The Crown of the one who was separated from his brothers

My takeaway is this; Jacob was giving Joseph a double blessing. Remember – he already established this early on – because Joseph was going to be blessed through his two sons. But this double blessing? Is spiritual.

Joseph’s head is the blessing Joseph receives in the moment It was given to him. In each moment of Joseph’s life. And. The one who was separated from his brothers? Acknowledges Joseph was separated from his family. It’s a different blessing – it is a blessing of the past. And future?

For us? I think this is important.

So often we feel guilt and shame for separating OURSELVES from those we love and care about. We reject ourselves – keep ourselves isolated.

We still inherit the blessing. In each moment. We are not MEANT to be isolated. We are meant to be in community. With our brothers. And. Even when we are not? We are still blessed. In each moment.

Where are we struggling today? We reached the light of chaos and repair. We are coming OUT of the fullness of the moon and moving towards the darkness and transition into Shevat – in the new year.

We still have a few days of 2023 left. Where are we separated from those we love and care about deep in our hearts? Where can we shed light and return? Where can we allow those who are separated return to us instead of resisting it? This is the path to freedom and liberation. And in these closing moments of Genesis – where we KNOW we end up slaves in Egypt; we can STILL receive these blessings.

This parsha is “and he lived.” We have two more days/opportunities to study this parsha and the book of Genesis in this time/space. How will we live these moments? That is the mark of our hearts. Peace or Agitation? Active or Passive? Regardless of the choice. We need to honor our reality. If we are agitated, we cannot snap our fingers and be at peace. That is not how it works.

I have a blessing for all of us. It’s four. Here they are:

Do you have a Passive, Agitated Heart?
- My blessing for you is over the next year – by the time we return to this portion, you will move in the direction of having an active, agitated heart or a passive peaceful heart. There are two opportunities and blessings for us here:
  - My blessing is that you would find the strength and power to VOICE your agitation and not be afraid of it.
    - I think we will find in Exodus (I am not sure but I think this is where we are headed) Moses and Pharoah giving VOICE to their agitation.
  - The other option is to find the depth within you to remain passive and learn to love yourself such that you become much more at peace in your heart.
    - I think we will find Moses’ journey in Exodus may be in line with this for you.
Do you have an Active, Agitated Heart?
- My blessing for you is over the next year – by the time we return to this portion, you will move in the direction of having a passive agitated heart or an Active Peaceful heart. There are two opportunities and blessings for us here:
  - My blessing is you would find the will to restrain your active agitated heart and create space to respond instead of react. To become more passive with the agitation – and react less than you do in this moment.
    - I think we will find Moses’ journey in Exodus will contain elements of restraint – where he responds and does not react. He becomes more passive than active in his agitation.
  - The other option is to find the depth within you to remain active and learn to love yourself such that you become much more at peace in your heart.
    - I think we will find Moses’ journey in Exodus may be in line with this for you.
Do you have a Passive, Peaceful Heart?
- My blessing for you is over the next year – by the time we return to this portion, you will move in the direction of having a more active, peaceful heart. You will remain at peace most times. And when you are separated, you will find your way home.
  - My blessing is you would do this by finding the COURAGE to have a voice and speak your peaceful truth.
Do you have an Active, Peaceful Heart?
- My blessing for you is you would maintain this peace and activity by the time we return to this portion next year. When you find yourself separated from your peaceful, active heart, may you reestablish the crown and sovereignty to bring it back to you.