Miryam's Space

Kedoshim/ Earth Day 2021

Microsoft Word – Kedoshim 2021.docx

Kedoshim and Earth Day 25th day of the Counting of the omer Netzach within Netzach.

Kedoshim t’hyu, ki kadosh, ani, Adonai Elohechim. Holy you shall be, for I, Yah, your G!d am holy!

Double parashah this week, and Rabbi Mira spoke of Acharei mot, so I will speak about Kedoshim . In this amazing parashah, G!d tells us to act toward the earth and one another in holy ways. The reason: B/c the creator of life and love, and this wondrous planet is holy! Here is all of Torah, standing on one foot, says the great Hillel: love your near one as yourself, the rest is commentary. And important to see on this earth day, Netzah shb’netzach where we learn again, there is an important connection between our moral behavior and the land. There is karma, there are consequences for our actions and those consequences are played out via the land..

19:29 Do not profane your daughter, using chilul – the same word used a few verses earlier as a as something not to do toward G!D and make her a harlot, and don’t prostitute the land, or the earth will be filled with depravity

First of all, how could a parent do such a thing? Well it seems that in poverty, you could hire your children out as indentured servants, or marry a daughter off for the bride price. Rashi explains that Torah here speaks of one who gives his unmarried daughter away as an illegitimate concubinage. This marrying off of young girls still goes on. I have supported an organization called unchained at last, started by activist Freidy Reiss, survivor of an arranged, forced marriage to an abusive spouse, lobbying for ending child marriage in this country. Gov Murphy signed into law in NJ 2018! New York permits 17-year-olds to marry with court approval

But what do we make of the second half of the verse, and don’t prostitute the earth, or the earth will be filled with depravity. Rashi explains: If you do this to your daughter the soil will become faithless to you in the distribution of its fruits, producing them in other places and not in your land. But perhaps it’s resonance of feminine: Honor your daughter as you honor Shechinah, the feminine indwelling presence of G!d in the land. We prayed twice this morning – m’lo kol ha- artetz k’vodo – the whole earth is filled with G!d’s glory. Shechinah is often understood as inhabiting the beauty and bounty of the earth which nourishes us. Uninhibited as always, Zohar explains that the fertile valleyof Hizon/vision between two mountains are the breasts of Shechina, nourishing the children of israel in the valley between! And El Shaddai means G!d of breasts. I love this image of G!d nursing and nourishing us.

And yet we prostitute the earth. We have destroyed the great forests of the planet in the name of profit. Read the Pulitzer Winner The Overstory by Richard Powers, breathtakingly beautiful and heartbreaking. We are still doing it in the great Amazon, (where the richness of the land is in the forest canopy, burned up into smoke a double whammy toward climate change, chillul/profaning Shechinah) And we pollute the earth, suburban gardens pouring far more pesticides per acre even than farms in ignorance and in homage to the god of green lawns, poisoning the butterflies, birds, bees, fireflies, the groundwater, and our netzach, our ability to remain alive on this planet.

Today’s symbol for Netzach she’bnetzach is the redwood tree, Redwoods have been around for about 240 million years, 300 feet or more, Officially, the oldest living coast redwood is at least 2,200 years old, but foresters believe some coast redwoods may be much older.
They are carbon soakers, climate change heroes, Redwoods live so long because they are extremely resistant to insects, fire and rot.

Be holy, for the love of our daughters and sons through whom we endure, so we can endure on this land G!d has gifted us. Earth Day is a reminder that we are connected to all living creatures, that we only endure together loving one another and the other creatures of this planet earth.

Be like a tree
Eytz chayim hee
Who will remain after you to repair this wondrous world?

NPS

Metzorah 2021

Tazria Metzorah 2021        Netzach sheb’tiferet. 18^th day in the counting of the omer, and Israeli Independence day.

Elohai, neshama she’natata bi t’horah hi! Oh G!d, the soul you have given me, she it tahor!

~Morning liturgy

We are stardust, we are golden, and we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden ~Joni Mitchel

How does beauty endure? As I meditated on this late at night I realized it’s a two step process. First, to seek and recognize beauty, to take the time, and to perhaps look outside the box.  Secondly to commit to protecting beauty. During the past year we’ve lived through difficult times, plagued not just with COVID, but with racism too.  Illness is not beautiful, and despairing of beauty can happen. The Poet John Keats, who died of consumption writes, in Ode to a Nightingale urging the lovely bird to “fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget, what thou amongst the leaves has never known,  the weariness, the fever and the fret; here where men sit and hear each other groan,… where but to think is to be full of sorrow and leaden-eyed despair. Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, or new Love pine at them beyond tomorrow. ….but in Jewish tradition my grandma’s eyes are beautiful! Psalm 148 brings our eyes to the wonders of life and creation. In spite of it all there has been beauty In our own time, in rebounding of the natural world. Visits to National Parks have soared during the pandemic, we protect beautiful places so they can endure. In Torah Tazria Metzorah, we read about quarantine, contagion, about encounters that shake us to the core, that poke at the boundary lines between life and death,.  And about how to re-enter the group after the fear. a reentry of the spirit, with rich symbolism.  Torah has never seemed so relevant, I wondered what I could add to the conversation, this is what came together. Metzorah begins

   This shall be the Torah for one who has Tzaarat (a contagious skin ailment) on  the Day of their becoming Tahor (pure). And the Kohen will be brought… Be brought where? It was not unusual to find people cast outside ancient city walls. But the Kohen will go Outside seeking the afflicted one, to make possible a pathway back home.

The Kohen shall go outside and see. Then with the technology available at the time the following materials will be gathered:

The Cohen commands two live pure birds, cedar wood, crimson thread, and hyssop And a bowl of MAYIM CHAYIM:  living waters. Then in two stages death is replaced with life.  And  we see things done in sevens – symbolizing a new genesis.

וְהִזָּ֗ה עַ֧ל הַמִּטַּהֵ֛ר מִן־הַצָּרַ֖עַת שֶׁ֣בַע פְּעָמִ֑ים וְטִ֣הֲר֔וֹ וְשִׁלַּ֛ח אֶת־הַצִּפֹּ֥ר הַֽחַיָּ֖ה עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַשָּׂדֶֽה׃   One bird will be sacrificed, blood entering the water, which shall then sprinkle it seven times on the one who is to be cleansed.  In the town water can be stagnant in the wilderness it flows freely,…and then a release, the  live bird is set free to fly over the field. A powerful image, if you’ve seen doves or pigeons set free. Death replaced with life

After this, a seven day waiting period separated from his family sacrifices, sin and olah, and the blood on the right ear, thumb and toe to be replaced with delightful oil on the skin in the same spots, you guessed it, seven times. And we re-enter reborn, without fear or guilt of having either deserved getting sick, or having passed it along.

But I wondered about the banishment/ quarantine to the wilderness or field, and what the person cast out was doing during that time. Perhaps gathering the cedar and hyssop. But what exactly is hyssop? I looked it up: it’s a medicinal plant good for many ailments. The wilderness has much to teach us about medicine, and so many new medicines come from forests and wild places. And the wilderness can set our spirits free, as that dove flies free.  As John Muir said, in wildness is the preservation of the world. And the Israelites were forged in the wilderness.  In my studies of Zohar this week we are studying about Rav Metivta – a University in the wilderness that can be accessed by souls who innovate and re-enliven words of Torah. There in the wilderness we are  taught by the teachers of the greatest generation: those who died in the wanderings of the wilderness, and died there. There on the mountains when your mind and heart are most open to you can be taught and inspired by none other than Moses and Aaron, who runs a school of love, and (this is cool!) Miriam. And your soul can fly, it says from one university in to the other ever more elevated. The wilderness was not just where we wandered, it was the pure crucible of revelation and inspiration. This is the Torah of the wilderness There are plants like hyssop, living waters and birds that fly free. And for there to be enduring beauty and we need wild places. We are stardust, we are golden, and we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden!

Shemini 5781, Yom Hashoah

If you’re ready to be One, stand strong and surrender, Ready to be One.

Billy Jonas’ song was in my head this morning, in answer to my prayer last night that this Teaching honor the memories of those lost in our lives.

On this Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial day, in this week of Gevurah, courage, in counting the omer we hauntingly read of the deaths of Aaron’s two eldest sons. They were beautiful, spiritual souls lost too young. The rational voice of the Rabbi’s says they were punished for their sins. And the mystical voice of the Rabbi’s says G!d took them to be close. I struggle with both of these interpretations. Rather G!d mourns with us always in our loss, perhaps especially when we can’t find the tears, as Aaron and Moses were silent.

Nadav and Avihu were no ordinary people, these were no ordinary deaths.

In the first verse of Shemini Moses calls Aaron, his sons, and the elders of Israel; This list is the first hyperlink to a previous scene. The verses continue to promise that: “Today G!d will appear to you.”  Wait, we don’t see G!d do we? We the listeners who are not to make images of G!d because nothing we see can come close. But this has happened before, it is the 2^nd  hyperlink to Mishpatim – after Sinai, Ex 24: A voice  says to Moshe: Come up to G!d, with Aharon, Nadav and Avihu and the 70 elders” and then outrageously:

 וַיִּרְא֕וּ אֵ֖ת אֱלֹהֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וְתַ֣חַת רַגְלָ֗יו כְּמַעֲשֵׂה֙ לִבְנַ֣ת הַסַּפִּ֔יר וּכְעֶ֥צֶם הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם

 לָטֹֽהַר׃  and they saw the God of Israel: under G!d’s feet there was the likeness of a pavement of sapphire, like the essence of sky in purity.

Imagine how inspired these two young men, the only ones chosen in their generation, must have been in this intense, mystical encounter! And now in today’s parasha, this encounter repeats.  The community offers sacrifices, G!d appears, G!d’s fire comes out of the altar, people shout and fall on their faces terrified, all except for the two, who go into the fire with their own incense and fire pans, seeking G!d.

And the Torah continues וַיַּקְרִ֜בוּ לִפְנֵ֤י יְהוָה֙ אֵ֣שׁ זָרָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֧ר לֹ֦א צִוָּ֖ה אֹתָֽם׃

The trop mark under “lo”not, is rare, a mercha kefula found only 5 times in Torah, a link to aggadic legend.

They drew near before G!d with a strange fire that was not commanded to them.

So what was G!d’s response:  And a fire went out from before G!d and consumed them, and they died before G!d.

And then Moshe says to Aaron: בִּקְרֹבַ֣י אֶקָּדֵ֔שׁ   with those near to me I will show myself holy.

Moses then instructs the boys’ cousins to carry the bodies out, and to grab them by their cloaks. Wait, the cloak was not burned, neither the bodies? The majority opinion of the Rabbis is that they sinned, and were drunk, based upon the warning a few verses later not to enter the tent of meeting with wine or other intoxicant. But it is not the only opinion. Rashi, in his comment on sees Moses as explaining to Aaron: your sons who have died are greater than me and than you!”

What was this strange fire? What was this death?  Whether they chose to  leave this world an effort to unite with G!d, or were careless and ran into danger, it doesn’t matter. To do either is to kindle the strange fire not commanded by G!d! Today’s teaching is clear, no aish zarah (strange fire)  We are to always choose life so that we and our children can live. Perhaps that’s one way we have endured, still persisting, to find the Netzach sheb’gevurah, endurance within strength.

When you’re ready to be One, don’t just surrender, Stand strong and surrender, choose life, because we already are One!  Mystics seek G!d’s spirit not as others chase thrills, but to bring G!d into this world in such need! To stand and sing out the power of G!d’s healing and forgiveness, to teach this love to the lonely, so that the lost will find their way home. Noah Aronson We choose the life!

This is some of the background material for the drash.

Life is the true fire we are commanded to seek, and to seek death is the strange fire, never commanded. So choose life that you and your children may live!

The case can be made that Nadav and Avihu offered themselves up as a misguided attempt of mystical union with G!d  Here are some texts showing the existence of spiritual death-seeking as a mystical pathway. Here are some examples of this death-seeking I have found.

1.     Story as told by Reb Zalman from the  A Heart Afire,  in a story of the Avraham, son of the Dov Bear, the Maggid of Mezerich, pgs 241 and 242. Avraham, was known as “HaMalach” (the angel) He and Reb Shneur Zalman got very deeply involved in a meditation, eventually reaching the place of  atzilut, until they are at the point of being able to leave life itself.  Shneur Zalman saves the Maladkh’s life with a crust of bagel and beer, reminding me of when Eliyahu is in the cave, and suicidal, and the angel saves his life and brings him back to life by feeding him!

In a related story, the Malakh’s wife similarly saves her husband by ascending to a heavenly court in dreams, fighting against her husband’s strong desire to join them.

2.     In Melila Hellner-Eshed’s book, on the Zohar, A River Runs Through It, page 58-62, the deaths of Moses and Rashbi are considered,

a.     Rabbi Shimon said “Moses never died…It is called death from our perspective…whoesoever is in perfection, in who resides the holy faith, death has no sway over him…

b.     In the  Idra Zuta Rashbi experiences his own death as a passage into true life….the occasion of his transformation into …full..union with Schekninah. ..not merely metaphoric but mythical and mystical

c.     The white light on page 273. It is a common expression when someone has a belief in the afterlife of seeing a white light.  “The quest for the white light has another important aspect; the wish to be absorbed and subsumed within the divine – a kind of death wish (bold is mine), perhaps death by divine kiss – arising from the desire to attain the source of all. Melila footnotes this: This desire for white, associated both with the desire for perfection (eros) as well as death (Thanatos), receives expression in Alken Afterman, Kaballah and Consciousness, page 113.

Afterman’s mystical poem “Desire for White”

Everything, its open mouth

Lipless

Its gaze cloudless

Everything, its one desire

Soundless

Desire, or the inner colors of white

-The deaths of Nadav and Avihu has been interpreted in ways that perhaps once represented culture in biblical times portraying a punishing G!d, This image is no longer what is needed in today’s global society to deal with problems requiring intercultural cooperation. Therefore a paradigm shift is needed. R’ Shhulamit Thiede teaches “we worship an interpreted God” R’ Art Green in “Seek My Face” speaks of  G!d as the Oneness that unites all existence, and also in ever changing intimacy that permeates all creation. G!d is found by plumbing the depths of the soul and also, in seeking G!d, R’ Green says, look first to love! “A Jewish path to Oneness can only be the one that leads through (the metaphor) of human intimacy.  The Heart of Being, the Interbreathing of Existence, as R’ Arther Waskow explains, is more true to G!d’s creative nature, and desperately needed as models and mindsets in the healing of the human relationship with the earth, and of cultures with one another. Redemption is described as “the collective effort of all generations” across cultural boundaries

The model of a punishing G!d is part of an interpretation of Torah which models abusive patterns. The psychic trauma manifests or is mirrored in the actions one human to another and to the creatures of the earth.  Life can punish us, and there is karma, where we must pay for the consequences of our own actions. It is by G!d’s grace that we can withstand, persist and support one another.

Ironically Avihu, whose name means “he is my father” would never have descendants, and Nadav, whose name means” giving” gave himself away. The truth/ emet, is that beautiful young men and women and children die. Sometimes it is suicide, or war, or rushing into danger for thrill seeking, or cancer, or….so many other paths.

G!d as the power that feels the hole in the universe made by the death of the righteous and mourns with us, perhaps especially when we are too repressed or shocked or stressed to find the tears. I have lived this in my own experience unable to mourn until I was able to open my heart, following a more spiritual pathway. Then I was able to confront my childhood hurts and call it by name, abuse, and travel the path to healing for myself. Only then was I finally able to shed free tears for the losses in my life.

Consider the tikkun if we shift the narrative of Nadav and Avihu’s deaths as misguided young mystics, running toward death, and that the Torah’s true message of life is the true fire, the one commanded, and death is the strange fire, never commanded. So choose life that you and your children can live.