Balak 2021, Who are you hanging with?

Mah tovu – What goodness! I love this Parashah, Balak.

-for the Mah Tovu, the prayer of early morning that proclaims what goodness is in our tents

for its ecumenism, because the words of Mah tovu are spoken by a non Jewish-prophet who blesses the Israelites rather than cursing them, who is open to the voice of G!d

for its slapstick comedy, even before Shrek, of the wizard who cannot see as much as his hinny (female donkey).

Something new in this years journey found in the verses I’m focusing on this Shabbat are clues to our own lives, and hints of Bilam’s darkness.  Source sheet linked here

Sometimes in Torah, G!d speaks to people, and not just Jewish people. When G!d asks a question of an human I pay close attention, for I’ve learned they are asked of each one of us!  Where are you?! Asks G!d of Adam.   Where is your brother, asks G!d of Kayin?

In this week’s parashah, Balaak ben Tzippor, the fearful King, (his name means “destruction, son of Bird”) sends  messengers versed in the art of Divining(!) The future, to seek out Bilam, the infamous wizard of these times.

They knock on Bilam’s door, these important people.

Imagine, you are a wizard, maybe Gandalf, Dumbledoor, or Bilam,  alone in your cabin in the mountains, and you hear a knock on the door, you open it, and it’s Kamala Harris, and entourage. They’re fearful, and ask you to use your powers to bring down destruction on an entire people.  What do you do? Of course, you let them in, stay the night. I think I’d want a selfie. I’m not really going to harm anyone, but, you know, Kamala slept here!…

You explain to them patiently: “these people have G!d protecting them, and at night, ba-layla, I will seek permission.”

Why do they need a wizard if they are Diviners? Because these new people are literally muddying the spiritual waters, hiding the “ayin” the eyes of the earth from view!
The wells of water were thought to be as eyes reflecting the heavens!

And indeed, a miracle which the trope begins very matter-of-factly, G!d comes to Bilam (perhaps they have conversed before!) and G!d asks a question: not who are you Bilam, but who are these people with you?

Balaam said to God, “Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent me them to me, and he goes on to actually exaggerate what they have asked of him:  To G!d. To distort the truth. OY!

Did Bilam listen to G!d really, and answer the question?

No Bilam, who are you hanging with, traveling with, who have you let into your door, into your life? Are you being swayed by their title, the trappings? Do you really know who they are? It’s a question every parent asks their teen.

 I imagine G!d asking this of me! What a difference it makes! I choose to travel with you guys each morning, among others…

And I know this because of the Mah Tovu prayer What goodness there is. I say the words before I open my eyes each morning: I need to know there is goodness before open my eyes, and to remember who I am inside: my values, memories, and dreams as I say good morning to the world. Verses from psalms here are, from context, prayers to keep us from falling into bad company. A solid way to begin each morning, establishing who we really are, committing to goodness, to our values, before we let people in and decide to walk a pathway with them.    

But God said to Balaam, “Do not walk with them. You must not curse (using ta-ohr, the original, not the exaggerated) verb that Bilam uses for cursing that people, for they are blessed.”

Choose wisely who to walk with. And together: Ani v’ata n’shaneh et ha-olam, You and I can change the world. What goodness!

Chukat 2021, Water is love, is life!

We come from the water, living in the water go back to the water turn the world around. So is life!~Harry Belefonte        

  Source page to the Biblical and other texts referenced.

In this week’s parashah, Miriam, the sister of Aaron and Moses dies, and is buried. What is her brother’s reactions? The community’s? The Torah is completely silent, there is no response! Miriam’s name is part of my own Hebrew name, and literally has the word for water in it, Mayim in Hebrew. This is no coincidence.  Think of Miriam in the Torah, and you will think of water: Miriam watching as her baby brother was drawn from the Nile, Miriam singing and playing music, leading in dance and joy as the Israelites crossed the Sea of Reeds.

Suddenly as we enter chapter 20 of Bamidbar, in the wilderness, the Israelites arrive in the Wilderness of Tzin, meaning flat, and in the very next verse we hear: there is no water!

Rashi explains that since this statement follows immediately after the mention of Miriam’s death, we may learn from it that during the entire forty years they had a magical “well” through Miriam’s merit   Pirke Avot lists this Miraculous well as one of the Ten things created before sundown on that first Shabbat eve!

Water is life! The most abundant and foundational component of living things The universal solvent, so weird and wonderful, that it clings to all -it making life possible. Water soaks the roots allowing crops to grow, and we humans cannot survive without drinking it for more than a couple of days. And yes, Climate change is increasing drought around the world, which causes famine and strife.  Strife will rear its head as a result of drought in parashat Chukat as well.

We live on “the water planet” an image achieved by photographs taken by astronauts that saw our home planet as that gorgeous blue terrarium in space. This image was also was anticipated by the ancient Book, Sefer Yetzirah, where the letter Mem represents water, and was created by the Wind, which was created by the Breath of the Holy One.

From Sefer Yetzirah: Translation~R’ Jill Hammer Waters from Ruach Wind. G!D also engraved and carved in Them: chaos and void, mud and clay; engraved Them as a kind of garden; carved them as a kind of wall, wove them as a kind of ceiling

Notice the earth begins as mud and clay from waters How Does G!d carve waters? With words! And as a weaver. And then by sealing off this precious bubble of life, from the dangerous void beyond with the letters of G!d’s name Yud, Hey and Vav according to Sefer Yetzirah.

The word Yetzirah itself means creation by weaving, and in Kabbalistic philosophy is one of the Four Worlds, or levels of existence. These levels are all present, but our perceptions may be limited to one or another more strongly during our varied experiences. Yetzirah is the level associated with water, and with emotions, particularly of love.  Love, the emotion most intimately creative of life is expressed most powerfully in Shir HaShirim, Song of songs.  Love is the gift that Miriam always brought: connecting Yocheved with her baby, bringing song and joy to the newly liberated.  Love is as fierce as death (Song 8:6), and certainly Miriam’s death represented the loss of this love. Mayim Rabim, many waters cannot quench this love of ours! Is another echo to the song of songs 8:7, mayim rabim, many (or great) waters flows from the rock. The other echo to creation is  chotam, the seal placed on the heart echoes the sealing off of the water planet in Sefer Yetzirah.

Following Miriam’s death, the tragedies of Aaron and Moses’ lives will unfold because there is no water of another kind.  Did you notice? Brothers Moshe and Aharon do not mourn, they shed no tears.

Immediately, the community gangs up on the dry-eyed brothers.  They reach to G!d for outside help.  But within them tears are needed for wholeness.  I spent most of my life with tears locked within. Oh I’d cry at sad movies… but needed much inner opening work to cry at loss. HOW COULD THEY NOT MOURN THEIR SISTER!  Moses and Aaron receive their answer of how to help with the Israelite’s thirst as G!d instructs them in the ways of creation: “Speak, as I spoke, to the rock!” They struck instead. They called the people Marim – you bitter Rabble!  The Rock yielded its water. It had water in it because it was made from water according to Sefer Yetzirah!  The people, Rashi says are not just Marim, rabble, but teachers, Morim  to Moshe and Aaron: it turns out Miriam’s well was always a rock, and they knew it! Now it was indistinguishable from the other rocks. Morim, has the same letters as, you guessed it: Miriam!

In beautiful song, written in 1923 “HaKotel” that speaks longingly of the western wall, the lyric cries: there are men with hearts of stone! (Joel Engel). It is the rock of Moses’ and Aaron’s hearts that must be opened, and the waters of tears that must flow.  Perhaps the blue planet, the terrarium suspended in the void, exists within the water of G!d’s teardrop, or the water that gushes from the Holy One’s broken heart the mess we humans have a tendency to make in this world.

Torah is also likened to water (Bereshit Rabba 66:1) and by extension to love. If we could reach out to one another, and to the earth in love, if we can find the tears for the suffering of children both ours, and those of the stranger, find tears for the destruction of life and beauty in the world, then maybe we can get our act together to preserve the precious variety of life on this blue planet.We come from the water, living in the Torah, Go back to the water, turn the world around. Oh so is life, Ah so is life!

Korach 2021, Chesed V’emet

Have you ever been in an earthquake, where the ground beneath your feet which should be solid, begins to roll instead as if it were fluid? The thing that should support you, that should nourish you, terrifies you instead?  Or perhaps it was a metaphoric earthquake in your life?

Korach, the rebel experiences such an earthquake, the earth swallows him at Moses summoning of The Holy One(!) Source sheet linked here for texts

Challenging the authority of Moses and Aaron, Korach is certainly vilified in our tradition, even though he makes a good point: all the community/witnesses are all holy, and the G!d is in their midst.  He says it with 250 leaders at his back: it is clearly an insurrection! The judgement of Korach is righteous, but brutally cruel. The earth opened her mouth and swallowed him and his compatriots up with their households and all their possessions. They went down alive into Sheol, terrifyingly vanishing from the midst of the kahal/congregation. The women, his children, even the babies perish, and a fire follows, as often happens in earthquakes, taking even more lives.

There also is support in our tradition that honors the rebel, and heals the wound of the innocents swallowed alive that day.

For example, after Korach challenges Moses and Aaron, Moses falls on his face as “if in a prophesy” says Ibn Ezra. The implied prophecy: perhaps one day all the community will be holy! The singular is used, as only Moses falls on his face. Aaron does not participate in this drama due to modesty, to keep the peace, and to honor Korach, says the Ramban. In the next chapter Aaron’s staff sprouts flowers and fruits, in the more peaceful battle of the tribes! Now that’s what the earth is supposed to do, sprout almonds!

As for healing the wounds of Korach’s children, they were given the honor of singing fifteen of the most beautiful psalms. According to Midrash Tanchuma, they never died, and sing praises in harmony to this day! After Yonah is swallowed by the great fish, it swims down to the ocean’s depths, “And Jonah saw the Stone of the Foundation there, set in the depths. And he saw the sons of Korach, standing and praying upon it. It said to Yonah, “Behold, you are standing under the Palace of the G!d; pray and you will be answered.” 

Of the psalms of the children of Korach, psalm 85 seems particularly healing in the aftermath of that earthquake. What if the truths of their father’s words, both the prophetic voice and the challenging ones were to meet up with loving kindness? What if the justice given their father could have lovingly kissed peace? Imagine what a world that would be!

Chesed V’Emet, A three part round.

From psalm 85, a psalm of Korach’s Children

Original setting, recording coming soon!

Chesed v’emet nifgashu,

Loving kindness and Truth

have met one another

Imagine that!

Truth shall spring from the earth

Righteousness will gaze down from the sky

And G!d will supply the Good

And the earth will nourish body and soul

And the earth will nourish us whole

Tsedek v’shalom nashaku

Righteousness and Peace

have kissed one another!

Sh’lach L’cha: Fear Itself

This Torah in the memory of HaRav Henry Tzvi Weiner, z’l’ from who started me on my adult Jewish path, and from whom I learned some of this Torah a long time ago, and the Hebrew word for grasshopper: chagivim.

Sh’lach L’chah means “send out for yourselves”, and the Israelite leaders were sent to spy the land. The other emissaries that they sent were words from their mouths. And these words carried a message about the land, that it was scary. These words of fear resulted in an entire generation wandering in the wilderness, unable to enter a land Divinely promised – appropriate- karma for sure.

But what was so bad about their words? Certainly some of the things the spies said were not so bad: Isn’t it just humility when they say “we’re not good enough” And fear is only natural, only human, as is the desire to protect self and family. That land is so harsh it devours its settlers, and the people who live there are Giants, and we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we were in their eyes.” You can follow in this source sheet in Sefaria.

Besides the fear, do you hear the lie in the words? They could not know how they looked in someone else’s eyes!

What these folks did witness with their own eyes: redemption at the sea and revelation at Sinai. What a gift! Think back on a moment in your own life of a great spiritual encounter: perhaps the birth of a child, or standing on the rim of the grand canyon.  What do you do with that inspiration?  You want to hold it, to let it guide your life. In Sh’lach instead, words inspire fear, and fear leads to violence.  Soon the whole community threatened to pelt Joshua and  Caleb with stones (Numbers 14:10)

In Rabbi Jill Hammer’s class and book on sefer Yetzirah, we’ve learned that G!d used elemental letters to create the parts of the natural world, and Aleph is a mother letter forming Air, and G!d carves (chakak) creation from the air.  I asked “how can one carve air?” Rav Jill replied that with the process of speech both we and G!d carve the air. A stunning answer: speech creates worlds! And not just what you say, but in how you say it: are the words said with love?  As a teacher, I carry with me the great Maya Angelou quote: ‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, … but people will never forget how you made them feel.’

We live in challenging times, the truth is for sale – Lies are peddled today for profit or power. And fear and is the emotion that sells. And fear becomes hate.

Conspiracy theories abound about vaccines, and stolen elections. Troubling times.

Perhaps worst of all are the lies we tell about ourselves, like those of the Israelites. They become stumbling blocks: “I’m not good enough, I am worthless” Perhaps they internalize harsh words others told you. According to Sforno, the Israelites thought G!d hated them for their sins, and so were bringing them to die. Perhaps these former slaves have internalized the hateful words of their brutal slave masters.

So how can we counter these feelings? How remember we are children of the Divine, and how hold on to the moments of clarity and inspiration?

Immediately following the Israelite threat to stone Joshua and Caleb Torah tells: then the Presence of the LORD appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites. A covenant of G!d’s forgiveness, and a technique to help us remember our inspiration, instead of fear: the Tzitzit. Firstly, says Rashi, it helps us to see. And perhaps see ourselves more clearly: Rashi likens the tzitzit to the curls of our hair! Nachmanides explains that they help us remember, help us to resist skepticism and idolatry. How? It’s the blue; which reminds us of creation of land, sea and sky. Creation/the natural world is our anchor to sanity! The Ramban explains:and the profit of ‘eretz’ (earth) is ‘bakol’ (in all): “And what is the eretz? It is that from which the heavens were hewn, and it is the Throne of the Holy One, blessed be He, and it is ‘the precious stone,’ and ‘the sea of wisdom,’ and corresponding to it is the blue thread in a garment of Fringes.  The land will tell its own truth, even the grasshoppers will participate in songs of praise.  Rabbi Arthur Waskow explains the fringes as reminders of many web-like  connections: to one another, to the natural world and to the Divine.  Look at the fringes, and feel the connections! Then live guided by creation’s inspirations, rather than fears.