Miryam's Space

This week’s parashah, Devarim, contains one of my favorite verses in Torah: “And in the wilderness you saw how the Holy One, your G!d lifted you us as a man carries his child” Deuteronomy 1:21

G!d lifts us up so we can see, has carried us from slavery “on eagles wings” from Mitzrayim to a land where a vision of Truth, Justice and Peace form the framework which supports the world! Pirke Avot 1:18

Sources linked here.

This coming Shabbat is Shabbat Hazon, the Shabbat of vision, the one before Tisha B’av, that day of emotional descent, recognizing the brokenness, for the sake of ascent and tikkun, repair. What is vision created for? On Shabbat chazon, we begin to envision healing!

This parashah also contains the retelling of the saga of the scouting of the land. This is the sin for which the Israelites become condemned to die in the wilderness, and the first historic tragedy which occurs on Tisha B’av. But why this sin, why not the golden calf, for example? A parable from the Zohar explains: there once was a father who carried his son on his shoulders during their journey. Whenever they met someone, the son asked the stranger if he had seen his father.  In other words it is the ultimate lack of vision, and faith. Back to the Torah, verse 27 describes the Israelite’s reactions when ten of the twelve leaders sent to seek out and explore the promised land bring back this report: . (They) murmured in your tents and said, “It is because G!d hates us that G!d brought us out of the land of Egypt, to smash us! (28) …. Our brothers have melted our hearts, saying, ‘We saw there a people stronger than us, huge cities with walls sky-high, and Giants lived there.’ Nature abhors a vacuum, I imagine the Israelites murmuring in their darkened tents/ with bubbles of lies and fear forcing the  light and faith to go whooshing out of their tents,  this darkness creating a tear in the fabric of our People’s story in space and time.(More on this, 2017 Linked here.)

All except Joshua and Caleb, who remained filled after their G!d-encounter, who remained optimistic, and kept their faith

On this day as we approach Shabbat of vision, let us light candles from our hope, truth and faith, and let this light shine and spark other souls to let them shine, to repair and to heal!

.