Do you have a “pet name” that someone calls you that is such an intimate and knowing name, that it moves your heart just to hear it called? Every once in awhile, one of my kids calls me “Mama” instead of Mom, and it brings me back to that pure toddler love.  In my dreams, my Grandpa z”l” calls me zeiss leben sweet heart in Yiddish, and I am a beloved child again.  The intimate knowing of names means love, and is a them in the verses read from Torah this Shabbat, one of the links to Sukkot! The verses read on Shabbat chol ha-moed Shabbat are from Exodus 33-34. In the aftermath of the Golden calf, Moshe  shatters the tablets of the First set of Tablets. It is an utter failure all around. These events are said to happen on Tisha B’av. Only when Moshe ascends the mountain a second time, on Elul first,  does he have the chutzpa to ask to know G*d more deeply please,  “let me see your presence!”  The Goodness of the Holy One passes before Moshe, who is shielded with the palm of the Divine hand itself.

It is the story of second chances, with far more yearning and depth than any rookie try,  for Moshe, G*d and the People, a new covenant Brit, 2.0 will replace the Sinai covenant, which  had nothing to say about forgiveness! No terrifying smoke and fire for this second covenant, rather vision, intimate knowing, and after failure that there can be forgiveness.

The verses include the 13 attributes that we sing so many times about G*d’s forgiveness during the Holy Days are found here, and Moshe brings down the second set of tablets on Yom Kippur, BUT  what is the Sukkot connection?

I found three theme words in the first SEVEN verses read this shabbat relating to Sukkot: Vision, Intimate knowing and Shielding. The first, Ra-ah is repeated 7 times in 7 verses. Seven is the number of completion and rest. Ra-ah refers to vision, the root of the word “to see”. For Sukkot, there is no hiding from the stars, rather there is vision of the sky, the ancestors, of eternity.  The second theme word is Yada – to know intimately, as Moshe and the Holy One know one another’s names.  and certainly sukkot as an experience is an intimate knowing of nature and thus for many, of G*d. When people lose this intimate touch, our love for nature wanes. This is dangerous, for we only protect what we love. This occurred only six times, but was so strongly reminiscent of psalm 91, where G*d protects those all who know the name of the Holy one. Adding this verse takes the intimate name knowing beyond Moshe to us, and perhaps is needed to stretch to seven, to completeness! One final and unexpected connection is in a hyperlink from the parashah to Sukkot in Exodus 33:22 v’sachoti chapi  “and I will shield you with My Hand. The shield “sachoti” is from the same root as the Schach (thatch) on the Sukkah! Blew my mind!  The chaf – which means palm,  is related to the word kippur as G*d wipes away our mistakes.

During sukkot we gain vision, an intimate knowing, and we trust in the flimsy Schach, because it is as the hand of G*d shielding us. B’zot ani Boteach! In this I trust!

Dr Lara Lars Doan, (University of Windsor) wrote regarding Sukkot services: “This morning I felt immersed in blessings and a (virtual) mikveh of flowing joy, of welcoming community, of being genuinely seen, davening alone-together… and I left with the calls to tap into lived vulnerabilities and fragilities not as personal failings, to sit with them in the Sukkah in my heart knowing I do so not alone; charting moments of daily gratitude, and taking time to see the stars.”

Sources

EREV RH 2021 5722

Source page

Tonight is the new moon of Tishrei, According to Zohar, our joy begins to increase as the moon’s light brightens. The Zohar says, that Because of Israel, G&d brightens the moon’s light.  The light will be brightest on the harvest festival of sukkot

But we are not there yet.

As we enter into our prayer spaces, this day we are awestruck.

Rosh Hashanah has four nicknames, each inspiring awe

1. Yom hadin: the Day of Judgement
2. Yom hazikaron: the Day of Remembrance
3. Yom teruah: The Day of the horn blast
4. Yom harat ha-olam: The day the World was Conceived

R. Alan Lew writes “This is real, and you are Completely Unprepared” – likening the sudden awareness and awe/ fear during these Holy Days  to the entry of a couple about to be parents into the labor room.

Like new parents, perhaps the “labor” that precedes our own renewal is the hard word of seeking forgiveness for the wrongs and damage we have done by our less than skillful choices.  But just as in childbirth there is danger, is there a danger of getting stuck in the “al chet”, in beating yourself up? Perhaps, if you are like me:

I am my own worst critic, for example:

I have always hated looking at photos of myself, particularly candids, So I don’t look.  In teaching on zoom these days, however, it’s always there – your picture! So I use this neat thing  the “hide self view” setting that lets you escape the stress of having to look at and judge yourself constantly

Look at this spot on the page   What do you see? Didi you notice the white surrounding or just the dot

Lew writes that of all the forgiveness we are tasked with, self forgiveness is the hardest, we hold ourselves to such high standards. And this causes us to bury our mistakes, “that didn’t happen” We hide our self view!

Look harder at the black dot, there are sparks of white within

There is a verse from proverbs 34:15 Turn aside from evil and do good”

BeSHT interpreted the verse from Proverbs “to mean, “Turn evil into good”

But how can we turn our darkest traits to good ones?

It’s hard to even turn inside to really look at them.

R’ Nachman of Bratslov offers this advice: “When all we see and feel is negativity, we must search within ourselves for an aspect of goodness, the white dot within the black, and then find another and another until these dots form musical notes. Our task, he said is to find enough white notes to form a melody!

The true niggun of our soul, that sings our goodness.

R Lew continues: the Talmud tells that in the world to come, all will have to account for the desires they did not fulfill in this beautiful world.  Specifically eating different types of fruit (Jerusalem Talmud, Kiddushin 4:12).

The desires themselves are G&d given, are sacred.

It’s how we act upon them, those choices, not the desire to use them that cause harm to other people.

But accepting and embracing our essence, self compassion, can lead to heart opening.

Lew suggest we ask: what do I hate most about myself? Personally, it’s impatience, and the desire to be noticed. I get excited, and talk over folks Then I feel the bitter after-taste, the self hatred that follows. How can I be so selfish, and step on other folks’ ego for the sake of my own? I may apologize, but then I get busy with something else, I end up not working on it. Lew suggests that instead, we fully inhabit, do not run away from our mistakes. And then take a moment to find the white within the dark, the Divine spark. My enthusiasm for life makes me impatient. I get so excited by an “aha”. Instead of the judgement, what if at that moment, “we opened our heart to heaven”.   

 What is it for you?

This is the Turning – Teshuva, that can turn us toward our essesence, our heart, and toward G&d. if a person did wrong and they return, they are held in greater esteem by the Holy One of Being than before In the place that ba’alei teshuvah [masters of return] stand, even completely righteous ones cannot stand” (Tomer Devorah1:8)

The original verse in Talmud is that Teshuva, Tefilah and Tzedakah are so powerful they can “tear up” the evil judgement, g’zerah, against us (Unetaneh Tokef)

The machzor now says

They can Maavirin et roa ha gezerah.

They transform the evil of the judgement, the roa –or perhaps it’s our perception that changes, the decree isn’t evil, it’s just how things are….

I asked myself, why is it that I hate looking at most photos of myself, in many candid shots, I’m scowling, frowning I don’t have a peaceful glow about me, I look anxious, and much too busy, it’s not what I want to see about myself. Instead of hiding my self view, what if I were more heart open during ordinary candid moments, perhaps I would transform my outlook, transform myself, then I could love myself in those pics.

Funny, when I look back at old pics, so young and healthy, I say how could I have hated these pics…?

My goal is Shiviti – to be aware that the Holy One is before me in all my experiences. That’s what it means in Deuteronomy 4:4 Atem had’vekim Adonai Eloheichem Chayim kulhem hayom!  May we be written in the book of Life, Sefer Chayim

Shiviti Adonai L’negdi Tamid

G*d, I set you before me continually

I know you in the blessings that come to me each day

Sweetened by Gratitude, deepened by sharing them with You

I feel you in the spaces between me and the people I meet

Help me to know that it’s Your light that I see deep in their eyes, deep in their heart

And when I walk in wild places, my head reaching for the skies,

Give me the courage to guard and to keep your beautiful garden

And oh in the darkness, help me find the light

And when You feel so far away, that yearning’s all that’s left to me

Help me to know that the yearning’s OK,

Let it be my pathway home

Sources for this Drash on Sefaria

I believe G*d cries with us in our loss (the Zohar places G*d’s regret in the hours approaching midnight). What if the rain were G*d’s tears? 

I have been to the Western Wall in Jerusalem only once, and placed one prayer in the cracks of the wall, and I the prayer was from this weeks parashah, Eikev.  I prayed that G!d would remove the thickening from my heart (Deuteronomy 10:16). I’d become just fascinated by the concept of a circumcision of the heart, that if human beings, including myself, could feel more deeply, the world would not be in such a mess. If you had met me, you might not have guessed that I was in need of heart opening, I poured my love into my young daughters and into my teaching.  Perhaps I always knew I had a ways to go.

Looking back I think my heart was thickened in a 3 different kinds of ways:

-Lacking full gratitude, I did not realize just how much I took for granted.

-I hadn’t yet opened to personal connection to G*d, more of a distant, Maimonidean relationship; or committed to spiritual Jewish path. The literal translation of the Hebrew (10:13) umaltem et orlat levavchem  means circumcise the foreskin of your hearts!  Circumcision is a sign of the covenant between G*d and the Jewish people. Nor did I often reach out-to those different from myself

-I had without knowing it, walled off my heart from childhood injury in self-protection. Although tears streamed down my face in a sad movie,  I was unable to cry for real loss in my life.

It would take a couple of hard smacks from life before my heart could heal.

The theme of opening our hearts to bring tikkun repair to ourselves and the world runs through this amazing parashah in three parallel ways!

1. Gratitude: Birkat Hamazon, the blessing after a meal, is partly here.  We are always yearning, hungry, But each item on your plate is grown from the earth, watered, harvested, delivered, prepared – a miracle. To stop, and really enjoy the food, is another miracle, and to really allow yourself a moment to say – wow I am satisfied! (It is easier without distractions, electronic or otherwise) I have found that even a brief blessing said with focus, or Kavannah can be transformative. Here’s my quickie Birkat Cacatuv  V’achalta, v’savata, uverachta,(It is written that you shall eat, you shall be satisfied and you shall bless!)Blessed are you G*d for goodness, and holiness, for the land and for this food.

2. Open our hearts to the stranger: This is one of the most powerful versions of the oft repeat commands to love the stranger: because it is how G*d acts: 18) G*d upholds the cause of the orphan and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving them food and clothing.— (19) You too must love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

3. What if the rain were G*d’s tears? In the same way I was grateful for my own tears, we are grateful for rainfall, which in Eikev is clearly dependent upon our ability to act in justice and to love. Unlike Egypt where slave labor irrigated farms from the Nile, The promised land drinks water gifted by the Holy one. These passages are the second paragraph of the Shema, but here the command to love G*d has moved from singular to plural, communal.  The shema itself is a progression of love rippling outward from the center: beginning between your eyes and upon the heart of a person to your family/children, to the borderlines of your home, across your gates, and into the outside world, where, earlier we learn to love the stranger. It is parallel to the journey from Mitzrayim, the narrow straits, to the wide skies of freedom.

All depends on water, water is life. What if the rain were G*d’s tears, and they are turning to floods because of our heartlessness, or beyond G*d’s capacity for tears, so like me G*d could not cry at all. What if this were the spiritual source of climate change?

I wrote the song Water planet in June, inspired by the text and associated meditations from Rabbi Jill Hammer’s Return to the Place: The Magic, Meditation, and Mystery of Sefer Yetzirah (I studied with Rabbi Jill in June of this year at Yeshivat Romemu)

Water planet from the Breath of Life

Dazzling blue suspended in the night,

If we could hold it as Holy One might

We would feel the fluttering of life’s wings

How fragile our lonely home world seems

Our heart–beats sending lifeblood that we need

To heal the suffering our callous actions bring

To turn the sad melody G*d’s tears sing.

Va’etchanan 2021 Sources page

It’s good to have goals. Perhaps you share some of mine. On a personal level, to make it through each day with as much grace as possible . A bit longer term goal of a successful term, graduation, smicha one day G!d willing. Longer term, I share with many of you, the goal of nudging the world to be a bit more just, and kind. And then Life happens Stuff gets in the way. Sometimes my default response to obstacles is “oh no!!” at which pointTorah proceeds to collide with and inform my life.

The parasha is Va’etchanan, meaning “and he asked for an extra dose of Grace” – Chen/Chanun. our hero Moses is pleading with G*d.

“Let me please cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan,”

G*d’s answer to Moses is NO!  Oh the frustration!

The midrash compares Moses to a woman who was courted by the King to marry him and then he dumps her – just as they’re at the Promised land. I imagine Moses saying: I’ve worked so hard, G*d, this 40 day journey that took 40 years!  Must I die just before the happy ending? 

The Ohr HaChayim explains:  it’s Joshua’s time, and these are lifetime appointments . Another compensation -when Moses lifts his eyes to see the land G’d would allow the vision of his eyes to fulfill his dreams. (Which kind of reminds me of all the zoom weddings, and b’ nei mitzvahs we saw during COVID. Oy!)

The reason that G!d gives for denying Moses entry is fascinating: RAV L’CHAH: you have so much! Rashi says it means Moses will get more in the after-life. I disagree, and imagine I conversation I might have with Moses: “Dude you’re talking to the Creative force of the Universe, at this very moment! Wrapped in holiness and love, connecting heaven to earth, teaching Torah such as  “love your near one as Yourselves”, the envy of any spiritual seeker. YOU’RE ALREADY THERE, there can be no higher destination!”

Last week we read that Caleb was allowed entry to the land, because he remained fulfilled after his G*d encounter.  Last Shabbat, we read Isaiah’s vision that the whole earth was filled with G*d’s Glory, that we should see and cherish the holiness of the world, and then work to make it true. So instead of panicking at a challenge, I took a deep breath, I quieted my mind. I felt I was surrounded by Love and Truth, part of an infinite One-ness that is G*d. What a gift this seeking and then feeling and sharing!  Like Moses, I was already there! Where can we find this breath and quiet to find our way? These answers for me lie in the parashah. The first is Shabbat, a time to exhale our worries, a day to stop our acquiring and just be free. 

The second is : Shema Yisrael: Listen up You G!d wrestlers: V’ahavta we shall love, we are here to add our love to the world. And coincidentally, tomorrow night begins tuB’av  the holiday of Love, and ultimate joy.  And yet, it’s good to have goals, and it hurts not to reach our goals.

To my friend who died too young did not live to see her brilliant daughter graduate, to so many like her I can only offer the following:

the time is short, the work is great. Pirkei avot tells us– We may not get to finish the work, but the Shema teaches that we can add more love to our little part of the world, with the time we have. Speaking only For myself, knowing tomorrow is not guaranteed, scary as that is, has liberated me to follow my heart’s dream. My blessing for you: may you love, be liberated, take a deep breath, and know, whether you meet your goals or fall short: Rav L’chah, or Rav Lach you have so much!

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!

.

As we draw near the end of the book of Numbers, and as we count down to the ninth of Av, a reminder that numbers can be important! If you are  Yankees fan, you know that #42 belongs to the great Jackie Robinson. If you have read the wonderful, strange, funny book, Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy –, the answer to everything in life was calculated to be 42. Of course, it’s silly, you cannot calculate the answer to the meaning of life, but still, numbers and counting your days is important! In parashat Masei there are 42 stops and journeys the Israelites take on their way from Miztrayim, the place of slavery to the promised land.  That’s quite a lot: We are also counting down the days to Tisha B’av, a day of mourning for all the destruction in our history, a descent to honor sadness, In order to Be able to ascend. Most of the wandering (38) years is a result of the Israelites lack of faith, that G!d would be with them. The wilderness becomes a crucible to forge a free, rather than slave mentality.  Source page for these writings

Think about the various places you have been in your life’s journey. Maybe you are like me: when I tell my story, most of the time I don’t include the journeys have been too painful or embarrassing, those that I’ve either repressed or just edited out. Why tell those stories at all?

I have found out, and I bet you know: it’s to heal, as Rabbi David Ingber has shown so inspiringly with Shabbat of the Child.  But like the Israelites, how do we know if/ that G!d is with us each stop along the way – what about during hard the hard times?

Midrash Tanchuma explains that the Holy One was with us the entire time, in the Parable of a King who journeys with his child to a series of health spas, and the recalls the journey to search for healing fondly . AND

Evidence that G!d was with us all along is in the number 42,

For there is a 42 letter name of G!d reflected in the prayer Ana B’Koach, “untangle our knots”, a 42 word prayer, each word corresponding to one of the stops in the journey!

The commentary Or HaChayim goes on to ask: why focus on the moving, rather than the destinations?  I studied with R’ Mimi Feigelson thhttps://jwa.org/rabbis/narrators/feigelson-mimiis past week, who spoke of how much she has changed, and the importance of being open to change. To look in the mirror at the end of the day, and not know “who you are” that Ayin, openness. The change itself is a yearning, to follow holiness, “Dancing in G!d’s earthquake” as R Arthur Waskow says.

So keep change in your pockets at all times, for the bus, for the beggar…

Keep on marching ahead to that place where you learn what simplicity
is; What commitment is for
Why the eyes were created
Why the soul is transparent
Why there’s no greater gift
In this wondrous world
Than to suffer a heart filled with love for no reason ….

Keep change in your pockets at all times! ~ Danny Maseng

Machla Noa, Hogla, Milkah and Tirtzah

I love these names, they are five of my biblical heroines.  Welcome to Parashat Pinchas!

Numbers, chapters 26-7 is genealogy almost entirely in the male.  Interestingly also repeated are those who have died, and who don’t leave descendants. Link to Source Page

Korach’s death is mentioned but his sons live; Nadav and Avihu’s deaths are mentioned again- though they didn’t leave descendants, their names live on. Tzelophechad, like Tevya had 5 daughters, and they had no property rights at all, because no women did, and their names had no way to persist into the future

How is that so  important, that a name lives on? Well in one practical way, each name by tribe is also how promised land will pass through the generations. Remember, they haven’t gotten there yet, but unlike many of the cranky Israelites, they believe in the promise – that we’re going home. Beyond the practical, to tell our stories can be life itself.  Our stories make meaning of who we are and share that essence, weaving the fragments of our life into a single container. With our story  according to Marc Margolius, we “fix the brokenness of our reality” into a whole. To tell your story, your pain and your joys is profound, a way to find common ground, connect to values, ideals and to know your life matters. The oppressed, the powerless are voiceless, and as a shy person as a child, I came only slowly to find my voice

Vatikrovna ,they drew near, and Va-amodna  they stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the princes, and the whole assembly, at the  opening of the Tent of Meeting, and they said, Our father died in the wilderness. He was not one of the gang of Korah’s witnesses, who banded together against G!d, but died for his own sin; and sons – he had none. (4) Why should the name of our father be lost from the midst of his family just because he had no son? Give us a holding among our father’s brothers.”.

How do these five sisters, in a society where women are disenfranchised find the courage to challenge Moses, the Torah, the status quo?  Ohr haChayim explains,  they joined together with one another, and consulted with their clan, that they both came near, and stood up means they shed their veil of timidity and stood with  sufficient self-assurance to face Moses directly. And they won an amendment to the Torah! (5) Moses brought their law before the G!d. (6) And the G!d said to Moses, (7) “Yes, The words of Zelophehad’s daughters are true: you must surely give to them a hereditary holding among their father’s brothers; transfer their father’s share to them. (8) “And speak to the Israelite people saying: ‘If a man dies without a son, you shall transfer his property to his daughter Rashi explains -God really said: Exactly so is this chapter written before me on High (Sifrei Bamidbar 134:1). This tells us that their eye saw what Moses’ eye did not see. (They had a finer perception of what was just in the law of inheritance than Moses had.) So they are heroes because they wrote themselves into the story,

Who lives, who dies, who tells your story…   ~LM Miranda

And when you’re gone, who remembers your name?
Who keeps your flame? 
Who tells your story?  (Machlah, Noa, Hogla, Mika and Tirtza)

We put ourselves back in the narrative  
We stop wasting time on tears
(Machlah, Noa, Hogla, Mika and Tirtza) (They tell our story)         

In their eyes I see us, the disenfranchised of today.

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!

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!

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!