The LORD said to Moses: Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say

to them: None shall make himself tamei (impure to bring an offering in the

Mishkan) for any nefesh among his people,

Emor, the command to speak, follows vayomer, and G!d spoke, and the v’amarta – you shall tell a three fold repetition of speaking. Rambam explains we must say over and over, and Rashi explains, teach the children, and so the repetition. There is a story of Rav Pinchas of Koretz, whose brother was an eminent scholar, but Pinchas was all fire and emotion, who often was unable to study, because when the paragraph began “And G!d said” he would cry out in wonder, and run outside so moved by that miracle. Here we have G!d speaking, and then the same word AMAR repeated, three times, for Moshe will say and tell them. I can’t even imagine how Pinchas would react. For me, It reflects a beautiful echoing: G!d speaks and Moshe speaks, and then the kohanim must teach. But will our teachings be good enough? G!d’s speach is the pure ideal. Ours will be flawed by the limitations of our understanding and capacities, and perhaps there will be dissonance between them, a paradox.

AND who is this nefesh that will make the Kohen tame? Often used to mean person Nefesh is a level of soul, the life-force of the body, the awareness of the body. enmeshing of the Nefesh with cells and tissues body. Nefesh here is understood to mean a body which has died. I am learning about Jewish concepts of what happens to the soul after death, and merging it with my own understanding from biology, and finding it very enriching. Judaism does not separate mind from body, they are enmeshed. Just as the cells still remain alive, many of them, in the body, so the soul is still partly there

So why would this contact make the Kohen tamei? This is an important question, because there are many kohanim that still will not go to a funeral. My teacher Reb Marcia our teacher, who explained that the Mishkan is no longer here so many Kohanim do not feel that restriction. That’s a good thing because in Ex 19:6 says we should be a nation of kohanim!

This non-separation of life and death, I think, explains why the Kohanim become tamei with contact: this nefesh is a mixture of life and death, a dangerous in between place. The kohen is supposed to radiate an ideal, be symbolic of pure life. Yet he is mortal, human flawed as we all are, and so the paradox. We all exist within this contradiction: harmony and beauty exists and so does dissonance and despair. Mortality collides with our visions of eternity. In perhaps the most challenging verse of Emor, 17 Moshe is to explain to Aharon that any of his chilren

who has a mum/defect shall not draw near and offer nourishment to God.

But we are a nation of Kohanim, and I want to draw near, and bring the offerings of my heartand somehow nourish this world and G!d, AND I, like 26% of Americans, have a mum, a disability. Further I’ve learned that many wounds are invisible, yet disabling. And I pray G!d will accept my prayer, though I am imperfect.

Rabbi Shefa offers this teaching about Emor: Our spiritual challenge is to acknowledge with eyes wide open, our flaws, the harm we cause through them: the suffering, injustice and cruelty that pervade our world…AND at the same time… to see the absolute perfection of it all.

I know R Shefa is right, and the only way through is …through – I am broken, but have known visions of perfections, hear dischord, but know harmony. Am mortal but can conceive of an immortal soul, The paradox is the way home. Maybe that why Torah repeats AMAR 3 times.The first is G!d’s speech, the second is our flawed speech, the third is our speech through the crucible of recognizing of our wounds and defects, the third is our healed speech made holy once again.

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, Havayah, your G8d am holy!

I will speak about Kedoshim . In this amazing parashah, G8d 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 Rabbi Akiva: love your near one as yourself, Hillel adds -the rest is commentary, go and study. 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 G8D 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 G8d in the land. We prayed twice this morning – m’lo kol ha- artetz k’vodo – the whole earth is filled with G8d’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 Shechinah, nourishing the children of Yisrael in the valley between! And El Shaddai means G8d of breasts. I love this image of G8d nursing and nourishing us.

And yet we allow prostituting of 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

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!

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.

One of my favorite Scenes from ET is when the children hide ET. The grownups are coming to look for him.

Where do they hide him? Among the other toys, in plain sight!

In the Zohar G!d glory Hiding in plain sight, and each word of the Torah can be a doorway to the divine.

What precious gems are hiding in plain sight in our lives? How can they become revealed? Pekudei offers an answer in 3 parts 1. Prepare – make something new 2. Wait 3. Pay attention esp to the familiar!

Pekudei, the Israelites have finally completed the Mishkan. It is the final book of Exodus, a happy ending, The Israelites are free in the wilderness, and having left Sinai have prepared a place  for G!d to dwell among them. They have given of their hearts their best gifts, and prepared a beautiful portable sanctuary. and are now creating the garments for Aaron and his descendants: Let’s listen to one verse chapter 40 verse 14 from this week’s

וְאֶת־בָּנָ֖יו תַּקְרִ֑יב וְהִלְבַּשְׁתָּ֥ אֹתָ֖ם כֻּתֳּנֹֽת׃

Then bring his sons forward, put tunic (K’tonet) on them,

This reference to K’tonet is a hyperlink to Joseph – same word for his coat of many colors. There is a passage in the Zohar say that with the days of our lives, we create a k’tonet pasim –garment like a coat of many colors for our souls. Each day we add colors or rip out threads. At the end of our lives, we have created from our lives the garment of our soul. R’ Abraham Heschel.Know that every deed counts, that every word is power…Above all, remember that you must build your life as if it were a work of art.” ―

It is gorgeous to think that as our bodies, skin and organs fray with age, that we our soul’s garment can grow more full and dazzling. So each day we can prepare.  What gifts are we bringing in our lives to prepare our dwelling place for the Divine in our hearts? 

Part of the preparation is to make space, to create a hollow space in our heart, devoid of ego, a space for love.  What is the difference between the golden calf, and the arc of the tabernacle covered and lined with gold, with the golden kruvim forming an arc above? The answer  occurred to me this week: The calf is solid, the arc and cruvim create a space! A space for G!d

2ndly we must wait. In Pekudei the Israelites must wait until the first of Nisan for the official dedication of the Mishkan, when Moses knows the time is right.  Waiting can be hard, it requires discipline and trust. Waiting: psalm 5:4  Hear my voice oh G!d, at daybreak I shall prepare for You , and I wait. …. I wait Zohar asks – what does this mean? Surely all the people of the world hope and wait for the goodness of the blessed Holy One, even the animals of the field

 How do you keep the trust and know spring will come?  I discovered shoots of daffodil that had been preparing under the snow. A second Heschel quote “Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.”

3^rd, pay attention. If we look for it, there miracles hiding in plain sight – in the daffodil shoots, in the eyes of a friend, in G!d appearing in a misty cloud. No more will there be a dramatic sound and lights show like Sinai. Though awe inspiring it didn’t work to keep G!d in our hearts. It was too powerfully scary. So we made what was familiar, a golden calf, took the easy way out – and fear was the pathway to the dark side. One of my favorite quotes from R’ AJH “Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ….get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.”

Taking G!d with you, it’s how we carry our dreams through the journey of years.  But how can our dreams survive intact through all of our fears? Cut the cloth with love, measure the seams with care, cast jewels of joy on the breastplate and light that flame eternal.

This week’s parashah is Ki tisa, which literally means “when you lift up”.one of my favorites to leyn from the Torah. I am in love with its message about second chances, In despair and disappointment  over that little rebellious thing called the Golden calf, Moses’ becomes driven to go up to the mountain and plead “hareini et c’vodecha!” And G!d places Moshe in the cleft of the rock and we receive a new covenant based upon the 13 middot of love and compassion. 

Wondrously I found multiple connections to someone in my own family whose name is featured in this parashah

My beloved  Grandpa’s Hebrew name was  Betzalel who is introduced here are the chief artisan of the mishkan,, and he was chosen as an artist of the mishkan because of Chochma lev, wisdom of the heart. My grandpa was not an artist, he was a CPA, an accountant -also he was wise of heart. Lest you think that’s not a connection

“You shall lift up the heads of the Israelites to count them in a census” Exodus 30:11

So why are we lifting up the heads of the Israelites – in order to count them. And why are we counting them so many times?. Sforno says something fascinating “the need to count human beings stems from the fact that human beings are not the same each time,” I love the idea of lifting up to count, and to recount b/c of the possibility of change

And as I looked for a common thread I realized that my grandpa lifted me up so many times, ki tisa,

 and in his eyes I always counted. 

So, a name, and counting. Another connection is that of second chances. AS Moshe gets a second chance, so our family

His father a refugee from the Kossack draft, his father fled to America, then brought his wife to join. Our families did not give up, life in Romania was so harsh, they came here, where this country gave them all a second chance. He carved out for his family a beautiful life in this new world, and crafted a mishkan for our family based on love and kindness and righteous acts. He persisted through the great depression, courted my Grandma long distance while he went to college, education drawing them out of poverty.

Fourth connection

Also in this parashah is the text for V’shamru – the children of Israel shall keep Shabbat , as a sign of the covenant between G!d and Israel forever, because on six days G!d rested, but on the seventh, Shavat vayinafash, G!d re-souled

And that each Shabbat, every Saturday, my brother and I were dropped off at Grandma and Grandpa’s house -which was an oasis of love.On Shabbat –he would walk home from shul singing, but he couldn’t afford to rest for the entire day. He supported his aging mother, his brother’s family, and assisted my own. But I think that his Shabbat was enough time for him to “nafash” re-soul, for  was a living embodiment of the middot, , loving compassionate, full of grace,

One more thread of connection to this parashah is the k’toret hasamim – the incense.  My grandparents home always smelled amazing, the aromas of baking and cooking helped to create that oasis. It’s known that smell is the sense most intimately connected to memory and emotion. And I’ve passed on the home cooking bug to all 3 of my children.

So Moshe carved two tablets like the ones he smashed, emboldened perhaps by his failure the first time up the mountain, he experiences G!d’s cavod.  He returns from this second chance with a new covenant, his face radiant – keren ohr, rays of light shining from his face. My Grandfather’s face was often radiant with wisdom of the heart!  A blessing: may we know we count for our own chochma lev, valuing that G!d given essence whether our talent is numbers or art or music May the righteous acts we perform be the k’toret hasamim .And may we find in doing them we are lifted up ki tisa – beyond our worries into  perspective and compassion, and may our faces shine knowing we are loved.

Drash for erev Purim

In my classroom I sometimes tell terrible puns,

My grandpa was a great punster

As is my Zohar teacher, Elliot Ginsburg

Why are jokes funny – it’s the unexpected juxtaposition of two things that go together.

That’s’ why Purim is such a radical, spiritual holiday, and maybe why humor is such a great Jewish thing.

The mystics tell us: Shema Yisrael, listen up, you G8d-Dancers, our G8d is one, and ein od – there is nothing else, all is G8d.

Wait, all? The thorns and the rose,  what about the people that disagree with us. I know all about them, I know their story and refuse to listen any more. I did that to a relative in January, “writing him off” I said and Purim is the only thing that brought me around.

What if we could really blur the edges between Mordechcccai and Haman, to see ourselves in the eye of the other, to hold out the possibility that they might change from one nano second to the next.

Jill Hammer writes:  Mordechai represents the desire in us not to bow down to anyone. Haman symbolizes the desire in us for power over others.

A world of peace, war will cease,  I can see you are me in disguise, I’ll wipe the tears from your eyes.

Roberta spoke of this earlier in the week:  I am the pirate, I am the abused one

Dangerous, radical, this one-ness, maybe even funny. But it could lead to redemption.

Yesterday I shared the words of R’ Ariel Burger about his mentor Elie Weisel: the face of Elie Wiesel is a map of the world if the world had been wounded and still managed to laugh.

Ariel went on to talk about having an“an open heart, in spite of everything.”

And Wiesel said “I teach with an open heart, not for moral reasons, but for pragmatic ones.”

Understanding of what our role is here on this planet is why we must embrace opposites, Mordechai and Haman, science and spirit, strength and love,-to hold opposites at views at the same time, to create a chimera, a hybrid, a collage, a synthesis which is balanced as the sephirot of chesed and din are balanced

Embracing Opposites

How do we merge the two?

How do we hold the dissonance

How do we cleave to You

In this eternal dance?

G8d’s love is a rose,

But what of brutal thorns?

what are we to do:

how are these things You?

How do we merge the love of G8d

Holding it with the Judge so hard?

How can hope for redemption jive

with history;s cruel imagination?

The soaring mind of Rambam 

with Zohar’s erotic  passion?

Bewildering, inspiring

Answer my burning question.

And face of Elie Wiesel –

Is a map of the world,

if the world had been wounded,

yet still managed to laugh.

How do we merge the two?

How do we hold the dissonance

How do we cleave to You

How do we learn to dance

I need to take a chance

I am convinced it is absolutely necessary to see both – to hold opposites at views at the same time, to create a chimera, a hybrid, a collage, a synthesis which is balanced as the sephirot of chesed and din are balanced.

Giving as the gift. When a soul is full of gratitude we may be inspired to give, and in doing gain even more. Gratitude, I am convinced more and more, may be the whole ball game, what we’re here for.

But back to our story. When we Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, God redeemed us at the Sea and we became bound in covenant at Sinai. Tradition says we were all of us there in our makom, place around the mountain. When the day came, where it was time to leave the place of our inspiration. I remember saying“I don’t want to go back to work” Oh, we have to go? Then I want to take all of this amazing feeling with us.

What have been your moments of clarity and inspiration, where the one-ness just overwhelms, when we intuit our place around the mountain and G8d calls our name? Maybe you have taken part in protest marches. Or were part of the vast desert sky full of stars, Or that moment of seeing your bashert, or your new born child for the first time How do we leave these Holy encounters and go back to the mundane tasks of life?

Torah’s answer: Give from your heart, make something beautiful– a space where G8d can dwell. Make it to divine specs The word Mishkan, the name for the portable sanctuary we would build, comes  from the same word as Shechinah. Maybe the space you will be building for G8d to dwell will be in your own heart.  G8d spoke to Moses, saying:

וְיִקְחוּ־לִ֖י תְּרוּמָ֑ה

Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart so moves him.

gold, silver, and copper;

וּתְכֵ֧לֶת וְאַרְגָּמָ֛ן וְתוֹלַ֥עַת שָׁנִ֖י וְשֵׁ֥שׁ וְעִזִּֽים׃

blue, purple, and crimson yarns, fine linen, goats’ hair;

tanned ram skins, dolphin skins, and acacia wood;

oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and וְלִקְטֹ֖רֶת הַסַּמִּֽים׃ the aromatic incense;

lapis lazuli and other stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.

וְעָ֥שׂוּ לִ֖י מִקְדָּ֑שׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּ֖י בְּתוֹכָֽם׃

And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell within them.

Reb Nachman of Bratzlav says in that when you open your heart to give, your heart remains open to receive from above. And what you receive in return is something more precious than metals, gems and the other offerings. When you open your heart to give, what you receive comes from the “Supernal Heart”, Noam HaElyon, the Divine Pleasantness.

there is something about giving with all your heart. You get more than you give. In the afterglow of Sinai so many people gave, Moses had to say “stop, enough”! We did it together

Perhaps redemption at the sea and seeing the thunder at Sinai were for actually for this -communal heart opening

What would you give at Sinai – that’s personal and beautiful and real?

For me music. has been my sulam, my ladder to the heavens, healing and heart opening. In the past, my giving has brought me to assisted living facilities for many years to play old time songs, and Jewish songs at the time of the holidays. You should see folks come alive when songs from their childhood are sung. Music has the charm to soothe the savage breast.   And it’s been sad not to be able to give in this way during the past year.  And I just realized the other day, speaking to my spiritual counselor, that my volunteer work on line has come along just at this time, and has become my way to give.

Now in 2026, I hope to build a Mishkan, a dwelling place in where people can sing, and be inspired, connect to the Holy One of blessing and to one another. But it also must be a place where folks can give of their heart, where their talent is needed and appreciated. Anne Gregory Teicher has just stepped forward to volunteer in managing the website. Others of you have begun taking classes, Bonnie will read Torah. I want to sing Halleluyah! Now we can begin to build!

Olam chesed yibaneh. I will build this world from love, and you must build this world from love; and if we build this world from love, then G8d will Olam chesed yibaneh. I will build this world from love, and you must build this world from love; and if we build this world from love, then G8d will build this world from love!

We have  experienced so much drama in Torah these last weeks, as we have at home: Redemption at the sea, Revelation at Sinai. Now in Parashat Mishpatim, meaning Laws, we learn that Sinai’s inspiration is carried forward by the perspiration of the way we act toward one another, to recognize the tzelem, the image of G8d in the other . 

In the few verses I’m honored to read on Shabbat are laws about taking responsibility for things you set in motion, even if you didn’t do them yourself:

If you let your animals graze and they eat grain or food from another’s field, you must pay double. If you start a fire, and it consumes food in another’s field, you must pay back double, or volunteer to work in their field. You set the fire, or the grazers in motion and you must take responsibility when things went out of control and other people were infringed upon. They might starve b/c of your actions. You are responsible.  

Do I have to say if you incite a riot?  On three things the world stands: Truth, Justice and peace.   Pirke Avot

But  if they are outside your group, a ger,  you should love them, and not oppress them, Why? Because, Torah says twice in this parshah:  you know their soul! you’ve been there – refugee immigrants in a land not your own, And in their eyes you are commanded to see your own soul!

I wrote this song for a drash on Mishpatim two years ago. Earlier that year our misdeeds against the stranger rose in glaring ugliness, as immigrants at our southern border were, and continue to be imprisoned and held in inhumane conditions.  For me the image seared in my mind of John Moore’s photo printed on the cover of Time, of the toddler crying beside a towering border patrol officer. The mother and child had been on the road for a month. Many families were separated, and human beings were called illegals

V’hager lo tilchatz, y’datem et nefesh ha-ger,  ki gerim heyitem

These and many other laws were entered into a contract sealed with the words: naaseh v’nishma – we will do, and we will hear. We do first, act justly, and perhaps then we will really be able to nishma – hear, not be deaf

HEAR THEIR CRIES, Miryam Wolfson December 30, 2018, updated January, 10, 2026

You already know how it goes 

To be so far from safety, from home

To be alone, to be a outcast in a narrow zone

Love the immigrant, you were one too

Love the immigrant, you know their soul

Hear their cries and know

You can be part of the healing, 

make things whole

A little boy cries in the night

Though they hear him no one comes to hold him tight

No one makes it right, or reunites

The world seems far too big and too cold

Without Papa beside her to hold  

Bridge

Naaseh v’nishma, We will help and then truly hear

When we comfort and dry the tears 

It can open the way

To be free, to live in dignity

Naaseh v’nishma,  

Let us open our hearts and our minds

Cause there will always be mountains to climb

We can truly be there, 

even gather a glimpse of Divine

if we..

Love the immigrant, we were there too

Love the immigrant, we know their soul

Hear their cries and know

we  must be part of the healing, 

make ourselves whole

I originally wrote this exactly four years ago, for DLTI but never published. A favorite kid’s book of mine is the Big Orange Splot, (Daniel Pinkwater), in which a sea gull spills a can of orange paint on the owner, Mr. Plumbean’s roof. Instead of repainting or erasing, the owner leaves the blemish, turns it into a sun image, and remakes his whole home to reflect his dreams. “My house is me and I am it. My house is where I like to be and it looks like all my dreams.” And the neighborhood responds, until all the homes reflect their owner’s dreams and soul. According to Rav Kook, the loving details of the mishkan show us the various ways to connect to G-d. Could Mishkan be a map of our hopes and dreams and very soul. But what about the “splots” – the disappointments, challenges, faults, shame. Maybe they are important too, like Mr. Plumbean’s splot, can become the sun in our scene!  

Mansion dreams in giant sizes filled me when I was younger

in center was a room made and star dust and light

E                      F#m7                                 G#m7         F#m7   B7

Today a tent will do, a canopy where together we can become whole

D                     F#m7                                 G#m7

I think there’s sublime design to my very soul

E                                 F#m7                                 G#m7                                     B7

Taking God with us, it’s how WE Carry  our Dreams through the journey of years

D                                              F#m7                                  G#m7          F#m7

How can our dreams survive intact through the all the fears?

Cut the cloth from love, Measure out the seams with care

cast jewels of joy on the breast plate and light that flame, eternal flame

Mansion dreams in giant sizes filled me when I was younger

What Remains in the center is a room made and star dust and light

E                      F#m7                                 G#m7         F#m7                           B7

Today a tent will do, a canopy where together we can become whole

D                                 A                                  F#m                 G#m

I think there’s sublime design to my very soul

But off on the side is a dark fearful room

D                      A

Hurt, anguish doubt emptiness and gloom

is this all sublime design too or simply my chains?

If I can embrace that place too,

a soft gentle breeze blows right through

to fan my ner tamid to blazing blue and yellow and purple and scarlet hues.

Points the way You Helps me see way through

Chorus