Torah for now

Posts tagged ‘torah’

Speaking Truth to Power

A New calendar new year approaches. Perhaps we think about New Years resolutions, What are some of yours? Can we really change? What must the foundation be for our change? Perhaps theses 3 steps: Admit our truth, our imperfections, learn from experience, speak: redefining who we are out loud.

What about bigger changes of making the world a more just and kind place?

That also requires recognizing our common errors, and speaking truth to power. This week’s news saw truth under attack. A news story by 60 minutes was pulled that was so painful to watch. Climate change science is being removed from government websites. Everything is not ok. To the voice in me that says “People don’t change, and the powers that be are too strong: why should we even try?” Torah comes at this time of year to show us, yes, people, can and do change. And when they present their truth from the heart, everything can change.

This week we read the climax of the Joseph saga in Parashat Vayigash in Hebrew, meaning “and he drew close”. It is the face off between two brothers: Yehuda in one corner, and Yoseph/ tzaphenat in the other

Yoseph

In Gen 41:45, last week’s parasha:

And Pharaoh called Yosef’s name: Tzafenat Pane’ah/The God Speaks and He Lives,
and he gave him Asenat, daughter of Poti Fera, priest of On, as a wife.
And Yosef’s [influence] went out over the land of Egypt (Gen 41:45)

Pharoah gives him a name and makes a match-a wife, things a parent does

Tzaphenat dresses like Pharoah, speaks Egyptian, pretends not to understand Hebrew, has a divining cup, He names his firstborn Menashe/He-Who-Makes-me Forget,
meaning: God has made-me-forget all my hardships, all my father’s house. (Gen 41:51) Joseph even enslaves people, they are forced to give up everything, becoming serfs in exchange for the rations he has saved in preparation for the famine. He enslaves one of his own brothers, Simeon, until they return with beloved Benjamin. Even in power, he does not send a messenger to his father!

What about brother Judah? He’s the one who said “let’s sell him as a slave” He is not the firstborn, Reuben is, Yet it is he that steps forward in this, the climax of the Joseph story. This approach was not something the old Yehudah could do! The one who guarded his terrible secret, and had no empathy for either his brother, or his father, who was inconsolable thinking Yoseph had died. Yehudah contains the letters of G8d in his name יְהוּדָה YHUDH. He is the one tribe of Israelites whose kingdom survived, named the Lion by his father’s blessing.

Yehuda approaches Yoseph who he believes Is the grand vizier of Egypt, akin Pharoah: he draws near. Proverbs 27:19

(19)As face answers to face in water,So does one’s heart to another’s.

Emmanuel Levinas teaches us that only by recognizing the face of the other can humanity survive. I always thought it was a drawing near in love, by appealing to love to reunite a family. But the commentators knew differently. This is a chutzpadick approach, this took courage, this was war!

See Rashi 44:18:3, S’forno and Or haChayim 44:18:1

Yehuda’s speech is found Here

Here is my aha moment, reading the comments this time around:

Judah’s approach to Pharoah foreshadows Moses’ approach to a different Pharoah 400 years later, a Pharoah who did not know Yoseph. That Judah’s redefining himself accroding to his personal truth is what leads to Yoseph defining himself: I am Yoseph! Od avinu Chai: does my father live?

Judah has shown us that change is indeed possible. But for his internal change to change outside conditions, he must reveal his truth, and have the courage to go Face to Face with the powers that be. Those powers happen to be his brother Joseph in a deep masquerade. Judah’s truth reaches down to pull the truth from Joseph’s deep well. Each brother defines himself by his words. May we define ourselves according to our deepest truths, and bring about the change needed in our fractured world

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The power of Words: Emor

Language is one of the very few features that defines being Human. Certainly other creatures have language: Trees in the forest speak to one another chemically beneath the soil, (would that be amazing to hear and speak that language!), bees dance to tell one another where the good flowers are. Other great apes can be taught sign Language. But the brain space devoted to the motor and sensory parts of language in humans is enormous! (shaded in this diagram) When I was four years old, I learned about lying, from Michael, the four-year-old little boy next door, who just made up a lie in answer to my question. When I asked him why, he just shrugged. We have the full range of words and the power to abuse them or write poetry so true it makes the heart soar. What could it mean for the troubling times we’re in?

In Genesis, G8d speaks, and the world comes to be. This week’s reading Emor, begins “speak”(emor) to the Priests (Aaron’s sons, Kohanim), speaking…. Emor begins with the silent letter “Aleph”. Moses is instructing the Priests to avoid contact with the dead, except for their immediate relatives. The Hasidic masterpiece Mei Hashiloach explains this: A Kohen will see every harsh thing in the world as a purposeful act of the Holy One, and become really angry, so upset is he with the suffering. “as discussed in the holy Zohar. Therefore God commanded, “Emor el haKohanim – say to the Kohanim.” “Emor – say,” means speaking softly. God enjoins us to whisper into the ears of the servants of God that they should not hold grudges (against G8d) Source page linked Here (for Torah nerds!)

The end of the reading contains a narrative teaching more on the power of words: What does it mean to curse G8d’s name, and why does it matter? After all, it’s just words: sticks and stones can break my bones…. In the narrative, a fight breaks out when a man with an Egyptian father tries to camp in the area reserved for the tribe of Dan, which was his Israelite mother’s tribe. Apparently, you only get to camp according to Dad’s tribe. The midrash identifies the Egyptian father as the task master who was beating the slaves so severely, that Moses slew him, and had to flee Egypt. His mother was an Israelite woman (likely the child was born of rape, his mother being a slave at the time). During the scuffle, the man screams out the ineffable name of G8d (in Hebrew YHVH) whose meaning is existence itself, and curses it. This is the only form of “cursing G8d” which earns the death penalty! (Rash 24:16:1)

This seems harsh to a man in pain, ostracized, trying to defend his mother and his parentage, not to mention the fact that Moses killed his father. Like the Kohen he gets super angry. Moses is at a loss: it is one of the four times in Torah that G8d’s help is sought for judgment. (Moses’ kids do not have an Israelite Mother either) What sense can be made of it all?

The book of Job also has a dramatic discussion about using words to curse G8d. When he loses everything, Job still blesses G8d. When he’s covered in painful sores, he curses the day he’s born, but refuses to curse the Source of life itself. An angry response is understandable, but “mad” is a synonym for angry, and there can be psychological and physical chaos if we release our anger. The idea that words can create worlds has a corollary: words can destroy worlds.

There are two different words for “cursing” or blaspheming used here in Hebrew. The words used here are לקלל l’kallel and ונקב V’nikav, which mean both mean to puncture, to put a hole in something. I am reminded of a balloon suddenly pierced, it flies away and collapses as the air is released. The name for G8d YHVH is a mashup of past, present and future tenses of the verb “to be” and the “breath of life” according to Rabbi Arthur Waskow which, if it were to be pronounced, would sound like breathing. This reminds me of the ‘whispering” that is spoken to the Kohanim. To scream this name in anger and curse it is to curse existence itself . To mess with it is to question that there is meaning and goodness at the heart of life. All those who heard the curse were to place their hands upon his head and witness the punishment. In Hearing the curse, there is danger. Quoting Mei HaShiloach again “Zohar says (Vayikra, 106a), “He took the final Hei in God’s holy name and cursed him, in order to defend his mother.” This is because the final Hei hints at the world of Asiyah, the world of action. Though God desires that we fulfill His mitzvot with our actions, still He wanted to create an opening whereby He would bring about salvation even without the actions of man” This is a fascinating comment: there are no shortcuts, only by partnering with the Holy One of Blessing can we perfect the brokenness. For more on the blasphemer, see Aviva Gottleib Zornberg’s book on Leviticus: The Hidden order of Intimacy, Chapter Emor. Through her books on Torah, she has been a powerful teacher!

The air waves and print are full of screams, and lies. The Name of G8d is being used, as it has been during the Crusades and pogroms, to hurt people. Chaos, hatred and anger are being used for the power they bring. These are dangerous times. To witness all that we hold sacred, ideals such as “love the stranger” “love your neighbor as yourself” the imperative to care for the gift of creation, and that we should pursue justice, truth and peace upon which the world rests (Mishnah Avot) being threatened is profoundly disturbing. What life raft will keep us afloat? I am reminded of a story of a king who is told that his country’s wheat fields are almost completely contaminated by a fungus which causes insanity. They have enough of the old flour left to support one man – “shall it be for you, Majesty”? Ask the king’s advisors. The King thinks for a bit, and decides, “no, it must be reserved for my wisest, trusted advisor. That way when everyone has gone mad, I will have someone to look to whisper the truth in my ear and to guide me.” Can you hear the whispers, because it seems to me the world has gone made, from the abuse of words. What do you think?

Deflating balloon flies away flat cartoon vector illustration isolated on white background. Air balloon deflates with puffs of air. Kids rubber toy and decoration element.

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Make a Mishkan today, for healing of the earth!

This week’s reading in Torah is “Pekudei” and is the end of the dramatic book of Exodus, which told of our redemption and revelation. We were freed to follow the Mysterious Forces of liberation, rather than a human ruler, and to follow pathways of “loving the stranger” because we were once strangers. Moses climbed a mountain, and was inspired to bring down, not just stone tablets, but the gorgeous Divinely inspired blueprints. With the help of inspired artists, we created a space to take G8d with us on our journeys. This inspired, beautiful, community-made space is the Mishkan. (see last week’s teaching)

Once upon a time we built a Mishkan in this country. We came together from all parts of the country to make the AIDS quilt*. The HIV/AIDS epidemic was terrifying, and we had come through a very narrow place (Mitzrayim/Egypt means narrow) with many souls lost. We who were alive then all knew someone who had died, it was a scary time. (the HIV pandemic is still happening, I know.) From their grief and memories, each family brought a square with the name of their lost loved one, filling the Washington mall. Then the squares were connected very much like the panels on the Mishkan, looping connections through the grommets. When it was completed, it was an enormous, portable, communal work of art. It travelled around the country, and folks added names to it. Last week in Vayakhel, we saw how the Mishkan could be the measurement of a human soul. The many connections between the end of Exodus and the first chapter of Genesis (source page here) show some of the parallels of the creation of the Mishkan to the creation of the universe: the human-made and G8d/nature-made are intertwined. In today’s fractured world, where fighting seems to be the default way of dealing with one another, what if we were to build another communal work of art? If the Mishkan represents creation, perhaps we can fashion squares with the images of creatures and features of this beautiful planet, alternating with the beautiful and diverse images of babies born this year who will inherit the land? This could be our travelling sanctuary to bring healing to our planetary one. (*gratitude to Rabbi Arthur Waskow, whose book “Freedom Journeys” p.99, reminded me of this quilt and the link to the Mishkan!)

Hazak, Hazak, v’nitchazek, is chanted as we complete a book of the Torah: Be very strong, and may we be strengthened!

Diverse babies sitting on the floorPetition · Save Threatened animals before its to late! - Ireland · Change.org

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Don’t worry, be happy?

Every life has its creation, revelation of great truths, and redemption from forces greater than us. It seems to me that we in the US have suddenly started ignoring our revelation of democracy. It was only 250 or so years ago, that we conceived a new way of government meant to empower the populace: a better way than monarchy. And we’ve turned our back on it. Satan has been whispering in our ears, something about immigrants, the price of eggs, and things aren’t like they used to be. We made the bad old days into the new normal. And we’re laughing and partying?

On the holiday of Purim, we’re supposed to be happy. “I always hated Purim, admitted my friend, Chaim.” He didn’t like to be told to “be happy!” That’s understandable! American culture loves to tell us to be happy: party, have fun, divert yourself. Here’s Dick Van Dyke singing Put On a Happy Face. “wipe off that frown and cheer up, put on a happy face” It sounds obnoxious to be told “cheer up, it’s not that bat” On the other hand, Laughter really can be the best medicine! When is the last time you had a really good belly laugh? It is wonderful at breaking the tension, and it’s great, and humbling to make fun of your self, or impossible situations. Clowns and comedians are among our favorite entertainers.(Make ’em Laugh) Even if things are rough, it’s good to laugh at it! Who can forget Mel Brooks’ “Springtime for Hitler”, from the Producers?!

Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Deutschland is happy and gay
We’re marching to a faster pace
Look out, here comes the master race!

But humor is subjective, and sometimes not at all the right timing. On Purim The Book of Esther is an amazing political farce, basically SNL in Ancient Persia, railing against the monarchy. It begins with a king who is so disinterested in the people he rules that at the end of a 180-day drinking and feasting party for the princes, he declares, you guessed it, another week-long drinking party. When his queen refuses his demand to “dance” for his princes, he proclaims an edict to disempower all uppity wives. This is a dangerous situation, one which leads in just a few moves to a proclamation of genocide from the monarchy. If not for the courage of a woman who hid her identity, and was clueless about the genocide order, who seduced the king and made him jealous (careful not to appear uppity) all would have been lost. Whew. For this reason we fast on the day of the edict, and when the day is done we are supposed to joke, drink and be happy? Isn’t it drinking to a stupor that got us in this predicament.

For many, these are difficult times: our democracy seems to be replacing itself with something not very kind: A ruling party that cares about empowering and enriching itself, to the exclusion of the welfare of the most vulnerable. A party seeking scapegoats, who has little respect for truth or justice, and even empathy for others. We can stop assistance to fight malaria and AIDS abroad, round up folks who are undocumented, and scare the insides out of those of us who have lost a federal job, who know about climate change and the 1% among us who are trans, and their parents. And yet life seems to go on. Superbowl parties, celebrities partying on TV…. Yet what is wrong with trying to party and have a great time all the time? As I was preparing to chant from the book of Esther, I noticed a new line, from chapter 4, verse 2, that I had never paid attention to. The hero of the story, Mordechai comes to the gate of the walled city, but is not allowed in. He is in mourning, dressed in sac cloth, and no-one dressed that way is allowed in. Trying to shut out what and who disturbs us so we can be more cheerful? That’s not a time for laughter.

In the Torah reading for this week, the Israelites are also having a good party, dancing and in bawdy, raucous joy around a golden calf. They had been so worried that Moses was late, Satan whispering in their hearts that he was gone, “whew, that was a close one, good thing we made this calf!” they must have thought. This uninhibited dancing and release is why Moses broke the G8d-carved set of tablets. Not when he saw the idol, but the inappropriate revelry. The legend/ midrash tells of a character that disappears mysteriously from the tale: Hur, an assistant to Moses and Aaron. The legend explains he was murdered when Aaron hesitated to build the calf. Hur’s name translates to “hole” This is no time to be dancing ecstatically. We have just been freed from slavery. The Israelites saw the awesomeness of revelation, a scripture that would bring us closer to “love our near ones as ourself” and in a flash have been “stiff necked” unable to apply it when Moses was “late” coming down the mountain. In a flash, the old way of doing things becomes the new normal.

In the Babylonian Talmud Rava instructs us: It is one’s duty levasumei,  to make oneself fragrant [with wine] on Purim until one cannot tell the difference between ‘arur Haman‘ (cursed be Haman) and ‘barukh Mordekhai’ (Babylonian Talmud) levasumei is sometimes translated as “get drunk” The S’fat Emet disagrees, we get drunk on, not wine, but the fragrance of the Ten Commandments, the fragrance of revelation. Drunk with this we get silly, we get on the floor with the kids, as was the habit or the Baal Shem Tov, get messy and make mistakes so that we may rise again. And we see beyond the dualities of right and wrong. The Israelites have committed idolatry, yes. But in this same weekly reading, a new covenant based on forgiveness are revealed as Moses makes a second trip up the mountain and yearns to experience. El rachum v’chanun, erech apayim v’rav chesed v’emet. Love, grace, patience, kindness and truth. Second and third chances are possible. Perhaps it was a good thing the tablets of the commandments were smashed so they wouldn’t become an idol, says the S’fat emet.

On that Purim day, when we’re snookered on the Commandments, and loving one another as ourselves, we’ll be able to sing this song, and all will be Eden again.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn’t make any sense ~Rumi

(Melody coming soon for this!)

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Bring a little awe and love down! Terumah

In the reading from the Torah this week are the detailed instructions Moses receives to make the portable sanctuary by which the community who stood at Sinai can take inspiration with them, and to have the Holy One of blessing living in their midst. Most of the rest of Exodus is concerned with this, with one notable exception: the sin of the golden calf. Perhaps the sin of greed and insecurity which led to the golden calf. But how can the Holy One convey this to Moses, and why the detail? A midrash/legend from Bamidbar Rabba ” Moses said before the Holy One blessed be He: ‘My God, am I able to craft like these?’ He said to him: ‘Like the form “that I [am showining you]”’ (Exodus 25:9), “with the sky-blue, the purple, and the crimson wool, and with the fine linen” (Exodus 38:23). And G8d inscribes the pattern in fire on Moses’ palm.
The Midrash goes on to say, if you do this I will dwell in your midst, constricting/ focusing energy in this place you build. The same source places the reason for those colors of the sanctuary to reflect places on earth rather the heavens: “Its cushioning of gold” (Song of Songs 3:10) – this is the earth, which produces the fruit of the land and the fruit of the trees, which are similar to gold. Just as gold, there are different types and different shades, so too the fruits of the land; some of them are green and some of them are red.
“Its seat [merkavo] of purple wool [argaman]” (Song of Songs 3:10) – this is the sun, which is placed above, rides on a chariot [bemerkava], and illuminates the world, just as it says: “It is like a bridegroom leaving his bridal chamber…” (Psalms 19:6). By the power of the sun rain falls, and by the power of the sun the land produces fruit.

Finally, ““Its interior is inlaid with love” (Song of Songs 3:10) – as after all the act of Creation, He created Adam and Eve…”

In other words the travelling artwork/ sanctuary is the inspiration of the fire in the sky and the miracles of earth created in architecture and art.

We look to the heavens and the forests and fields for inspiration, they have a design which is far beyond our capacity to understand and imagine. If we can open our hearts to the awe and love they inspire, and bring the awe via music and art into our midst, gratitude and humility and joy can happen

It is written in psalm 16: 8 “I have set G8d before me continually” This can become a powerful practice, in Hebrew “Shiviti Adonai L’negd tamid”

SHIVITI (Miryam Margo Wolfson)

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The Most often repeated command: Do Not Oppress the Sojourner!

This week’s Torah portion is Mishpatim, meaning “laws”. The narrative of Revelation is interrupted to give a whole bunch of laws, although Moses is still up on Sinai! These laws include some troubling ones, as well as some beautiful laws (Source page Here )There is a flashback to before Revelation as well, where Moshe reads everything that came before Sinai to the Israelite people, and they answer as one All “na-aseh v’nishma” We will do and we will hear. How can you agree to do if you haven’t heard what the deal is. Rashbam explained it means we will do all we’ve been commanded so far and listen to upcoming ones. But the Me’or Einayim hints that the doing will open your heart, and bring so much joy and love, that you will simply be attuned to the Holy One. A voice from Heaven (bat kol) hearing the Israelites say “naaseh v’nishmah, asked “who told you this secret?” for this is how the angels serve the Blessed Holy One. It is a beautiful thing! So what is it we must do? The single most oft repeated command in the Torah stems from our experiences leaving Egyptian slavery. It is this: Do not oppress the stranger, for you know his nefesh soul, for you were strangers/sojourners in the land of Egypt. According to the Talmud, Rabbi Eliezer stated that “the Torah warns 36 times, and some say 46 times, not to oppress the stranger” (Babylonian Talmud, Bava M’tzia 59b) Twice in this Torah portion alone. By the time we get to Leviticus, it has morphed into a command to actually love the stranger as we love ourselves! Leviticus 19:33–34 and Deuteronomy 10:19

Once again, our neighbors and friends are being rounded up in churches and schools without any regard to being deserving or not. They are undocumented, they are vulnerable and sojourners. Our command is clear

HEAR THEIR CRIES, by Miryam Margo Wolfson December 30, 2018

You already know how it goes 

To be so far from safety, from home

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

Love the stranger, you were strangers too

Love the stranger, you know their soul

Hear their cries and know

You can be part of the healing, 

make things whole

A little girl cries in the nlght

Though they hear her no one comes to hold her tight

No one makes it right, or reunites

The world seems far too big and too cold

Without Momma 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 pathway so we

Can be free, to live in dignity

Naaseh v’nishma,  

Let us open our hearts and our ears

Cause there will always be mountains to climb

We can truly be there,*

even gather a glimpse of Divine

if we..

Love the stranger, we were strangers too

Love the stranger, we know their soul

We Hear their cries and know

we  must be part of the healing, 

make ourselves whole

* Moses is told to climb the mounain and be there!

Pulitzer prize winning photo by John Moore

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Singing at the Shores of Release & Black History month (and psalm 13)

Sometimes things feel so bleak, you feel squeezed on all sides between a “Rock and a hard place”. But you are here today you made it: the baby was born, you recovered from that breakup, disease, accident: you were redeemed, and life felt suddenly new and shiny again. (I ‘m a big fan of the Pixar movie Soul, which acts out such a scenario!) Remember that feeling, the inspiration? One of the names for G8d is Rock, “tzur” in Hebrew. And the word for Egypt, “Mitzrayim” has the same root as Tsures – squeezed, troubles all around. (Funny, I never noticed the homonym there!) This week’s Torah reading, named Beshalach, referring to Pharoah sending the Israelites out of Egypt. This is the first climactic moment of the Passover story, of the Exodus. What is the response of the Israelites to freedom after 400 years of slavery? It is to sing! Does that seem likely to you? One day this past year, after I had been holding in frustrations, I rode my bike to an abandoned field. I tried to scream, but what actually emerged from my body was song. Maybe not so weird! This beautiful poem, the Singing by Rick Barot speaks of the power of a woman’s song. I wonder what the black woman in the poem saw on her phone that brought on the song? Announcement of a birth? a death? the daily news? a memory? A woman’s voice, in mourning, in lullaby, in despair, it seems like her song has all of these. She sings. she sings. she sings. she sings.

This is also Black History month in the US. There are many powerful songs that emerged from African slavery here in America, including “Swing low, sweet Chariot” The Chariot is code for the Underground Railroad! Many of these songs are still sung in churches today. They help deal with being overwhelmed and oppressed: squeezed with tzurus.

The first sound the Biblical slaves made in Exodus was groaning or crying out. They had been silenced, to repressed to make any sound until now, taking their condition as “the way it was” It was this primal cry that brought G8d into their midst. But their second was song. When did they sing and what did their song sound like? The answer in the text is that there were two times of singing: First Moses and the sons of Israel sang aspirationally: I will sing. Then Miryam, whose name I share, sang with the instruments brought along for just such a miracle and sang, dancing a circle dance. Many commentators put the women second, but the chasidic S’fat Emet explains that Moses song is aspirational in the world of our dreams, but Miryam sings for all both men and women in the now, dancing the circle, in which all are equal in their relationship to G8d who is in the center.

Miryam my biblical namesake, is derived from Mar (bitter) and yam, meaning sea. From the bitterness of slavery her song brought sweetness to the Israelites. Directly after freedom the Israelites become bitter again, concluding that G8d hates them. A living well of water follows them through the wilderness, which according to midrash is Miryam’s well – a rock that yields water! Connecting all those places and stories in the wilderness, creating a song which lasts all of Miryam’s life. The Israelite people now read the song of songs as an emotional description of the Exodus, and of G8d’s love. Perhaps the song was a love song. There is disagreement on whether the song began while crossing or after, but according to Chizkuni, Miryam began her song while the Israelites were still crossing! (source 7) This song is the moment of awareness of the immanent presence of the Holy one – the moment of falling in love. Song is the most appropriate sound!

Remembering: a postscript

For a long time the stories of enslaved people were not told. Here in Florida, it recently became illegal to teach those stories again in the public schools, and a young professor who happens to share my last name lost her post from a public college because she taught the history of slavery. As Isabel Wilkerson teaches so powerfully in her Pulitzer prize winning book Caste to deny this history is like denying your family history of disease when you go to the doctor, or to deny old damage in a house. It doesn’t work. The Biblical psalms are a study in Crying out to G8d, Here is a setting of psalm 13. In this psalm the poet despairs of G8d forgetting them – lets go all those emotions. But then remembers: Oh yeah, remember that time I was redeemed, you were there G8d and can be there again for me in love.

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Light within dark times.

Sometimes I feel like I’m surrounded by darkness. Now is such a time. There is lack of empathy for the most vulnerable among us, immorality at the highest level of government, and a populace which supports and (in some countries) has democratically chosen such leaders. There is blindness to climate change, which is damaging our life support system, and is affecting us all, but is more devastating those who already have the least among us. In this darkness, where is the light?

The Torah portion read this week, parashat Bo, includes the final three “signs and wonders” which afflict Egypt, all of which involve increasing darkness, culminating in the darkness of death. Focusing on the ninth sign “choshech/darkness”, it is no ordinary darkness, but one which is substantial, can be felt. It is described as so dark that you could not,,,,, How would you end that sentence, perhaps: “see your hand before your face”? Rather, it is described as one in which folks could not see “their brother” or sister. This is a moral blindness, a complete lack of empathy. This was not inflicted by G8d*, our Source of Life and Light, but rather The Holy One transformed the invisible into a sign that could be seen by the morally blind. The moment the Egyptians took part in Pharoah’s genocidal decree and helped throw newborn boys in the River, they sowed darkness: no wonder the Nile turned to blood! G8d simply made it apparent, they did not recognize their own brutality. These signs were needed to illustrate a story for the generations, “Who lives, who dies who tells your story..” as Lynn Manuel Miranda wrote – Signs and wonders were needed to open hearts to the pre-existing inhumanity: perhaps in their slave mindset, even the Israelite victims took it for “the way things just were” and the Egyptians so blind so as not to see/care about their fellow human being. This narrative with its signs and wonders was important enough to illustrate dramatically so it could be passed to the children at the seder table.

In seeing the light within the darkness, the parashah begins with “Bo” come, rather than “go” Awareness, daat, intimate knowledge of the laws of decency, of who we are in relation to nature and one another were in exile. See my source page in Sefaria Bo is spelled Bet, Aleph, and the word “bet” means “house” The Aleph, according to Meor Einayim represents the light of G8d, to bright to experience with out the comforting shield of “bet”. The light within the darkness is hidden within the very first word that G8d says in this parashah.

Need more light? Leonard Cohen famously wrote, “there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in” When we are in darkness, the cracks in ourselves and the world are places where light can enter. The pain we are feeling is a sign for where to apply the healing, and how urgently it is needed. And we don’t know with which broken parts of ourselves or our world we can help to liberate this light: so we must bring all we’ve got to bear upon it because we, and all nature is filled with G8d’s light. (See Mevo HaSh’arim on the source page)

There are “signs and wonders” today which point to injustice and lack of empathy. Rabbi Shai Held wrote, in 2017 book, (I had not yet read Naomi Klein’s This changes Everything, 2016″

“Imagine living in a world in which violating the laws of morality leads inexorably to consequences in the world of nature. .. the thought of living in such a universe can be frankly, terrifying.” ~ Rabbi Shai Held: The Heart of Torah, Volume 1:

Global climate change, rapid species extinctions viral plagues, are all signs in which nature herself is revealing the lack of care for nature, and lack of empathy for others, and blindness to own self interest! It’s not “the environment” but our own life support system, designed by G8d and infused with the Presence that we are harming. Yet, our hearts remain heavy, hard, and strong willed (my translation of the three adjectives describing Pharoah’s heart). What will it take for us to become aware?!

Perhaps awareness of the holiness in one another and in nature. I offer my setting of Shiviti,https://soundcloud.com/biomusicmm from psalm 16, which means we must set G8d before us always.

Shiviti Adonai L’negdi Tamid

G8d, 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,

Help me to guard and to keep your garden green by and by

And oh in the darkness, help me be/see the light

And when You feel so far away,

Help me to know that the yearning’s OK,

The yearning can be a pathway.

*I use the 8 rather than the “o” to spell G8d out of respect for this name. The 8 is infinity and represents one step beyond the completion which is 7

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CONSTRICTED THROATS: Moses, me and Esther

– Did you ever get emotional, so that there was a lump, a constriction in your throat, and you were temporarily unable to speak? When The Holy One asks Moses to go to Pharoah and demand “Let my people go” Moshe responds “NO, they won’t listen to me! I have a kabed peh, a heavy mouth u’chvad lashon What does it mean to have, like Moses, a heavy tongue?

G8d’s answer: Who but I give a mouth (and speech) to humans, and who makes those who are mute?

But G8d creates all through acts of speech (in what language I’m not sure: math, physics, music, love?) and creates we humans who are partly defined by speech and are Btzelem Elohim In the Divine Image, in that way. Is G8d also the power who creates those who are mute? Many things can make a person mute: being born without hearing, for example. With therapy sign language can be taught. The mind can make you mute: my eldest daughter, so brilliant and super sensitive would lose her voice whenever she became sick! But trauma can make a person mute as well, as the heart wrenching literature of the Shoah attests.  The Slonimer Rebbe speaks of slavery in Egypt as so crushing, that their minds were enslaved, not just their bodies. He explains when finally the slaves were able to get out a geshrei, a good primal cry, it was the first step in their deliverance. That was when G8d heard their voice, their cry and sends Moshe. He speaks of the tightness or constriction in the throat where the soul cannot get out or express itself.  Moshe, the Slonimer continues was actually as an avatar of the Israelite people. Therefore he was unable to speak fluently! The word ּכְבַ֥ד  The shoresh/root also means “honor” Perhaps “k’vad peh uchvod lashon” means a mouth and tongue that honors the people that Moshe serves. There are times when it is inappropriate to be verbose, such as entering a house of mourning.  Until the Israelites could move from the Narrow place of tzuros, Mitzrayim and be free and to SING at the sea, Moshe could not be the orator who would be the channel of Torah from Heaven to earth. I personally found my voice first through teaching, then through singing. I am still finding my voice.  Moshe’s life begins in a similar way. He is born into danger. Zipporah, his mother keeps him hidden and safely for three months. When he is no longer able to be silenced, she trusts him to G8d, fate and the Nile. Now he can cry and win the heart of the Pharoah’s daughter..

In the land of Shushan, Persia, many years following was a beautiful Jewish girl named Haddassah. But when the kings men came to uncle Mordechai’s house looking for the most lovely to be queen, she was silenced, not to reveal her true identity, and given a new name, Esther, from the same root as nistar, hidden.  She hasn’t been paying attention to the happenings of the kingdom when she is told of Mordie in sack cloth and ashes – send him some new clothes. She wants to remain deaf and mute to trouble, hard to blame her, who wants trouble?!  Mordechai then delivers my favorite line of the whole Megillah

Chapter 4:6 “If you keep silent in this crisis, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, while you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows, perhaps you have risen royal position for just such a crisis.”

And our unlikely heroine is born. She does not fight hatred with fists, but with seduction and revelation.

What is it in our lives that we’d like to ignore, issues we’d rather not think about. And what is your position of influence, what can YOU do? Moshe’s heavy mouth was a sign of his complete entanglement in the people he served. Esther’s hiddenness, the secret of her success. Perhaps it is your deepest flaw or disability which can actually be your superpower.

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