Torah for Spiritual Women

I got a kick out of this camel. His name is Einstein, and he was on his way to Philadelphia for an event with an organization called Jewish Philly, when his transport became stuck in the snow.

Interestingly (to me) is our Torah portion today is all about Jacob. Jacob is our third patriarch, and he is associated with the Hebrew letter gimel, which as the third letter in the Aleph bet , has the numerical value of three. Gimel is also associated with camels. 
The camel is associated (by our mystic sages)with the strength to overcome difficulties, and cross the desert where water is hidden and sparse) water is a picture of Torah. 
Jacob spends a huge part of his life “journeying” on camels. The Hebrew letters spelling gamel (camel) also spell gomel ( one who performs kind deeds) ( in Biblical Hebrew the vowels change the word, but spelling/letters show connection to greater ideas (which is (one of many) reasons the Hebrew language is unique).

Jacob is a unity of beauty and truth between our first two patriarchs Abraham and Isaac. 
I love that our Hebrew scriptures point us back to relationships with our brother (s), Ishmael, Esau, Joseph…all our present day struggles with one another…Jacob is an incredible picture of loving a brother who has been perceived as an “enemy”.

Coincidence that this camel Einstein was heading to Philadelphia, the “City of brotherly love” ? Do we despair that there was a “delay” in his arrival?

Have no fear! He went back to his zoo…called “The Peaceful Kingdom”. Perhaps we can continue this journey towards reconciliation, love and peace?

The Universe is always teaching us if we change how we “see”.

This morning we were discussing the death of Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu in our parsha (Sh’mini…Leviticus 10:1). This is a hard concept to think about for so many of us….what is the ‘strange fire’ that Aaron’s sons brought before the Presence of the Eternal? And our main focus in discussion was Aaron’s silence. What does it mean for us to see Aaron remain silent in the wake of this tragedy?

As I was going home today after service, all these thoughts were running through my mind. So many things to ponder…do you ever talk to yourself after a lesson? Even when the point of the lesson seems to be to “SHUT UP” ?

This is my journey through the studying…..

What is the goal of my journey, as a woman, as Israel?

“Be ye holy as I am holy”. I am climbing Jacob’s ladder. Wrestling with G-d and man along the way just as scripture says. Our mystic sages tell us there are five worlds we experience spiritually in our schlepping up.

There are four levels of Hebrew scriptural interpretation…peshat, remez, drash, and sod (the secret or mystery). There is a another level in Chassidut (teachings) the “secret within a secret…” and thus I look at five levels.

There are five statements the Creator makes to Moshe (to tell Israel) in their Exodus. Each statement correlates to a cup that we lift in the Passover seder. If we count the cup we leave for Elijah..we have five cups.
(Now this is argued by many fine sages so you are getting my view here…and certainly someone is sitting up in his grave griping at me somewhere)

In my favorite book of scripture…Job…there are four friends Job speaks with in his “journey”. If you count Job himself (and he is IMPORTANT) we have five significant characters in this book. The final friend speaking with Job is Elihu…and this is a picture of Elijah…(Remember our 5th cup in the seder is put out for Elijah) but we haven’t seen the Yah added to the name yet (as Job is before the greater revelation of Yah’s name to Israel…)

So…Five levels of Torah, Five cups of Passover (matching the statements of Redemption from the Eternal to Israel) five friends in the book of Job…and Five worlds we understand from our sages.

The highest world…is a place of complete Oneness with the G-d of Israel. This is where there is no sense of separation. This world is known as “silence” by our mystic sages.

See…regardless of whether we call this teaching from our mystic sages or just “Jewish”…most religious folks have some sense of returning to a place that we once had spiritually.

Adam “fell” from this place of Oneness he found himself in the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil…in other words…he sees everything as “Separated” …and a teshuvah (a return( is being made) back to this place of Unity with our Creator. Echad). In fact…there is an Arabic language understanding that the name Job (Iyov) means “to return”.

The highest spiritual understanding…or world if you will…is a place of silence. Here the Light and the Vessel that the Light fills are One. No separation. No sense of just seeing the ‘outward” material body…world..or vessel without understanding what fills it. In this place we do not feel separated…we are in unity with the Creator.

We have, through history…had a problem holding on to the concept of One, and yet it is the earliest concept of prayer we understand as Jews…..”The L-rd is ONE”… We are commanded to bear witness to this.

And Christians are told that the greatest commandment is “Love the L-rd your G-d with all your heart, might and soul..and love your neighbor as yourself. On this hang ALL the Torah and the prophets.” So really…why does everyone have such trouble with this idea? We do though!

Our Creator is good and only bestows. We receive. We are going to be transforming the desire to receive for ourselves..selfishly…(our ego..our yetzer hara (evil inclination)
(Christianity understands this concept as the “flesh”…) to receiving for the sake of bestowing on others…..this is the journey..this is what we understand when we “Hear oh Israel…The L-rd is One..”….love the L-rd your G-d with all your heart, might, and soul…and love your neighbor (stranger, other, brother) as yourself.”

Soooo…..these levels of scripture…these cups of Passover..these friends of Job..these “worlds” all are places we encounter on our journey.

Aaron is the High Priest…he is an example to Israel of what we are to be in this world…”A Kingdom of Priests” Aaron has just been performing his “duties” before the Presence…and what does he then do? He (and Moshe) “Bless the people” and the Presence of the Eternal appeared to all the people.” They are able to stand in the “Fire” of the Presence….their example of Priesthood comes out of the place of echad (One) and then acts in the same way as the Eternal…he (Aaron )bestows upon the people…he blesses them.

He comes from a place of unity…and gives this to the people…thus bringing them into a place of unity with the Holy One also.

When Aaron’s sons come forward however…they are not approaching the place (that highest world of Oneness) with the idea of “bestowing” on others. We see they “each took his OWN fire pan” (Lev 10:1) and they come before the Eternal with their own purpose. And they are consumed. “Strange Fire”…a state of being that is not like the Creator’s essence of bestowal.

So I submit…that Aaron stands in silence…at a higher level of understanding…..the highest world that is silent….(Our mystic sages call this atzilut) there is a rabbinic phrase that points to this concept…”Aaron acknowledged the justice of the decree” he understood..

He can stand in silence…because he has been in the world of Oneness…silence…and he walks in the physical world with the ability and intention to bestow. When we approach the Presence of the most Holy for selfish purposes…we have nothing of the Creator to give to others. We are completely missing the point of our whole journey. We can only come back from that experience showing others selfishness….ego…the exact opposite of everything our G-d represents.

This is the lesson I gleaned from our parsha today.

Aaron, just like ourselves..is not perfect. He often made HUGE mistakes (as did all our people throughout our generations) but we can grasp an important concept of Receiving for the purpose of Bestowing) …Listening (requires silence) and we can DO…Loving others as we love ourselves..bestowing what we have learned in relationship with our Creator.
The very essence of our Sh’ma.

Shabbat Shalom!