What a great story! Imagine sitting around the fire hearing this story year after year . That's what I kept thinking with this parhsa- the perfection of the living oral tradition.
This story begins with the story of Abraham's Isaac and the birth of the twins Jacob and Esau.
There are so many parallels in this story from the brothers of cain and able, the re-negotiations of wells (which is a whole other deep discussion in itself ;) the passing off as wife as sister and the bareness of the Jewish matriarchs -oy!
And again the Creator's relationship and revelatory response to women is strikingly different then to his menfolk. There is so much emotion and twists in this story it would have been one of my favorites to hear over and over again round the fire with my tribe!
Oh and then where does Esau go at the end of the story - to see his Uncle Ishmael ( and marries his first cousin)- leading me (and others ) to believe that perhaps Hagar and Ishmael were not so estranged from their husband and father Abraham .
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Vayera - VaYera. Bereshit (Bereshit) 18:1 - 22:24. The Three Strangers.
It's the third week of class and already I have fallen behind in my blog posting. In fact, I am typing as I sit and listen to the fourth class.
The parsha we discussed was VaYera. Bereshit (Bereshit) 18:1 - 22:24. The Three Strangers but it is what i have come to think of more fondly as "laughing all the way to the ..."
For the first time I am reading the books of the Torah, week by week - portion by portion - for the first time in my life. What I am learning, which I am sure everyone who has ever done this is Dang- there is so much involved in each week.
When Abraham learned from The great mystery of his first wife Sarah's upcoming pregnancy at nearly one hundred years of age he laughed. Upon hearing the creators plan for him he laughed. Sarah hearing the same prophecy from the three messengers also laughs. Could there be a better name for their first and only son then Isaac - He ( the Lord) Laughs !
A few weeks ago, I heard a piece on NPR about fishing bards in New Orleans who are on the verge of extinction. Their songs mostly served to bring humor to their hard lives and it re-iteratied the idea of how humor has helped countless cultures survive the direst of circumstances.
It comes then really as no surprise that from the very beginning- the ancestors of the ancestors- we were laughing - even with God,.
The parsha we discussed was VaYera. Bereshit (Bereshit) 18:1 - 22:24. The Three Strangers but it is what i have come to think of more fondly as "laughing all the way to the ..."
For the first time I am reading the books of the Torah, week by week - portion by portion - for the first time in my life. What I am learning, which I am sure everyone who has ever done this is Dang- there is so much involved in each week.
When Abraham learned from The great mystery of his first wife Sarah's upcoming pregnancy at nearly one hundred years of age he laughed. Upon hearing the creators plan for him he laughed. Sarah hearing the same prophecy from the three messengers also laughs. Could there be a better name for their first and only son then Isaac - He ( the Lord) Laughs !
A few weeks ago, I heard a piece on NPR about fishing bards in New Orleans who are on the verge of extinction. Their songs mostly served to bring humor to their hard lives and it re-iteratied the idea of how humor has helped countless cultures survive the direst of circumstances.
It comes then really as no surprise that from the very beginning- the ancestors of the ancestors- we were laughing - even with God,.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Lech Lecha- Lachi Lech 5771
The journey out & the journey in. Become like the still mirror- the skin reflecting and infinite world within and without.
I told myself I wasn't going to speak this class. Just take it all in. But the parhsa was so bloody- so visceral. Not overtly so - but the spaces in between. A teaching of the two Torah's is called to mind- one which speaks of the written words and the other referring to the space in between.
War, circumcision, ritual sacrificial, birth all - rivers and rivers of blood streaming throughout the pages - not only the life blood of our people but of Islam contained - birthed from the spaces in between. And i couldn't hold myself back I had to let it be known what a bloody bloody parhsa this was.
The second time I spoke was asking about Sarai ,the priestess, the mystery school feeling in myself a truth that most of ritual wisdom was carried in these practices of Women's occult rites - and yet that can only be part of the story- as the feminine is risen into the new world the masculine must come to first the container must be set but like Reb Sarah said in the first class- time of the God and the Goddess returns and the journey for each was necessary.
To balance...the external - feeling too much energy to flow out one night and the next day I had felt drained. Somehow now, being able to step back- just enough and through writing- to see that both these experiences, of exhaling and inhaling are parts of the same whole me that which puts out and feels energized, that which is to outside herself and feels drained and learning to walk with more grace holding the two.
Frank Cook, a teacher and pioneer now in the other side shared once how when people speak it's not so much that he is listening to their words but to their heart. I am learning to do this better and better. I will continue to do listen to the words between the spaces for underneath the things that people say. This where we are all pregnant with divine truth and awareness. Exciting. Now to become conscious of that together & hold it collectively - well me thinks that our real work together may be just starting .
In divine grace and love
I told myself I wasn't going to speak this class. Just take it all in. But the parhsa was so bloody- so visceral. Not overtly so - but the spaces in between. A teaching of the two Torah's is called to mind- one which speaks of the written words and the other referring to the space in between.
War, circumcision, ritual sacrificial, birth all - rivers and rivers of blood streaming throughout the pages - not only the life blood of our people but of Islam contained - birthed from the spaces in between. And i couldn't hold myself back I had to let it be known what a bloody bloody parhsa this was.
The second time I spoke was asking about Sarai ,the priestess, the mystery school feeling in myself a truth that most of ritual wisdom was carried in these practices of Women's occult rites - and yet that can only be part of the story- as the feminine is risen into the new world the masculine must come to first the container must be set but like Reb Sarah said in the first class- time of the God and the Goddess returns and the journey for each was necessary.
To balance...the external - feeling too much energy to flow out one night and the next day I had felt drained. Somehow now, being able to step back- just enough and through writing- to see that both these experiences, of exhaling and inhaling are parts of the same whole me that which puts out and feels energized, that which is to outside herself and feels drained and learning to walk with more grace holding the two.
Frank Cook, a teacher and pioneer now in the other side shared once how when people speak it's not so much that he is listening to their words but to their heart. I am learning to do this better and better. I will continue to do listen to the words between the spaces for underneath the things that people say. This where we are all pregnant with divine truth and awareness. Exciting. Now to become conscious of that together & hold it collectively - well me thinks that our real work together may be just starting .
In divine grace and love
Thursday, October 7, 2010
New Moon Musings
If you look closely at the picture on the left you can see part of a canvas painted blue. Perhaps it is too hard to see, obscured by the flowers, but the central shape on the canvas is a the spiraling shape of the nautilus... a snail!
When I lived in Tel Aviv last year, I would walk almost every day down to the see and strol along the beach. As a child, on the beaches of Fire Island I would collect purple shells- often used as sacred wamppum for the natives. I was walking along the beach in Tel Aviv and fell in love with the most beautiful indigo color snails.
I took some home with me. They died. I used their ink to paint with. This is the same ink that is used to dye the tzitztit - the sacred knots on prayer shawls , the same color as the planet earth viewed from space - the same color that comes flowing thru those little snails with the spiral universe shells.
I want to be clear with my intention. For myself, I intend to have a major project complete ( or at least 3/4th complete) by the end of my two year course. I need to give myself the time and space to create a large large work of art - detailing the 12 tribes of Israel. I envision a big panel for each tribe ..perhaps a 13th panel for Dinah, the 13th moon and the Ophiucus.
Chesvan 5771 - Week I
Happy New Moon Everyone. I think this blog may take on another purpose for now. I have just begun a two year course with Rabbi Sarah Etz Alon ( The Living Lab) on earth based Judaism. This is a big commitment, financially, time wise, spiritually and probably in other ways that I am forgetting to mention here. One of the exciting things about this whole process - which has just begun was the clarity with which I said "yes to it.
I have contemplated other programs, mystery schools, courses of study with Native elders. Often times I would go through a pendulum process of emotions - somewhat tumultuous, somewhat tortured never committed. Learning the native cosmology of my people, cultivating a strong radical and revolutionary band of young leaders and learning from an intact lineage of teachers dating back thousands of years are only a few of the things Reb Sarah touched upon as our intentions.
Like with all sacred teachings I'll be dancing a careful and sweet rhythm of what can be shared and what needs to percolate within for the time being. I will share one teaching from last night, as it is the new moon of Chesvan, a powerful time to set intentions. Chesvan is considered the month of the Messiach ( messiah ) - there are no Jewish festivals or holidays within this moonth.
This is a reminder, an opportunity, a prayer to allow all of the potential to be held , to be nurtured instead of filling it up with odds and ends out of habit or a need for occupation but to simply be held, behold - the power of all that can be born from the void.
I have contemplated other programs, mystery schools, courses of study with Native elders. Often times I would go through a pendulum process of emotions - somewhat tumultuous, somewhat tortured never committed. Learning the native cosmology of my people, cultivating a strong radical and revolutionary band of young leaders and learning from an intact lineage of teachers dating back thousands of years are only a few of the things Reb Sarah touched upon as our intentions.
Like with all sacred teachings I'll be dancing a careful and sweet rhythm of what can be shared and what needs to percolate within for the time being. I will share one teaching from last night, as it is the new moon of Chesvan, a powerful time to set intentions. Chesvan is considered the month of the Messiach ( messiah ) - there are no Jewish festivals or holidays within this moonth.
This is a reminder, an opportunity, a prayer to allow all of the potential to be held , to be nurtured instead of filling it up with odds and ends out of habit or a need for occupation but to simply be held, behold - the power of all that can be born from the void.
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