Av to Elul

Late August 2017
Av to Elul

Give the best you have to God
This is an offering with no blemish

Okay, but the immediate questions is
“What is the best we have?”
Music, song, prayer, service, passing along the teachings,
Dancing in the light, helping someone a little,
Baking a pie and sharing it?

Now I hear a tree singing out like a bird
Chirping cheerily during this sunset
(Sunset is a good time to make an offering, says the Torah)

Give the best you have

This book I’ve written, Song of the Torah
I pray this is the best I have
And I’d like to offer it to everyone
Which is an offering to God
At sunset

There’s that bird singing again
From the West this time
Seems like a great eagle is flying overhead
A few more selections from this week’s portion:

Enter the land God is giving you
Settle in it

Pursue justice and righteousness

Bafflement is also an acceptable offering
Listen for wise guidance

The last words I heard my teacher say were
Ask God, “Please make me a good listener.”

Whatsoever your intuition and conscience advise
Do so right away

Walk the middle path
Reign in enlightenment

With your life write your own Torah
Look into these letters daily

Do What You Said You’d Do

Selections from Devarim/Words in Ki Teze   Deut. 21.10 -25.9

Wherever you go and wherever you are

This is the camp of the Lord

When you say you’ll do something, do it!

Fulfill the words that cross your lips   This is empowering

If you feel impure, bathe in clean water

And re-dedicate yourself to your most noble intentions

Use honest weights and measures

With no alternate weights in your pouch

In this way endure in the land of your sacred inheritance

Don’t be indifferent to another’s difficulties or losses

Assist however you can

You’re always free to divorce    No one owns another, but

When you marry, consider it forever 

Give happiness to the person you marry

Don’t regularly dress yourself as someone you are not

Don’t pretend; be who you are

Don’t prostitute yourself

Even for what you consider a sacred cause

Lend to relatives and friends without charging interest

Thus, God blesses you in all your undertakings

Never defame anyone

Or speak disrespectfully of their intimate life

Whoever takes sexual advantage of an innocent woman or man

Must stand face to face before our mother and father in heaven

Don’t abhor or exclude anyone who may derive

From another culture, ethnic background or nationality

Including those from races or lands where we were persecuted

Remember to forget Amalek   our enemy over the ages

“Beware of pride until your dying day.” – Baal Shem Tov

Weekly Selections from Deuteronomy

Drawn from the Travelers Torah Gita Calendar

A Strong Hand

Selections from Devarim/Words in Va-Ethannan  Deut. 3.23-7.11

Scattered among the peoples – seek God with all heart and soul

Listen Yisra-El  all you children of the light

The Lord your God is the oneness of everything everywhere

I am Yah El  the Lord, your God. I hear the pleas of my people.

I’m bringing you up from the narrow places

Be careful and walk the way I’m showing and teaching you

Now see with your own eyes: Practice this visualization

A mountain flaming high into a dark dense sky  and hear

A mighty voice speaking out of fire and thick clouds

Becoming ten sounds, ten words

Ten symbols inscribed on two tables of stone

With a strong hand God rescues us from blinding bondage

Out of the midst of fire, Yah God speaks with us face to face

And strikes a covenant with us saying                    Duet.  4.11-13

I am beyond any manner of likeness one could draw or engrave

I show mercy for thousands of generations

Honor your parents, you will long endure and increase greatly

Sacred is the Sabbath, a seventh day – make it so

Of course don’t murder people or be adulterous

Or steal from each other or bear false witness against anyone

Or covet your neighbor’s spouse or home or vehicles or wealth

Ten words    Ten letters, such as: Alef, Bayt, Gimal, Dalet, Heh,

                                                   Vahv, Zayin, cHet, Tet, Yohd

Impress them in the hearts of your children

Bind them as a sign on your hands and between your eyes

On the doorposts of your house and write them on your gates

They are your gates

If you make God your treasure, you’ll find God’s love is on you

Be a nation who has God close at hand

Go the mountain top. Strike a covenant with God. 

Inherit the good land

Weekly Selections from Deuteronomy

Drawn from the Travelers Torah Gita Calendar

yogakabbalah.blogspot.com

The Battle to Reach the Goal

Selections and Commentaries on Mattot Num: 30.2-32.42

  

If you say you’ll do something, then do it .

Carry out the words that cross your lips                                        Num 30.3

This is your integrity, and it’s very empowering. Be unreasonable about this

While living in their parents’ households young people’s vows will stand

Their parents may dismiss such self-imposed obligations

God to Moses: Avenge the Israelite people on the Midianites

Then you will be gathered to your people

When we die, that is, when we leave our bodies, we are gathered to our people

Dispatch a thousand (an aleph’) from every tribe of Yisra-El

With Pinchas serving as priest on the campaign

A great battle is before us each, a habit of mind we don’t want to face

But we must take responsibility for it to dismiss it -- or we do not advance

We take the field against Midea (and succeed). God says

Divide the booty equally among the combatants and the community

What is this booty we earn after victory over our ignorance?

Breakthroughs in reality and authenticity: freedom and power

Exact a levy for Yah (for God) – one of 500 from the warriors’ half share

One of 50 from the half share of the other Israelites

 A contribution to Yah (to God) for the priests and the Levites

This is about dedicating the fruits of new-found wealth for the benefit of others

Commanders of Troop Divisions, Officers of thousands and hundreds 

Approach Moses, saying: Not one of our warriors is missing

As expiations we bring gold offerings to Yah (to God)

(Gold: compassion, loving kindness) The gold total is 16,750 shekels  

1+6+7+5=19, 1+9=10= One = Alef, the ox, your very self – an offering to God

                                                                                   

Reubenites and Gadites own cattle in great numbers

Noting that this land (east of the Jordan) is suitable for cattle

They request to settle here, saying

We will hasten as shock troops in the van of the Israelites

Until we have established them in their homes

Then you will be clear before Yah and before Yis-raEl, says Moses

And this land (here) shall be your holding                           

When we are awake and illumined, everywhere we are is the promised land

You Are Ordained to Wear the Vestments

Selections and Notes from Emor in VaYikra – The Call, Leviticus 21.1-24.23

Talk to the priest or priestess within you

Upon whose head the anointing oil comes down             

You are ordained to wear the vestments

There is a part of us each that is forever pure and holy

That quality in us is “ordained to wear the vestments.”

Be holy for I Yah am holy   Yah, YHVH, God               

When you are suffering a blemish (physically, mentally or emotionally)

Refrain from performing priestly services and make no offerings

Nor accept offerings to God from others - until you are clean again

If you become unclean or blemished, wait until evening

Then bathe in clean water. After sunset you are cleansed again

Whoever brings offerings to God, whether these be vows

Free-will offerings, burnt offerings or sacrifice and peace offerings

Bring only the best, the unblemished as your offerings to God

That you may be accepted and blessed

Always leave a baby animal with its mother for seven days

Do not slaughter the mother and its young on the same day

When possible, don’t kill any animals at all, the babe or the mother

Follow my word, my teachings, my guidance

I am hallowed among the children of Yisra-El

In the community of devotees God is the sacredness in our midst

Proclaim three appointed seasons to be holy convocations

Work six days, the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest  

The first month (Nisan, March-April), the 14^th day at dusk

Begins the Passover, the 15^th day is the feast of unleavened bread

Seven days eat unleavened bread and bring fire offerings to Yah

Fire offerings - fruits of self-discipline, austerities or sufferings – offered up

Count seven weeks from the 2^nd day of Passover

Number 50 days and present new offerings unto Yah, to God

Don’t reap the entire harvest of your land  (your earnings)

Leave the corners of your field for the poor and the stranger

For I am YHVH your God   Charitably share a portion of your income

Have but one law for both the home born and for strangers, I am Yah