Here is an overview of my teachings this Shabbat.

Morning Teachings

Think about your ears. Close your eyes and focus entirely on what you hear.

This little spiritual practice causes a shift within. We become attentive and vigilant. Instinctive nature has been put on alert for danger. 

Now turn that attentiveness and vigilance within. Think that there is some wisdom that has been forming within that wants to be known and heard. Proverbs 2:2 tells us to make our ears attentive to wisdom and that our hearts should incline toward understanding. Wisdom spoken in the presence of the physical ear cannot register unless a spiritual attentiveness has been achieved. I see this in my classes when I offer a point, and a person says to me, "Can you say that again?"  They heard the first time, but something in them has awakened and wants to hear it another time. I repeat my words; the face and the body language of the person has shifted. They are attentive. The inner self is ready.

The practice of meditating on the seven Kabbalistic meditations between Passover and Shavu'ot is a way of inclining the heart toward wisdom. The heart (the ego self) tends to incline towards its own unconscious agenda. Sometimes righteous, sometimes destructive, usually amoral and spiritually neutral. Just trying to take care of taking care of business. One must apply a conscious effort to incline the heart toward understanding so that the ear can be attentive to wisdom.

The seven weeks of contemplating the Divine Emanations conclude with the holiday of the giving of the Torah, Shavu'ot, on Tuesday night, June 3rd, and the next day June 4th (the next two days in the Conservative and Orthodox tradition outside of Israel).

Last week, I wanted to show how an understanding of the higher three emanations, that are not part of the seven that we study between Passover and Shavu'ot, can shape our practice of the seven weeks of meditation and study that create an understanding heart and inclines us toward lives of wisdom. Rooting oneself in the upper realms of the Divine Emanations requires an inner kind of stillness. I led a few meditations last week to help us access that stillness; I will do that again this week.

For our studies this week, I would like to discuss further the upper three, more meditative Emanations, and from that perspective discuss the emanation under study this week, Yesod. Yesod means "foundation," but the study of the Kabbalistic idea of Yesod reveals several other dimensions. One dimension is Divine Eros, the desire of the divine to overcome its own brokenness, the uniting of the Masculine and Feminine aspects of the Divine. We all bear within us both aspects, and understanding how the cosmic eros works itself out helps us understand our own desires for integration and wholeness.

Lunch Then Learn.

Our studies after lunch for the next two Shabbatot will be devoted to the discussion of any aspects of the Divine Emanations that anyone would like to talk about, beginners to advanced. If you are interested in the Kabbalah, these two study sessions are for you!

Off to the Wild Blue Yonder!

Fri night May 23 -

Sat May 24, 2014

Lunch then Learn