Awakening Ki Teitzei: Torah Mussar Mindfulness, 50th Sitting

The Institute for Holiness: Kehilat Mussar's weekly Torah Mussar Mindfulness offering. Rabbi Chasya leads a talk on responsibility and creating a holy community, and then moves us into a sitting practice of mindfulness meditation. Q&A follows. All are welcome. Hebrew translated.

Transcript

Welcome.

So delighted to have you.

Today is Sunday,

September 11th,

And let's check our Hebrew date today.

It is the 15th of Elul,

5782.

We just had a massive full moon.

If you were awake and alert and mindful of the moon last night,

Motsay Shabbat after the Sabbath,

You saw a beautiful harvest moon,

At least here in Israel.

That's what we saw.

And it is a reminder that we are halfway through the month of the Hebrew month of Elul.

That means we have two weeks until Rosh Hashanah,

The new year,

The head of the year on the Jewish calendar.

And so we are in the midst of practicing and being here together to prepare for this encounter with God and community and really be present for what we call the High Holy Days,

The Yamin Norahim.

And so here we are today in our usual practice of awakening Torah,

Musa,

Mindfulness,

We are in the Torah portion called Ki Tetze.

All across the world yesterday on the Sabbath,

Jews all over the world,

If you were in a synagogue or in a minyan,

Studied this parshah.

And it was tradition to kind of look at it the week before,

Take a read of it,

Delve into it,

See what the rabbis in our tradition,

Hazzal,

Have to say about it.

So as I usually do before we jump in,

We're going to first cover our kavanot,

Our intentions for today's practice.

So I'm going to share screen for those of you who have vision and are watching.

Otherwise,

I will read it out loud.

And for those of you on audio or who do not have vision,

You can hear what our kavanot,

Our intentions are for today.

So we see this practice together,

Taking refuge and community in this time together on Sundays regularly at 730 p.

M.

Israel time,

1230 Eastern Standard Time.

We see this as an act of radical self-care,

Meaning you're taking time to learn and practice and why this is something we say we are doing to strengthen our own soul in order to be a benefit to others in the future.

We're also doing this to strengthen our relationship to others so that we can be a better conduit of God's good to others when they need us.

However,

We may define God or the divine.

We're also doing this practice as part of our intentions to strengthen our relationship with the divine,

With the almighty,

With God,

With Hashem,

However you may call the creator of all beings,

So that we can be a better conduit of what the good that God has provided in this whole universe and on this earth that we may provide it to others when they need us.

So those are our intentions for this practice and we move into what we're actually going to share today.

So I'm going to briefly summarize Kitei Tze.

Kitei Tze is quite an amazing Torah portion,

Hebrew Bible parasha,

Weekly Torah portion.

Why?

It contains 74 mitzvot,

74 commandments.

It has the most of any parasha and the whole Hebrew Bible and the whole Torah.

And so the mitzvot that are being focused on here are really on individuals,

On family units,

On neighbors.

Those are the main things.

And what you're going to notice,

You're going to notice this shift in general in Deuteronomy in the book that we're in.

There are five books of Moshe,

Of Moses,

And the last ones called Deuteronomy are called the Varem in Hebrew.

And you're going to notice a huge shift.

All of a sudden,

Everything is kind of being discussed.

All the laws,

All the reminders of the laws from Moshe to Am Yisrael to the Jewish people,

To the Israelites,

To our ancestors,

All of them focus on the everyday person.

It doesn't focus on the kohanim,

On the priests.

The priest had their book back in Vaikra in what we call Leviticus.

And all of a sudden you notice there aren't any laws really reminding the priest,

The kohanim,

What they're supposed to do and how they're supposed to do it.

So that's interesting in and of itself.

Why don't the kohanim,

Why don't the priests need to be reminded?

Well,

The rabbis,

Of course,

Have an opinion about this.

They tell us it's because they considered the kohanim being very much more observant,

Much more careful with the practice and the mitzvot.

That's one explanation.

But I think there's actually something really positive behind this.

I think there's a shift in Deuteronomy and the Varem to the average person and how they're going to relate to themselves,

To the world around them,

To their family units,

To their neighbours,

Because it wants to root the Torah and all people,

Not just the priests.

And it wants you to know that that's what Moshe is going to pay attention to in the end.

He wants you to know he's connecting with you,

Hasn't forgotten about you.

He's not going to just focus on the priests and what happens in the Mishkan inside the sacred area of what we would call like the temple today.

Instead,

It's really going to be where are you going to practice your life and infuse it with holiness?

Where are you going to be on this path towards holiness as the average person?

You're not going to be in the Mishkan.

You're not going to be in the temple serving with a kohanim and doing that.

So where do you need to be focusing your time and behaviour?

And that's what this particularly this parasha,

Kite Tze,

Is all about.

It's about getting us on this path and reminding us where our attention and time and energy needs to be.

And I brought her before.

She's beloved to me.

And I like to call her Rabbi,

Although she never had Smeechar,

Was given that title.

But our beloved teacher,

May her memory be for a blessing,

Nahama Lebowitz.

In the studies of Devarim,

Deuteronomy,

She brings one of the sources from Devarim Rabbah,

Which is a midrash,

Is a kind of stories and explanations on the role of mitzvot,

The role of commandments and why are they being brought here?

And she says that the author of this midrash basically attributes to the mitzvot,

To the commandments here,

The role of good angels accompanying men,

Accompanying the human being.

This idea that gracing the human being with daily acts of concentrating our most mundane and earthly duties,

Connecting with satisfying our elementary material needs and wants,

Such as tilling the soil and earning a livelihood and clothing ourselves and grooming our hair and building a house and making sure we put a fence around the roof,

Making sure that we drive the mother bird away before we take the eggs or the chicks.

All these little small daily activities elevate who we are and what we do away from kind of self-centered egotistical way of living to a level of divine service.

Okay,

This is a source that she brings here,

And I'm going to have us hold that because there's something quite beautiful about that and why all sudden you're having 74 mitzvot guiding you here in the torvah.

So let me just finish with my summary when I'm going to hone in on a certain area for us.

So these final group of laws concern with private matters,

As I said,

Between families,

Individuals and neighbors.

Basically,

It contrasts with the previous group from last week,

Right,

When we were dealing with particularly during Shofatim,

The Parsha on judges,

Right,

When we were dealing with public officials and matters of the nation on hold.

And you have a whole section here that also deal with concern,

The welfare of four women,

In particular,

If dealing with husbands who may dislike their wife,

A captive wife and the act of war,

All sorts of areas here,

What happens with a new bride when she will the husband have to be sent off to war during the first year and the answer is no,

Because it's about protecting her new marriage with him and that she gets to be with him during the first year.

So all these concern,

Their concern,

Especially in the time and place in which the Torah was written and collected,

Is this welfare for women in the sense of stressing participation and religious ceremony and all sorts of things.

So this is all here.

But what I'm going to have us focus on and I'm going to see if I can actually bring it up so I can show you the actually the Pesuchim,

The verses,

Since we have I believe we have the time.

So if you are looking,

If you are following along here and you go to Deuteronomy chapter 22.

And it's the first verse,

Verse number one,

And we're actually going to look at verse one through four.

OK,

And I'm going to pull that up for us and I will share screen.

Just give me one second.

But if you have it in front of you,

You can also go ahead and and do this.

So we want to be in chapter 22.

Didn't pull up this way.

Hold on.

Thank you for your patience.

Here we go.

Deuteronomy,

The Varem,

Chapter 22.

All right.

Now I'm going to share screen with you.

And if you don't read Hebrew,

That's OK.

I will translate.

I'm going to have the English and the Hebrew here.

I'm going to put both up.

OK,

This is a wonderful website for those of you learning the Torah or Hebrew.

If you don't know it,

It is called Sepharia.

It's right here in the top.

S E F A R I A dot org.

It is a wonderful site that has a whole library of rabbinic texts in the Jewish tradition.

And I highly recommend it.

So you have here before us,

This is going to be the JPS translation from 2006.

But basically the example,

The case law being brought to us right here is if you see your fellow.

OK,

It's called achicha.

OK,

Your brother,

Your fellow.

OK,

This is low tier.

It's short.

Right.

So in the case is if you see your fellow Israelite,

Your fellow brother,

Israelite or a sheep or its seven,

Basically his sheep and it's gone astray,

Essentially need the scheme and says right here.

Now,

Pay attention to this language right here.

It's beautiful.

OK,

The heat,

Alhamdulillah.

Now they translated as you must not ignore it.

Right now,

The Shorash I am a lamin men means actually hidden.

But you can't hide yourself.

You can't go into denial.

You can't ignore this.

We're going to hold that level right there.

You can't ignore that you've seen this animal.

And I want you to think about what is being concerned here.

There's a new psychological layer being brought to us in the volume in the book of Deuteronomy,

And particularly here in Kirti say that we have not witnessed and all the other four books of Torah.

So you must not ignore it.

You must take it back.

OK,

So the heat alarm time,

Ahem,

Has shev tissue beam at Sticher Vame's gives me tissue vein.

Let us take it back to your brother,

Your fellow,

Your peer,

However you want to translate that.

OK,

You shall surely take it back is how it should be translated because of this double use of the verb here.

Then it goes on and it's a it provides more of a deep layer for us to get in here.

If your fellow doesn't live near you,

You don't know who the owner is.

What are you hearing behind this?

The Torah is in God here is anticipating all the excuses,

What we call in Hebrew,

Terut scene excuses that will tell ourselves not to bother ourselves with this animal.

You know,

Someone else will take care of the animal.

Oh,

The person doesn't live near me or I don't know who the owner is.

It's really getting into amazing detail of who we are and what kind of community we're going to build and live in.

If we are going to pay attention to the lost items of somebody or not now,

It may seem like a small detail,

But we're going to get into what it really means.

So let's continue for our tumor versus.

So if you if your fellow does not live near you,

You don't know who the owner is.

You shall bring it home.

You have to bring it home.

You can't ignore it.

You have to bring it home.

It's going to remain with you until your peer claims it and then you shall give it back.

OK,

The rabbis have a lot to say about that second verse.

I'm not going to focus on that right now.

But basically,

Yes,

Of course,

You're going to give it back.

What does that mean?

What's that extra detail?

But if we continue,

We're going to find this verb being used again.

And then look at verse three.

I'm just going to move quickly through this English here.

You should do the same with that person's ass,

Meaning a donkey,

The hammer roll.

And you should do the same with the person's garment.

Like if you see someone's piece of clothing on the ground,

You should do the same with anything that your fellow Israelite loses and you find.

Now,

Here it goes.

No to how the heat.

I am.

You must not remain indifferent.

You must not hide yourself or hide your responsibility or try to withdraw from this and go away.

That is what it's saying to us.

OK.

And then finally,

If we go to four,

It's going to be used again.

Why is the same verb being used over and over again?

And why is it such an unclear verb?

Like,

Why would you tell people you can't hide yourself?

Instead,

You could use much more concrete,

Direct language like like there are actual verbs of you can ignore this or you must give it back.

You know,

There's there's different ways of wording this very clearly.

So finally,

It says a number four.

If you see your fellow Israelis,

Ask for ox falling on the ground.

Here we go.

Do not ignore it.

You must raise it together.

So the heat alarm.

You shall surely raise it together.

OK,

This is very important.

What are we getting at here?

What does it mean in our practice?

I'm going to stop sharing screen to have God and our community and our ancestors be so concerned with the excuses that we're going to use.

To not involve ourselves with our neighbor and community.

So let me word it in the positive.

I think that that's going to help us a lot.

Think to yourself to a time when something was returned to you that you had lost.

In your lifetime,

Whether it be a piece of clothing,

An animal,

I don't know,

It could even be cash.

It can be anything.

If you haven't had this experience yet,

Then,

You know,

May God grant you it.

So you experience,

Especially may you experience someone giving this back to you.

So I'll tell you the conversation that happened around my Shabbat table yesterday.

We all talked about what it was like to receive something back that we had lost.

So I'll tell you here in Israel,

My spouse and I and even children have have left our wallet at the mall,

Have left our wallet in a cab in a taxi.

They have left our to that's the hood,

Our national ID somewhere.

And in all those cases,

Our fellow Jew,

Our part of our nation and our people of living here,

Called us up and said,

I have your ID.

I would like to meet you here or come deliver it or whatever that it was returned to us.

And and you might seem that's just a small thing.

But what that has an effect on us is that one,

We don't fear losing things.

We actually think it'll be returned to us someday.

If it's meant to be returned,

You kind of leave it up to God.

Right.

And that sounds like if God meant for this to be returned to you,

It'll be returned someday.

You have trust in your neighbors and community around you that if you do lose something,

It'll be returned and that you will do the same.

And it ends up creating a really strong social fabric,

A real feeling of that you are part of a people and a nation and a community that is going to be trustworthy,

Is going to return things.

And that's not a small thing.

And this is what God wants us to create here.

If we're going to be holy and on this path towards kadusha,

Then we need to create this type of society where little small acts like this happen on a daily basis.

And we don't try to hide.

We don't try to be indifferent or ignore or be in denial or withdraw and assume someone else will take care of it.

No,

We're told that we need to step up,

Have the self-esteem to do so,

And then also understand you're doing a mitzvah.

You are doing what is commanded of you to return something to your neighbor,

To your brother,

To whomever.

It's a huge thing.

And it's a beautiful thing that we're witnessing here in the very in this practice and the study here where there's this anticipation of a psychological reaction.

Right.

Which is all about our practice and most our mindfulness.

It's all about a concern.

Are we aware of the hindrances that arise within us to create excuses of why we're not going to act when we should?

Which happens to all of us on a daily basis and little small little earthquakes,

Right,

Every single day.

And so the practice is to be awake when we see that dollar bill or 20 or 100 on the ground,

When we see that shirt,

When we see that lost toy,

When we see that cat or dog that we just don't go,

Someone else will do it or I'll take it or whatever the terez,

Whatever the excuses.

Instead,

We see it as this is a mitzvah.

I'm commanded to do this.

I want to create a holy society.

I want to engage in this.

I'm going to pick it up.

I'm going to find the owner because I know what it does to that owner's soul and heart to get back what they've lost.

It's a gift and it's it may seem like a small thing,

But it's really these things that build the fabric of our society and who we're going to be on a daily basis.

So I'm going to close with just saying that we've witnessed basic law like this back in Shemot and Exodus.

It's a similar condition.

It's where it's in Chapter 23,

Verse four.

It says if you would refrain from raising a fallen animal,

But it doesn't talk about you hiding or withdrawing or using that verb lehitahlem,

The ayin lamed mem.

It doesn't use that at all.

There's a whole new layer being brought by Moshe before he dies to our ancestors that he's really getting in there now.

He's saying,

You I you have to do these means fold and I'm going to know what I'm going to anticipate for you,

What you're going to tell yourself to not engage.

But what you need to do for really going to build a society and take care of one another.

So with that,

We're going to move into our guided mindfulness meditation practice around this.

It's going to be a mindfulness of thoughts.

We're going to see what arises.

I'll even bring a case similar to what might have come up for us if we've ever had this experience.

And we're going to practice around this and then we'll have time for comments and questions and answers afterwards.

So I will let you know when we're going to be pulled out of this meditation.

For now,

You are welcome to assume one of the four postures in mindfulness meditation is either sitting can be on a chair,

On the floor,

On a cushion known as a Zafu generally,

Or it can be lying down.

I recommend keeping your eyes open so you remain awake and alert.

You can stand.

I often say stand next to a chair so you feel held and supported or in a strong mountain pose.

If you're engaging in yoga at all or even Tai Chi.

And the final one is a walking meditation.

So if you're having any chronic pain,

Stiffness of the back,

Anything,

Feel free to walk.

You're not walking to get somewhere.

You're just walking mindfully as you'll listen to me guide the meditation.

And if you are going to assume the seated position like I am,

Come to an upright position where you feel strong and dignified,

Created in the image and likeness of God of the divine.

Allow your hands to rest on your lap.

Allow your feet to really be held on the floor,

Grounded.

And we're going to start with three deep cleansing breaths.

Inhalation,

Exhalation,

Allowing yourself to arrive.

Inhalation.

Exhalation,

Letting go of any tension if you are able.

Inhalation,

Exhalation,

Feeling the gift of the breath,

The oxygen flow through you.

If you feel safe and comfortable and you have vision,

Feel free to close your eyes.

Otherwise,

Lower your gaze gently in front of you.

And allow your breath to settle.

No need to control it.

No need to judge it.

Try to make it any different than what it is right here and right now.

I invite you to include mindfulness of thoughts in your general mindfulness meditation now.

Just as we have in the past followed our breath or sensations of the breathing or in the body,

There will be a stream of thoughts in the background.

That's just how the human brain works.

You're new to this type of meditation.

You might not even see the thoughts at first,

Or they could be so overwhelming.

That's all you see.

Just let them be.

Let them rise and fall like the waves on the ocean around the breath.

Periodically,

Whether after three breaths or six breaths or 10 breaths,

A strong thought will arise and carry the attention away.

As soon as you notice this thought,

Name it gently according to its predominant quality.

You can use simple notes like planning,

Remembering,

Judging,

Worrying,

Imagining,

Interesting thoughts,

Happy thoughts,

Fearful thoughts,

Painful thoughts,

And so forth.

Simply naming and acknowledging the thought is supportive of the witnessing quality of your practice of mindful,

Loving awareness.

Once you have noted a thought gently for some time,

You will notice that it dissolves like a cloud under sunlight.

Thoughts are ephemeral.

They are empty.

They have no substance except what we invest in them.

After a thought has diminished,

Simply return to mindfulness of breath and body for a time until another strong thought,

Another strong emotion or sound pulls your attention from the breath.

Now,

I want you to actually bring up a thought.

Tied to our teaching and learning together on this partial recall,

When you have either returned something lost or someone has returned something lost to you,

Bring up that thought.

Notice how it feels in your body.

Notice if you have become absorbed or lost in the thought,

Or if you're able to witness it without being swept into it.

Different types of thought have an effect on our body in different ways.

Notice its bodily effect on you as you recall this thought.

And now if you're able to hone in as you are developing this inner distance,

This witness,

This kind witness,

Which is your friend,

Yourself of attending and befriending,

See if you can step out of the thought and see if there's any storytelling around it.

We tell stories around our thoughts,

Around experiences that have happened in our past.

Notice if there's any storytelling around this recollection of you either returning a lost item or someone returning a lost item to you.

Notice if there's any storytelling,

If there's a common pattern of storytelling,

A common pattern of thought.

Even witness if you've been caught up in that story before.

Knowing that right now in our practice,

You can rest in the field of this mindful,

Loving awareness of witnessing this thought and even the stories you've told around it without being carried away.

Notice if the thought brings strong emotions.

And if there are any strong emotions,

If they,

Too,

Have brought up any certain thoughts,

We learn to witness the interplay between thought and emotion.

Notice if this memory of returning a lost item or you receiving one or perhaps not receiving one or not returning.

Notice if this is a sad thought.

Or if this is an angry thought.

Or a loving thought.

Notice the emotional quality behind the thought.

Notice how powerfully these thoughts and their connected emotions affect the whole state of the body and mind.

As you alternate now in the next two minutes of silence in our practice,

You can alternate between mindfulness of breathing and mindfulness of other strong experiences such as strong thoughts or strong emotions whenever they arise.

Our practice is that we have become and will continue to unfold into a steady,

Loving witness of all that arises and passes.

We are peaceful ones sitting in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We move into silent meditation.

I will pull you out of the meditation when it is time.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

Have you been able to hear me this whole time or no?

I don't think so.

I apologize,

Everyone.

Let me bring you out of your meditation.

I apologize for that.

I was on mute and I didn't know it.

Thank you for your practice.

Thank you for today and being here.

Thank you for those of you joining live stream on YouTube.

We apologize for live streaming issues that we have been having with technology on Facebook and other mediums.

Hopefully,

God willing,

We will have that fixed next week.

I want to invite you.

We are in the Hebrew month before the new year.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.

We are in the midst of the rising and falling of waves of experience.