Awakening Shemot 5783: Torah Mussar Mindfulness, 13th Sit

Awakening Shemot 5783: Torah Mussar Mindfulness, 13th Sitting

The Institute for Holiness: Kehilat Mussar Livestream

Welcome to Rabba Chasya Uriel Steinbauer’s Institute for Holiness: Kehilat Mussar's weekly public offering to study the Torah together from the lens of Mussar Mindfulness. We engage in teaching and then in a guided mindfulness meditation practice.

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קהילת מוסר - Kehilat Mussar
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Transcript

Shalom and welcome.

Baruchim Handai'im.

Allow yourselves to settle and arrive.

We will begin in one minute.

Welcome.

Welcome to Awakening Torah Musar Mindfulness.

I am Rabbi Chassio Uriel Steinbauer,

The founder and director of the Institute for Holiness,

Kihilat Musar,

Where we practice Musar mindfulness and offer a track of mindfulness and just Musar,

All three tracks,

To allow us to be on this path towards holiness.

I'm so grateful that you've joined today on Sunday,

January 15,

2003.

Today is Kav Bet of Tevit,

The Hebrew month of Tevit,

And we meet regularly every Sunday,

B'zrat Hashem,

God willing,

At 1230 Eastern Standard Time.

So this is where we cover the weekly Torah portion of the Hebrew Bible from the lens of Musar mindfulness.

And of course,

Last Shabbat,

Just yesterday,

The Jewish Sabbath,

We delved into a new book of the Torah,

The Sefer Shemot,

And the name of the actual parasha,

The first weekly Torah portion is also Shemot.

So we will jump into that after we cover our Kavana and dates.

So this is now our 13th sitting together.

We covered 12 during the first 12 weekly Torah portions of Bereshit of Genesis.

And I'm just delighted.

It's just an honor and a privilege to be here with you to jump in together to practice this.

So I'm going to go ahead and share screen as I usually do.

Welcoming everyone here on Zoom,

Live streaming on our YouTube channel on Facebook,

And other mediums where this shows up.

So thank you.

Let's begin.

We begin with the same Kavana,

The same intentions every week.

And if you are watching on video,

You will see these intentions for today's practice before you.

If you are listening on audio on podcast,

Then you will hear me read them.

So we say,

We see this act together of doing this awakening now for the next 45 minutes as an act of radical self care for the benefit of others.

So we say,

This is something I'm doing to strengthen my own soul in order to be a benefit to others in the future.

And then we say our second Kavana,

Our second intention is that before doing acts for others,

We say,

This is something I'm doing to strengthen my relationship to others.

So I can be a better conduit of God's good when they need me.

Because we really see that when doing this radical self care,

We are then able to care for others in more wholesome way,

With wise discernments,

With better choices.

And then we say that we're also doing this to strengthen our relationship with the divine.

This is something I'm doing to strengthen my relationship with the creator,

One,

The being of all,

We're all one,

So that I can be a better conduit of God's good to others when they need me.

So may we all right now and taking this practice on together,

Together,

Fulfill this,

May our merit,

May we merit being able to bring this to the world,

To the potential of the path and bring more righteousness and more good to all who join us today and every Sunday.

So as I said,

We are jumping into Shemot,

Which was covered yesterday in synagogues across the world and many a name tradition is that we study that portion,

The week leading up to the Torah reading.

And then we go ahead and we have this privilege to jump in on Sunday together here and Yom Rishon to really take everything that we've learned from others and listening to the Torah reading,

And then apply this lens,

As I said,

Of Musa mindfulness.

So we are jumping into Shemot,

Which happened on a Kaf Aleph Tevet,

Tafshen Pei Gimel,

The Hebrew year.

And it was the 14th of January,

2023,

When we actually read this Torah portion this year.

So I'm going to give a brief summary,

And then we're going to,

We're going to jump in together,

Because we always have to focus on somewhere to contain our learning,

Because as you know,

There's always so much we could cover together.

And you know,

In some ways,

That is the path that we may we all merit having a lifetime to go through this cycle together,

To always see something new and learn something new from it.

Okay,

So what happens in Shemot?

Too much.

So first,

As you know,

We had Yosef and his whole family come down to Mizraim,

To Egypt from the land of Canaan,

The future land of Israel.

And everyone comes down during the famine in order to survive it.

They grow and grow and grow in the land of Goshen.

They end up growing in numbers and growing in some ways as of influence,

At least in the sense that they appear more and more as a threat that becomes a serious threat here in Shemot.

Okay,

So what does that mean?

So Yosef and his brothers die in this in this Torah portion,

And their children's families grow very large.

They not only grow very large,

They grow what it seems to be atzum is like huge and powerful,

And they spread out,

Okay,

Spread out in the land of Mizraim,

Egypt,

And a new paro,

New pharaoh rises to power.

And over this parasha slowly over time,

Begins to move B'nai Israel,

The children of Israel from indentured servants,

Essentially,

Or kind of forced labor,

Like almost like big communal projects,

They're forced to begin to work on first to finally enslavement.

Okay,

And then,

And I'll use B'nai Israel,

The children of Israel and Israelites interchangeably,

Our ancestors.

So paro then instructs,

Okay,

That that that forced labor that in like kind of required,

In some ways,

It's like slave labor,

Where you require people to work and they're not paid or anything in exchange for it.

That's how it starts off.

And then when that actually doesn't stop,

It doesn't have the effect that paro wanted,

Which was,

You're not really sure what effect did he want,

Right?

In the sense that if the threat is that they're large,

And they're powerful,

And they're expanding,

Then you would think that you would want them to become smaller,

Less powerful and be,

You know,

Assigned to one area,

Essentially.

And apparently,

That policy of causing them into forced labor,

And finally,

Slavery,

Excuse me,

Was not effective.

And why?

Because they still continue to reproduce to grow,

To expand to move out.

So paro then moves to the next awful level,

Which is infanticide,

Genocide,

Essentially,

An executive order to commit murder on a grand scale of killing all the male offspring of B'nai Israel.

He tells this to two midwives,

Tifrah and Pu'ah,

You always know their names.

And they are commanded to kill the Israelite baby boys,

They disobey paro.

They fear God.

And that's the language used,

They fear God.

And we talked about this last year.

But for those of you who haven't joined us from the previous year,

The idea in ancient Near East,

In particular,

Israelite culture and tradition,

And then the Torah and the Hebrew Bible,

To fear God means that you see God as the sole moral authority.

And it's like,

It tells you between right and wrong.

It's like an inner moral compass.

And so when one says,

I fear God,

It means I don't commit wrong.

And this to them to murder baby boys is a terrible wrong.

And they fear God more than they fear paro.

Because paro has the ability through executive order to to execute to murder these two midwives.

Or if they're representative of houses,

Like two houses of almost like,

What's the term I'm looking for?

Like,

Not a yield,

There's another word in English,

When it's like a house of laborers who all train in the same profession.

There's a certain term and I'm missing it in English.

Like when there's a someone trained to like,

Work with metal,

Then everyone will be trained in that kind of house all of metal workers.

So this is the same thing here with the midwives.

We think they might have been two large houses that that worked with this.

So they disobey paro.

God rewards them by building up their houses,

Which is seen as like,

The greatest thing back in the ancient nearest near east with our ancestors to build up someone's house,

That means to make it secure and lots of children.

And so that's that.

And paro actually,

Then am a,

I'm not going to focus on the midwives this year,

I focused on them last year,

But he,

In his like dissatisfaction and anger that that they haven't fulfilled his executive order,

Through their this first recorded act of civil disobedience,

He goes ahead and decrees that all Israelites baby boys must be thrown into the river,

Thereby including the whole Egyptian population and this,

This executive order of genocide of infanticide.

So then,

Through this order,

You have an Israelite woman,

Beloved your heaven,

The email,

The mother of Moshe Rabinu,

This baby boy named Moses,

She births him and she tries to hide him.

Because she knows of the decree that he's to be thrown into the river.

His sister Miriam stands by to make sure that he's safe.

She hides him in a baskets and a Teva puts him on the river hoping that he will be somehow saved that mercy will find him.

And so a paro's daughter known as bots parole,

Which means daughter of Pharaoh,

A finds him and decides to adopt him names him Moshe gives him to your heaven to nurse him.

And we know from ancient near his culture that often children were not fully adopted until they had weaned which children back then weaned at a much later age than they traditionally do in our Western societies today.

So Moshe for his first many years,

I don't know we could guess how long some people I'm sure there's a range.

But generally children reams back then probably more around five or six but we have no idea right excuse me.

So,

Um,

He's with this Hebrew family his his birth family until he's of ready of age for education and adoption essentially he's going to make it because there was so much death of the babies of children.

So,

Years later,

Moshe is formally adopted by Bob parole,

A grows up into into the palace and he sees an Egyptian beating and Israelites not given any other context.

We don't know if this is a beating because Israel was not doing the work that the Israeli was supposed to doing like kind of like slave beating.

We just know an Egyptian was beating and the languages of Maca to hit it was beating and Israelites.

And again,

We don't know if he was beating him to kill him like a type of Maca to actually try to execute to kill.

But Moshe looks either way and murders the Egyptian.

And when he realizes that it's known what he did through other Israelites who happened to witness what he had done,

He flees to Midian.

Years later,

And he marries the in Midian he marries Sephora that's where he meets his wife through Yitro who will become his father-in-law.

Moshe becomes a shepherd essentially.

One day he he ends up encountering God Hashem through a burning bush a burning bush that's not consumed.

And God speaks to Moshe through through the flames and tells him to go to Paro essentially and demand that Paro free B'nai Yisrael.

So just to conclude our summary before we delve in Moshe tries to actually turn down this job if you see it as a job.

You know Hashem shows up in the flames and says you have to go to Paro and he's like no.

Five different arguments come up of why and if we have time we'll tap into them.

He says no God shows him miracles God tells him he'll be with him.

God actually gets angry meaning impatient there's no savlanot in the sense of slow to anger right that is so valued that we learn from Hashem right.

So I mean maybe you'll say that God's slow to anger that it takes him until the fifth no to finally get angry.

So God shows him all this to convince him and it's not until Aharon comes that's finally brought for that familial a connection that Moshe agrees to do the job.

So keep that in mind it wasn't miracles it wasn't even God saying I will be with you it wasn't all the things that God shared it even wasn't God's anger or impatience it was when Aharon shows up to his brother his older brother to accompany him and strengthen him to carry him that he goes on to do this okay this job.

So on their way to Mitzrayim Sipporah gives her son the berit milah the circumcision that is well known among the Jewish people the covenant between God and our people to circumcise baby boys on the eighth day on the eighth day she goes ahead and does it presumably because Moshe hasn't when they're traveling to Mitzrayim.

And finally Moshe and Aharon meet Paro they demand to leave for three days worship and Paro refuses of course to let the Israelites go and actually makes their labor harder more difficult.

Okay that's a huge summary but obviously you see Shemot covers from after Yosef's death to all the way to Moshe having his first encounter with Paro that there's so much obviously in between right so much that we could discuss but what are we going to discuss?

We are going to focus for our Musar mindfulness practice on essentially like what is Moshe's key midah key soul traits.

So in Musar practice excuse me we look at what you might call personality traits we call them soul traits in Hebrew they're midot which means measurements all the personality personality traits that make up all of the human being essentially and we look at how balanced they are essentially especially for each individual person we all have our own kind of marker where we need to be what's healthy that allows us to do God's work in the world.

So for Moshe Rabbeinu I really believe that one of his key midot and what I mean by that is one of his strengths and weaknesses okay but what why I'm even bringing this up is there's something really key in Musar practice called a bachira point a choice point where meaning because something is so alive and strong in you meaning there's a dilemma that you could go either way and so for Moshe Rabbeinu his midah of Ometz Lev which translates as essentially a really kind of a strengthening of heart it really gets translated in modern Hebrew and and even in Musar practice as a with courage that you know a moral courage might even be the best translation this Ometz Lev which goes nicely with fear of God right this kind of strong inner moral compass.

So for Moshe Rabbeinu this is his midah where he can clearly go either way and what I mean by that is he when he's very strong and balanced right in Ometz Lev and courage right in this moral courage he's quite balanced meaning he he's in alignment with his moral with his moral compass he knows right from wrong and he has the compassion for others the rahamim and he acts on it so the classic examples that we think of is for instance when he ends up at the well where he ends up meeting Sipporah his wife and his and their sisters who are being her sisters being harassed by other a Roim shepherds he interferes and says stop harassing them and stands up takes a stand for when people who are more vulnerable are being treated improperly and unfairly essentially and so he stood up for that there's lots of stories of Moshe Rabbeinu where he interferes speaks up on behalf of others even in Midrash where he goes after a lamb that got away sees it drinking and has compassion on it has mercy in a sense so what where's the where's the difficulty where where can he like any midah that might be strong and balanced for this one to be strong and balanced you'll have to care for the other and you have to act on it right you have to be in alignment with what this is like moral courage right and so for it to be unbalanced you have to take it to an extreme meaning it's really not so much um it might be courage but is it really moral and is it in alignment with the sphere of god the strong moral compass it's often reactionary and often from selfish motivation right maybe even arrogance something else so it can go to this extreme and the other extreme is where the person essentially shuts down there's no moral courage even if they're aware of what's right and wrong they don't have the courage to act out so there's usually fear there there's a stuckness and you know and the whole concept of fight flight freeze fawn it's a type of like kind of freezing right or flight and you know over here is the fighting and so for moshe rabbeinu we see him go to both extremes he's he's like dancing all around on this continuum and why is this so important as a model for us in our practice of muslim mindfulness is because most of us if not all of us at some point in our path in this practice the potential of it will recognize that we too uncertain me do me do will be all over the continuum sometimes we'll be very strong and balanced and then we'll be over here in this situation with this person and then over here in this situation with this person or set of circumstances and so let's let's delve in with him okay it's it's um it's important for us to look at our examples here um so there's a key moment where moshe rabbeinu um decides to murder an egyptian and the language is is very clear but that doesn't mean we know exactly what's going on okay what does it mean it means that he he goes out he goes out to see his brethren that's what we're told okay and this is a significant telling right he goes out so first of all you have to like go out you have to go out and see you have to go out first you have to be willing to go to the people in need right and then he sees right right see vote uh see vlotam and he he goes around and he sees he looks at their burden so he sees this is one of the key acts and seeing here it's even rashi interprets right is that he gives he directs his eyes natan and nav vayley ball right he he gives his eyes in his heart what does he do lehiyot me yatsar elechan so he directs his eyes and heart to share their distress this is the first step of omens lev is this time to rahman to compassion right so he goes out and this is this is moshe right this is him coming and uh this is his mida his archetype right where he interviewed right it said he interviewed intervenes in a clash between jew israelite and non-jew the the meets the mitzri the egyptian then he does so between two jews later and then again between two non-jews like he he's known for this right um this champion of this cause right where he senses of justice and fair play are involved but um what is clear from the language is that we hear that an egyptian is hitting maca an israelite we don't know if it's in context of the work situation we don't know if it's a type of hitting in order to lead to murder um and so it's it's murky it's these murky waters where we always say where does the lotus flower come from this mud right and now moshe is in the mud what is the mud here you know is this like inescapable fact that moshe rebenu who ends up being the law the lawgiver right uh he begins he begins his career if you want right he begins really stepping out to use his mead oats to bring god's good to others right by being involved in a killing and this these circumstances constantly preoccupy a parasha name these commentators of ours from ancient to modern okay so this is a real touchstone to real issue right what is this what's going on here for us um so on the view of it right we we know when you you kill someone you murder someone it's not acceptable it is not a moral act it's not in alignment with what we would even say fear of god at the same time if he was intervening about someone about to murder someone else then it is an upright moral act and he's actually even obligated to intervene so here we are what's the act how are we to know how is motion to know where you know what's the wise discernment we do know it was done with intention because it's not an act of passionate kill right he doesn't run out see his brother and see somebody beating the the his his brethren the jew the israelite and then like intervenes by hitting the egyptian to stop it and he ends up being killed it's not that situation no he he steps up to the situation and then looks now what is the looking is the looking can i get away with murder right now there's another reading which is very strong in the jewish tradition uh this idea that and it's it's stated in the masculine singular this idea when there's no man then step up and be a man meaning when there's no one responsible there in a patriarchal society which therefore would be a man who has the privilege and power to be in that social station to act in that way obviously we have the midwives doing what they did in their own way so he might be looking left to right to be like where is somebody where is the moral authority where is the egyptian supposed to be watching this egyptian and stopping him from beating killing slaves where is law and order he's looking around for the excuse me i thought i muted you he's looking around for the man right he's looking for a man to step up and stop this violence to stop this act right if we want to give him the benefit of the doubt here this might be a very strong reading because if we read it the other way like does merely striking a blow warrant killing like if if the egyptian was just hitting once right that obviously doesn't merit murder as a response so i i i think for all intents and purposes for our own practice here we are going to choose to read it that he actually was practicing that he was really fully aware of his big the hero point right that struggle inside that i went out to see my brethren and i see somebody about to be killed who's being beaten and he looks for someone to intervene and to stop and to help and it doesn't happen right and his response which might you might argue is this reactivity his response is to murder the egyptian and then bury the egyptian hide what he had done um realizing that there was no one to protect the israelites the jew and to stop this egyptian so he took matters into his own hands what we call a vigilante right in some sense this is a huge huge thing to sit with not that you and i are sitting here contemplating murder or even seeing someone who's a slave of our own brethren being beaten and there's no moral code or authority or um the rule of law where we live it's a very different situation for moshe revenu right now so um and it must have been quite terrifying as as a child raised in paro's palace assuming that paro is the ultimate authority if not a god in some sense um that he probably was raised assuming there would be a moral authority that there would be somebody to stop this behavior of beating the israelites okay so we're gonna hold that uh there and again when i took that idea where there's no man tried to be one it comes from uh rav hilal from perkei avot chapter two verse five very famous statement um so you know for us just taking these little nuggets along the way before we move into practice uh where for if we want to take a look at this mida of ometz lev and this moral courage in our own lives where we need to tap into the compassion for our brethren for those we see around us to act when we see injustice uh for those who are most vulnerable who need care right and to look around to assess with wise discernment is there someone around that's better to do this job than me if not am i the one to do this is this the right path is this wholesome will this cause more harm and suffering or will alleviate it right these questions that we have to ask along the path in our own practice so um i think that's what i want to share with you right now here um let me touch upon a few other points with you that i want to say about this um yeah just tapping back into this continuum of ometz lev as a mida as a soul trait right that in order to understand that um the call to justice that we may we may all feel right especially in our musar mindfulness practice can be a reactionary can be an adrenaline surge can be an energy state of reactivity of anger right of energy um and and it's disconnected it can run the gambit with uh arrogance right of taking up too much space of us being full of judgment right and uh driven by like an impulsive boldness essentially so that's this over here and that might have been going on for moshe rabbeinu i we can't know exactly i just know that it does sit with us there is something still whispering in our own inner moral compass that says maybe moshe rabbeinu should have murdered the egyptian and even if he did and say it was the right thing to do at the right time and he was the right person it still caused a life and there's no one doing that you have to live with that have to live without harm and suffering obviously harm and suffering was being called caused but we we carry that we carry the mud we're steeped in it we're walking in the mud to produce this lotus flower right and so it's not so much judgments as discernment trying to learn from moshe learn from him in his circumstances and situation right so ideally that we have to soften that impulsive boldness of the omens live with energies and direction of the heart this fear of god this strong inner moral compass um so that we don't go as a crusader right um and end up making it for our own glory right then for the greater good right bringing god's good to others and this boldness needs to be balanced with a devotion towards what is upright towards god towards you know this courage born of love and devotion it's a it's a delicate dance right it's something that's very important to be on the path in community taking refuge in the vod uh in this practice what some also call the sangha a to to really support one another to understand our behavior and where we're headed uh and how to work on this so um yeah so i will say that i wish i had more time to delve into this to show you moshe's other extreme right but we'll get into it got this ratasham god willing next year but here we saw him right it's this man who has this moral uh omens live this moral courage only to you know move completely to the other extreme of stuckness of frozenness right the flight so strong when he finally encounters god in the burning bush that was not consumed where he comes up with five reasons why he should not be the one to go and try to help free the people it's a beautiful example to look at someone's behavior across the spectrum where he's actually kind of caught up in delusion if we look at greed hatred and delusion right he's a caught up in delusion um his objections if you want to take a look at it it's in chapter 4 verses 10 through 13 some of it where he um moves from moral courage to cowardliness there might still be a moral cowardliness right there's a a moral avoidance a moral fear like he's still balanced in the sense that he he knows what's right and wrong it's still in him but he doesn't have that which to act on it and he has such strong fears he's in the trance of unworthiness so there's the dukkha the dukkha right as we say in the dharma practice where he's just stuck in this vulnerability and as we all go through in life right but he's having that second arrow i would even say the third arrow the second arrow is the reactivity to this vulnerability to this fear and he's reacting by shutting down not me and the third arrow is that of you know judgment towards the self there's a lot of unworthiness there where he says you know i'm not fit i can't speak like all the i don't want to call them terror with scene excuses excuses but there's definitely the storytelling that you hear moshe telling himself in his head right the thoughts where he has all his objections he has a too strong of too much humility too much anava where who am i i'm not able to represent the people they i won't be believed you know and god tries to provide all these reactions right not not often it's not a wise conversation it's not working out at first god's like you know i will i will i will be with you you know i will give you my name here's my name this is what i will be called um i will give you miracles to show moshe goes back to unworthiness no not me and it's not till as i said before where the connection where god finally says look your brother your older brother aharon is coming right now to be with you to support you through this uh this is kind of incredible uh where you finally see moshe um coming out of the trance of unworthiness of the reactivity and arrows of dukkha he's able to come out and serve to bring god's good to others right in a balanced way so um let's hold on to all this because we have much more that's going to come up in the book of shamat together where we're going to be able to to delve in more to this ometz lev and when we all get stuck in dukkha and our own vulnerability and how that might lead us to reactivity um sometimes violent reactivity uh and then also acting with proper balance correct okay let's move into our mindfulness meditation practice together now in order to internalize uh some of this um great gift together essentially so i invite you to assume one of the four postures that is most comfortable for you where you can be upright and also at ease right so and what does it mean to be at ease it means where you're comfortable and open you're not stiff and stiff right but you're also not sitting back slumped in the chair okay so upright i invite you to come to the edge of your seat if you're in a seat or on your zafu your meditation cushion and we're going to move into a guided meditation together for those of you new to this practice you can trust me by following my voice and i will guide you of what we're going to do so in your comfortable posture now where you feel both awake and alert go ahead and feel yourself grounded and supported by the earth i invite you to close your eyes lower your gaze we start with a relaxing body scan as we move through the awareness of the body and gently invite each area to soften if there's any tension so we'll begin with our head and face and neck noticing now to see if there's any tension forehead the eyes the jaw softening down through your neck your shoulders and arms inviting ease softening continuing down through your torso softening your chest and your belly allowing your breath to settle at its own natural pace down now through your pelvic region and your hips continuing through your legs inviting ease a softening to any tension your thighs your knees your lower legs down through your ankles your feet your toes allowing the whole body to relax and be at ease i invite you to bring a half smile now notice how this might affect your thoughts and your state of relaxation take a few deeper breaths now inhalation inviting ease exhalation calm inviting further relaxation as you let go with each in breath and each exhalation inviting ease letting calmness enter again allowing the breath to enter its own natural rhythm no need to control the breath or make anything happen we're not here to become better breathers bring to mind now something that brings you joy what brings you joy or a feeling of contentment of well-being knowing that you are on the right path perhaps being out in nature or the forest or by a lake maybe dancing or being with a loved one or a pet notice how your memory of well-being feels in the body your mind's sensations in the body emotions thoughts that run through the mind just recall a time when you experienced well-being take a deep breath now bring to mind some blessing in your life something or someone you're grateful for grateful to as you think of this blessing bringing the image to mind allow a gentle inner bow a simple thank you from your heart relax and the joyful feeling of gratitude as it begins to flow through your body take a deep breath and bring to mind another blessing something or someone you're grateful for allowing that silent inner bow that thank you from your heart what's most in alignment allowing ourselves to enter that open spaciousness that we are alive we're alive whether in the mud producing that lotus we're alive whether we're unbalanced in our me dot and our soul traits or if we're quite balanced the life force the gift from hashem from god flows through us sustains us keeps us alive and going even when we make mistakes even when we're stuck in that second or third arrow of the dukkha when we just are in reactivity and then judgments of that reactivity and what a blessing is this practice taking refuge together right now to be able to become awake to our stuckness to our reactivity to know that we can be vulnerable with one another to be able to practice there is always to shuva there's always a returning a potential to try again and as we are sustained in all the life around us and colors and sounds and fragrances and tastes we give that thank you that inner bow to the miraculous around us at each moment at each in breath and each exhalation this out breath allowing that smile to emerge again this is the consciousness what our ancestors called fear of god is this light shining through this strong inner moral compass that allows us to receive the gifts of life flowing through us to know that sometimes we will make mistakes and we will still have the Vada Sangha here to carry us the teachings the teacher here at the institute we can relax and support each other and honor the fact that we are alive ready to serve as we come towards the end of this meditation before i ring the bells you can begin to let yourself slowly open to your surroundings taking it all in with appreciation and joy your eyes were closed i invite you to slowly and gently open them right now give yourself an inner bow bow to god your sangha and your vod to your teacher to this practice together with most our mindfulness thank you for your practice thank you for showing up and being here together today to learn torah moose our mindfulness may we be deeply grateful to our ancestors for providing us this instruction this torah to learn from our shiva bainu moses our teacher how we can come to try to balance omet slav so this week i invite you in the practice of this moral courage what do you need to go out to see among your brethren who's in need to stop the harm and suffering and what is it that you can personally do and not do what are you right for what is the right time to attempt to practice that wise discernment and support and to act with balance not with the impulsive boldness and not with shutting down there is a space for us to act thank you for today i look forward to seeing you next week god willing