Va’era – Exodus 6:2 – 9:35

Jan 10 to 16, 2021 | 3 Shevat 5781

And I Appeared

Two names of G’d. Four promises. Seven plagues. That encapsulates this week’s parsha, Va’era meaning “And I appeared” — the first word G’d speaks in the second parsha of Exodus.

Speaking of plagues, aren’t we in one now? Four thousand people dying in a day. A number that could be greatly reduced simply by wearing masks. Ego, self-centeredness, a hardened heart: the REAL plague. The plague that underlies all others, in Biblical Egypt and now.

But I,
I will harden Pharaoh’s heart

– Exodus 7:3

Why did G’d “harden Pharaoh’s heart”? Doesn’t that run in the face of free will? Let’s consider the next sentence as well:

I will harden Pharaoh’s heart,
I will make my signs and my portents many in the land of Egypt.

– Exodus 7:3

In contemplating these phrases, I thought of my own life. When has my heart hardened? Whenever I see myself as separate. An “I”, separate from you, from my neighbor. When fear, greed, and self-grasping behavior darkens my sight to the needs of others. When I do not love G’d. When I forget to remember to point my compass Toward the One.

Signs and Portents

And yet when see G-d’s many signs and portents; when I remember to love G’d with all my heart, all my soul, all my might; when I love YOU as another myself, then my heart softens. It opens. Fear melts away like ice turning to water. I trust that the answer is at hand. I trust there is enough.

As human beings, we innately have the capacity for loving acts and for heinous acts. Sometimes I hear myself questioning G’d: “Why would you create sensitive beings, with intelligence, with empathy, who can act heinously to each other?” What role does G’d play in hardening hearts?

Why Do Hearts Harden?

If anything, why didn’t G’d soften Pharaoh’s heart? And why not leave Pharaoh alone to make his own decision?

Perhaps G’d hardened Pharaoh’s heart to unequivocally show what happens when we don’t listen. When we don’t see. When we serve only ourselves. That is a hardness that underlies many, perhaps all, of the plagues we face today – COVID, global warming, wars, famine, wealth disparity, the caste system called racism, the political divide. Aren’t these all due to our hardened hearts? A sense of a separate self? The will to protect only me and mine?

What Sufi practitioners call nafs is similar to ego. The word means breath. As long as we are in the body, we can’t rid ourselves of our breath. However, nafs can and must be refined through practice. A refined breath brings us into remembrance of our true nature, the One Being.

How else will light find its way into the solidity of rock? Right into the materiality of creation:

Raise us from the denseness of the earth,

Thy Beauty do we worship

– From the prayer Saum, Hazrat Inayat Khan

Not through the angels who are inseparable expressions of the One Light. They continuously sing praises to G’d. It is we human beings who have come fully to the earth, into the Garden, only to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad TOO SOON. Before we matured enough to remember that the home of our soul lives in the Spirit of G’d.

You see, we have the innate capacity to know G-d’s presence. To bring the Light of G’d right into the densest material. From Keter to Malkhut to solid rock, even into a heart that is turned to stone. But how?

At the very start of this parsha, G’d reveals to Moshe a greater name:

G’d spoke to Moshe,
He said to him:
I am YHWH.
I was seen by Avraham, by Yitzakh, and by Yaakov as God Shaddai,
But by my name YHWH I was not known to them.

– Exodus 6:2-3

What does the name Shaddai mean? That G’d is enough. Right down to the physical level, to Malkhut: G’d-the-Provider is Enough. The same root is in the word Dayenu – “it would have been enough.”

And now the name YHWH, the name that can’t be said. What does this represent? G’d the transcendent. G’d who is beyond any separation. As my teacher Fakhir Pran Nath would say with a wave of his hand, all is G’d.

If nothing is outside of G’d, it makes sense when G’d says, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart”. For YHWH who knows no separation, even a hardened heart comes from G’d. And how do we soften this hardened heart? Through practice.

Matzah and Wine

Remember the three Matzos on the Passover Seder table? They represent G-d’s three promises: I will bring you out, I will rescue you, I will redeem you from the dry, tastelessness matzah of servitude.

And the four cups of wine? What do they signify? Wet and flavorful wine signify these three promises plus the sweetness of the fourth:

I will take you for me as a people,
And I will be for you
As a G’d:
And you shall know
That I am YHWH your G’d,
Who bring you out
From beneath the burdens of Egypt.

– Exodus 6:6-7

YHWH will take us as a people from beneath the burdens of the separate self. A presence that softens the most hardened of hearts. Ponder the sweetness of this.

The fourth promise can only be made willingly, with reciprocity. It’s not one-directional. You (we) must prepare yourself (ourselves) to receive this blessing to be taken as a people, who take YHWH – The Un-nameable One – as our G’d. Different from the first three promises, this fourth promise is a two-way street. Our hardened hearts must soften to each other, held in the arms of the Beloved.

Ego separates. The flip side of ego is actualization: the fulfillment of discovering one’s purpose and potential as a living, breathing Child-of-G’d.

If you’ve been following the practices, the balancing of the vertical and horizontal planes within ourselves expresses this dichotomy. As above, so below. As in the beginning, so in the end. The horizontal line of the cosmic (material, embodied, manifested) intersects the vertical line of the transcendent (all-powerful, omni-present, all-pervading).  Integrated, timeless, uniting Heaven and earth in each of us. If we allow it.

How do we exit the land of Egypt and become free? Only through the Love of YHWH and by loving my neighbor as myself: Shaddai. There is enough. All is One.

This week’s practices continue to support our journey from galut (exile) to returning to the home of our soul. We will seek to soften our hearts and build our capacity to create harmony in daily life — to continue our awakening in Awe and Oneness from which we have our Being.

You are not a drop in the ocean,

You are an entire ocean in a drop.

– Rumi

Through breath, light and sound we can be in tune with the Infinite and the rhythms of this life. This beautiful, chaotic, ever changing, all-pervading Life.

Photo by Glenn Sackett

WEEKLY PRACTICES: Finding Our Way Home

With the Soul Manifestation Process, we awaken to the present in the fullness of our being. This gentle, embodied awareness allows the heart to begin to heal its wounds and unify the broken shards of separation. You are invited to initiate this process via breath, light and sound.

Suggestion: Do one practice a day, or do all 6 consecutively. Remember… have your Journal nearby to jot down any insights that may arise.

Audio Recording – Coming Soon

BREATH

Let’s begin with a simple breathing practice, one designed to integrate mind and body. Sit comfortably, with back straight but not stiff. Close your eyes. Relax your arms. Relax your jaw. Relax your tongue. Most of us tend to jut the chin forward. If this is you, bring your chin slightly back and down so that your head is balanced on your neck. With a little practice, you can feel this sweet spot.

Now close your eyes. In this relaxed stillness, witness your inhale and exhale. Without changing anything, just notice the swing of your breath, in and out.

Next, on the inhale hold your breath for a few seconds. Can you feel your heart beating? Putting your hand on your heart can help. After awhile, notice how your blood circulating through your body feels. Can you feel the pulsing? Look for it in the hold between the inhale and exhale. Take a moment of joy, gratitude and quiet amazement in this sacred sensation.

Return to your normal breath and open your eyes.

CONTEMPLATION

In this sacred atmosphere, contemplate these words drawn from this week’s parsha and from the Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan:

LIGHT

With eyes closed, breathe in and out gently through the nose. Balance your inhale with your exhale. Keep your body still. In this refined state, focus on your physical heart. Visualize red light. Breathe in red light, exhale red light for 5 breaths.

Next, focus on your right chest, about where the physical heart rests on the other side. Visualize white light. Breathe in white light, exhale white light for 5 breaths.

Now focus on the center of your chest. Visualize green light filling the center of your chest. Breathe in green light, exhale green light for 5 breaths.

When you are ready, open your eyes and breathe fully, deeply. What is your experience of this balancing practice?

SOUND

Similar to mantra, to practice Wazifa is to repeat a Name (quality) of G’d. Layers of meaning of the Name, which is encoded in the sound vibration, will be revealed to you through repetition and focus. In this his week’s practice with sound vibration, call upon the intimacy of your heart. Ya Wadud (yaa waa-DOOD) is divine love’s most intimate manifestation. It is the constant embrace of the affectionate, loving universe.

This embrace penetrates to the deepest place, the most subterranean reaches of the heart. The Sufi poet Hafiz said, “If you want to see the face of God, sift the dust in a barroom floor.” There’s no place you can’t find this love. 

(Source: Physicians of the Heart by Pir Shabda Khan)

We recite this Name of G’d on the inhale, allowing receptive silence on the exhale. Note the stress in the pronunciation: Ya Wadoooood.

Inhale: Ya Wadud

Exhale: (silence)

With your eyes closed, focus on your heart center, the center of your chest, as you inhale Ya Wadud. Rhythmically inhale and exhale, softly repeating ya Wadoood out loud 33 times. Afterward, feel the effects of this sound vibration on your mind, heart and soul. 

ZIKR

Meaning “remembrance”, Zikr is the repetition of a sacred phrase with the intention of returning to the essence of Unity. Continuing from last week, we will repeat the central Jewish prayer known as the Sh’ma.

In Hebrew:

שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד

Shema Yisrael YHWH Eloheinu YHWH Echad

The Sh’ma can be translated as: “Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one”. LORD is the unpronounceable four letter word יְהוָה – YHWH, the Name of G’d that can’t be named. Instead, we’ll use the word “Adonai“, meaning Lord, or “HaShem“, meaning The Name.

When practicing Zikr, it’s best to use the original language in which the prayer was revealed. As you inhale and exhale, softly repeat out loud, 33 times. Afterward, feel the effects of the vibration on your being.

NATURE

This week as you take time to walk in nature, feel the beating of your heart. Can you coordinate your footsteps with the rhythm of your heart? Pay attention do the play of light. Where do you glimpse the color red in nature? Where do you see white? What shades of green does the winter light reveal? 

For a view of nature that marries the cosmic with the transcendent, please listen to the podcast with the physicist and sufi mystic Suhrawardi William Gebel, author of the book Nature’s Hidden Dimension: Envisioning the Inner Life of the Universe.

Shabbat Shalom!

After 6 days of practice, when Shabbat arrives, observe how this week’s practices shape your Shabbat experience. Be sure to check in Sunday morning for next week’s parsha.

You are invited to comment on how the contemplations and practices for this week have shaped your experience of daily life… any big Ah-ha’s? Please share your thoughts and feelings below.

חַיִּים
L’Hayyim…. To Life!