Vayakhel-Pekudei – Exodus 35:1 – 40:38

Mar 7 – 13, 2021 | 29 Adar 5781

Watercolor by Nurullah

Dreaming Our Lives into Being

For the cloud of YHWH was over the Dwelling by day,

and fire would be by night in it,

before the eye of all the House of Israel

upon all their marches.

– Exodus 40:38

In this week’s double-parsha Vayakhel-Pekudei, the House of Israel donates so heavily to the construction of the Mishkan – the Dwelling – that Moshe says, Enough! The importance of keeping Shabbat is reiterated. And the construction begins. 

Have you listened to Kabbalah 99’s latest podcast with Catherine Shainberg, founder of The School of Images? When you do, you will hear how the line between sleep-dreaming and awake-dreaming blurs. What if someday we wake up and find it was all a dream?

Looking at the Book of Exodus in this manner — as a dream of awakening — reveals much about our human journey. Everyone and everything is you — all different aspects of you. Following Catherine’s method, we can look at what happens from four vantage points:

1) The story

2) Patterns and relationships

3) What it means, from your own experience in combination with the interpretations of others

4) What you take away from this exploration — your own, enhanced experience of the dream and its impact on your perceptions, choices and self-understanding.

So let’s give Catherine’s method a try. Let’s apply this approach to the Book of Exodus.

Exodus as Story

Speaking from my experience as the dreamer, my story goes about like this: I am a slave in Egypt. With difficulty, the leader in me rises up to take me and my people out of bondage. This is in unison with the will of G’d, YHWH — my Truth that cannot be Named. In order to reveal many signs, YHWH unleashes nine plagues on the hardened places in me that can’t let go.

With the last decree, the slaying of my egoic self, I must actively protect my family and my animals by performing rituals — including marking my doorpost with the blood of the sacrificial lamb. Finally, all of the parts of me that yearn for freedom get to escape in the dark of night.

And yet, near the Sea of Reeds, my grasping, fearful self who won’t let go catches up to the me who longs for freedom. YHWH divides the waters so that only the desire for freedom and communion can pass through. With a round-about route, the Unnameable brings me and my kind to the Sinai Wilderness. I feel something magnificent is about to happen. 

There I am instructed how to build the dwelling place for YHWH — that part of me that is Beyond Name. I learn the importance of keeping the day of rest, Shabbat. I am shown 10 Words by which I can live peacefully with all of my selves.

However, doubt resurfaces. Willingly, I give my golden earrings to be melted into an idol I can tangibly see and touch. When I become lucid to what I’ve done, I get angry with myself. Feeling betrayed, I break the Tablets on which G’d has written guidance for life.

And yet, death will not be my consequence. Like a parachute that opens at the last minute, G’d forgives me, and instructs the leader in me to climb the mountain again. This time, I write the Tablets with my own hand. 

I rejoice in this Reunion. I give freely of all that is mine to create a dwelling place for G’d. The wise and skilled builder in me, Betzalel, says to my illuminated self, Moshe:

The people are bringing much more

than enough for the service of the work

that YHWH has commanded, to make it!

― Exodus 36:5

Patterns and Relationships

Really, it would take at least a full chapter in a lengthy book to identify the major patterns in this dream of Exodus. As my own dream, what strike me the most is the relationship between myself and YHWH, the me that can’t be Named. How many times did I doubt? How many times did I pledge my love and allegiance, only to forget again?

A related pattern is Zakar — to remember. In parsha Beshalakh (When Pharaoh Let Go) I defeat doubt with remembrance. To the question, “Is G’d with us or not?” — the answer is to remember. To discover a knowing faith within myself.

Another pattern is the need to participate in my own unfoldment. For instance, in Beshalakh I have to protect myself, my family and my livestock from the 10th Plague. In parsha Va’era (And I appeared) G’d makes three promises to me and to my community: I will bring you out, I will rescue you, I will redeem you from the dry, tastelessness matzah of servitude.

And then in pasha Bo (Come) the fourth promise is offered: I will take you for me as a people. This promise requires reciprocity – I cannot passively receive this communion. I must actively participate in Union. In parsha Mishpatim (Laws, Family) I recall the words naaseh v’nishma, “We will do.”  This is all about action, behavior, deed. Along with my family of selves at the foot of Mount Sinai, I pledge to follow G-d’s words.

Extracting the Meaning

If this were my dream, I would interpret it to mean that my many sides tend to be in conflict with each other, and yet sometimes do unite in glorious harmony. That it can be hard to speak up and be authentic. That purpose is the fabric of human life. And yet, my senses and intellect can get in the way of understanding and acting on my purpose.

And that I must balance my passion to self-actualize with the humility to transcend my limited self and know that All is G’d. That G’d is the bestower, and I am the receiver… which awakens me to the capacity and the calling to serve humanity.

What do others have to say about the meaning of the dream of Exodus? Recently, Kabbalah 99 interviewed Rabbi Mendel Brackman. You can hear more wisdom in his podcast interview: A Taste of Kabbalah: Receiving Wisdom of Torah for Personal and Global Transformation.

To answer my question, what insights do you glean from Exodus as a dream? Here’s how Rabbi Mendel responded:

The Book of Exodus is the journey of the love Hashem has for us, and how we impart that love into the world around us.

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The tabernacle shows us the immense love Hashem has for each of us. The travelings of the Mishkan impart that love into the whole world: how being brought out of Egypt and being given the Torah was for us to share Hashem’s love with the rest of the world.

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When we become a mini-Mishkan, we carry that love wherever we go, showing the journey though our own lives and the world around us is a place that doesn’t reject the divine, but rather welcomes it with open arms.

– Rabbi Mendel Brackman, Chabad of North Metro Denver

From a completely different perspective, we have the words of the chaplain and nature photographer Glenn Sackett. For his full podcast interview, click on: Exploring Beauty and Resilience in Nature and in All Our Relations.

We are not alone. Something happens and we complain. Then G’d intervenes and we remember G’d. Then we forget and kvetch again. Then we find out — we are not really alone. Someone we can’t see knows what we need and provides in ways we don’t expect.

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Ellen White, a Founder of 7th Day Adventist Church, puts it this way: “We need not fear the future unless we forget how G’d has lead us in the past”.

― Glenn Sackett, Explorer of Inner and Outer Worlds

What Is Your Awakening?

In my mind and heart, this dream of Exodus teaches me that the purpose of my life is to contribute to an ethical society — to love G’d and to love each person, all that is, as myself. For truly, we are One Being. This we invoke whenever we say these words of the Sufi mystic, Hazrat Inayat Khan:

Toward the One.

The perfection of Love, Harmony and Beauty,

The Only Being.

United with all the Illuminated Souls

who form the embodiment of the Master, the Messenger, the Message,

The Spirit of Guidance.

After all this exploration, what does the dream… the experience… of Exodus mean to you? How are you Moshe? How are you Pharaoh? In what ways do you serve because of your love of your neighbor? In what fullness of capacity is your love of G’d?

These are big questions to explore today. As big as your LIFE.

This week we will choose practices that bring us into Zakar – Remembrance. For this is our door to Oneness. Through breath, light and sound we create the conditions to tune ourselves with the Infinite and harmonize with the rhythms of this life. This beautiful, chaotic, ever changing, all-pervading Life.

Photography by Glenn Sackett

WEEKLY PRACTICES: Remember to Remember

The Soul Manifestation Process awakens us 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. This week, we will work with breath infused with light and sound to allow us to return to the home of our soul.

We will continue with the purification practices as they are foundational to clearing away that which no longer serves us. Return, return. Ours is not a caravan of despair.

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

To remember our true Self, first we must remove the accumulations and stories of our heart, mind and body. By so doing we purify ourselves before entering into prayer. We will use the energetic states of Earth, Water, Fire and Air to remove all obscurations. Begin with a complete exhalation. Throughout the practice, breathe deeply and rhythmically, with an even exhalation and inhalation.

Earth: Inhale and exhale through the nose 5 times. Feel the capacity for solidity. Release to the earth all that belongs to earth.

Water: Inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth 5 times. Feel the capacity for liquidity. Set adrift in  water all that belongs to water.

Fire: Inhale, sipping through the mouth, and exhale through the nose 5 times. Feel the capacity for heat and transformation. Give to fire all that desires to be released in flame.

Air: Open your mouth and inhale and exhale through the mouth 5 times. Feel the capacity for expansiveness in the gaseous state. Let the wind carry away all that belongs to air.

Now sit quietly, breathing gently in and out through the nose. Feel the capacity for stillness. This is Ether from which the four elements arise. Do you feel the stillness? A lightness of being? When you are ready, return to your normal breath and open your eyes.

CONTEMPLATION

In this purified atmosphere, we turn to prayer. Contemplate the lines below from the week’s parshot, Vayakhel-Pekudei. And drawing from the words of the Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan, consider this quote from the Githas on Meditation and Zikr — a word which means Remembrance. 

LIGHT

Now that we have emptied ourselves with the Purification Breaths and readied ourselves with prayer, now we can rejoice in awakening, and commit to our essential nature.

With eyes closed, breathe in and out gently through the nose. Balance your inhale with your exhale. Keep your body still. Focus on your crown, at the top of your head. On the inhale, visualize the color yellow above your crown. On the exhale, breath out yellow light through your third eye, between your eyebrows. Now imagine the morning light. All is bathed in yellow. Breathe in the deep yellows of earth, exhale pure yellow light. Let it permeate your entire body. Breathe in the sparkling light that dances on water. Stay with this image as long as you feel engaged.

When you are ready, open your eyes and breathe naturally. Witness your experience of this practice. How do you experience the energy of yellow? What qualities arise?

SOUND

We relax ever more deeply, naturally into the home of our soul with sound. The 99 Beautiful Names of Allah carry a sound code with the capacity to quiet our minds and open our hearts to Truth beyond concept. Through repetition, focus and intent, layers of meaning of the Name will be revealed to you.

Ya Hadi (yaa haa-DEE) is an invitation to remember God (zikr) and to remove the coverings over our heart that cause forgetfulness. It offers the light of guidance that illuminates the way for us to overcome self-delusion and find the broad and balanced road, the straight way that offers patience and hope: a life-giving water. (Source: Physicians of the Heart by Pir Shabda Khan).

We recite Ya Hadi 33 times.

• Inhale: (listen for guidance in silence)
• Exhale: Ya Hadi

Afterwards, let the sound of this practice reverberate in your being. Note how you feel. What guidance arises?

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ZIKR

Meaning “remembrance”, Zikr is the repetition of a sacred phrase with the intention of returning to the essence of Unity. Similarly, in Hebrew Zakar means to remember, recall, or call to mind. Today we will offer Zakar in Hebrew and Zikr in Arabic. Simply click on the tab labeled “Zakar” or “Zikr”.

NATURE

This week as you take time to walk in nature, pay attention to the play of light. What conditions give rise to yellow in nature? If you can, walk in the yellow light of dawn. What is dawning in you today?

To be guided in two more nature practices – the Medicine Walk and the 360 Listening Practice – please enjoy the podcast with Maria Rosa Galter: Answering Our Soul’s Longing to Connect in All Dimensions.

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!