TZAV | Coming Together

וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר׃

Presence spoke to Moses, saying:

צַו אֶת־אַהֲרֹן וְאֶת־בָּנָיו לֵאמֹר זֹאת תּוֹרַת הָעֹלָה הִוא הָעֹלָה עַל מוֹקְדָה עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ כָּל־הַלַּיְלָה עַד־הַבֹּקֶר וְאֵשׁ הַמִּזְבֵּחַ תּוּקַד בּוֹ

Be commanding when telling Aaron and his sons the teaching of the elevation offering: The elevation offering itself shall remain where it is burned upon the altar all night until morning, while the fire on the altar is kept going on it.

Leviticus 6:1-2

 

The gap between how we imagine the beauty of the world before humans took dominion and how it is looms large today. It's easy to feel overwhelmed and numb from suffering and violence, from Boulder, Colorado to Atlanta, Georgie, to more than 160 million people excluded from coronavirus vaccinations because they live in countries engulfed in conflict and instability, including Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia.

In this week's Torah portion, Eternally Present is in the midst of the Israelite's camp, offering centering and elevation practices for a shared human destiny. The first is a collective ritual to get the people fired up, to keep alive the flames that inspire earthlings to make of our lives offerings that elevate human hearts.

Tzav, like other words in Torah, is usually translated as command. It's a special flavor of command — a message delivered in full power, in a commanding presence. Its special quality of teaching or instruction inspires a sense of urgency and doing. Tzav is connected to the word mitzvah, an action that bonds our material and spiritual lives together. This is a matter of life and death in Torah.

The Israelites, wandering in the desert, needed the rituals in Tzav to keep them moving forward toward their promise. Today we can relate to the urgency of finding collective ways to uplift ourselves, lest we give up hope and fall into despair. When we fall into despair, we too become wanderers, losing our capacity to envision a brighter future.

Each of the offerings in Tzav opens a door of connection from our unified Source to a collective future.

זֹאת הַתּוֹרָה לָעֹלָה לַמִּנְחָה וְלַחַטָּאת וְלָאָשָׁם וְלַמִּלּוּאִים וּלְזֶבַח הַשְּׁלָמִים׃ 

Such are the teachings of the elevation offering, the homage  offering, the reparation offering, the guilt offering, the offering of ordination, and the offering of well-being,

Leviticus. 7:37

 

The Elevation Offering: Keeping Hope Alive

The first offering becomes the eternal flame. We keep tending to the fire and meditating on the ascending smoke as a constant reminder to us to keep hope and vision alive. What happens when people lose hope? This is very much alive in my broken heart this week, bearing witness to the two mass shootings in the US after a respite during covid. These violent acts come from hearts and societies that have lost hope in a vision of shared humanity. The fire of elevation keeps alive hope that whatever we are enduring, we can clear out the ashes and bring about something better.

In the 1970's I was a community organizer on the South side of Chicago. I remember rallies led by civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, where hundreds of us crowded together in his church, chanting: “Keep hope alive.” Without that, the people become crushed.

Decades later, I visited Ramallah in Palestine for the first time. I was thrilled to see hundreds of young people strolling and chatting together, enjoying ice cream cones from the famous ice cream parlor in the heart of town, sipping coffee in shops, milling about outside their schools. There was a youthful aliveness in the air, a sense of freedom.

When I went back to Jerusalem and described this to my 90 year old Israeli relatives, they too were overjoyed. In their youth, both of them had been part of movements to found the state of Israel upon the ashes of the Holocaust. They understood what was needed for a people to rise: hope, belief in a future, belief that the future is in their hands. (Yes, there are many, many Israelis who want this for the Palestinian people, who recognize that uplifting the Palestinian people is not separate from uplifting the Jewish people.)

The Reparation Offering

This offering conveys a recognition that harm was done and that the collective will share in healing and redressing the harm. Reparative systems emphasize repairing, restoring and healing; rather than punishing.

Actions of repair are themselves a mitzvah, actions that connect heaven and earth, rather than continue the harmful karma of violence and punishment.

I'm celebrating today cities in the US, such as Evanston, Illinois, that are beginning to fund programs that offer reparations to local African American communities. Asheville, North Carolina, where I live, has passed a resolution committed to this.

Twenty or so years ago I gathered in Central Park in New York City with 70,000 other people to listen to the Dalai Lama. His words transmitted the urgency I associate with Tsav saying, “When someone does an act that causes you harm, this could be the moment you took birth for. It is your opportunity to stop negative karma from continuing, to stop more violence and damage that was set in motion or continued through this act.”

The Guilt Offering

How many little or big things do we do in a day that in hindsight we wish we had done differently? What is the offering we can give that will restore our self-confidence, self-love and self-acceptance? And also address the harm we fear was caused by what we did?

A big focus of Nonviolent Communication is helping us find motivations other than guilt or shame for our choices. Nonviolent Communication values the reasons people do what we want them to do as much as whether they do those things. Why? Because when someone does something out of guilt or fear, this is a violence toward them. It continues the cycle of violence. It doesn't contribute to human qualities that bring me connection to trust, aliveness and awareness. And I don't know about you, but I have a hard time trusting that anything done out of guilt, shame or fear will really bring a lasting trust and connection. My experience is that it will come back to bite me.

At the same time, there is important information in the guilt and fear. Regret arises with awareness that important needs and values weren't carried in the choice I now regret. I want to refocus my attention to those values so I can make new choices. I'll post a practice to help do this at the end of this blog.

The Offering of Ordination

Ordination, in the time of Torah as well as today, is an inherited  privilege. It may be that the individual has worked hard for this privilege. And it also shows that the system this person inherited has worked for that individual.

Torah calls upon us to create new systems, systems where the entire society participates in and benefits from everyone's ordination. Torah presents a collective vision of society, one that we are tragically far from in the world today.

A different system would be one in which those "ordained" as government leaders, doctors, and lawyers would be ordained into systems that exist to meet the needs of all the people affected by the system, Not for the few "ordained," not for the groups "ordained." For everyone.

The Offering of Wholeness

The wholeness offering is the last ritual presented in Tzav. We offer our wholeness into what is always and already whole. This is an elevated spiritual state of non duality. In our human form we meet the formless from which we emerged. And still we live in form. It is an experience of no birth, no death, as Thich Nhat Hanh speaks of it.

We find wholeness in the One Source and we find our wholeness in each other. There is no notion of "sacrifice" because we recognize that when each of us is included in the bounty of life, we all are uplifted to a higher place, spiritually and materially.

This vision in Torah reflects the core visions of Nonviolent Communication and Buddhism. Marshall Rosenberg defined Nonviolent Communication as the communication that takes place when compassionate giving and receiving are possible. When we touch our shared values and needs we trust in partnership.

In the Buddhist practice, a daily chant also awakens the consciousness of wholeness:

The one who bows and the one who is bowed to are both by nature empty

Therefore the communication between them is inexpressibly perfect

Plum Village Chanting Book

When we recognize that each of us is both whole and a part of the whole, we step into the ongoing creation of a healed world.

Some History

In the biblical era, the drawing-close rituals described in Tzav involved burning animals and spilling blood. These rituals were only permitted in the Temple in Jerusalem. After the temple was destroyed 2,000 years ago, Judaism found other ways to draw people near to the Source of Presence.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks connected Judaism's finding historically relevant ways of replacing Temple rituals to Judaism's survival over the millenia:

... the prophets, the sages, and the Jewish thinkers of the Middle Ages realised that sacrifices were symbolic enactments of processes of mind, heart and deed that could be expressed in other ways as well.

https://rabbisacks.org/civilisations-die-tzav-5777/

As Rabbi Sacks wrote, two thousand years ago, the Second Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, marking the end of the animal sacrifices described in this Torah portion. One of the great pacifists in Jewish history, Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai began teaching at that time to continue the elevation offering by burning up harmful thoughts (Vayikra Rabbah 7:3).

We don't burn harmful thoughts by suppressing them. We burn them by transforming and elevating them into something that connects us to a higher vision and purpose. We work with thoughts in Nonviolent Communication by connecting with them.  We recognize that thoughts are how we make meaning of our experiences.

When a thought creates depression, blame, shame or anger, we want to transform its power into something that will bring us into clarity, compassion and empowerment.  We do this by connecting with how we feel when we rethink the thought; and then find the need that the thought is trying to meet. What is so important to us that we think in these harmful ways. Once we understand the feeling and needs behind our thoughts, we understand ourselves and can find the next step in moving toward what we need.

Prayer

Prayer also replaced the Temple sacrifices. The prophet Hosea said, “Take words with you and return to the Lord . . . We will  offer our lips as sacrifices of bulls” (Hos. 14:2-3). Prayers give voice to what is in our heart. We give them voice out of a sense that there is something to hold and uplift what otherwise remains buried.

Acts of Kindness

“My son, we have another atonement as effective as [the Temple sacrifices]: acts of  kindness." This is how Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, another great rabbi, comforted his student in 70 c.e. after the Romans conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the physical Temple.

When we engage in acts of kindness, we make ourselves into the Temple sanctuary.

Transforming Blame and Shame

One way of bringing more kindness into our lives and world is  by recognizing that every action we take, no matter how tragic the results may be, is an attempt to meet needs. Thich Nhat Hanh teaches that we do what  we do because we think we will suffer less. This isn't about justification; it is about understanding people's choices in ways that will generate both compassion and new ways of meeting needs.

Here is a practice to move away from blame:

You want to have a conversation with someone about something they are doing that is making life less than wonderful for you. What they are doing is triggering your upset. It isn't causing your reaction though. You are reacting as you do because an important value or need of yours isn't met when they do what they do. This is an empowering way for you to think about this  — you aren't relinquishing to them the power to cause your feelings.

Now that you have reclaimed your power over your reactions, you are ready to speak to them.

Begin by saying to them, “Are you willing to hear me speak about a difficulty I'm having that involves you?” (Make sure you trust they are willing )

Then say, “I want to speak about what's important to me without blaming you. I don't want this to be heard as blame. I want to create understanding between us. I want you to be able to hear what is important to me.” (Again make sure you trust they are willing. )

You ask: “Will you stop me the moment you hear blame?”

As soon as they say they hear blame, stop, breathe, and say, “Thank you! May I try again to say it without blame?”

Self-Empathy: A Practice to Transform Shame:

Shame is paralyzing. How can we learn to face our regrets about something we have done without shame?

When you realize you regret something you did, or you hear yourself speaking violently to yourself, change gears:

When i think of what I did I feel ____________________.

(Hint, use words that convey visceral emotions, not evaluations of yourself. For example, I feel disappointed, scared, upset.)

I feel that way because doing what I did isn't in harmony with my values of ___________________.

(Hint, find your deepest values: what would be the wonderful gift if you spoke or acted in harmony with your values? For example, care, respect, compassion, authenticity, honesty, awareness.)

Then think of the needs/values you were trying to meet when you did exactly what you did. Even though you regret this now, you were trying to meet precious needs of yours.  (For example, safety, honesty, authenticity, respect, contribution, harmony.)

Instead of shame, you may feel a shift to other feelings, such as sadness, overwhelm, frustration, or hopelessness. You are connecting with the longing to meet both sets of needs. Stay with the longing until you feel a shift toward considering new ways of meeting the needs you wanted to meet and the needs you didn't meet. They are all important.

Two poems by Jelladudin Rumi

From A Great Wagon:

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”
doesn’t make any sense.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
,
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.

 

The Guesthouse:

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

From The Illuminated Rumi. Copyright 1997 by Coleman Barks. Posted with permission. All rights reserved.