Vayak’hel-Pekudei | Assembling for Healing

וַיַּקְהֵ֣ל מֹשֶׁ֗ה אֶֽת־כָּל־עֲדַ֛ת בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֲלֵהֶ֑ם אֵ֚לֶּה הַדְּבָרִ֔ים יְהוָ֖ה אֲשֶׁר־צִוָּ֥ה לַעֲשֹׂ֥ת אֹתָֽם׃

Now Moses assembled [vayak'hel] the entire community of the Children of Israel and said to them: These are the things that Oneness has commanded you to do...

Exodus 35:1

These last two chapters of Exodus are rich with vision and instructions for healing the community from the ashes of enslavement and trauma.  The unhealed trauma led the people to fear the divine gifts of freedom and protection . From their shattered and fragmented condition they built a Golden Calf, an idol of fear and  separation. The retribution was swift and brutal. Clearly a new way is needed for the people to advance through the wilderness to fulfill their promise.

Moses now assembles the people and presents the blueprint for bringing about the tikkun, the repairing of the whole community.  Everyone is given a specific task, according to their capability, to participate in the tikkun. Everyone participates in building the mishkan, a safe place that will move with the people through the wilderness, placing love in their center.

In Asheville, North Carolina, where I currently reside, the African American community is calling on our town to implement a meaningful plan for reparations. The Golden Calf of privilege and wealth has dominated every system here, from education, to housing, employment, criminal injustice, all  built so that the dominant caste could accumulate wealth and live in freedom.

Torah shows that such brokenness can only be healed by the community making a full-on commitment to a collective tikkun, a healing. The meaning and purpose of life, individual and communal, is to find the tikkun that is needed, and to assemble ourselves in a way that will create the energy and power needed for the tikkun to happen.

In the Torah portion, Eternally Present instructed Moses how to lead this fear- stricken rabble of people who assembled around Aaron to build a Golden Calf into a kehillah, a community with shared vision and purpose.

What is the blueprint? First there is a Shabbat, a shared day of rest. Every household will experience a day of rest and renewal. This establishes the community in a shared rhythm and spiritual life. Everyone tastes the fruits of a day dedicated to being present with each other and making the space to appreciate the gift of life itself.

When I think of the word “assembled,” vayak'hel, I think of a puzzle. a piece of furniture or an automobile on the assembly line. Each person contributes a part that will make wholeness possible.  In the process of assembling, the community, too, is put together. It becomes whole. A wholeness that’s created from many separate moving parts. And the wholeness is greater than the sum of all the moving parts.

Twenty years ago I sat in the courtyard of the palace of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala while he explained the teaching that the whole is greater than the sum of all of its parts. I’ve puzzled ever since over the meaning and importance of that teaching from the Buddhist LamRim.

Vayak'hel gives me a clue to the Dalai Lama's meaning. Moses is assembling the people and the people are bringing all of their offerings to create something that never existed before. The mishkan, the dwelling place for the energy of the immanent godding energy called Shechina. Something never before seen or conceptualized arises out of this newly created structure. It's essence, function and capacity far exceed the mirrors brought by the women, the brooches, earrings, rings, and pendants, blue, purple, and crimson yarns, fine linen, goats’ hair, tanned ram skins, and dolphin skins. The assembling of this mishkan consumes most of the people's journey through exile.

Shabbat

שֵׁ֣שֶׁת יָמִים֮ תֵּעָשֶׂ֣ה מְלָאכָה֒ וּבַיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֗י יִהְיֶ֨ה לָכֶ֥ם קֹ֛דֶשׁ שַׁבַּ֥ת שַׁבָּת֖וֹן לַיהוָ֑ה כָּל־הָעֹשֶׂ֥ה ב֛וֹ מְלָאכָ֖ה יוּמָֽת׃

On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Eternally Present; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.

Exodus 35:2

And the people begin this process with a day of Shabbat. On Shabbat, the separate lives of the working week are put aside for the wholeness of sharing a day together with loved ones and community. There are shared offerings for the table, the setting of a table that welcomes everyone. We let go of all the distractions of the 39 different kinds of work that are involved in building the mishkan for the Shechina. We sit just to be present together.

When we sit together in this quality of presence, something new is created. A sense of connection, a taste of presence without pressure to perform or produce. An opportunity to create space in which creativity and newness can arise. An opportunity to pull together all the pieces of the six days that led up to the day of rest. Greater than all the separate pieces is the cathedral in time to reflect on what you want to bring along into Shabbat and what is coming along with you that you want to let go of.

Shabbat is a time for settling into the body, of creating settled bodies as Resmaa Menakem says. This is the first gift we give to ourselves and others, the gift of resting the body, the door to opening the heart.

Gifts From the Heart

Take from among you gifts to Oneness; everyone whose heart so moves him shall bring them—gifts for Oneness: gold, silver, and copper;

וּתְכֵ֧לֶת וְאַרְגָּמָ֛ן וְתוֹלַ֥עַת שָׁנִ֖י וְשֵׁ֥שׁ וְעִזִּֽים׃

blue, purple, and crimson yarns, fine linen, and goats’ hair;

וְעֹרֹ֨ת אֵילִ֧ם מְאָדָּמִ֛ים וְעֹרֹ֥ת תְּחָשִׁ֖ים וַעֲצֵ֥י שִׂטִּֽים׃

tanned ram skins, dolphin skins, and acacia wood;

וְשֶׁ֖מֶן לַמָּא֑וֹר וּבְשָׂמִים֙ לְשֶׁ֣מֶן הַמִּשְׁחָ֔ה וְלִקְטֹ֖רֶת הַסַּמִּֽים׃

oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the aromatic incense;

וְאַ֨בְנֵי־שֹׁ֔הַם וְאַבְנֵ֖י מִלֻּאִ֑ים לָאֵפ֖וֹד וְלַחֹֽשֶׁן׃

lapis lazuli and other stones for setting, for the ephod and the breastpiece.

וְכָל־חֲכַם־לֵ֖ב בָּכֶ֑ם יָבֹ֣אוּ וְיַעֲשׂ֔וּ אֵ֛ת כָּל־אֲשֶׁ֥ר צִוָּ֖ה יְהוָֽה׃

And let all among you who are skilled come and make all that Oneness has commanded:

Exodus 35:5-10

After Shabbat, the assembled community resumes building a dwelling place for love at it’s core by bringing gifts from the heart.

What is a gift, an action, that is motivated by the heart?

In Nonviolent Communication, we say that a gift from the heart is a gift that is freely given. The giving is freed from concepts such as duty, obligation or "should." We give for the joy of giving, knowing, experiencing, that in the giving we are receiving something precious  to ourselves. In Buddhism this is called the emptiness of giving and receiving.

There is no separation between giver and receiver because we both receive the gift of connection. (A Nonviolent Communication practice to help us shift from motivations from the head to motivations from the heart is included at the end of this blog.) Bringing together Shabbat, a day of rest for the body, and gifts from the heart, to access transformative possibility for our minds.

A Meditation Practice

Settle into a comfortable or relaxed posture. Begin by breathing in slowly. And breathing out slowly, letting each in breath and each out breath relax the body. Gently allow each in breath and each out of breath to open a relaxed space around all the muscles in your face, all the muscles in your chest, belly perineum, hands and feet.

Receive this relaxing as a gift to your heart.

Gently notice space and energy around the heart.

See if you can shift the usual ways you perceive to the heart. Let your heart be the perceiver. Don’t think about it too much because that will be mind claiming the space it always wants to claim.

Just keep breathing and letting your awareness gently rest on the heart.

See what the heart is perceiving in this very moment. Let yourself receive and be led by whatever is coming in or out of the heart in this moment.

Continue following your breathing as you do this. You can do this walking, laying down or sitting.

Imagine spending a chunk of time on Shabbat shifting your perceptive center to your heart.

Our breath becomes the Mishkan for our heart. Our bodies become the movable Mishkan, the host for the centered heart as we move through the world.

NVC Practice: Giving and Receiving from the Heart
 (Releasing Duty and "Shoulding" on Yourself)

Think of a gift you'd like to give to someone. This could be anything, such as a material item, advice, time or your presence.

Now think about how you are imagining you will feel if they accept this gift in exactly the way you would love for them to accept it.

What need of yours is met when they accept it in this delightful way? What is it that is so wonderful for you?

This is how we realize that our gift giving is something wonderful for us. We want to give advice because we want to make a contribution to the world or to our friends or family. We want to give our time and presents because we love connection and it gives us a sense of meaning and purpose.

Instead of telling ourselves that we are doing something out of duty or because we "have to," or because we "have no choice," we connect with the gift that we receive by choosing to do this. First we maintain our freedom by recognizing that we are choosing to do what they we do. Of course sometimes the choice is painful, and still, we hold onto our dignity and freedom by knowing that we are choosing our actions.

One of the essential characteristics of nonviolent communication is realizing that we never do anything "for" anyone else. We do what we do because of the wonderful gifts it brings to us. This is how we create relationships of mutuality and freedom. No one owes anyone anything else.

From the Book of Esther I Filtered the Sediment

From the Book of Esther I filtered the sediment
of vulgar joy, and from the Book of Jeremiah
the howl of pain in the guts. And from
the Song of Songs, the endless
search for love. And from the Book of Genesis,
the dreams and Cain. And from Ecclesiastes,
the despair, and from the Book of Job: Job.
And with what was left, I pasted myself a new Bible.
Now I live censored and pasted and limited and in peace.
A woman asked me last night on the dark street
how another woman was
who’d already died. Before her time – and not
in anyone else’s time either.
Out of a great weariness I answered:
She’s fine, she’s fine.

—Yehudah Amichai