Yitro | Freedom and Presence

וַיִּשְׁמַע יִתְרוֹ כֹהֵן מִדְיָן חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה אֵת כָּל־אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה אֱלֹהִים לְמֹשֶׁה וּלְיִשְׂרָאֵל עַמּוֹ כִּי־הוֹצִיא יְהוָה אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל מִמִּצְרָיִם׃

Yitro, priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard all that Elohim had done for Moses and for the people Israel, how Eternally Present had brought Israel out from Egypt.

Exodus 18:1

וַיָּבֹא יִתְרוֹ חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה וּבָנָיו וְאִשְׁתּוֹ אֶל־מֹשֶׁה אֶל־הַמִּדְבָּר אֲשֶׁר־הוּא חֹנֶה שָׁם הַר הָאֱלֹהִים׃

Yitro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought Moses’ sons and wife to him in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of Elohim.

Exodus 18:5

וַיִּחַדְּ יִתְרוֹ עַל כָּל־הַטּוֹבָה אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה יְהוָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר הִצִּילוֹ מִיַּד מִצְרָיִם׃

And Yitro rejoiced over all the kindness that Eternally Present had shown Israel when Eternally Present delivered them from the Narrow Place.

Exodus 18:9

 

This week's Torah portion begins with Moses’ father-in-law, Yitro, high priest of the free desert people of Midian, hearing about the deliverance of Israel from slavery. Torah says, Yitro hears all. He hears how the enslaved people have been freed by the hand of Elohim. He hears Elohim as the full spectrum of Creating Godding spirit, a plural energy, that continues to speak the world into formation, as at the beginning of Torah and creation.

The people have finally crossed through the birth canal of the sea and are reborn freed from physical slavery. They need readying to receive deeper and deeper teachings of freedom from Yitro, Moses and the Eternal. This is the journey ahead, to discover and actualize our full human capacity and make a world in the image of that fullness.

Yitro's teachings begin through his clear actions,  leaving his home and joining the wanderers in the wilderness. He models the next step in the journey to freedom by leaving behind the limited allegiance and identification to "Midianite" and wholeheartedly rejoicing with the newly freed people.

A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.

— Joseph Campbell

 

By bringing Moses' wife and sons with him, Yitro embraces the freedom that comes through overcoming the separation of the masculine and the feminine, of heaven and earth. This is the unification needed for the people to receive the Torah that is coming, the collective revelation of the Ten Commandments at the mountain of Sinai.

Moses had mastered the purification and steadfastness necessary to ascend to the highest direct encounters with Essence. In this,  tradition holds Moses to be the most enlightened human of all times. And Moses' development was not complete. Yitro, comes as his teacher, as our teacher.

I learned more about how the Hasidic tradition regards Yitro in a class with Sarah Yehudit Schneider about the 17th century Hasidic rebbe from Komarna, Ukraine: Yitro was called to show Moses that the spiritual path to liberation isn't limited to achieving oneness and presence in high spiritual states. The purpose of humans is to bring The Oneness down to earth, by becoming a loving presence with our families, communities and all life. We are in a partnership to create relationships and a world that reflects back the beauty and goodness of all creation.

Yitro gave Moses many teachings about how to share power and include the wisdom and experience of others. This is how we create wholeness and space for expansive human potential. Unless we include all created form in the germination of our words and deeds, we are doomed to continuing separation and discord.

Yitro showed this to Moses by uniting him with his wife and children and then guiding Moses to set up a system in the desert to include all the voices of the community in making decisions. Then Yitro, fulfilling his purpose, was free to return to Midian. Moses and the people were now ready to turn toward Sinai.

וְכָל־הָעָם רֹאִים אֶת־הַקּוֹלֹת וְאֶת־הַלַּפִּידִם וְאֵת קוֹל הַשֹּׁפָר וְאֶת־הָהָר עָשֵׁן וַיַּרְא הָעָם וַיָּנֻעוּ וַיַּעַמְדוּ מֵרָחֹק׃

And all the people saw the thunder and the lightning, and the call of the ram’s horn and the smoking of the mountain. And when the people saw this they trembled in fear and stood at a distance.

Exodus 20:15

This passage shows us that the people weren't yet ready to fully experience the momentous presence of the Unifying Energy of Creation. Their senses were opened, seeing and hearing sound and sights. But their hearts were overcome with fear and they stood at a distance. Another Hasidic master, the Rabbi from Berditchev, I learned from Rabbi David Ingber, asked, "Were the people afraid of that tremendous force, or of their own freedom?"

This is a question for our time, for all time. Are we afraid of our own freedom? How can we create practices, connections and systems, that give us enough peace and security so that we can uphold and celebrate our own freedom, and the freedom of others?

This reminds me of the Marianne Williamson quote, also embraced by Nelson Mandela:

Our Greatest Fear 

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of
 God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
 we unconsciously give other people
 permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

—Marianne Williamson

Perhaps the "commandments" brought down to the people at Sinai provide the clarity, peace and security you need to open you to stand for people being in their power. Perhaps the Mindfulness Trainings set down by Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh speak more directly to guiding you to show up in the world as a freedom-seeker and freedom-protector. Or the paths given by Mohammad or Jesus.

The freedom modeled by Yitro is the deepest freedom, to celebrate and make space for all the revelations that come down through the ages, through human  travails and journeys.

Torah and all the paths invite us to sit together and decide what are the best laws for us to follow in our world today. How do we structure our lives and societies so that we create the time and space to sit together and consider this?

The Day of Mindfulness called Shabbat

This Torah portion introduces shabbat. As Torah, it means the Teaching, the Law and the Instruction:

שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּעֲבֹד וְעָשִׂיתָ כָּל־מְלַאכְתֶּךָ

וְיוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי שַׁבָּת לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לֹא־תַעֲשֶׂה כָל־מְלָאכָה אַתָּה וּבִנְךָ־וּבִתֶּךָ עַבְדְּךָ וַאֲמָתְךָ וּבְהֶמְתֶּךָ וְגֵרְךָ אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׁעָרֶיךָ

כִּי שֵׁשֶׁת־יָמִים עָשָׂה יְהוָה אֶת־הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת־הָאָרֶץ אֶת־הַיָּם וְאֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר־בָּם וַיָּנַח בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי עַל־כֵּן בֵּרַךְ יְהוָה אֶת־יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת וַיְקַדְּשֵׁהוּ׃

Exodus 20:8-11

What does it mean that this is a day for the Creating Unifying Godding Energy? What can happen on that day that doesn't happen in the other six days of the week?

The day we are to set aside is a day of Stopping, a day for us to experience Presence. In Buddhist terminology, it is a day of practicing heightened allowing.

We may think we don't have time, or money, or resources to do this. And the mystery of this day is that out of the stopping, out of creating space for presence, we experience the greatest abundance. By stepping into the day of resting from creation and doing, generativity naturally arises. Creativity, the plural energy of what Torah called Elohim, thrives on space.

Relationally, shabbat is a day that offers space in our lives to explore what we can agree on, where can we meet together, to create a world where we understand each other and trust that we are working toward common goals.

We can touch the places in us that hold enough security, safety and trust to allow the arising of creativity in all aspects of our lives.

This is the beauty for me of what happened at Sinai — the idea that a mixed multitude can rise up and overcome slavery. And then find its way through the fear and unknown to collective revelation. To personal and societal  movement  toward presence and freedom.

A poem for Sinai:

Love wants to reach out and manhandle us,
Break all our teacup talk of God.

If you had the courage and
Could give the Beloved His choice, some nights,
He would just drag you around the room
By your hair,
Ripping from your grip all those toys in the world
That bring you no joy.

Love sometimes get tired of speaking sweetly
And wants to rip to shreds
All your erroneous notions of truth

That make you fight within yourself, dear one,
And with others,

Causing the world to weep
On too many fine days.

God wants to manhandle us,
Lock us inside of a tiny room with Himself
And practice His dropkick.

The Beloved sometimes wants
To do us a great favor:

Hold us upside down
And shake all the nonsense out.

But when we hear
He is in such a “playful drunken mood”
Most everyone I know
Quickly packs their bags and hightails it
Out of town.

—Hafiz