After the Death

THE BIG IDEA

What are the spiritual consequences of your daily moral choices? Does the chance at a yearly collective purification process reassure you? 

This week’s Torah Omens invite a meditation on the collective purification process also known as The Day of Atonement. Take time to notice and name the feelings that arise when contemplating the spiritual renewal without directly entering the process. 

Does a single day of collective spiritual cleansing feel like a gift, or another burden placed on a people designated for a life of rigorous spiritual service? 

Use the Kabbalistic energy of endurance that permeates the fourth week after Passover to check in on your current state of spiritual alignment and of our pre/post pandemic reality. And while you are at it, use the narrative’s focus on permitted and forbidden sexual relations to gauge your own. Our sexual expression is a good indicator of our spiritual health as individuals and as a collective.

We know statistically the pandemic has seen an increase in physical and sexual violence within households. As you take time to think about your own personal alignment, consider what we might to help others in less fortunate circumstances.

DEEPER DIVE

It feels important to note that the spiritual formula for collective purification is handed to Aaron, The High Priest, in a narrative entitled  After The Death ( referring to the death of his 2 sons Nadav and Avihu, who were killed instantly after self initiating a spice offering to God).

This formula, known commonly as The Day of Atonement, is enacted once a year and gains additional awe (and terror) when considering it’s placement within the narrative structure of the Torah. Aaron, a man and father, was required to perform a day long purification ritual that included making a spice offering in the exact spot where his 2 sons were taken by fire.

The deaths of Aaron’s sons warn us of the consequences of being overzealous in our divine connection, and invite readers and practitioners to internalize the humility required of anyone wanting to draw close to Source.

Try to visualize that moment in your heart’s eye, what emotions might have Aaron’s devotion summoned in this nation as he performed these yearly rituals for the first time, rituals that feel like an allusion to life’s lottery of intergenerational traumas that seem randomly dispersed amongst us. 

The narrative continues with a warning not to eat the blood of animals, and a long list of sexual misalignments meant to further distance Egyptian consciousness from this purified nation.

I find it profoundly moving that the first thing to contemplate after a spiritual purification process are the boundaried flow of sexual energy within a practice of oneness. 

After all, is there anything more horrific to contemplate then incest? Is there any clearer definition of evil then sexual abuse of a child trapped in her/his guardian’s home? It seems to me there is no fate that seems more cruel, unfair or ungodly then a child doomed to sexual misalignments of a family member.

As difficult as these realities are, I urge everyone reading this to take some time to contemplate the most unsavory part of our world. EVIL, often passed inter-generationally - from abuser to victim perhaps all the way back to premodern times…

As long as cycles of sexual abuse and incest exist in our communities and our world, none of us can ever feel truly good about our freedom. These cycle of abuse effect us on through distorted and misaligned behaviors or both victim (the carries the suffering forever) and abuser who is most often re-enacting their own abuse physically or sublimating it through some other form. 

I am also not sure what to do about it. Donate with money, time, prayer or word of mouth. Align yourself. Notice others. Clearly “god” has brought this behavioral inclination into the world for some reason, and it seems to be up to us to remove it.

INNER WORK GUIDE

Try saying this meditation/prayer at least 3 times this week. Use a journal to see what comes up after. 

Please _-_-_-_ 

Please protect the children in this world. 

Please help us protect the children and vulnerable of the world.

Please fill us with the courage to get involved, the bravery to speak, and the sensitivity and wisdom to know how. Please help us strengthen our social commitment to help others by ending the stigma and denial victims of abuse too often face, so that healing (for us all) can come to the darkest of places.

Please give us the resources and wisdom to restrain, hold and heal the hearts, minds and souls of those that have the inclination to touch a child in an inappropriate way.

Help us know how to act in order to compassionately root out this behavior and practice from our world forever.

May we merit a world where all children are healthy, safe, protected and free forever.

——

And then, if you feel supported and safe, turn within and ask yourself: 

Where have I turned a blind eye to sexual misalignment in myself, my family, my community, my world?

Write out some steps to get involved, either through personal work with a therapist, journaling, seeking out an organization that helps support victims of incest or rehabilitate their perpetrators, or prayer.

God or no god - we cannot live in a world that tolerates incest, or the sexual abuse of children at any level. 

Thank you to everyone that is at least considering this meditation. I know it isn’t easy, but clearly if there is a God, that God has assigned that we get involved in actively changing our reality. And while there is little that I feel I can do, one thing we can do is lift the silence on this evil together -

I encourage everyone to call out and name perpetrators, protect children, and pray for help.

with all my love,

hava