And he saw…
THE BIG IDEA
This week is an excellent time to see and assert your internal boundaries.
Do your best to identify behaviors and demands that you absolutely will not tolerate - an example set way back by great great grandmother Sarah protecting her only child from attack or molestation by Ishamel, or by the divine Source that would not tolerate a city completely filled with evil and sexual immorality and sin.
As my teacher says - “you don’t create boundaries you discover them.”
Take time this weekend to notice where your personal boundaries have come up - and also the places that you are able to give beyond the social norms.
At ninety nine years old, three days into his recovery from his circumcision, Abraham gets off his sickbed and runs after potential guests to try to welcome them into his home. He also, famously, agrees to sacrifice he and Sarah’s only son, and heir to his physical and spiritual fortune.
Notice the places you carry the Abrahamic boundless generosity, and the places Sarah’s NO emerges unapologetically.
And then notice a third energy. The reason for the boundary. The Yitzchak energy within. The miracle baby that needed maternal and then divine protection - from attack and sacrifice. The one that proves both the limitless of the Creator - and, paradoxically, that there are limits.
And with that Yizchak energy - pull down a prayer for the Nation of Israel, our soldiers, hostages, and Jews wherever they are in the world.
First -hold deeply in your heart that anything is possible — as Sarah was reminded when she laughed at the thought of having a child in her old age… God can do anything.
Second - gently remind the divine, as the divine reminded Abraham - that sometimes doing the hard thing is the right thing and attackers must be banished - even if you love them.
And finally channel the energy of Yizchack who let his father bind him and put him on an alter…. Gently remind the divine that enough is enough — our soldiers have sacrificed their lives, and their families have sacrificed their sanity — ask that we all pass the test, get off the alter, and pull down divine protection over us all.