Light in the Dark
THE BIG IDEA
Along with the lights of Chanukah, and the meditation on bringing light (consciousness) to the darkest of places (and times), this week’s torah energy offers essential guidance to help direct that light (consciousness) —to ourselves, our family, and our tribe, our soldiers, our captured, our survivors, our mourners, and then, out to the world.
This week, just as Jacob returns to his spiritually designated land (Israel) and tries to sit and relax, his sons go and sell their brother Joseph into slavery and leave him for dead.
To be fair, Joseph was the type of little brother that would drive anyone crazy - a tattle tale, the favorite, and completely unselfconsciously self involved (as seen in his dreams) - and who hasn’t imagined “getting rid” of their annoying brother? The problem is, they acted on it, and we are still carrying the karmic debt they incurred. Negative energy that manifest across Israel in the past year - where the brotherly hatred crackled through the streets with such force it brought an entire society and its major highways to a halt on multiple occasions.
As a spiritually obligated people, WE DO NOT have the right to kill or “get rid” of annoying people— as much as we might dislike each other, and everything about each other, there must be a way to process our discomfort, work on ourselves, and live with different opinions and lifestyle choices.
According to the torah, the ONLY REASON to kill a person/people, is because he/she is coming to kill you first. However, unlike Amalek, the Romans, the Nazis, HAMAS or Islamic Jihad, Joseph did not pose a physical threat to his brothers - and the decision to “eliminate him” from the family resulted in both our multigenerational slavery in Egypt and the fracturing of our future messianic arrival.
The fight between the brothers ensured a two step process of repair. Before we can advance to the Messianic consciousness of refined pleasures and growth through joy that comes out of the Judean line, we must master Joseph’s transformation process and learn to overcome our lower impulses, and literally fight for our existence.
It is important to remember that the goal of our 3000+ years of spiritual practice isn’t to be the masters of existing broken systems — slaves in charge of Potefar’s house, the prison, even the House of Pharaoh. We haven’t survived thousands of years of history to maintain another flawed nation state in the world, however, according to my teacher SY Schneider, until we master this phase of Joseph energy (embodied by the fight for/within The Nation State of Israel) we will not advance to the next phase in the process.
And so, during this year’s festival of light, as you bring miracle consciousness to each flame, try to internalize this truth: THE MORE ENERGY WE PUT into judging and hating our brothers and each other - the longer we stay in the Joseph era of righteous warrior - where we need to literally fight for our survival, continue to learn to control our negative impulses, and learn our lessons through pain and suffering.
Trust that the ‘miracle’ we are ultimately praying for is a reality well beyond this reality and our own imagination; and do your best to bring the light (consciousness) to any places in yourself, your family, your thoughts about this nation and this world that needs more light (faith in a consciousness beyond our own).
May we finish our 8 days of mediation on light (with God’s name) with a deeper appreciation of the light we are carrying, defending and spiritually tasked to emanate out to each other and the world.
May we all have the ability to use that “light” to transform and heal ourselves, and our family wounds. May we all have the ability to send that light to all of our soldiers, righteous warriors, captured, wounded, hurting and scared. And may we all awaken to a time of respect and love (even when we don’t agree).
Happy Festival of light. Shabbat Shalom. And God, please, help us all.