Stuff. Devarim.

THE BIG IDEA

 If you are feeling more depressed or disconnected than usual - don’t be alarmed - you are likely tapping into Jerusalem’s conscious state of sadness.  The heaviness should ease after Sunday’s ritual fast (commemorating the ways Israelites have brought about their own misery by violating God’s laws and hating on one another).

Use this time to safely, gently, and slowly search inward for ways you might be unconsciously blocking positive growth from your  life. Focus on personal accountability. According to the Torah Omens this is a favorable time to review your life story and explore the places you, like Moses, might have been overwhelmed by aggressions or micro-aggressions of the people around you, and you (perhaps) overreacted. 

DEEPER DIVE

We are at the part of the story where the Israelites are finally ready to enter the promised land, and Moses, still banned from entering, has a few things to say. Of course, since it is Moses, he is given an entire book to share his thoughts.

As a text meant to offer relevant timeless spiritual guidance for all, my struggle with the male bias of the Torah should not come as a surprise.

But, what if the entire point of the Torah was to offer the world an archetypal model of a completely spiritually aligned man ? (because men need the most help)

Is it possible that the Torah’s main protagonists, teachers, prophets and laws focus primarily on men less because men are more important, or because as a historical document it lacked a consciousness beyond its chauvinistic context, but rather, to offer adjustment to the most unbalanced aspects of our reality most often evident in men?

Real question.

I offer this without the anger or frustration of my youth, a pain that eventually alienated me from the faith altogether, but rather as a curious investigator into the validity of Torah as a timeless spiritual path. 

Is it possible that the focus on men is because the masculine needs the most adjustment in the feminine future?

And so, as we begin to meditate on the fifth and final book, called Devarim (translated as words, things or stuff) and enter into the retelling of the story from Moses’ own perspective, I invite this idea of conscious masculine adjustment and guidance for the misaligned male within us all. Perhaps we are meant to let go of our gendered essentialism and all learn from Moses’ accountability. After all if this text is to guide all humanity, as it claims, it can hardly be a patriarchal coincidence that the Source Energy of the Universe acknowledges a male to be the most spiritually elevated human to ever walk this earth. (a point that God was making directly to Moses’ sister, Miriam.)

Perhaps the person that speaks mouth to mouth with God was a man because it was known, even way back then, men will need the most guidance in the circle consciousness, (a consciousness that Miriam is widely known to carry).  And perhaps this book, Devarim, which presents Moses’ perspective on his own limits, offers us a lesson in how to make that adjustment for those that need it most.

Why else would a sacred path invite an entire book to retell the story we have already been following for the past 3 books?

Just a few examples to illustrate my point:

Note that Moses does not begin his story with all the incredible miracles or his selfless contribution to the nation. Instead, Moses begins by admitting that the Israelites were too much.  God blessed them to multiply, and they did, but — How could I handle your (the israelite’s) constant bickering? 

He then goes on to take full responsibility for  the system of governance he proposed (to help ease his burden) and the consequences that followed. After all, it was the governing body that suggested sending spies and it was Moses that thought it sounded like a good idea and agreed to send the 12 representatives to scout the land.  

Of course Moses could not imagine the spies' report, or the people’s repugnant reaction, a fate that doomed anyone of an age able to distinguish good from evil (over 20) to die in the Desert. 

In this book we meet a Moses, facing a certain end, who unapologetically discusses his own fallen fate. He admits without any excess blame, or drama the facts from his perspective. He simply states why he won’t be entering the land with Caleb and Joshua who will be the only survivors of that generation. ‘It is because of you (Israelites) I won’t go into the land either’. He isn’t defensive, but he also isn’t in denial about what happened. He got triggered by their awfulness, and as a result is fated to suffer the same consequence as them. 

Clearly he is not offering the archetype of a ‘perfect’ man - and perhaps that makes him even more credible in the timelessness of the guidance he is able to offer. Moses doesn’t die for our sins, he dies because of them. 

And in this book he makes that very very very clear.

INNER WORK GUIDE

We live in a world constantly asking for us to take accountability. 

Accountability for male privilege, white privilege, white male privilege, 

The privilege of money,

The privilege of access, and class.

The privilege of beauty, youth and health,

The privilege of education, infrastructure and medicine. 

The privilege of sexual preferences,

The privilege of having a safe place to live.

And it is true. You don’t need to look very far to see the injustice of our world. If we take a moment to notice the experience of the world through the eyes of another, we can see quite clearly how that other is being unfairly overlooked, neglected, or suffering.

Yet there are very few models of personal accountability to follow that don’t feel forced, overly apologetic, or totally fake. How does the person of privilege learn authentic accountability? What models exist in our world that we can trust?

Is Moses is the type of archetypical character that helps you better understand what personal responsibility means?

On Sunday’s Official spiritual Day Of Sadness, whether you abstain from food and water or not, try your best to consciously drop into the depressed state of our world’s existence.

Allow yourself to mourn the parts of your story, humanity’s story, and our planet’s story that cannot be undone.

Start with your personal pain and frustration, and then slowly move to contemplate the vulnerable populations and places around the world. Take the day to sit with the vastness of suffering caused by social injustice, hatred, self interest and shameless greed and then trace each element back to the ways you personally benefit from the companies and conveniences that enable our world’s current state of affairs. Try to find the places where you can find personal and collective accountability, or just take the day to admit defeat.

Because we have failed our imperative to live in a world that reflects the best of our humanity.

And at least one day a year it is totally appropriate to sit and cry about it.

Let the sadness be felt.

Go as deep as you can.

Wouldn’t it be nice to feel that pain for real so that we can feel motivated to change our world - also for real?