The Journey

THE BIG IDEA

According to the Torah Omens, this week is an excellent time to review the major stops you’ve taken along your life journey. Literally. 

As Moses records the 42 Israelites encampments in the the desert, take time to review your major milestones. Where have you lived, what momentous events do you remember, how close do you feel to arrival? 

Don’t be surprised if feelings of sadness, longing, or disappointment arise within, this review comes at the lowest point in the spiritual cycle, during the 3 weeks period we are asked to mourn the absence of Jerusalem’s Holy Temple, and the destruction and pain that results from hate fueled behavior. 

Even still, the Torah Omens remind us that this is a favorable time to look ahead. Plan for the consciousness of arrival. Define your boundaries. Create contingencies for the worst offenses and potential accidents. Remember old consciousness must be wiped out (or it will wipe you out). This is also a good time to contemplate the eternal territories of the clan, and the value of tribal preservation through marriage.

MEDITATION ON LOSS

There is an inherent challenge in a spiritual cycle that asks us to mourn the loss of something unknown in our world for 2 millennia. Loss is the feeling of having something and losing it. Trying to imagine what Jerusalem might have meant to the Torah people and the world when it had an active Temple, is like asking a child that grew up without a mother to long for her mother’s embrace— if you have never known that connection or feeling, it is near impossible to mourn the loss of it from your life. 

The same is true of the Torah people, if you have never known the feeling of a world with a Temple in Jerusalem, it is one of the most difficult forms of longing to try to sense. Still, the spiritual cycles asks us to try.

And so, as uncomfortable as sadness is, try to welcome it into your innermost places. From now until Av 9 (August 7) I encourage us to tap into this channel of loss and longing, not as an obligation, but an opportunity for healing and deeper personal benefit.

Use the field of sadness emanating from Jerusalem’s hills to help you process any feeling of loss or longing that you carry within, and release any stuck feelings from your system.

Take time to get very quiet.

Close your eyes.

Soften your heart.

Find the places that are emptied.

Perhaps by a cherished person you love is no longer alive (in physical form).

Perhaps by a relationship that once filled you has dissolved into nothingness.

Perhaps by a dream of becoming has faded into a missed opportunity or failure.

Whatever your entry point into the meditation; lost love, lost opportunity, lost time, lost money, lost focus, lost sense of purpose, do your best to access that sad feeling with consciousness. Find the feeling, allow the tears, allow the pain, connect with the emptiness and pain of Jerusalem herself.

Unprocessed emotion can build up in the body and cause problems down the road, it is by allowing it we release any blocked energy, and begin to access the space we pray to fill in ourselves and in our world.

The most profound of rebuilding happens in the deepest of longing, and the longing can only be aroused by the truth of our life. 

So this week, if you feel like crying and breaking down, go with it, invite it.

Allow yourself to trust the value of each emotion and trust the importance of maintaining your spiritual health, and rebuilding an entirely new and eternal space for God to dwell on earth.