Offerings. Trumah.
THE BIG IDEA
This week’s energy is about defining preferences. The Torah narrative called Trumah meaning, offering, specifies the exact gifts Source Energy would like/requires from her newly liberated people. The chapters detail the gifts requested along with the design plan for the Miskan, the temporary dwelling place for Source Energy on earth. The narrative is extremely specific (down to the exact measurements of the gold lined wooden arc adorned with two golden cherubs) as one might expect if the creative source of the universe, considered the king of kings, was to have a home amongst his people.
This energy comes during the first days of the lunar month called Adar, the most intentionally joyful month in the year, containing within it the holiday of Purim symbolizing a time of revealed miracle and feminine rising -- According to the Torah Omens this is an excellent week to identify what specifically fills us with joy, and get clear on the prayer we want to call into our lives (on Purim).
Add in the energy of the 40 day cycle where Moses is on the mountain getting the direct transmission of light - and it is safe to say, this is a time to really focus our thoughts on manifesting clearly.
Use this time wisely.
Quiet mind and focus of your attention. Pull in the desire expressed by the divine energy of the world to be connected.
INNER WORK GUIDE
How well do you know your own preferences?
How well do you satisfy the preferences of others?
Do you carry a notion of the divine whose preferences matter more than your own?
And if that seems too far of a stretch, try to think of your parents.
Exercise 1:
Imagine your parents, (but this time around) imagine Parents that tell you exactly how to satisfy their preferences. Imagine that they told you, early on, what was required of you as a child/person in the world and exactly how to make them feel pleased and happy. Now imagine you trusted that what made them happiest were things that totally benefitted your wellbeing in the world - to please them was to please yourself.
How that would feel? To know and trust that your parents preferences were for your best? That all they wanted was for you was to live in total alignment with your divine/higher purpose.
What might that form of trust feel like?
Exercise 2:
Imagine if that person you aspire to please was a romantic partner, a spouse, a co-parent, or even your romantic crush. Imagine if you knew exactly how to make them feel perfectly held, respected and seen in each moment. Imagine knowing exactly what gifts please them, or what house to build them (should that moment arrive). Imagine if you trusted that all of their preferences were meant to keep you two feeling fully bonded and present in love.
Does that even feel possible? To know the preferences of the one(s) you choose to love? And to trust that your affections will be received, always, with joy and appreciation.
Exercise 3:
Imagine if that person that you love most was yourself. Imagine if you knew the exact gifts that bring you delight, and the specific dream house (and life path) would best contain and fulfill your essential life force?
Can you imagine that intimate knowing of yourself? Would that clarity feel like a relief?
The energy of the week reveals the preferences of the same Source Energy that parted a Sea, brought water and Manna to the desert, and liberated an enslaved people. This week the very same notion of God that forbids any kind of representation is totally clear on its preferences and requirements of acknowledgement. The way it wants to be served (whether you give willingly or out of obligation) and where it wants to live. Exactly.
Can you take comfort and learn from a notion of the infinite that is perfectly clear?
What can we learn from the specificity of the Divine?
DEEPER DIVE
As you might know the Torah is intended to work on multiple levels. While the written Torah can be taken at face value - the oral Torah, the way those words come to life, supplements, softens and expands on concepts that would otherwise seem literal.
For example: this week when the text says that Source Energy likes gold, silver and copper, it can be translated as not merely three materials that God likes, rather, it can be interpreted as three ways of giving (charity). Do you give from your heart and out of love, do you give in order to get, or do you give because you are in a desperate pinch and will try anything? The gold, silver and copper can stand in as metaphors for intention in fulfilling spiritual obligations.
One of the things that reassures me most about this spiritual practice is the lack of concern for intention or personal motivation. The importance is the doing.
Take some time to self assess your giving style. How do you give in the world? Do you give differently to the divine that to an other, or to yourself?
The rest of this week is a bit over my capacity— it is filled with details and Kabbalistic associations for those that enjoy exploring the correspondences between the divine world and our physical reality.
For example: The 3 ½ Amot (a unit of measurement ) for building a pole in the Mishkan, or the ½ shekel that you are obliged to give to the priests have specific meaning. The half gives a feeling of ‘not yet complete’ and offers a physical metaphor for our continual striving toward completion.
Instead of paraphrasing things I have been hearing, I recommend this video from Rabbi Foreman of Aleph Beta that breaks down the meaning of the Cherubs and weaves them into a tapestry of cosmic torah unfolding.
Wishing everyone a joy filled contemplation of preferences, and a week of clarity of prayer and purpose.
with love,
Hava