Behar, בְּהַר On the Mount 25:1-26:2
We say we love rest. But do we? Why does everything else seem to take priority over rest then? This week, I’d like to take a hard look at our relationship to rest.
ESSAY: Rest Is Not Secondary (Parashat Behar-Bekhukotai) Read More »
Letting all the thoughts and plans and worries swirl around as you rest in your shabbat place, the place of stillness deep inside you that is always at peace.
MEDITATION: Rest Is Not Secondary (Parashat Behar-Bekhukotai) Read More »
The central commandment of the shmita year is to not work your land. What if we apply this sabbatical concept to our internal work and take a break from working our process, from tilling our own internal landscape? Consider what is prohibited on the shmita year – no sowing, planting, pruning, harvesting, or cultivating the
ESSAY: A Sabbatical for Our Strivers (Parashat Behar) Read More »
In this meditation, we look at the laws of the shmita or sabbatical year — abstaining from growth-promoting work on the land– in relation to our inner work on ourselves. We notice our strong tendency to strive, and we explore ways of relaxing into the divine abundance that nourishes and heals us without our effort,
MEDITATION: Taking A Sabbatical From Our Inner Work (Parashat Behar) Read More »
What would it feel like to do this internally, to return to our original essence, to our soul, to reclaim ourselves? (Click image to read more)
ESSAY: The Jubilee Year and Your Return to Yourself (Parashat Behar-Bechukotai) Read More »
In this meditation, we explore the yovel (jubilee) year’s instruction to return “each person to his holding,” understanding this internally as referring to a return to our soul, to our essence, after an inevitable distancing and shutting down through life and social and cutlural norms. Using bird imagery and river imagery which both emerge from
MEDITATION: The Jubilee Year and Your Return to Yourself (Parashat Behar-Bechukotai) Read More »
Would you call out someone else’s weakness the way that your inner critics shame your own weakest parts? (Click image to read more)
SHORT ESSAY: Ona’at Devarim and Negative Self Talk (Parashat Behar) Read More »
In this meditation, we look at the prohibition against ona’at devarim, speaking in a way that is shaming or hurtful to another person, and we apply it to ourselves and to our own internal criticism and shaming and negative self-talk. We take some time to notice it and shine a light on this inner talk,
MEDITATION: Negative Self Talk and Our Divine Essence (Parashat Behar) Read More »
(Originally published in 2021) The Torah wants to ensure that, no matter how far we wander, we always know our way home. (Click image to read more)
SHORT ESSAY: Returning to our Holding (Parashat Behar) Read More »