Boulder Aish Kodesh

Torah tears away at our perceptions in hope of liberating us enough to experience the living G-d.  It insists on a radical openness, a consistent fluidity and availability so that we, sons and daughters of prophets and kings, can reflect the shine of the Face of G-d.  The Torah bombards us with characters that are at once so compelling and so different; we are forced to let go of any one of them as the ultimate and to embrace all of them.  In embracing them all, our arms may grow tired from stretching, for our growing family of ancestors and role models each pull in a new direction, leaving us puzzled but smiling.

R’ Simcha Bunim of Pschischa writes that when Yitzhak became the new Rebbe after his father, the first thing he did was go to the hardware store, buy some metal stakes, and shut the doors of the tent that his father left open to welcome passers-by.  Then he sat inside and learned in deep devotion.  People who followed Avraham must have been astounded, and surely they asked, “Is this the same religion?”  And they must have said to each other, “We want the old days back!”

But things must change in order to stay the same.  Yitzhak’s way was the truest possible manifestation of Avraham’s legacy, and not everyone could see that.  It’s like saying a man and wife having a fight is actually the best and truest manifestation of their love right now.  But as a path of light goes through the world, it weaves through mountains in a different way than it moves through valleys.

So Avraham and Yitzhak are both true.  Their threads weave intricately through the tapestry of our collective unconscious, beyond our control and much to our delight, leaving fascinating patterns in the rhythm of the in-breath and the out-breath.  Yitzhak makes space, Avraham fills it.  And then again.  Yitzhak takes us to the realm of the impossible, Avraham makes it happen.

Yitzhak never speaks to his wife in the entire Torah. Not one single word.  Her words to him include all of one sentence.  And yet we know they are completely telepathic.  This is an entirely new way to relate – let us be silent together.  Let us make our lives together one long in-breath.  Avraham talks and Ya’akov talks.  Yitzhak and Rivka are too busy listening to each other to talk.  Praise G-d.

We do find Yitzhak and Rivka praying together.  We don’t find this by anyone else in the Torah.  We never find two people explicitly praying together in the entire Torah! Their center was so deep that they didn’t talk, but they prayed together.  Unbelievable.

Let us prepare ourselves to be open to a whole new way, and be open to experiencing levels of joy we never dreamed op.