Shavuot

There are so many places in this world. There’s here, there, places we can’t see, those we can. In this week’s reading (Devarim 14:22 to 16:17) special for Shavuot, we are to eat the second tithe before Adonai our God in the place that He chooses as dedicated in His name… lifnay adonai elohecha b’makom asher vachar leshaken sh’mo shem.

Later, in the place that God shall choose to be dedicated in His name, we are to slaughter the Pesach offering. Then, after we count the seven weeks to the harvest, we are to rejoice before Adonai our God in the place that God chooses shall be designated in His name. As we can see and hear, that’s one long sentence just to specify a party spot, or a picnic area.

The sh’mo shem similarity is also hard to overlook. The first, His name (and please let’s get beyond male/female to masculine/feminine) and the second, meaning there are only discerned by a vuv, the connecting agent. This hints to me and maybe to you that the name is there. The two words are so intertwined that they are dedicated and defined by each other.

But where is there, this name-place? What’s the cross street? Address? Shouldn’t we try to show? Abraham does without question. True, God says it when it is time to offer Isaac (Genesis 22:9). Abraham hears, understands and gets moving. And true, a place with spoken rather than chosen direction is a bit more tangible and easier to find. Still, I doubt that God says to Abraham to turn left at the small bush then right at the large one. I doubt there is a map with God’s signature and small inked in arrows. Or maybe on the other hand, there is.

More on name-places. There are many offerings that must occur where God shall choose. You can find them scattered throughout Devarim and certainly the parasha Re’eh. If the place is too far to get to (16:22) you can exchange the second tithe for silver and go somewhere else (also designated). This is very nice of God, in my opinion. In short, if you can’t get there, or in modern vernacular, get it, then you’re allowed to get something else….there’s so much sacred juice to siphon from the radiant universe.

Getting back to place, with all the people wandering in this world and in our minds, it’s nice to know that God has what seems to be many places. It’s nice to be able to find a way within ourselves to get there. Think of the counting of the omer. Every year for seven weeks, we make ourselves into the map, an Adam Kadmon, as we discern, make whole and re-join all the tiny routes. This way, we can become the manifestation of the completion as the Limitless Light pours through keter, the crown, and evolves into the world of emanations (Z’ev ben Shim Halevi). It’s a beautiful process, one that includes that final merging, that arrival. It’s the carrying of light from sign to sign, the guarding and opening of the by-ways, the keeping of them clean and manageable, of moving forward. I imagine it’s like a meteor shooting forward through the weightless hemisphere. But I can only imagine.

Now, think of what’s happening on this earth as we are transforming into this makom. Sprouts are growing, feeding off of nutrients, drinking in water and sun, reaching with cells multiplying to the sky like two lovers catching each others’ eyes. Within each grain, a million eyes can be discerned, rejoined, made whole, a million within the million. So what makes the grain alone unto itself is simply love, the growth and beauty of love-focus, those very sweet birthings.

When we count the omer we experience a re-birth so that our arrival in that final name-place can be as complete as possible. This is important. That name-place within us is our engine, or better…our soul/heart/engine…From it, our love gets carried to God in prayer or from God back to us in blessing.

The final key, however, to finding the exact place of God’s choosing has to do with the action of carrying. There are many places from which love gets carried, but the one big episode is, yes, in Exodus. Torah gets carried from Mt Sinai by Moses. But the question I ask here is this. Given the connection of all carrying, inner and outer, and given the connections made tangible by the counting of the omer, are these places really different? Aren’t they all the same? I mean, as we discern them and make them each whole doesn’t that give more function and power to their
oneness? Isn’t it true to join ourselves, all of our soul/heart/engines and bring them to a place even beyond light to an existence about to be manifest? To go farther, isn’t the makom the same as the love the same as the action of carrying?

My guess is that this is the lesson of Shavuot. It’s the moment that symbolizes joyous merging, an eternal moment of recognition, the holding of our hearts in one round solid light so we can serve. But mostly, it’s the moment to celebrate the carrying of Torah, the manifestation of the carrying of love, the place, the name, the one designation of God. In short, Torah is the nameplace. How do we get there? The address is in our brain. The cross street is in our bones. The land beneath our feet is in our heart. The stars above are in our soul. So we have the latitude and longitude, even the code. But Torah is the exact location and we can’t forget that, not for all the directions in the world.

So, may we all speak from the place of Torah. May we love from the place of Torah. May we realize that our words can come from many places, but there is a heightened place dedicated by God. May we welcome in everyone, even if they don’t see, are strangers, or hurt and crippled by past tragedy or blindness. May we bring others into the place-name designated by God, into the one name that is the place that can’t be defined but can be heard, followed, and cherished for eternity. May we feel the one eternal blessing of the one name.