Deuteronomy - Cycle Two - 0323‐0711 ‐ VaEthChanan

You know VaEthChanan. We all know it. You paddle this flow all the time. You let it resonate in your heart and reflect the vulnerable sounds in your mind. You breathe the rhythm, taste it, carry the imprint of the bends, the growth, the openings, the tight spaces, where the light might splash, where you want to slow down. You experience the many levels as they merge and transform. It’s never the same. You need to be an adventurer to mindfully take this journey.

VaEthChanan. You read much of it in prayer books…the Sh’ma, the V’ahavta, the ten devarim. You notice repetition. You notice aberrations in the repetition. Look at the verses on Shabbat. First, God tells us to remember it (zachor…Exodus 20:8). Then Moses tells us to guard the holiness of it (sh’mor…Devarim 4:12). Look at the idea of boundaries. First they revolve around Mt Sinai (Exodus 19:21‐25) then around refuge cities for people who murder without intention (Devarim 4:41‐44). So, first, it is dangerous for the Israelite to stay with Moses up the mountain. Then it is dangerous for some Israelites to stay with others. The boundaries reflect upon each other. The mountain, the refuge cities, Moses, the kohanim, yourself…these are metaphors, examples of the levels that continually merge and transform. There are millions. The boundaries that discern each new level protect you as the adventure continues.

So, there’s repetition of pieces (like I show above) and of the whole. Sooner or later, all repetition tends to manifest sacred reflection . Here, in VaEthchanon, Moses is saying once again (like in Devarim)…in case you don’t get it, this is the story. But what is it? Is it the Exodus from Egypt, all the people, the goats, the sheep, the rams, the chants of victory and defeat? Is it the wandering in the desert? Yes and more. Memory becomes reflexive, winding in on itself, reconstructing itself to be about the action of God inside you. The outside (as you perceive it)
revolves inward. All of the levels evolve on a fast continuum into one tiny point, the point of love, where the reflection of God and man merge. You feel it. Your cells open to it like a million kisses. You breathe it, know that pinch and glow. And it only takes four words right at the start to immerse you in this awareness…VaEtChanon el adonai be’et.

What does VaEtChanon mean? First, let’s look at hitpalel…to pray. This root is palal…to judge. By adding the hey and the tov you create the reflexive form. Suddenly you are observing or judging yourself. Prayer therefore is seen as a cycling inward of the divine witness, the turning of the outside‐in…taking the most external action, that of judgment, and using it to cut greater depth within our hearts. VaEtChanaon has a similar construction. The root is chanon, to show mercy. Mercy is the center spark of judgment. Therefore turning it inward in a reflexive action cuts even greater than hitpalel. It cuts to the center, as does the covenant (5:2). Chanon is one of ten terms that denote prayer (Sifrei) Therefore, VaEtChanon refers to the sharp and still
space where you embody mercy, release and submission. As if this isn’t enough, the words el
adonai rush us towards God. And be’et reflects the first sound of VaEt‐Chanon placing God at the center and emphasizing the cyclical energy.

What more could we ask? Do we really need more words to repeat this one truth? All of the sacred prayers that follow, why do they suddenly feel as archaic as animal offerings? When the temple fell and such offerings were no more did people mourn that transformation, the loss of that dependable form of service to God, even if it pushed forward an evolution? Did they resist the transformation before the fact? What kind of temple will have to fall before we are thrown into a service beyond words? Thrown into prayer beyond all form? Because no matter how close the lines approach the un‐nameable…they feel like simplifications of what we have just found between the letters at the beginning of VaEtchanon. And on a basic level, they are. Even the enlarged ayin and dalet in the Sh’ma seem to hint at this. The letters together mean until. They also mean witness. Maybe, we recite the Sh’ma until we witness (without words) the divine radiance.

For now, so it seems, we need the Sh’ma. We need the boundaries to lead us to the boundryless eternity, those you watch as you bravely march into God’s soul, those that discern the levels and become more defined with depth. They are between the white space and the lines, the white space and white space, lines and lines. They are there whether you are prophet, kohen, Israelite, or the Israelite who mistakenly kills another. You are to be made aware of them. You are to see them with more clarity. They are beautiful. They create a rush of truth into one sacred center. They protect the holy openings revealed by prophets for millennium.

Here’s more. They keep the mystical…the love… contained, pulsing and alive. They enable the outer lace to be accessible for each of us. They empower the first four words of VaEthChanon and drip them into the hands of each of us who are thirsty and who chant because we want to dive into the merging levels now, drink them, ride on them, pour them into the mouths of others, purify ourselves.

So may we repeat the prayers and read them each time new. May we know that this isn’t dogma. This isn’t regulation. This is the flow of love streaming like a million flicks of an eternal flame through each of us, satiating, connecting you with us with God as one. May we know that in time, this flow will rise beyond the words and reveal even more powerful boundaries to guide us. May we not fear this moment. May we be joyous adventurers into consciousness. And may we recite and chant until we witness our evolution as it cuts through judgment and prayer into mercy and release… to the kadosh kadoshim…the holy radiance.