Leviticus Cucle Five Acherei Moth/Kedoshim

Acherei Moth/Kedoshim

The other night my son’s friend asked me…about korbanot or offerings…Do you support the ruthless killing of innocent goats? It was late.  All I could say was: If goats were blanketing the hills, thousands,  chomping on our fertile fields, causing chaos, car accidents, weird skin diseases, I would build a mizbach and offer one-up….But I didn’t mean it. And guess what? Surprise! We don’t have to.  Not anymore. 

That’s because we all accept the goat as symbol. Rebbe Nachman understood the power of symbol. His myths are full of princesses and castles, beggars and scholars. It has been said that his intention was to train the human mind to use symbol on a daily basis so we could open-up Torah.  Because as we might imagine, if we only take Torah literally not only will the goat kingdom be decimated…. but the human heart will be as well. 

So in this week’s parasha, goats are beyond-goats. Alars  beyond-altars. Blood beyond-blood. Incense beyond incense. The real question is how do we seek prayer, find it, be it,  connect it level to level,  human to human, human  to God?  How do we become walking prayers?  How so whatever the challenges… illness, the death of a mate, a child, a parent? Tragedy?  How do we sit with those who pray differently, pray hard, pray soft, get close, get distant, not care, yearn so it hurts, fear the prayer, with-hold it, conceal it  or look around completely askance? 

This is important.  We do this together.

The first thing we need to remember is this; We are all gifted with the same prayer-potential.  While intimacy with God has levels (think of Moses and Aaron)…not one person has greater holiness. 

As we read in Kedoshim.  Daber el kol adat b’nei y’Israel v’amarta alehem kedoshim t’hiu ki kadosh ani  adonay elohechem. Speak to the entire Israelite community and say to them You will be holy, since I am the Radiant Divine Breath and I am holy.  Repeat…kol adat Y’Israel…the entire Jewish community. 

As  the poet/prophet Alan Ginsburg writes…Holy! Holy! Holy! The world is holy! The soul is holy! The head is holy!  Holy the groaning saxophones.  Holy the mysterious rivers of tears under the streets!

 The irony is that…according to the Zohar and Rabbi Kook … it takes holiness to create intimacy to create holiness to create intimacy.  In other words… we find our center and rise to God then we find a deeper center and rise higher in the light.  It’s a process.  And the center…at each level… is symbolized by the merge of the two altars. 

 The copper altar…as I’ve said…is where we transform our animal selves into the spiritual. The incense altar is seen as the prayer of prayer, beyond-prayer, the next road on the road. It’s the way high path.  Joining the two altars therefore is hard work. But it’s a necessary rite of passage. It’s the toll booth to go over the bridge. It’s the lower world/upper world junction…it’s what connects our feet on the ground to our head in the sky…it’s the heart.  So, even with all this talk of goats and altars…it’s clear as a bell.  The action of connecting the two altars is heart-work.  For prayer to rise beyond-prayer to God there must be heart-work. 

Nadav and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, understand this.  They try to merge the two altars all by themselves. This is what happens. 

During the consecration of the mishkan they try to offer incense on the animal altar and get zapped. Of course, Nadav and Abihu had seen the Shechinah earlier. In Exodus they climb to the top of Mt Sinai and sit on a sapphire stone and get to have this ultimate experience with the prophet Moses. 

So it’s not surprising that they want to tap-into the whole. Not just a part. They want to clinch God,  create a community prayer that will catapult everyone there…even the goats…straight to the Shechinah.

 As it says in midrash, they want to place love on top of love.   

There’s a problem though.  They don’t realize this but the people are only capable of animal altar experiences. This Shechinah  and all the incense-in-the-world…this is not yet accessible. 

So the schism is too great, the attempt is too abrupt…as it also says in midrash they are righteous like Noah but dark like the snake… and they get burned alive and propelled-up by themselves. Tragic and beautiful. The Zohar says that since their action is not at the right time…time of mind…time of enlightenment..time of intimacy…the force of their singularity (as per the teachings of Alan Watts)  is not strong enough to take the community with them.  That’s what’s really tragic. They become the envious symbol of beings beyond being-ness. Souls beyond bodies.  But they also go down in Torah as the almost-perfect-offering.  Almost because the extended community…like those of us studying the parshah today… can have a vicarious experience but it’s no cigar next to being zapped.   

  

What happens next?  God shows Aaron how to do it right. Think about it.  Torah time is not real time…so says Rashi…and despite two parshot having passed it’s as if he just watched his sons die. How painful.  And he still must continue where his sons left off. To me, this is so reflective of the hero’s journey.

 This is what he must do: He must place the mixed blood of the animal sacrifices on the horns of the incense altar. So he is taking our human transformation and raising it up. He’s bringing it to the  incense wafting its way to the exciting radiance of God.  He’s bringing our life-sparks..our blood sacrifice….to the God-catapult….the incense altar… and in so doing he is creating one community heart that is open to the God-flow.  And he does it carefully with discernment.  The atonement is done. And it’s a break-through in consciousness.

Great…so  how can we all…as one..with our holiness…. do this today?  We need to be able to internalize the animal sacrifice and move beyond even that…we need symbolic blood…and a symbolic incense altar. We need the symbolic action of spreading the symbolic blood on the symbolic incense altar.   

I could quote from many texts. It’s Elijah though who actually shows us how. After rising level after level… dealing with his animal self, fighting the prophets of Baal Peor,  making sacrifices and yearning for God…this is what this prophet finds…the still silent voice. He realizes that while the heart  is accessed with a foundation of holiness…prayer propels-us up with the gevurah…the strength…of silence. It’s at that moment…when we have the holiness to know that the blood is on that incense altar… that we too can rise with the incense… silence on top of silence. 

So..I want to try something…I want to do a meditation that is silence on top of silence. It’s going to be in four parts and you will know when to move on because we have a gong (bell, drum). I will give a short spoken prompt for each meditation.

Please relax. Get comfortable. 

 Now…Imagine a portal opening above or near you and light flowing from it into your body, in your blood stream, your mind. Your body is filled with this golden vibration. You are holy.

Silence.  Then Gong.

Visualize  the brightest light in your body moving into your heart-center. Give it a unique color of Crimson. Purple. Blue.  It is so powerful it starts to rise up through your center, your neck, your eyes, your mind. The shadows and pain  slip away as this core…your core rises out of them.

Silence. Then Gong.  

See this core-heart rising out of your body and into that same portal.  It’s all right. It will be back soon. See another heart with the same radiance coming from above and merging with yours.

Silence. Then Gong.

Breathe in that merge of heart energy. Feel the absolute joy and relief.  Understand that a piece of you has now merged with God. See that the portal is now wider and even more radiant. Don’t rise into it…yet. Just know this.

Silence. 

Now…slowly bring your core-heart into your own body….but leave a tenth in the portal with God.  Breathe in your newness and healing. And slowly open your eyes.

Silence.