Deuteronomy VaEtchanon

VaEtchanon

Vaetchanon  is poetry. It flies beyond  flat interpretation to a heightened place where structure…the way thoughts are organized…. equals theme.

So while much of Vaetchanon is about what happens at Mt Sinai the structure  of the parasha reflects our climb  up the same  mountain.

What happens when we aim to get to the top of any mountain?

 Well, first we start the climb. We work through each event.  But we don’t yet see the pattern, the exquisite structure of struggles, their interconnections on the giant tapestry of existence.

 It’s only from a heightened place when we are looking down that we see the connectivity of the incidents and the challenges, the beautiful and strange moments. Yes we sit high-up and we look north south east and west. We look at mind, body, heart and soul.  We examine the  voyage of our going-up with discernment.  We examine not only the steps but the connections step to step.  And while in so-doing we take in a new heightened perspective, we still  yearn for that top-of-mountain-high.   We yearn  to be purified in the essence of the space and the vision.  We yearn like crazy.  We yearn like the fire in the bush in Exodus. It’s a yearning that burns and burns .  Never completely engulfs our souls.  It’s a hunger, a pain, a raw gnawing that bleeds the greatest of prophets, and scorches us all the closer we get.

And here we find what some sages feel is the greatest irony of Judaism.  The only way to get to that altered mind state, to get to a real Promised Land,  to that place beyond our bodies, beyond our very oh so limited human consciousness  is to partly let go of the structure itself.  Oh, God certainly does bless all of us who cling so tightly to the path, to the boundaries….. yet must embody it so completely we place it in a corner of our mind!

Because here’s the fact:  We must begin to mentally let go of our path the higher we get or we are refusing its very purpose.  It’s the same as climbing up a mountain and pretending we could do it without the mountain!  

So then let’s review what the voyage looks like to get to the top of a mountain today.

Sometimes something catastrophic happens.  Here’s  an  example. On   Mt Ashland there aren’t any guard rails.  A friend of mine was once driving very fast. He skidded on ice, went over the edge and then his car flipped a few times. As he tells the story, he relaxed into it.  The car finally stopped its downward plunge and got stuck upside down in the trees.  He lived through it. But he ’s changed since then. A part of him died that day. It's sad.

Then, there small circumstances like giants on the road: Mac Trucks. So, you’re zipping up I-5 and there’s a truck in front of you. There’s also a sign letting you know the exit is in a half mile. You know you can pass. This is the problem though. You soon realize there’s truck after truck after truck after truck. You’re not imagining this. You know it’s real. You make it off the highway but barely.

So then you drive up and park. It’s the Pacific Crest trail and you begin to hike. Your children are talking about people they know, grades they’ve gotten. The yellow lab has his huge tongue sticking out of his mouth. And as you continue stepping one foot after the next with rivelets and views of M Shasta that could make you cry you think about when your eighteen year old was ten and got stung by a bee. Or about a friend who sprained her ankle on the downward climb. You think about good things too, like making a cheese cake and finding the money to take your kids on another international trip. You are all really happy and being thoughtful with words. It isn’t an order. No one is telling you to have compassion.

 It’s natural.

Then you listen to some birds and drink some mountain water. You hear the rhythm of your heart and feel your sweat and the cool breeze so high up. Some trees seem to have died but new ones have grown out of their trunks. Wild flowers are blooming in August but some are brown with  leaves  curled around their heads.  We take turns being in front. The sun is this blinding fire. It makes you dizzy, wired, excited, exhausted.  It doesn’t go away.  We wear our sunglasses. We take off our hats in the shade.  Then the fire is back and we put our hats on.  So this is where we live, we are thinking. It’s a whole new perspective of our town, our house, our bodies, our souls. This is where we live.

And then you realize something. At certain altitudes there are metal posts on the trees.  They say Pacific Crest Trail.  The park service seems to have chosen the most phenomenal pines, the ones with trunks greater than the width of both your arms, a height that must be millions of miles. You can almost hear the echo of angels singing their own form of hallelujah in the upper branches as they sway.

And then you see this:  The mountain path is this merge of boundaries and love framing the markers on the trees. In other words there’s conversation, visuals, kindness, love and then there’s a marker, and then there’s more loving-kindness and then another marker  as you continue the climb.  The frame, you realize can be made of chesed, not only gevurah. It matters how you look at it.  The Sh’ma shows us the same frame.  Sh’ma Yisrael Adonay (the God of Compassion) Eloheinu ( the God of Judgment) Adonay (the God of Compassion) Echod.  In the Sh’ma,  Adonay frames Elohenu.

And then you see this: You see that the markers themselves can each signify a cross section of the altitude.  The trip up begins to be seen as cross-section to cross-section rather than steps on the path.  We are chosen to see it that way. Anyone walking up a mountain path can also feel chosen to see it that way.  That’s because  even the scene with the trucks is an altitude cross section. Grabbing the water bottles at home is an altitude cross-section.  Going to work 9 to 6 is an altitude cross section.

One altitude is not better than another.  Though one is always closer to God and peace with all mankind.

 Soon, the irony of Judaism stops being an irony. You have arrived at the metaphoric mountain top.  As it says in both the Bahir and Exodus Rabbah, the voice of  God came to each individual as he could receive. Its power was not only in its great altitude. Its power was in being able to transmit that one greatest altitude to all.

There's an intricate web out there and in here. There's a phenomenal structure of life and enlightenment that can be understood in a whole new light if we open our minds a bit. Can we fully understand? Rung by rung, level by level we rise through danger through love through silly mistakes, big errors, dreams, fire, flowers, water.... through death through life. Transmissions become more immediate. The burning stops even hurting. And one day you know for sure without a doubt that you are home..