Zot HaBerakhah and Sukkoth

Zot Haberakhah


Sometimes when I’m in the sanctuary (after I’ve been studying Torah)  I have this image. I see my son and daughter as seniors, around 80 or 85.  They sit on the blue seats in the huge space  with  sons daughters and grandchildren. They think of me. I see their thoughts, hear their fear, their pain. They sit next to each other and I stand on the bima and watch. Perceive.  Then I shine light on them.  I blanket them in as much of the heavens as I can transmit.  I keep the flow restrained. Too much is not a good idea either.  Then, I feel their inner peace.  There’s nothing to fear, I communicate.  You are merged with that peace.  Death is soon for both of them. There’s nothing to fear.

My son says, “I see Mom.”

My daughter squeezes his hand.

“Right, you finally get it,” she whispers back.

“No,” he insists. “I see her.”

“Shhhh,” my daughter says. Services are going on.

In this waking dream I am  dead. This is how I can be with them.  I spread light like wings over everyone sitting there, beyond the congregation, to people beyond the seeming boundaries of a physical wall, to all religions. I don’t so it in one sweep. I feel the need of each being and try to send a drop…just a drop… that will clinch that specific need.  This is how: I focus on that same radiance rising from the earth and the heavens to my heart. Then I push that radiance out through my heart funnel and…look at… the target. 

I’m still very aware of my physicality. I’m really hungry in fact.  I feel my feet in my shoes, the shoes on the carpet on the earth. I feel my core center and a certain fatigue. My eyes are tired.  In other words,  in order to be in the God-realm you don’t have to leave your body behind. You don’t have to be dead or super-guru-like to glean the light of post-life.

This might seem strange for some people reading this. But here’s the real truth: I am not a prophet. I am not extra-sentient or spiritual or anything. I am just like you like anyone reading this. If I can do this so can you.

This is Torah. It’s  Zot Haberakhah and Sukkoth and the 13 attributes. These writings pertaining to this time of year necessitate the above act of witnessing.  Everything is done before God, or before Moses or before the Israelites. Moses, when he is dying, does his blessings before his death. Here time and space become one. The Sukkoth offerings are done before the priests and before God.  Before or after (temporal) is the same as before or after (spacial).  They both show that there is witnessing in progress. In the above line, it can even be interpreted that the Death of Moses is one of the actual witnesses. Moses (death) is witnessing Moses (life).

Why is this important anyway?

God is defined by this back and forth motion of transmission and reception. We step towards God. And as Rashi says, God steps towards us like a groom on his wedding day.  It takes the absolute focus and speed of fire.  Without such action/vibration and love God would be too distant to recognize, to even write about.  Therefore the witness is necessary for the existence of God. And since death is necessary for witnessing beyond space and time, the ultimate reason for death can be seen as exactly that…to  create God as He creates us. Because without observance from all beings, transmission, blessing whether recognized on some levels or not, there can’t be a God as we know Him.

That’s why Moses begs God to see his face.

He knows that God needs the act of witnessing.

That’s why Moses must die. As we read in the Zohar, Moses can only achieve 49 gates of intimacy with God while alive. For the 50^th, he must be dead. The ability to move through that  gate though and be alive would mean that a person is no longer human when it comes to consciousness. And if he isn’t dead but still alive…then he must be beyond-human.

(We will be there soon. We are miketz…on the edge. Always on the edge of life and death, human consciousness and that consciousness-beyond. When we achieve that ultimate consciousness death as we know it will no longer be a God-necessity.   The way to achieve longevity therefore  is not only through medicine  but through heightened awareness.)

The Dead are everywhere. They are in our minds. They are us now, waiting for us, following us, leading us. They fall in and out of our world as we take care of details, take care of each other. They frighten us, bring us joy, show up in photos and films, in letters and old voice messages. They speak to us. Everything we do therefore is before the overwhelming presence of our unavoidable deaths. Blessings we make, decisions we take, people we love…all seems to be infused into the lot….the inheritance we receive…those precious moments between our first breath and our last.

There isn’t a rush when Moses dies. Because the real question is how do we deal with our future dead selves here and now? How do we deal with our live offspring when we are dead? How do we deal with those who wait before us… beyond our very life span?

These questions hang in the realm of Zot Haberackah. And the answer is in the title of the parasha. We bless them. And as noted in the Sifre, first we open ourselves to God-energy, then we have the power for such a blessing.

So before Sukkoth is over call one and everyone to be with you. And if Sukkoth is your life and it is…if  you are always in harvest and transforming…then every moment feel that you are that witness before your own death and that your death is a witness for you. It changes things.  It  breathes God into your very soul. And feel, oh yes feel.

Moses dies this week.

As Rumi says:  “Love can not be said.”