Thursday, April 10, 2014

The Baby Whisperer



http://youtu.be/L2aFLN-plgM......

A poem from Chaya Lesser.... An amazing Torah Teacher and Poet living in Jerusalem.
link to her reading this is printed above...try to copy and paste...i am not able to get it live...
you can also try  puah.wmv

The poem is about Puah the midwife who resisted Pharoh's instructions to kill all the infant Jewish boys...

Have a wonderful Pesach!!

"Inner-Freedom

Like freedom fighters
who pray with their feet
I protest for inner-peace

though paraplegic in comparison
to prodigious heels 
of powerful men

my prayerful wheels
spin tales of inner-freedom
and entone hymns of mindful treatment 
of children and kin

I commit to calm the din of crying infants 
with the easy clicking of my teeth
I speak for those who do not yet know how to speak

My freedom fighting is not political
that task is for a hardier class 
of jewish girl

for me - the Egyptian fiend 
is personal 

for the Pharoahs I dethrone 
rule the halls of each of our homes

in the inner-alcoves of a private despair
that petrifies the children 
and paralizes the parents
that inprisons our finest hours 
of family commitment and contentment

I prefer to pedal wares 
of wars-well-avoided
where everyone wins
through carefully worded 
apologies and the timely 
airing of grievances 
between friends

for cowering beneath the pyramids 
of needs – my fiends 
are the menacing insecurities of adolescents
and the lethal bickerings of parents
- the noisome whines of needy toddlers
and the all-too-common-household-hollers 
that oppress our most precious commodities
of family

my enemies crouch quietly beneath
the crumbs on the living room carpet
a beast between the sheets 
of a cold-shouldered bedroom
where partners sleep
unconscious 
and deeply out of tune
with the exquisit call 
of their common dreams

I come to loosen the shackled lips
of fathers and mothers
that they may better utter
their astounded praise
at the miracle of a house full 
of filthy shoes, spilled soup
and their children's most innocent mistakes

My task is to counter the 
armor-clad offensive
against love and friendship 
- to incite a protest against 
the enslavement of a trillion 
inner prophets of tranquility
whose gentle-tongued souls 
are daily buried beneath 
straw burdens of poor comunication
and tossed out with the trashed 
afternoons of a mother's 
epic impatience 

I come to play the Moses of relational redemption
in the face of a sink-full of grimy resentments

And so I call forth all fellow 
freedom fighters for inner-transformation 
midwives with wise hands
toting torahs, toting infants, toting pens
all prayer-footed-protesters
come & herald in 
emotional freedom from the pharonic foe
and let us birth our children 
into peaceable homes

for when our houses enshrine tranquility
then outer-world will follow inner-lead

and rock-hard hearts 
will soften grips
and all thats enslaved 
will lithly slip
into the soft of freedom found
and take our shoes your off
to walk around
for our houses are the 
hallowed ground
from which God speaks

So call me Puah, 
who quiets the cries
of children, slaves 
and the Pharoah 
inside"

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Letting Go! A primer for Pesach.

Poem to follow....

So we all want to get beyond our limitations, feelings of constriction... Sense of being less than all we can be...but how can we do it? How can we get out of Egypt? It seems to me the first step is believing that we can. There is a great story about a chassid of Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, who needed to get to Lublin, but had no papers... He approached his Rebbe, who after meditation and prayer handed him a passport.. which opened for him many doors and borders...but was in fact an empty sheet of paper. The story has an updated version, Reb Shlomo Carlebach met the  nephew of the person to whom it happened, ..another chassid needed to get from Poland to Germany in 1935, and he approached the Munkatcher Rebbe... who also , inspired by the story of Reb Levi Yitzchak, gave him a blank piece of paper...drenched in prayer, hope trust and faith... this passport too opened doors and boundaries and this chassid also went past border control. This Pesach we have a chance to go past our border controls, we can get out of Egypt and the "headquarters" for this transformation  happens at the sedar... "Kol B'Seder" many Israelis say, and it is so true...it all happens at the seder.

Traditionally it is understood that the power or personality most responsible for keeping us in the bondage of Egypt is Pharoh who corresponds to the power of Ego. The prophet Ezekiel describes Pharoh as "the great crocodile who crouches in his river  and proclaims"My river is mine and I made it myself"". Rebbe Nachman teaches that Pharoh, whose name is spelt using the same hebrew letters as the hebrew word for neck.."Oreph"  is connected with the back of the neck. "Mitzraim" the hebrew word for Egypt is related to the idea of  "Meitzar Ha Garon".. the limitations or constrictions of the throat . Rebbe Nachman teaches that Pharoh had three servants , the butler, the baker and the butcher... each one representing  a different level of indulgence in the physical world: ...... food, drink and the passions of emotion.... and  each corresponding to a different part of the neck, the trachea, (wine stewart) the esophagus ( the butler) and the veins ( the butcher) . When these "servants " serve the egoistical goals of  our egos (Pharoh), they trap our speech and consciousness in  chains, (Egypt) ; when our eating, drinking and emotion serve Hashem, our neck serves us and carries the capacity for holy speech up  from our purified hearts to our mouth via our neck..to enable us to connect to the idea of Eretz Yisroel which is connected with prayer, holy speech and a belief in miracles. Through connecting with Hashem via our prayer, and through the power of Emunah (faith) , we can live in a transcendent reality, a reality of Eretz Yisroel which is a reality not bound by the limitations of nature, but operating within a different set of parameters... a world of intension, a world of faith, trust and miracle.Of course as the Rebbes of Lubavitch have taught us, we need to make where-ever we are in the world into a place that has the values of Israel;  a belief in prayer, a belief in the power of holy speech and a belief that the physical world is really a "plastic" reality... it can be changed at any moment... it exists only through the articulations and intent of Hashem... it can change at any moment....  and so can we.
A couple tools for the seder are:
4 Cups of Wine:
At the seder we believe the saying of the sages, "nichnas yayin yozer sod"... the wine enters in, the secrets go out... which secret gets revealed... the secret of who you really are in your liberated self!
Matzah
Matzah and Chometz in hebrew are spelt almost exactly the same.. just the matzah has an open "hei" and the chomeitz has a closed "ches"... all the other letters are shared... the opening for G-d... makes all the difference!

... all the other letters are shared... the opening for G-d... makes all the difference!

It is not so clear who authored the  poem which follows..., either Ernest Holmes or Saphire Rose.... in any event I think its profound and fits into our Pesach theme very wonderfully....

She Let Go

"She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.

She let go of the fear. She let go of the judgments. She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head. She let go of the committee of indecision within her. She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons. Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.

She didn’t ask anyone for advice. She didn’t read a book on how to let go… She didn’t search the scriptures. She just let go.

She let go of all of the memories that held her back. She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward. She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.

She didn’t promise to let go. She didn’t journal about it. She didn’t write the projected date in her Day-Timer. She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper. She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope. She just let go.

She didn’t analyze whether she should let go. She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter. She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment. She didn’t call the prayer line. She didn’t utter one word. She just let go.

No one was around when it happened. There was no applause or congratulations. No one thanked her or praised her. No one noticed a thing. Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go.

There was no effort. There was no struggle. It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad. It was what it was, and it is just that.

In the space of letting go, she let it all be. A small smile came over her face. A light breeze blew through her. And the sun and the moon shone forevermore."

Have a wonderful Seder and a great Yom Tov!