Breishit 5761
Tora - Torah
Shana Tova!
In the Martial Arts, some styles have a white sash as their highest rank. This teaches that even the master begins anew. He reaches the peak of his climb and looks to the next mountain to continue the journey. This is true in principle in the lower ranks as well. When we reach Black Belt, we begin a new cycle from white to black again
I remember when I became a Black Belt and started learning T’ai Ch’i Chu’an and White Crane (things were a little different back then), I would have to fight the brown belts in class. They were almost Black Belt but I was only a white belt in Crane style. TaShih would only allow me to use crane movements to fight and initially I took quite a beating. The reason? They were brown belts in Karate and I was only a white belt in crane style. After a while, I began to move comfortably through my crane training and I was able to fight as a Black Belt in crane. The free-style went a lot better. Just in time, too. We began Stone Monkey style and I was a white belt all over again!
This week’s Parsha is Breishit, of course, the beginning of the Torah. Just as we begin as a white belt with each new rank we achieve, so the cycle begins again each year in reading the Torah. We hope we begin each cycle on a deeper and deeper level.
Now, some news. I’m not planning a whole new year of Tora-Torah. First of all, not everyone has read all of last year’s. Secondly, we all need to keep working on some of last year’s lessons and ideas. So, here is the plan for 5761. I’ll send a note each week with a quick-link to last year’s Tora-Torah and will occasionally add some additional thoughts. As before, all new Tora-Torah editions are stored at www.kodesh.org
in the archives.
To find last year’s Tora-Torah for Breishit, just click http://www.kodesh.org/toratorah/breishit.htm
In the world of Jewish mysticism, there are two major areas of study: Maaseh Breishit (based largely on the beginning of this week’s Parsha) and Maaseh Merkava. Simply stated, the former is all about the theory of how Hashem created the world, continues to relate to it, and the spiritual-network (the inner-net matrix) that Hashem set up for two-way communication with us. The latter is about how we can log onto this inner-net by mastering spiritual skills of prayer, meditation and action.
For a simplified summary of some of the “basics” of both Maaseh Breishit and Maaseh Merkava, I once again refer you to the lecture I gave to Jewish teachers a few years ago. I recommended it for Parshat Haazinu a few weeks ago. If you didn’t read it then, here’s another reminder. It’s my own brief song of creation (Maaseh Breishit) and Godwrestlers and removing of veils and pointing at the moon and sweetening the world. It’s a little long. You may want to print it out and read it slowly over the next few days. I hope you enjoy it. To get there, just clickhttp://www.kodesh.org/archkeynote.htm
Shabbat Shalom.