January 25, 2023
בא
- Nadav Slovin
The tomato: is it a fruit or a vegetable?
A question that has haunted humanity from time immemorial.
A question that holds within it the deepest secrets of the universe.
A question about which this week’s parsha, Parashat Bo, has much to say.
Parashat Bo is one of the most important in the entire Torah, the parsha about which our great sage Rashi wrote that the Torah should seemingly begin; the parsha in which our ancestors form into a people for the first time; and the parsha in which we receive our first mitzvah, our first opportunity to become a tzevet, a partner with G-d.
The first mitzvah: sanctifying the new month. החודש הזה לכםת, this month is yours, says Hashem. Say what? This month is ours? The cycles of the moon couldn’t be more beyond human control and ownership - how could this month be ours?
Indeed, this is exactly the depth of this mitzvah, the first mitzvah that characterizes our people’s purpose in the world: Just as we have no ownership over the moon’s cycles, in truth, we have no ownership over anything. Not over the land upon which we dwell nor the cars in which we drive, not over the clothing on our back nor even, at the end of the day, our back itself. The only ownership we have is the most challenging ownership of all, the focal point of our life’s work: owning our perspective.
How do we see the world? Do we love or do we hate, collaborate or compete, witness or judge? We are not in control, but we are deeply empowered. The moon does not need our control, nor do our friends, our children, or our bodies. They need our witnessing, our noticing, our appreciation, and our love.
So, is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?
It’s both, because I witness it one way and you witness it in the other. What matters most is that we are able to eat it together as dear friends.
-Shabbat Shalom.
בא
- Nadav Slovin
The tomato: is it a fruit or a vegetable?
A question that has haunted humanity from time immemorial.
A question that holds within it the deepest secrets of the universe.
A question about which this week’s parsha, Parashat Bo, has much to say.
Parashat Bo is one of the most important in the entire Torah, the parsha about which our great sage Rashi wrote that the Torah should seemingly begin; the parsha in which our ancestors form into a people for the first time; and the parsha in which we receive our first mitzvah, our first opportunity to become a tzevet, a partner with G-d.
The first mitzvah: sanctifying the new month. החודש הזה לכםת, this month is yours, says Hashem. Say what? This month is ours? The cycles of the moon couldn’t be more beyond human control and ownership - how could this month be ours?
Indeed, this is exactly the depth of this mitzvah, the first mitzvah that characterizes our people’s purpose in the world: Just as we have no ownership over the moon’s cycles, in truth, we have no ownership over anything. Not over the land upon which we dwell nor the cars in which we drive, not over the clothing on our back nor even, at the end of the day, our back itself. The only ownership we have is the most challenging ownership of all, the focal point of our life’s work: owning our perspective.
How do we see the world? Do we love or do we hate, collaborate or compete, witness or judge? We are not in control, but we are deeply empowered. The moon does not need our control, nor do our friends, our children, or our bodies. They need our witnessing, our noticing, our appreciation, and our love.
So, is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?
It’s both, because I witness it one way and you witness it in the other. What matters most is that we are able to eat it together as dear friends.
-Shabbat Shalom.
January 18, 2023
וארא
- Nadav Slovin
In this week’s parsha, there is an incredible gematria that totally blew my mind (gematria uses numerical values of Hebrew words to unearth deeper layers of meaning).
Anxiety דאגה 13 + Love אהבה 13 = The four letter name of G-d י ק ו ק 26 (letter ק in place of ה).
Anxiety + Love = G-d?
You see, this week is the parsha of plagues. It is also the parsha in which G-d reveals himself to Moshe as י ק ו ק, a name that the forefathers were not fully privy to. Indeed, it seems that plagues are the vehicle for teaching us that nature is no more, and no less, than the revelation of the One within.
But only if we relate to it with love.
Nature is beautiful and uplifting, yet it is also raw, relentless, and completely out of our control. Tsunamis, hurricanes, avalanches, disease; plagues of all kinds. No wonder we've built so many walls and roofs, roads and lights, guarding us from nature's wrath.
Yet, we can meet that anxiety that arises from experiencing nature’s chaos, when life gets out of our control, with compassionate love. We can realize that there is indeed a deeper Egypt from which we are being released, the Egypt of our comforts and expectations that have made life lifeless and self-absorbed. With these loving eyes we can reveal the deeper One within all.
וארא
- Nadav Slovin
In this week’s parsha, there is an incredible gematria that totally blew my mind (gematria uses numerical values of Hebrew words to unearth deeper layers of meaning).
Anxiety דאגה 13 + Love אהבה 13 = The four letter name of G-d י ק ו ק 26 (letter ק in place of ה).
Anxiety + Love = G-d?
You see, this week is the parsha of plagues. It is also the parsha in which G-d reveals himself to Moshe as י ק ו ק, a name that the forefathers were not fully privy to. Indeed, it seems that plagues are the vehicle for teaching us that nature is no more, and no less, than the revelation of the One within.
But only if we relate to it with love.
Nature is beautiful and uplifting, yet it is also raw, relentless, and completely out of our control. Tsunamis, hurricanes, avalanches, disease; plagues of all kinds. No wonder we've built so many walls and roofs, roads and lights, guarding us from nature's wrath.
Yet, we can meet that anxiety that arises from experiencing nature’s chaos, when life gets out of our control, with compassionate love. We can realize that there is indeed a deeper Egypt from which we are being released, the Egypt of our comforts and expectations that have made life lifeless and self-absorbed. With these loving eyes we can reveal the deeper One within all.
January 12, 2023
שמות
- Nadav Slovin
Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses) Goes Canoeing
Moshe Rabbeinu, the great prophet of our people who guides us from bitter enslavement to valient redemption; the humble leader of our people during forty harrowing years of strife and struggle in the barren desert, begins his journey with a simple canoe trip.
At just three months old his mother Yocheved launches him with hope and faith in a tiny tevah on a rocky float down the Nile to save him from impending euthanasia by the merciless Egyptian guard (whose fear fueled their hate).
We may see Moshe’s coming-of-age wilderness expedition as an insignificant detail to his life story, but the narrative indicates that we are mistaken. Moses’ name itself is a product of this story. When Pharaoh’s daughter discovers a floating boat with a baby paddler, she saves the lad from the Nile and names him Moshe, the verse tells us, כי מן-המים משיתהו, for I have drawn him from the water.
Moshe, the savior of our people, the humble vessel through whom Torah is revealed, the patient elder who forgives and begs for mercy, grows into himself on a journey that begins solo ~ a canoeing journey on the raging waters of the Nile river ~ and it is for this event that he is named.
For, in truth, everyone's journey into depth of insight, compassion for the stranger, and passion for truth begins with a step back, with a leap into the unknown, with a courageous launch into life’s waters, faithfully opening our hearts to where we may land.
Shabbat Shalom!
שמות
- Nadav Slovin
Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses) Goes Canoeing
Moshe Rabbeinu, the great prophet of our people who guides us from bitter enslavement to valient redemption; the humble leader of our people during forty harrowing years of strife and struggle in the barren desert, begins his journey with a simple canoe trip.
At just three months old his mother Yocheved launches him with hope and faith in a tiny tevah on a rocky float down the Nile to save him from impending euthanasia by the merciless Egyptian guard (whose fear fueled their hate).
We may see Moshe’s coming-of-age wilderness expedition as an insignificant detail to his life story, but the narrative indicates that we are mistaken. Moses’ name itself is a product of this story. When Pharaoh’s daughter discovers a floating boat with a baby paddler, she saves the lad from the Nile and names him Moshe, the verse tells us, כי מן-המים משיתהו, for I have drawn him from the water.
Moshe, the savior of our people, the humble vessel through whom Torah is revealed, the patient elder who forgives and begs for mercy, grows into himself on a journey that begins solo ~ a canoeing journey on the raging waters of the Nile river ~ and it is for this event that he is named.
For, in truth, everyone's journey into depth of insight, compassion for the stranger, and passion for truth begins with a step back, with a leap into the unknown, with a courageous launch into life’s waters, faithfully opening our hearts to where we may land.
Shabbat Shalom!
Sept. 18, 2022
כ״ב אלול תשפ״ב
Humans are amazing.
Would you rather get extremely dirty today or remain clean?
Would you rather wake up at 5am or 9am tomorrow morning?
Would you rather struggle to lift those legs once more or let your body lay low?
Humans are amazing. Though inclined to comfort and ease, most of us make choices to live lives of challenge. To take the plunge into a messy adventure, to seek the sunrise, and to encourage ourselves lovingly to reach that peak.
Why? Many reasons, no doubt. But one. One, indeed. We seek to meet our strength. We seek to meet our limits. We seek to meet ourselves, believing in the potential within, thirsty to taste of the ability with which we’ve been blessed.
Last night, long after the sun had set and the stars began their nightly dance, as the earth met the midnight of its orbit and darkness pines in all its glory for light’s return, Ashkenazi Jews joined our Sefardi companions in crying and calling out to the Eternal One in song.
Selichot - requesting for forgiveness, requesting for return. One week, to challenge ourselves, to wake the sun with our prayers, to chirp the birds to life, to meet our strength, meet our truth, meet the power of our will for connection.
