Over three millennia ago, our Israelite forefathers and foremothers wrestled with their Gods and risked the perilous desert journey from enslavement to freedom. Seven Sabbaths later, God revealed himself, and on that day – as on this day – God spoke, and speaks, to each one of us and All that is Israel.
The Path of Freedom
Zachor – remember – that when you put one foot before and in front of the next today – u’velechtechah vaderech (Deuteronomy 6:5), “when you walk on the Way” (Deuteronomy 6:5) – we walk their Way, with our feet, on our roads of liberation, with hands cast out in compassion.
Do not just think about this or imagine it, do it. Walk on your path. Be it! Like the ancient Israelites, travel this Way alone together with others. Travel this Way alone together for others.
About 2,500 years ago, a young Indian prince named Siddhartha left the security and comfort of his palace and entered into the wilderness. Having exhausted every known method and spiritual practice, Prince Siddhartha sat under the Bodhi Tree, resolved not to stop or leave until he reached enlightenment.
After facing demons from within and without for seven arduous nights, on his Sabbath day, the Buddha emerged. He awoke, looked up at the morning star, placed one hand on the Earth, and said, “I, the great earth, and all beings everywhere simultaneously achieve the Way” (The Denkoroku, Case 1).
Alone with God
Whenever we enter a new spiritual journey – or engage any aspect of our spiritual lives, for that matter – we must enter into what the 16th Century Christian mystic St. John of the Cross calls the “dark night of the soul.”
Our spiritual quests and transformation from slavery to freedom requires an incubation period in the deserts of not knowing and remaining in the dark as we prepare to emerge transformed and accept the gifts of Divine revelation and wisdom and their embodiment in the truths of our very own ordinary, humble lives.
As we prepare for the Shavuot holiday, the Jewish day of enlightenment, we must each, individually prepare to encounter our God. It is not just Moses who meets the Divine. On Shavuot, we all come in direct contact and meet God directly; face to face; a unique God for all unique persons; completely alone, yet completely one with all Others.
God’s Torah is Everywhere!
During the period between Pesach and Shavuot, be unafraid of the desert, your deserts, and the darkest of places. Go outside in the night under the moonlit night sky, and in the spirit of the Chassidic masters practicing Hitbodedut, be unafraid; be alone together with God.
In the dead of night, the Chasidic masters would go out to the desolate wilderness and call out to God, and even scream and argue with God, as if God were right here: a father, a mother, a king, a sister, a lover, an enemy.
Are you ready for a response? Are you listening? Do you see it? Can you taste or touch it? Smell it? Do it? God’s Torah is everywhere!
God is Always in Front of You
When you meditate during this period of the omer, take a seat on the desert rock – no matter where you physically are, outdoors or indoors – take your place. Wherever you are, take a seat there. Feeling fear, take a seat there. Feeling joy, take a seat there.
Feeling whatever is there most alive for you, take heed and be mindful of God’s revelation, and take a seat there. Breathing it all in; breathing it all out. Breathing it all in; breathing it all out. Breathing in, say to yourself, “All alone.” Breathing out, say to yourself, “Together with God.”
“Shiviti Adonai lenegdi tamid” (Psalms 16:8). “I place God in front of me always” (Psalms 16:8). I place You before me at all times and everywhere.
May you flee your palace with care and enter into the wilderness safely. May you find freedom and truth in all that is God, all that is before and in front of you. May God reveal Himself to you, and you to Her. Already one, together with all beings. All alone, together with God.
Next Steps
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Adam Fogel
www.mindfuljudaism.com