A wall against the negativity of the last six months, and the chance to be reborn before Shavuot.
Weekly study · Monday to Friday
✦ Every insight comes from Michael Berg's Shabbat class on the portions Behar and Bechukotai, on the soul returning fully to the body.
According to the Midrash, Ezra arranged the reading so that the section on negative consequences is read before Shavuot, and the other before Rosh Hashanah, so that the year and its curses come to an end. Michael Berg asks each of us to think of what we do not want to carry forward and say, in meditation: this does not go past this Shabbat.
If we follow the path, the Creator says it is as if we had created ourselves: v'asitem otam. Psalms says only a recreated people can sing to the Creator, v'am nivra y'halel Ya. The question is direct: did you create yourself this year, this week, today?
The Tikunei Zohar teaches that when we act only to receive for ourselves, the nishmat chaim, the soul of life, withdraws from the body and hovers around it. Our soul lives fully and always connected. What is missing is that our conscious experience receive it back.
The reading works as a wall: the negativity of the last six months does not pass.
V'am nivra: only those who recreate themselves truly connect to the Light of the Creator.
Without the whole soul in the body we live, by comparison, with a fraction of the life possible.
For Rav Kook, the soul is in constant prayer. To pray is to bring that connection into the body.
Ask the Creator that the soul return fully and that the body live with vigor.
The Shabbat of Bechukotai closes the book of Vayikra and comes right before Shavuot. Michael Berg recalls that, for the Midrash, the reading of the negative consequences closes the cycle of the passing year. It is a turning point: we can build a wall and tell all the negativity of the last six months that it does not come along with us.
The verse says that if we follow the path, v'asitem otam, and the Midrash reads: as if you had created yourselves. Psalms adds that only am nivra, a recreated people, sings to the Creator. According to the Tikunei Zohar, selfish action weighs on the body and the nishmat chaim withdraws. The body stays alive but, by comparison, nearly dead.
The way back begins with awareness and with the request: that the soul of life return fully. Rav Kook explains that the soul is always in prayer, like a rose open to the dew, and that praying is manifesting that experience within the body. The gift of this Shabbat is to leave it more alive, with soul and body in tune.
Name what does not go with you.
List what you do not want to carry into the next six months. In meditation, say: "This does not go past this Shabbat."
Ask: did I create myself today?
Choose one action that is new, a choice your old self would not make. Do it with awareness.
See where body and soul are apart.
Observe when in the day you act on autopilot. Note one, without judging yourself.
Pray as the soul prays.
When you pray, remember that your soul is already connected. Ask that this experience reach the body.
Ask for the soul back in full.
Write how body and soul felt through the week. Thank the Light and renew the request for Shavuot.
I recreate myself with the Light of the Creator.
May my soul return fully to my body.
May this week of Bechukotai help you close a cycle, recreate yourself, and live with the vigor of soul and body. Shavua Tov!
If someone you love carries the weight of the last months, this portion speaks of a wall and of a fresh start.
Share on WhatsAppKabbalistic insights, the consciousness of each Torah portion, and the calendar's windows of Light, straight to your WhatsApp.
Join the WhatsApp group
Comments
Share what this study awakened in you. We're here to listen.
Loading…