Va’era

The new year is almost upon us and yet it’s feeling a lot like 2020 lately. Covid positivity
is spiking, schools are closing, Broadway is dimming, and a whole lot of uncertainty and
fear are descending. Amidst the din of dispiriting news, it is hard to remember that we
are not actually where we were before. With vaccines, boosters, and treatments, we are
in a much more promising place. For many of us, though, the narrative of early
pandemic nevertheless obtains. We cannot hear a different story.

The Jewish people have long struggled to listen to perspective-shifting voices. We have
covered our ears rather than take in destabilizing information that violates our sense of
reality. This week’s Torah portion, Va’era, pushes us to consider how we might open
ourselves to receive more.

***
Following last week’s humble revelation in the burning bush, in this week’s portion
Moses’ mission is spelled out:
‫אתי אֶ ְת ֶ֗כם ִמ ַ ֙תּחַ ת֙ ִס ְב�֣ ת ִמצְ ַ ֔ריִם ו ְִהצַּ ְל ִ ֥תּי אֶ ְתכֶ ֖ם ֵמ ֲﬠב ָֹד ָ ֑תם‬ ֣ ִ ֵ‫מר ִל ְב ֵנֽי־י ְִשׂ ָראֵ ל֮ אֲ ִנ֣י ה׳ וְהוֹצ‬
ֹ ֥ ֱ‫לָ ֵ֞כן א‬
‫יד ְﬠ ֶ֗תּם‬
ַ ‫א�הים ִ ֽו‬֑ ִ ‫֥יתי לָ כֶ ֖ם ֵ ֽל‬
ִ ִ‫וּב ְשׁפָ ִ ֖טים גְּ ד ִ ֹֽלים׃ וְלָ ַק ְח ֨ ִתּי אֶ ְתכֶ ֥ם ִלי֙ ְלﬠָ֔ ם וְהָ י‬ ִ ‫ְוגָאַ ְל ִ ֤תּי אֶ ְתכֶם֙ ִבּזְ ֣רוֹﬠַ נְטוּ ָ֔יה‬
֙‫אתי‬
ִ ‫אתי אֶ ְתכֶם֙ אֶ ל־הָ אָ֔ ֶרץ אֲ ֶ ֤שׁר נ ָָ֨שׂ‬ ֤ ִ ֵ‫מּוֹציא אֶ ְת ֶ֔כם ִמ ַ ֖תּחַ ת ִס ְבל֥ וֹת ִמצְ ָ ֽריִם׃ וְהֵ ב‬ ֣ ִ ַ‫ִ ֣כּי אֲ ִ ֤ני ה׳ אֱ �֣ הֵ י ֶ֔כם ה‬
(‫ ו–ח‬:‫מוֹר ָ ֖שׁה אֲ ִנ֥י ה׳ )שמות ו‬ ָ ‫ֹתהּ לָ כֶ ֛ם‬ ֥ ָ ‫ֹתהּ ְלאַ ְב ָר ָ ֥הם ְליִצְ ָ ֖חק ֽוּלְ יַﬠֲקֹ֑ ב ְונ ַָת ֨ ִתּי א‬
ָ ֔ ‫אֶ ת־י ִ ָ֔די לָ ֵ ֣תת א‬
Say, therefore, to the Israelite people: I am the YHVH. I will free you from the
labors of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you
with an outstretched arm and through extraordinary chastisements. And I will
take you to be My people, and I will be your God. And you shall know that I, the
YHVH, am your God who freed you from the labors of the Egyptians. I will bring
you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will
give it to you for a possession, I the YHVH.” (Exodus 6:6-8)
Moses is to bring a message of salvation to a downtrodden people, promising them that
God will–finally–deliver them. After hundreds of years of slavery, generations of
oppression and trauma, redemption is nigh.
But the people could not hear it.

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 (‫ ט‬:‫וּמ ֲﬠב ָ ֹ֖דה ָק ָ ֽשׁה׃ )שמות ו‬
ֵ ַ‫ל־בּנֵ ֣י י ְִשׂ ָר ֵ ֑אל ְו ֤ל ֹא ָ ֽשׁ ְמעוּ֙ אֶ ל־מ ֶֹ֔שׁה ִמקֹּ֣ צֶ ר ר֔ וּח‬
ְ ֶ‫ֹשׁה כֵּ ֖ן א‬
֛ ֶ ‫ַוי ְַד ֵ ֥בּר מ‬
When Moses told this to the Israelites, they would not listen to Moses, because
of their broken spirit [lit. shortness of breath] and cruel bondage. (Exodus 6:9)
It seems that the Israelites were too deeply mired in their pain of the moment to take in
future-oriented promises. They could not fathom a reality other than the one they (and
their grandparents and their grandparents) inhabited, and so they blocked out even
mention of an alternative. They simply could not metabolize what seemed so flagrantly
false.
Breathing Space and Listening Space
The language used to describe this phenomenon is particular. “ ‫ְו ֤ל ֹא ָ ֽשׁ ְמעוּ֙ אֶ ל־מ ֶֹ֔שׁה ִמקֹּ֣ צֶ ר‬
ַ‫”רוּח‬.
֔ The people did not listen to Moses “because of their kotzer ruach,” figuratively
“because of their broken spirit,” but literally, “because of their shortness of breath.”
They could not hear because they could not breathe. How ought we understand the
relationship between breathing deeply and listening?
Rashi says on these words,
‫ימתוֹ‬
ָ ‫ וְאֵ ינוֹ יָכוֹל לְ הַ אֲ ִרי� ִבּנ ְִשׁ‬,‫ימתוֹ ְקצָ ָרה‬
ָ ‫וּנְשׁ‬
ִ ‫ רוּחוֹ‬,‫ כָּל ִמי ֶשׁהוּא מֵ צֵ ר‬.‫מקצר רוח‬:
If one is in anguish his breath comes in short gasps and he cannot draw long
breaths.
Distress yields shallow breaths. Stress quickens us; does not allow us to slow down for
air. And this pace–this reflexive, panicked mode of being–stands in the way of listening
because it stands in the way of the quiet and calm that listening demands. We cannot
hear when we cannot stop to pay attention. “‫ימתוֹ‬ ָ ‫נְשׁ‬
ִ ‫”וְאֵ ינוֹ יָכוֹל לְ הַ אֲ ִרי� ִבּ‬--A person in
anguish cannot “draw long breaths” (le’ha’arich be’neshimato). She also cannot expand
her soul, le’ha’arich be’neshamato.
It is this relationship between breathing and listening, and even more so speaking and
hearing, that is explored by the Sefat Emet. He begins with Moses’ words of resistance
to God, arguing that he is not fit for the job of chief communicator.
‫א־שׁ ְמ ֣ﬠוּ אֵ לַ֔ י וְאֵ י�֙ י ְִשׁ ָמ ֵ ֣ﬠ ִני פַ ְר ֹ֔עה וַאֲ ִנ֖י ﬠ ַ ֲ֥רל ְשׂפָ ָ ֽתיִם׃‬
ָ ֹ ‫מר ֵ ֤הן ְבּ ֵנֽי־י ְִשׂ ָראֵ ֙ל ֽל‬
ֹ ֑ ‫ַוי ְַד ֵ ֣בּר מ ֶֹ֔שׁה לִ פְ נֵ ֥י יְהֹ וָ ֖ה לֵ א‬
(‫יב‬:‫)שמות ו‬
But Moses appealed to the Lord, saying, “The Israelites would not listen to me;
how then should Pharaoh hear me, a man of impeded speech!” (Exodus 6:12)
If Moses cannot successfully communicate with his own people, why would Pharaoh
listen to him? Furthermore, he has a speech impediment (arel sefatayim), rendering
him, in his own eyes, unworthy of addressing royalty.
The Sefat Emet understands Moses’ claim differently though, not as a statement of
disqualifying disability (God forbid), but of limited efficacy.

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 ‫ פרשנו כבר כי ע"י שבנ"י לא שמעו לכן הוא ערל‬.‫בפסוק הן בנ"י לא שמעו כו' ואני ערל שפתים‬
...‫ כי הנביא מתנבא בכח שמיעת בנ"י כדכ' נביא מקרבך כו' והנה כ' שמעה עמי ואדברה‬.‫שפתים‬
...'‫ והי' הדיבור בגלות כל זמן שלא הוכנו המקבלים לשמוע דבר ה‬.‫וזה הי' עיכוב עשרת הדיברות‬
‫ וזה‬.‫השמיעה צריך להיות פנוי מכל דבר כמ"ש שמעי בת כו' והטי אזנך ושכחי עמך ובית אביך‬
‫עיקר הגלות גם עתה מה שא"י להתפנות ולשכוח הבלי עולם להיות הלב פנוי לשמוע דבר ה' בלי‬
(‫ וארא תרנ"ט‬,‫מחשבה זרה… )שפת אמת‬
On the verse, “[But Moses appealed to the LORD, saying,] “The Israelites would
not listen to me; [how then should Pharaoh hear me,] a man of impeded
speech!” (Exodus 6:12), we have already explained that because the Israelites
couldn’t hear, therefore Moses was “of impeded speech.” A prophet prophesies
[only] to the degree that the Israelites hear. As the verse is written, “[The Lord
your God will raise up for you] a prophet from among your own people, [like
myself; him you shall hear]” (Deut. 18:15). And it is also written, “Hear, My
people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will arraign you. I am God, your God”
(Psalms 50:7). Our rabbis taught, “We can only testify for one who hears” (Ruth
Rabbah 1). This was the hindrance to the Ten Commandments [dibrot].
Speech was in exile so long people were not prepared to listen to the word of
God... Because listening requires total openness, as is written, “Hear, lass, and
note, incline your ear: forget your people and your father’s house” (Psalms
47:11).
This is the essence of exile (galut) even now: to not be able to open oneself and
forget the vanities of the world so that the heart might be open to hear the word
of God without foreign thought…(Sefat Emet, Va’era 1899)
In contrast to the plain meaning of the text, which indicates that people would not listen
to Moses because he could not speak, the Sefat Emet suggests that Moses could not
speak because the people could not hear. That is, he could not communicate with a
people so very shut down and unavailable to his messaging. With no a priori buy-in, no
openness to taking in new things, Moses, the harbinger of hope, was effectively
silenced.
Tuning in the Divine
God too must be listened into existence. As it says in Psalms 50:7,
‫�הי� אָ ֽ ֹנכִ י׃‬
֣ ֶ ֱ‫�הים א‬
֖ ִ ֱ‫ידה ָ ֑בּ� א‬
ָ ‫ִשׁ ְמ ָ ֤ﬠה ﬠַ ִ֨מּי ׀ וַאֲ ַד ֗ ֵבּ ָרה ֭ ִי ְשׂ ָראֵ ל וְאָ ִ ֣ﬠ‬
Listen, My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will arraign you. I am God, your
God.
If we listen first, then the Divine will speak, then the Ineffable can become “your
[personal] God.” We are that powerful, not because we create the Divine, but because
we can create space–perform tzimtzum (self-contraction)–to be filled by an Other. Only

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when we cultivate ourselves as listeners, as attentive receivers, might we hear anything
at all.
Indeed, revelation itself, says the Rebbe, relies on this dynamic. “ ‫וזה הי' עיכוב עשרת‬
‫”הדיברות‬. The Ten Commandments, or literally ten speech-acts (dibrot), only became
possible when there were listeners (albeit ambivalent ones) who could hear it. The
newly born, newly open, Jewish people listened God into speaking!
We are asked to continue this practice daily. Think of the Shema prayer:
(‫ד‬:‫�הינוּ ה׳ ׀ אֶ ָ ֽחד׃ )דברים ו‬
֖ ֵ ֱ‫ְשׁ ַ ֖מע י ְִשׂ ָר ֵ ֑אל ה׳ א‬
Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one. (Deut. 6:4)
Slow down. Listen for God. Then God might be your unifying force.

Moses understood this about his people in Egypt. They could only hear what they were
open to hearing. And so can we.
'‫וזה עיקר הגלות גם עתה מה שא"י להתפנות ולשכוח הבלי עולם להיות הלב פנוי לשמוע דבר ה‬
...'‫בלי מחשבה זרה כמ"ש ול"ת אחרי לבבכם כו‬
This is the essence of exile (galut) even now: to not be able to open oneself and
to forget the vanities of the world so that the heart might be open to hear the
word of God without foreign thought.
Exile is not a place. It is a condition of being in which we are closed down, shut off,
unable to receive, unable to activate our faculties of imagination. It is the state of being
stuck, folded into ourselves, unable to open to the presence of another. To exit exile,
then, we must render ourselves vulnerable, capacious, receptive.
Redemption and revelation demand radical openness, an inner quieting so that we
might hear the sounds of the others who call to us. Such an emptying, the Sefat Emet
assures us, will return us to deep breath (neshima) and to our expansive souls
(neshama). In humbly listening for the whispers of revelation, we simultaneously attune
ourselves to intimations of the Divine.

Bifnim/Personal Reflections
1. Have you ever failed to internalize something said to you, not because you could
not grasp the plain meaning of the words but because you could not take in the
message? If so, describe the experience. What did it feel like to hear but not to
pay attention? What, if anything, got in the way? What, if anything, enabled you
to become unblocked and receive the message?

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 2. In mindfulness practice we often speak of “quieting the mind” as a prerequisite
for deeper listening. What, if anything, do you find helps you quiet your mind?
What prevents it? In your own experience, do you find that quieting the mind
does in fact help you to hear more deeply? If so, why? If not, why not?
3. The poet Mary Oliver refers to praying as entering “a quiet in which another
voice may speak.” In your experience, does the practice of prayer contribute to
your capacity to listen for the still, small voice of the Divine within you? Why or
why not?

B’Avodah-Practice – Rabbi Myriam Klotz

“Just because you think a thought doesn’t mean it’s true,” teaches Geneen Roth, a
pioneer in the field of healing from food addictions, rooting her teachings in spiritual
practice. When cruel or judgmental thoughts enter one’s mind about one’s body—such
as, “You are so fat, who could ever love you? And if they did, what’s wrong with them?”
Or, “Sure, everyone else can learn to love themselves and trust their body’s desires for
food, but I’m damaged goods.”—the practice is to notice the thought, and with
awareness see it for what it is. Just a thought. No matter how deeply conditioned it may
be, it doesn’t mean it is true, and the you who is thinking the thought does not have to
be a prisoner held captive to its constricting powers.
This week’s practice is the “Just because you think a thought doesn’t mean it’s true”
practice. As our text study teaches this week, the state of kotzer ruach, constricted
breath and spirit, not only burdens the body it also eclipses the mind from its natural
state of expanded awareness and spaciousness. Often this expansive state is likened to
a clear blue sky, the atmosphere of a radiant loving clarity that we might identify
ourselves with, noticing the clouds as they temporarily pass by. The clouds could be
deeply internalized and patterned thoughts that are hurtful to ourselves or others, or
they might be conditioned beliefs about the limitations that define our beings. That
keep us from believing we are more than those beliefs.
For me, and maybe for you, too, those pernicious thoughts can be brutal and
oppressive. The “Just because you think a thought doesn’t mean it’s true” practice
offers a way of moving from what Jewish spiritual teachings call “Mochin d’Kotnut”, a
constricted mind state, towards “Mochin d’Gadlut”, expansive consciousness that is
open to the possibility of Divine Presence and healing perspective.
This practice involves three steps:
1. Slow Down.
The slaves in Egypt, rabbinic teachings suggest, were kept so busy with hard work, on
purpose. When people are so busy with doing, at such a fast pace, they have no time to
recover, to integrate, their experiences. It is much harder to feel and notice what the

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thoughts are that are passing through the mind. While thankfully most of us cannot
fathom what it is like to be enslaved, literally, we yet might be held captive by a
conditioned sense of self that is identified with constant hard work and business that
keeps us distracted from paying deep sustained attention to the flow of thoughts,
feelings, and sensations that arise and pass in our minds. Or to noticing patterns of
behavior that we do so quickly in response to thoughts that arise, that unless we slow
down, we won’t have the split second of a chance to notice the link between a harsh
thought, a hurt feeling, and the reach for the cookie, the drink, the action that we take
to soothe or numb the feelings that resulted from the harsh thought that, at root, may
not be true. But if we don’t slow down we will likely not notice that sequence and we
believe what our thoughts tell us.
So, commit to 10 minutes daily this week to slow down. Even in this busy time near the
end of the secular year, giving yourself 10 minutes a day to slow down affords the gift of
being able to begin to notice the barrage of thoughts that may be flowing like a torrent
through your awareness just under the surface, from moment to moment. Commit to
10 minutes daily to stop actively moving your body, and rest comfortably in a position
where the body can slow down.

2. Breathe.
Ruach, wind-spirit, is connected to the breath. Practice simply watching the breath
moving in and out of your body for 3 minutes. You don’t have to make it happen. This
quiet miracle of respiration is happening all the time, while we are busy doing things. In
the slowing down, allow yourself to do nothing “useful.” Simply pay attention to the
breath moving in and out of your body. This is one form of quieting practice that helps
us rest in the ground of our being alive, not in the thoughts we constantly think. It is not
thought that sustains us from moment to moment, but the influx of oxygen and
outpouring of carbon dioxide. *If your breath does not come easily because of physical
conditions or if you have experienced trauma that makes this difficult, you can choose
to focus on sounds that arise and pass, or you can focus your eyes on a natural live
presence like a tree, a flower, a houseplant. The intention here is to shift your attention
from your thoughts to your experience of being, simply, physically, alive and in this
moment.

3. Notice.
Slowing down, grounding in the physical nature of our being in the present moment,
now we are more available to turn our attention to the flow of “thinking mind”. For the
next 7 minutes, as you rest your body comfortably, turn your attention to the mind
itself. “You” are not your thoughts! “You” are that which is bearing witness to this flow
of thinking mind that offers all kinds of shameless nonsensical ideas and thoughts as

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well as magnificent and noble as well as the most trite and petty notions, again and
again and again. Try to notice, to get curious, to see what thoughts arise. Your goal here
is not to empty the mind, which is not possible actually. It is to practice noticing that
thoughts arise, and pass along, and you do not have to identify with each thought or
feeling that comes. Not all thoughts are true! Freedom, the capacity to choose wisely
and from love and skill from moment to moment, is rooted in the ability to notice that
we are not our thoughts. See if you notice some thoughts that surprise you. That are
shameful. That are beautiful. That you love. That you wish you had not thought. Notice
them all, and let them all pass through you.

The first time I heard Geneen Roth declare that “just because you think a thought
doesn’t mean it’s true”, I felt incredulous. Really? Seriously? Over time, though, this
practice has helped me bring kindness, forgiveness, clarity and the capacity to get free
from limiting beliefs I internalized from when I was very young. I hope you might find
some freedom in this deeply humanizing practice, too.

Ultimately, Geneen suggests, as does the Sefat Emet and our teacher Erin Leib Smokler,
that as we learn to work with our thoughts more spaciously, we can be more available
to hear other thoughts, perhaps thoughts offered by the Divine Presence itself, guiding
us towards a more liberated way of being in our lives—even in the face of constricting
conditions, perhaps, even now.

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