A question haunts Deuteronomy/D’varim, this entire last book of the Torah: why does God refuse Moses’ entreaties and prayers that he be allowed to enter into the Land of Promise. This week’s Torah portion opens with Moses retelling in his own voice how he pleaded with the unpronounceable God energy to no avail.
Is Torah telling us (and Moses) that Moses already has completed his journey and doesn’t realize it? In Buddhism, this harkens to the words the Buddha is said to have spoken when he realized his enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree and said, how strange, all beings are already enlightened, we just don’t realize it yet.
Or is Torah telling us that Moses and the people have not yet gained the wisdom or consciousness to fulfill the human promise? That human fulfillment arises in the way we humans interact with the world as it’s given to us. What is Torah’s message for us here?
The Promised Land is the Consciousness Beyond Blame and Shame
In the opening verse of Vaetchanan, the name of this week’s Torah portion, Moses blames and castigates the people for God’s denial of his entreaties to “be allowed” to enter the promised land. Torah uses the word Vaetchanan to signify Moses entreating or pleading with the God energy outside of himself to enter the promised land. He is asking for a bestowal of grace from a source completely outside of himself and looks outside himself to blame the people:
“But GOD was wrathful with me on your account and would not listen to me.”
By blaming the people Moses is transmitting shame tot hem and giving away his power to understand and transform himself to claim his freedom and agency, the very human potential he pleaded for. He is stuck in the consciousness of blame and shame, and this leaves him doomed to die in the wilderness. Torah is suggesting that the cause of his stuckness in the cycle of blame and shame is that he is looking outside himself for the highest wisdom instead of integrating all of his experiences and drawing on his own insight. He doesn't have trust in himself or in the people. Blaming is in a cycle with shaming; both divert and separate us from gaining wisdom and understanding.
Marshall Rosenberg, the founder of Nonviolent Communication, often spoke about the tragedy of blame. When we blame others for our situation, we give our power away to them instead of using what arises within us to understand ourselves and what is important to us. When we focus on what we ourselves need to understand we can reclaim our power to find strategies to transform the situation.
One clear through line in the entire book of Torah is how Life Unfolding ( a name for the unpronounceable God energy I learned from Rabbi Jonathan Kligler) is continually urging Moses to find the power within himself, his own voice, to transform himself and the world around them. Torah has given him this entire final book as his platform to do that.
This week's Torah portion begins with Moses blaming the people for how he acted after his sister Miriam died. The people had been panicking from fear that that they would die of thirst because there was no water in the desert. The God energy accompanying them instructed Moses to follow the way of Miriam by using his voice to call forth water from a nearby rock. Instead Moses was swept away by his anger toward the people and he struck the rock over and over to bring water from it rather than following the instructions of Life Unfolding to speak to the rock. Moses’ anger blinded him to the key instruction to draw upon his capacity to integrate the masculine and feminine energies into his own leadership and consciousness. Instead of transforming his anger into understanding how to harmonize his own leadership with divine wisdom, he allowed his anger to carry him to violence. In this week’s retelling of the incident, Moses now blames the people’s panicking on God’s banishing Moses from entering the promised land.
Torah is saying to us, blaming is a harmful manifestation of anger! Instead, look inside yourself to find and embrace your own human capacities to transform the most difficult situations instead of blaming others for your suffering. Recognize and use your anger to point you to a higher understanding of what is important to you and to others. Don’t let your anger spill over into blame violence.
Moses is still stuck in the same place, speaking God's words and lessons as a prophet, but not integrating them into his own understanding that could carry him into the promised land. He continues with the very instruction that could help him make a breakthrough.
“GOD said to me, “Rav lach, you have enough! Never speak to Me of this matter again!”
Trust yourself. Stop giving away your power by blaming others for your situation. Look inside yourself for how the insights you received up on the mountain can be applied right here, right now. Don’t get so lost in the beautiful and powerful moments of transcendence you experienced in moments of touching Oneness, whether through prayer, human intimacy, or in nature or giving birth. Rav lach, you have enough within you, you don’t need to look outside yourself to blame others. And don’t shame yourself by saying you are too weak or damaged. Trust in your own promise, find your own voice and that is what will bring you into the promised land.
Vaetchanan can mean “I petitioned,” but it can also be understood as “I found grace in myself (Zohar Atkins @ Etz Hasadeh). “
The Promised Land Opens to Us Through Shared Human Coexistence
Even as he is stuck in the places where we humans get stuck, Moses exhibits incredible humility and compassion by revealing his own disappointments and growth to encourage us to keep going in our lives. Perhaps he even understands that it was his anger, blaming and lack of self-confidence that is keeping him out of the promised land. And that he is using this platform Torah has given him so that the rest of us can look more deeply to understand how to source this promised land.
The Torah portion goes on to make clear that the Promised Land is open to us only when we live in ways that resonate with other peoples:
“Observe them [the guides for ethical living, such as no killing] faithfully, for that will be proof of your wisdom and discernment to other peoples, who on hearing of all these laws will say, “Surely, that great nation is a wise and discerning people.”
Here is a translation of this Torah portion’s restatement of the Ten Utterances that could be received by all the other peoples of the world as wise and discerning Exhortations for Living in Harmony with what is:
The 10 Commandments (Deuteronomy 5)
Prioritize Human Life: Do not kill, and strive to cause no deliberate harm to others.
Respect Personal Boundaries: Practice fidelity and respect in all relationships, honoring commitments made to others.
Respect Property and Autonomy: Do not steal or take what belongs to someone else.
Practice Honesty: Know and speak the truth; do not lie or deceive, especially when testifying against others.
Be Content: Avoid greed and the destructive impulse to constantly desire or resent what others possess.
Honor Your Elders and Community: Treat your parents, mentors, and the foundational figures of your community with respect.
Rest and Reflect: Take time to rest, recharge, and step back from the frantic pace of work to maintain personal well-being.
Value Truth Over Deception: Avoid the exploitation of authority or manipulation of others for personal gain.
Build Trust: Be a person of your word, acting with integrity and building a reliable community.
Treat Others Fairly: Ensure that all your actions promote justice, fairness, and the general welfare of society. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]Moses continues in the Torah portion to make clear that the promised land opens only when we understand that we are not the only chosen people and that “other peoples everywhere under heaven” have been allotted “the whole heavenly host.”
Moses transmits to the people the realization that the promised land opens to us only so far as we understand that it is something to live, not to be possessed:
“I call heaven and earth this day to witness against you that you shall soon perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess; you shall not long endure in it, but shall be utterly wiped out.”
These passages invite us to look to other peoples who look to the sun, the moon and the stars for wisdom, leadership, and partnership. We can’t know or “master” all form; each of us only knows what our limited historical and cultural experiences have revealed to us. This is great spiritual guidance and also crucial for the survival of life as we know it. It mirrors the Holy Land of Israel/Palestine as a place where Jews, Christians, and Muslims share our gifts, wisdom and ways. It mirrors how I envision the promise of America, where, as Martin Luther King said, ”I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
The Torah portion clearly places the core Jewish practices of the Ten “Commandments,” Shabbat and the Shema-Listen!- prayer as ones to remind us that narrowness can enslave any of us. Chosenness is neither exclusive nor static.
The Promised Land manifests when the ones entering embody these teachings and the consciousness from which they spring. This requires growth of spiritual discernment in the collective consciousness so the people and future generations do not misread spiritual teachings as calls to racism and genocide.
A Personal Story: Understanding These Instructions for Spiritual Growth Only!
The Torah portion moves to verses that challenge us to discern which teachings are literal and which are spiritual metaphors for waking up. They are reminders to look at this spiritual text grounded in the ethical rules of living with others rather than from staying too long up on a clouded mountain, where we have no accountability or responsibility for our actions. Moses says:
כִּֽי־אִם־כֹּ֤ה תַעֲשׂוּ֙ לָהֶ֔ם מִזְבְּחֹתֵיהֶ֣ם תִּתֹּ֔צוּ וּמַצֵּבֹתָ֖ם תְּשַׁבֵּ֑רוּ וַאֲשֵֽׁירֵהֶם֙ תְּגַדֵּע֔וּן וּפְסִילֵיהֶ֖ם תִּשְׂרְפ֥וּן בָּאֵֽשׁ׃
Instead, this is what you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, smash their pillars, cut down their sacred posts, and consign their images to the fire.
Deuteronomy 7:5
I read this as a reminder to find my own voice, just as Moses was instructed. Even if I find myself in the midst of people who are calling for killing and exclusion, pointing the finger at “the other” as some solution to our problems, stay true to the ethical principles set forth in this week’s Torah portion, which is the retelling of the 10 sacred laws of human interaction.
Dramatic wake up languages used in all the spiritual traditions. In Zen koans, in Bible and Koran stories, in Hindu stories. What is this meant to wake us to? Why use this language?
It occurs to me that this could be the very passage about which my dear dharma-torah sister Diana Wolkstein and I asked Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh in August of 2008. We were on a three month retreat with him and his entire community of nuns and monks from around the world. Each Shabbat morning, Diana and I climbed the mountain above Deer Park Monastery and studied Torah together. We found passages like this deeply disturbing because people are reading this literally in our troubled world. Is it meant to be literal?
Later, in front of the assembled sangha (community) we asked Thay (Thich Nhat Hanh), “Why is there so much violence between people and toward each other in Torah?” Thay answered, “Because of historical conditions.” And he added, “Every spiritual tradition has mindfulness at its core; if it didn’t, it wouldn’t be a great spiritual tradition.” He said, “Go and find the mindfulness in your tradition.” That is when I began following the yearly Torah cycle in earnest, on the mountain of Deer Park Monastery.
I had the same question about violent metaphors when I first began Zen koan study. Are we really cutting cats in two, are teachers really hitting people over the head with sticks? Is the great sword of Boddhisattva (awakened being) Manjushi a physical sword?
I read it as a spiritual cry to wake us up. Wake up humans! Wake up to our true nature — we are earthlings. If we don’t find our way to sharing and working together in partnership with all peoples, we will sink the entire ship. Wake up!
Moses understood that the spiritual meaning of the Laws and Instructions is to walk and find your own way to the Source that has freed you. When you truly discern the freedom that comes from understanding Oneness, that you yourself are one of the jewels in Indra’s net, you are part of the oneness, you find your way to
In the Jewish tradition, Moses attains the highest spiritual development. He stands among and speaks for the people, the descendants of the refugees from Egypt, reliving, recounting, the story of their decades of wandering homeless in the desert. And at the same time, he ascends and sees the Oneness, the full promise of humanity, the possibility of magnificence, of freedom, of liberation. He faces the people and he faces liberation. In this transcendence of duality he is again face to face with that which is Eternally Present.
And Torah always reminds us that Moses also stands in the full human catastrophe. The experience of the Promised Land will remain hidden to Moses. This week’s Torah portion began with Moses “pleading,” asking for grace- let me be released from this wilderness where we humans are stuck in never enough-ness. Let me be released from this desert where earthlings never realize we have enough — rav lach — enough to share, enough to welcome the stranger, enough to live in harmony with the natural world.
Moses pleads for himself and for all of us — the descendants of the original wanderers — to learn to experience enough-ness in the midst of uncertainty. For Moses, it is accepting the gift of seeing and not entering the Promised Land. To truly and deeply find the gift in it is the great work of his life.
Moses is now given the opportunity to be freed from the cycle of exile and possession. This is a freedom born from experiencing enoughness in the midst of uncertainty and not knowing. This surely is the Torah for today, as earth is our witness, calling us to abandon possession, to stop considering Earth as our resource to exploit and to share and cooperate with all of her inhabitants and creatures.
For more readings on Vaetchanan by Torah at the Intersection:
Enter into Not-Knowing
https://torahattheintersection.com/vaethanan-entering-into-not-knowing/
Practice with Blame and Anger
The meaning we make of our anger and fearUnderstanding fear and anger in ourselves and others is the beginning of nonviolence and healing. Thomas Merton wrote, “What you fear is an indication of what you seek.” We can add anger to that-what you are angry about is an indication of what you seek, of what you yearn for, of what is important to you.
Exercise in pairs (Note: Listener witnesses Speakers process without comment)
Begin by writing down something you feel angry or fearful about at this moment/time in your life. Then translate this as follows:
Express (in writing, then in words) what you wrote :
1. I feel [angry or fearful/afraid] about this:
2. These are some of the thoughts I have when I think about this:
3. These feelings and thoughts are important to me because :
4. Without these feelings and thoughts, I fear I will be/ the world will be:
5. (Again): These feelings and thoughts are important to me because :
6. Feelings that arise in me when I connect with why this is important to me:
7. Needs (what is important to me). Sit with your feelings and needs!
After reading this out loud to the Listener, Listener reflects back ):
Is it that (fill in need you heard them say) is so important to you?
Is it that when your needs for __________ aren’t met, you feel angry?
Is there anything else you want to say right now (before we switch)?
Switch: Listen to the other person do this process.
Harvest together!
What action, if any, would you like to take?
Roberta Wall steps2peace.com
Think of something you want to change that involves how power and/or resources are shared
What is a specific doable request you can make to address this, and to whom?
A useful template for specific doable request is to compose your request using these elements:
Person: Who exactly are you asking to do something? What needs of yours are you trying to meet and how can this specific person assist in meeting those needs?
Location: include in your request exactly where you want this person to take the requested action.
Action: What is the exact action you are requesting them to do? If they do it, will it meet the needs you want to meet?
Time: When do you want them to do this? Be specific, very specific.
Objective: What is the purpose of the action? Will your request achieve that?
Imagine they say “no” to your request. What needs of theirs wouldn’t be valued in the way you have framed the suggestion?
Can you think of needs of theirs that would be valued with your suggestion?
Rework your framing to show that you value their needs also. This may be a shift in your own consciousness. For example, to see that your safety and theirs are intertwined! To see that the trust, love, safety, compassion, you want in the world means including them in their flow.
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