Shemot
Reflection by Naomi Shifrin, Or HaLev Teacher
How can we stay here without being burnt?
"This week we begin the book of Shemot with parashat Shemot. In this parasha we meet the pleas of the Israelites as they experience enslavement in Mitzrayim, in Egypt, and we meet their suffering, and we meet Hashem's response which is:
וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
And Hashem saw Bnei Yisrael (Exodus 2:25).
And He responds to Moshe in the burning bush.The Baal Shem Tov teaches us that this burning bush burns but it is not consumed, and that this is a hint to our experience as a nation in exile. He says that there is the fire of suffering, yet the soul is not consumed.
What does this mean and what is its implication for our practice? We are invited into the sneh, this lowly bush, these low dark places, the places of Mitzrayim, of pain and difficulty.
But the bush invites us to be with life in all that it presents, including when what it presents is painful to be with, and to do so as the Baal Shem Tov says with a soul that is not consumed.
In our practice we cultivate presence, awareness, capacity, connection to our soul and to the great expansive divine soul; and as we cultivate that connection we cultivate an ability to be with life even as it burns. We learn that we do not need to be consumed. As the parasha teaches us, when we stay, when we stay with the bush and we listen as Moshe does, we hear as Hashem says to Moshe that there's a path forward, a path out of exile.
The divine voice in the bush tells Moshe that the Israelites will be taken out of Egypt. It's not yet clear how that will happen, but there is redemption to come from staying with awareness, including the burning, without letting it consume and without losing touch with what else is here too.
So, I bless us this week with that ability to stay with what burns in our lives, with the presence of soul, of our soul, of the divine soul, of consciousness and awareness and the preciousness of the connection which gives us a real sense that redemption is possible."