Ki Tavo
Can we come back to this very moment?
Reflection on parashat Ki Tavo by Gilad Shavit, graduate of Or HaLev’s Tiferet Teacher Training:
The opening of this week's Torah portion is Ki Tavo el Haaretz - `When you come into the land’. The name of the parasha itself comes from the Hebrew word to come, enter, arrive: Bo. It comes right after the parasha Ki Teitze - `When you go out’. We go out, and then we come back.
This movement is everywhere. We see it in nature, we see it in life, and of course, we see it within ourselves. Out and in, expansion and contraction, exhaling and inhaling.
We see this rhythm reflected in our nervous system, moving between activation and settling, effort and rest. In Jewish mystical teaching there is a beautiful expression, Ratzov VaShov, which means going out and returning. Movement away, and movement back.
So, maybe parashat Ki Tavo is that moment to come back. Come back to the body, to the breath, to this moment, to the promised land in each one of us.
This is mindfulness practice: not escaping from what is but learning to come back into life, into what we're actually experiencing right here and now. Arriving.
If you'd like, you can do it now.
Take a breath.
Feel the feet.
Notice the breath and the body.
Notice the environment around, and the internal experience, and this very moment coming, coming, arriving here and now.
Shabbat Shalom.