D’varim
Where do we direct our attention?
Reflection by Rabbah Dr. Mira Niculescu, Or HaLev Teacher:
"This year, we will open the book of D’varim on the Shabbat called Shabbat Chazon. It is named after the Haftorah portion read on this Shabbat just before Tisha B’Av.
Chazon means ‘vision.’ Why should we need vision right before Tisha B’Av?
On Tisha B’Av, we make space to mourn all that is broken, both in our world and within ourselves.
We cry not because we like to complain, as the old ashkenazi jokes go.
We cry because it is deeply healing.
We all carry wounds, old and new, collective and individual. Perhaps we feel they have become even deeper since October 7.
Connecting to sadness and grief not only relieves us; it also has the potential to reconnect us to a peace that is already here, deep inside.
When we stop resisting reality or fighting our own pain, attuning ourselves to the truth of the vibration of what is, something opens inside.
We can start anew. We can feel more alive again.
As the Kotsker rebbe used to say `there is nothing more whole than a broken heart.`
Having been there more than once, I know it to be true.
Brokenness helps clarify our consciousness; it dissolves the many walls erected by our ego and strips us bare from all our defense mechanisms. Our true nature can then emerge.
Something similar happens in the process of a meditation retreat.
Vision is a gift offered to the spiritual practitioner. It reminds us that we don’t need to rely just on our own strength and courage. We don’t just have to go through grief.
We can also, and perhaps first and foremost, foresee the peace that is awaiting us on the other side.
Today, we may all need vision more than ever.
May this Shabbat Chazon be for you this year as refreshing and reenergizing as a cool glass of water on a hot summer day."