Va’etchanan
Where do we direct our attention?
Reflection by Avigail Beeri-Harel, Or HaLev Teacher:
“Tisha B’Av, which occurred this week, reminded us of the pain of destruction and despair. The prophet Jeremiah, in the Book of Lamentations, asks with anguish: ‘For your ruin is vast as the sea—who can heal you?’ (Lamentations 2:13). This question expresses a feeling of complete helplessness, a doubt as to whether anyone or anything can offer a remedy for such a profound brokenness. When we experience trauma or loss, we often feel there is no answer, no one who can give a hand.
Yet, that very same word, `who` (`מי`), takes on a completely opposite meaning in the Haftarah of our weekly portion, in the Book of Isaiah: `Lift up your eyes high and see who has created these things? He brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name` (Isaiah 40:26). Here, the `who` is not a question of despair, but a call to awe, curiosity, and searching. Who is the immense power that created all of creation, the heavens and the stars? Here, the assumption is that there is a `Who,` and that He is accessible to our experience even if we cannot call Him by a name.
In our weekly Torah portion, Moses warns the people about the danger of superficial perspectives. The danger is that we `see` great things, like the sun, moon, and stars, and turn them into gods, forgetting the source of everything: `And lest you lift your eyes to the heavens, and see the sun and the moon and the stars... and be drawn away to bow down to them` (Deuteronomy 4:19). This observation can turn the object itself into an idol, a frozen image, instead of seeing it as part of a living, flowing reality connected to everything.
This is where the essence of the `Who` enters into a wonderful interpretation from the Zohar of the above verses. The Zohar (Part 1) identifies this `Who` as a hidden and infinite aspect of the divine, one that always stands as a question and therefore cannot be fully grasped. This is the `Who` that exists within us and also beyond us: an open, infinite space, always new and dynamic. The `who can heal` from Lamentations, through the lens of the Zohar, turns from a cry of despair into a clear statement: the `Who` will heal you. That life-giving, hidden force, which is in everything and connected to everything, is what will bring healing.
In our daily practice, we can train ourselves to broaden our perspective, to see pain not as something closed and final, but as an opening, an invitation for connection with our body, with our soul. When the `Who` within us stands as a question, we are called to seek the ‘Who’ in each person we encounter. We can seek the `Who` behind the news and the screens. When we do so, the screen can transform from a separating barrier into a window of compassion. We can search for the `Who` even in those with whom we struggle and disagree. This is what the Psalmist writes in a practice that is also a prayer: `He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their sorrows. He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name` (Psalms 147:3-4). This is the same `Who`—hidden, infinite, present—that sees, heals, and gives life to everything.”