Parshas Bo, February 2, 2006 – 4 Sh’vat, 5766
The G*d at the burning bush was “I will be what I will be.”
G*d is a great place for projective reality because He’s invisible. You can’t say “I am” in Hebrew—If it is translated that way, it’s a shonda.
Rachamin: tiferet – balance – harmony – truth – yod kay vov kay.
HaShem is in the dialogue between Hillel (the liberal) and Shemai (the conservative).
The same word, shovave, means tchuva and wayward.
G*d is in the dialogue between Aaron and Moshe. Aaron lies, Moshe tells the truth. A lie can be a bigger truth.
Moses said, “I have a foreskin over my mouth,” meaning “my words are all true, but I don’t get through to anyone. The foreskin is insensitivity. Moses and Aaron set up a dialogue that lasts to this day. Aaron listens.
Listening: The Ten Commandments were received in Parshas Yitro because Moses listened to his father-in-law when he said that Moses was being too charismatic. If Moses had not listened, he would not have been able to receive the Ten Commandments.
Our names for G*d are relationships. There are 100 names. Which aspect/relationship are you relating to?:
When you go to a graveyard, it’s an old custom to throw grass in the air and say “like withering grass, life.”
What are our capacities for receiving/assessing the potential to know?
Frogs: pick out one fault and blow it up.
Hebrews trembled after every plague. They knew that behavior has consequences, and they would suffer the same kind of consequences as the Egyptians.
They had 41 years to mature to be able to make decisions.
Self-doubt is important because we need to challenge our projections.
Red Sea strategies:
Moses merited seeing Yod Kay Vov Kay because he had a compassionate relationship with his brother, with boundaries.
The negative morning bruchas are all questions. If I’m not this, what am I? This question is evoked by focusing on negative space.
In Egypt we learned how to be a slave. Then we have to choose: be a slave to Pharaoh or to G*d?
Homework: look up Baba Kamma 54B and Zohar 103A and ask questions.
Atzilut: the world of intimacy, World Four, there is no shell.
Study page 268 in Aish Kodesh.
Hiyya Bar Abba gave up his businesses to study with Rabbi Tanhum Bar Hanilai.
Gemora (Talmud) is made up of halacha, law, legal reasoning.
“Homiletics”: agadata is a bina training camp. Bina is developing intuition to understand emotions.