Vayera: To Be Seen

In this week’s Torah portion, Vayera, Abraham is sitting at the entrance to his tent in the middle of the day. He lifts his eyes and sees three messengers approach. His immediate response is to rise up and greet them.  The messengers are the first experience of God in this story. As the Torah portion unfolds, God appears to Avraham in different guises and experiences that bring forth great blessings and painful challenges. By the end of the Torah portion, Abraham names God Adonai Yireh, the One Who Sees.

What would it mean to open ourselves to being seen?

Being seen for who we are in our glory,

In our beauty, in our brokenness,

In our pain?

To be seen in our exultation and in our shame,

In our celebrations and in our regrets?

This week the Torah calls us to sit at the opening,

      To sit at the opening of each day,

      To sit at the opening of our hearts,

                The opening of our awareness,

And wait and watch for God.

Lift your eyes, the tradition says,

Be patient, be still, be discerning

And God will appear

And as God appears, God will see us

With compassion,

Understanding

And love.

We sit at the opening of the tent of being known.

We watch and wait for God,

And through the myriad of experiences,

Thoughts, feelings, sensations and encounters,

We are seen and held by love.

-- Rabbi Yael Levy