Find Your Way Through

Our ancestors left mitzrayim, the narrow place, and came to the shores of the sea.
The vast waters were before them; the Egyptian army was at their back.
Frightened they cried out:
We can’t go forward.
We must return to what we know.
It is better to be enslaved, better to serve what is not true,
Than to be in the wilderness of the unknown.
Moshe responded to them:
Have no fear,
Stand and see the power of transformation happening now.       (Ex. 14:15)

All through the night, our ancestors wrapped themselves in each other
And in prayers for a life of freedom and hope.
They battled with fear, hesitation, doubt and despair.
They reached for trust and the capacity to believe in what they had never known or experienced.          

And in the morning they stepped into the waters
And together found their way through.

On the other side of the sea,
Fear and doubt did not cease,
Nor did the calls and signs urging them forward.

And the journey continues.
Oppression at our backs,
Raging waters at our feet.

And the call–the urgency–to step forward.

Care for your soul, the Infinite Presence told our ancestors:
Six days you shall work and on the seventh day you shall stop,
You shall rest, you shall be.                                                      (Ex. 16:23)
Stopping will help you discover faith and courage.
Pausing will help you discern how best to go.

In our urgency to go forward,
In the fear that rises and the rage that takes hold,
Let us pause and realign with what we love and value,
Let us reach toward each other,
And again and again, find the fierce willingness 
That guides us into the raging waters
In search of a land of justice and peace.
 
Blessings to all.
Shalom,

—Rabbi Yael Levy

11 Shevat 5780

Listen to the guided Meditation Sit dedicated to this teaching.