\u00a0\u00a0“The life of Sarah”
This Torah portion \u2013 \u201cThe Life of Sarah\u201d actually begins with the death of Sarah –
Judaism\u2019s first matriarch. The parsha goes on to tell about Abraham\u2019s search for a wife
for his son Issac, to carry on the feminine spiritual legacy that Sarah left void with her
death. So he sends his servant Eliezar to find the right woman for Issac, and Eliezar
stumbles upon Rivka who he puts through a test in his mind. If, after she fills water for
herself, she gets water for his camels upon request, he will know that she is the right
woman. The Torah tells it like this: When Rivka drew water for herself, the water \u201cfilled\u201d
her jug. When she got water for Eliezar and his camels, she \u201cdrew\u201d water from the well.
Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev focuses in on the different words that the Torah uses to
differentiate the experience of Rivka obtaining water. When she is getting water for
herself, the water \u201cfills\u201d her jug. She doesn\u2019t have to exert any effort. The water literally
moves of it\u2019s own accord into her jug, almost magically. When she is getting water for
Eliezar, she has to \u201cdraw\u201d it. She has to exert effort. Why? Levi Yitzhak says that when
someone as high, spiritually as Rivka does things just to take care of her own needs, G-d
bestows grace upon her. The quality of her consciousness just as it is, is at such a level
that blessing comes to her \u2013 her water jug is filled. When she moves to do a mitzvah for
someone else, she has to exert effort herself. When we do a mitzvah \u2013 an act that binds
ourselves to G-d, G-d wants to give us the gift of coming close. Just like in a lovers
relationship, we need to be able give to our beloved \u2013 we want the opportunity to not
always be receiving the love, but actively expressing it. That is why G-d doesn\u2019t fill our
jug all by itself, but allows us to draw the water.
So what does all of this mean for us in a meditative sense. The sages understand that our
sense of individual selves is the jug, and the water is the deep awareness of the presence
of G-d. Sometimes we are gifted with our jug being \u201cfilled\u201d. This filling is the experience
of grace. We don\u2019t have to \u201cdo\u201d anything to make it happen. It happens based on who we
are and what we need at any given moment. It happens when we are doing our own thing,
taking care of our own needs. Maybe we\u2019re watching a movie, and we are touched so
deeply, we start to cry, and open to a sense of the beyond. Maybe we are walking though
a forest and the light coming through the trees at a particular angle moves us by it\u2019s
beauty. No effort exerted. All by itself.
But there is more that we can do to receive grace, than hope that it will happen sometime.
We can make ourselves a vessel to receive. The word \u201cKabbalah\u201d means \u201creceiving\u201d. It
is the art and practice of receptivity. Our meditation practice is an important way to
prepare ourselves to receive. When we exercise the practices of quieting the mind, of
focusing on the creative process that underlies our entire universe, we \u201cdraw water\u201d from
the well. Just as much as G-d wants to fill our jug through grace, we need to \u201cdraw\u201d
water through our spiritual practice \u2013 study, meditation, and acts of loving-kindness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0\u00a0“The life of Sarah” This Torah portion \u2013 \u201cThe Life of Sarah\u201d actually begins with the death of Sarah –Judaism\u2019s first matriarch. The parsha goes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":364,"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions\/364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}