Vayakhel
How do we show up to our meditation practice?
Reflection by US Community Manager, Carrie Watkins:
Take from among you gifts to Hashem. Whoever is of a willing heart, nediv libo, shall bring gifts for Hashem: gold, silver, and copper (Ex 35:5).
"We’re in a series of parshiot that detail the building of the Mishkan, the portable desert tabernacle. The above instructions, involving gathering together gold from amongst the people to build something holy, might stop you in your tracks. Wait a second, didn’t we just see this? And didn’t it go very poorly? In last week’s parsha, we read:
`Aaron said to them, take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me . . . and he took from them and cast in a mold, and made it into a molten calf` (Ex 32:2-4).
The golden calf was built from gold gathered from amongst the people. You might have thought that Moses and God would have wanted to stay as far away from that dangerous territory as possible this time. Instead, they seem to be actively bringing its reminder into the creation of the Mishkan.
Perhaps this building instruction comes not to draw our attention to what’s similar about these two religious acts, but to what’s different. In the words of Nechama Leibowitz, `Gold alone was given to the calf, but gold and a willing heart was given to the Tabernacle. The giving of the heart was essential.`
In the golden calf story, Aaron instructs the men to take the gold from their family members. In the instructions for the Mishkan, the people are instructed to bring, and only if their hearts move them.
It’s not just what we do that matters but how we do it. We see this in our mindfulness practice. When we sit down on our cushion looking to take, to get something out of our practice, there will inevitably be some tightening and contracting to our experience, not unlike the hardening of the golden calf as it cooled in its mold. When we sit down with a willing heart, the experience is completely different. We show up willing to be part of a creative process, one that creates not a holy thing but a holy space. There is more lightness here, more softness.
Next time you sit down to meditate, notice your how, and see what happens if you orient from your willing heart, even just a little.
Wishing you a soft and spacious Shabbat."