Va’etchanan: Revelation and Love

Welcome to Shabbat Moment, a text study series with Yael Shy, from our friends at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Every week we share Yael’s Torah text study, mindfulness practice tips, and discussion questions for you to reflect + share with others at your Shabbat table. Subscribe here to get the Shabbat Moment delivered straight to your inbox!

This week’s Torah portion is Va’etchanan: Revelation and Love.

If you were about to meet God,  where would you stand? Would you take a step closer or take a step back?

This week, we learn that the Israelites could not stand in the nakedness of The Revelation: an intimate encounter with God. It would seem to be one of the most powerful and intimate moments in the entire Torah. A people being told they are loved, they are chosen, and standing in the midst of the powerful energy of that connection.

Bu the Israelites balked. They hedged. And that movement away from a connection with God (or, what is) and their slow and wandering return becomes a repeated motif in their (and our) lives.

What does it mean to “falter and stand far off?”

Find Your Friday

About the Author

Special thanks to Yael Shy and our friends at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality for joining us in creating weekly Shabbat moments for your Friday nights.

Yael Shy is the CEO of Mindfulness Consulting, LLC, where she teaches and consults on mindfulness for universities, corporations, and private clients around the world. She is the author of the award-winning book, What Now? Meditation for Your Twenties and Beyond (Parallax, 2017), and the founder of Mindful NYU, the largest campus-based mindfulness initiative in the US. Yael is a graduate of the IJS Jewish Mindfulness Teacher Training Certification.