Haazinu: At the Boundary
Haazinu: At the Boundary
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 Haazinu: At the Boundary.
What happens when we hit up against a boundary?
In this week’s Torah portion, Moses stands at the boundary of the Promised Land. God tells him to climb the mountain so he can see the land, but reminds Moses that he will die without entering it.
Although in the text itself, Moses is fairly passive regarding this news, the midrashim (commentaries) are full of his arguments pleading and begging to God to reverse this decree and let him “cross over” to the land that has been promised to the Israelites.
After all his arguments fail, Moses finally breaks down into total grief. It is the same grief that we feel when we are forced against a boundary that will not give.
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.
