You Are Powerful

When you go out the war over your enemies…This week’s Torah portion.

One of the messianic prophecies is that “a nation will not lift up a sword against another nation and we will no longer learn war”.

It seems difficult right now to imagine a world without swords, bombs, death and bloodshed. (There are conditions on a global level that actually set the stage for the potential for this to materialize in a very real way.)

The prophet also says that the children will return the hearts of their parents.

On a personal level we can see how the youth are doing their inner work of softening up the outer armor and allowing the inner softness of their souls to express itself authentically.  The inner war, our inner struggle is being resolved without bombs and swords.

The idea here is that we can end the inner war. We can let go of the inner angst and struggle. We have the ability to change our attitude and soften up, embrace our true core identity and at the same time accept the outer shell as part of our design. The stuff that makes up each our inner turmoil can be resolved if we don’t judge ourselves with shame, but rather accept that this is the perfect design that Hashem prepared for us.

I question myself; do I really have the ability to rise above the judgement and shame? Can I really do this?

The answer in the opening of this week’s Torah portion is clear; When you go out to war, know that you are over your enemies. 

Meaning

When you – your true core,

Goes out to war – what feels like a battle

Know that you are over – your spiritual origin is higher than your

Enemy – what feels like an enemy

And it is there for that very purpose to meet recognize that the enemy is not an enemy at all, but something that is there to assist you to uncover your deepest self.

I remember a cartoon of a soldier fighting with arrows and a gun salesman comes to him to present options for better weapons. The solder says “I don’t have time for that, I’m too busy fighting a war”. 

Today the message is, the inner war is over. Stop fighting. There are better tools for living a whole calibrated life.  Find your soul. Let it out.

No better time for this message than these weeks leading up to Rosh Hashanah!

Best wishes for Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova!