20d • General
“Fire of Awareness” | Parshat Balak
When Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak of Lubavitch was four years old, he asked his father, Rabbi Shalom Ber: “Abba, why do we have two eyes, but only one mouth and one nose?”
“Do you know your Hebrew letters?” asked Shalom Ber. “Yes," replied the boy. “And what is the difference between the letter שׁ shin and the letter שׂ sin?” he continued. “A שׁ shin has a dot on the right side, and a שׂ sin on the left.” “Right! Now, this letter shin represents fire, and fire makes the light that we see by. The dots on the right and left are like your two eyes. Accordingly, fire has two opposite qualities. On one hand, it can give us life by keeping us warm and cooking our food; that’s the dot on the right. On the other hand, it can burn us; that’s the left dot. Similarly, there are things you should look at with your right eye, and things you should look at with your left eye. You should always see another person with your right eye, and candy and toys with your left eye!”
This “fire” represented by the letter שׁ shin is the fire of awareness itself. It in the Torah in many places: it is the fire of the burning bush, calling Moses to his life purpose – awareness of one’s path; it is the amud ha-aysh, the pillar of fire that led the Israelites through the wilderness – awareness navigating choices in life; it is the fire that erupted forth on Mt. Sinai at the giving of the Aseret HaDibrot – the Ten Commandments – awareness of the spiritual principles guiding our actions; and all of these are essentially the same: deep discernment – which is why it also the fire of danger: the plague of fiery hail in the ten plagues, as well as the fire that consumed Nadav and Avihu when they brought their offerings without enough awareness.
These two manifestations of “fire” are the “yes” and the “no” of Presence: yes to this moment as it is, no to reaching, to insisting. Yes to Presence with other beings, no to the “candy” and “toys” that keep us stuck. How can we discern which eye to look through? ...
Read the full teaching HERE -
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“Fire of Awareness” | Parshat Balak
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