4d • General
"Being the Oneness" | Parshat Matot
The power of decision is to gather together the different strands of who we are – the opinions, feelings, memories, impulses, drives and goals that make up the sometimes conflicting dimensions of “me” – and forge them into a unity through the affirmation of commitment:
אִישׁ֩ כִּֽי־יִדֹּ֨ר נֶ֜דֶר לַֽי–ה–וָ֗–ה אֽוֹ־הִשָּׁ֤בַע שְׁבֻעָה֙ לֶאְסֹ֤ר אִסָּר֙ עַל־נַפְשׁ֔וֹ לֹ֥א יַחֵ֖ל דְּבָר֑וֹ בכְּכָל־הַיֹּצֵ֥א מִפִּ֖יו יַעֲשֶֽׂה׃
If a person vows a vow to the Divine or swears an oath to forbid something to one’s soul, they shall not empty their word; everything that comes from their mouth, so shall they do.
- Bamidbar (Numbers) 30:3
On the surface, this is the mitzvah of having integrity; if you say you are going to do something, do it. Who you are today and who you were yesterday should not be two different things; be your word. This is a basic ethical principle, but it is not merely ethical; it is an embodiment of the spiritual core of Judaism – the affirmation that Hashem Ekhad—God is One.
Hashem Ekhad can be understood in the ordinary sense of being a creed or belief, affirming the existence of one God rather than many gods. But when we understand that the Divine Name is simply a permutation of the verb “to be” – היה hei-yud-hei – a deeper implication becomes visible: Being Itself is One; there is only One Reality, appearing in countless forms. We cannot “see” this Unity, and our experience over time may seem to defy any sense of unity, and yet: there is only One Reality. This simple fact becomes spiritually significant when the Oneness of Reality becomes our “God” – meaning, we hold up the Unity as our ideal, and hold ourselves accountable to reveal the Unity in our lives.
This brings us back to integrity: by being our word, we worship the Oneness; we deify Reality.
But this is not easy. Anyone who has spent a little time observing the mind knows that we contain many different voices. One part of us makes a commitment while another part immediately begins negotiating with it. One part longs to awaken while another simply wants to remain comfortable. And yet, when we become present, we discover that beneath all of these changing movements there is a radically simple truth… Read Full Teaching HERE
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"Being the Oneness" | Parshat Matot
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