Naso: Lifelong Root and Path

When you tell yourself, “I can do this all my life!” this is your vision talking. It is imperative that you develop an awareness of hearing yourself say such words. When you catch yourself in that moment, you will be able to identify the feeling you are living with. Identifying the feeling is like striking gold, or finding land after a long voyage at sea. You now have a focused destination and a clear place to reach.

The Levi’im were given jobs, not an inheritance of cash or assets. Rather, they received an inheritance of service, duty, and mission. From birth they were taught the beauty of a life of service to Hashem. It may seem to many of us that we would prefer to create our very own path and find our own footing within our finite and numbered years on earth. Yet that would mean uniting our desires, feelings, and actions to shape ourselves into the personalities we wish to one day become. It seems like this would be the way to go, since we often smirk at nepo babies who have yet to taste struggle and the sweat of their brow. But the Levi, in his life, has to do exactly what we do in ours. The only difference is that they are born with the knowledge and are raised with the feeling of, “I can do this all my life!”

Teaching our kids the proper way, not out of forceful dictatorship but instead by being an example of love and kindness, will shape them into greats that will change the world. It is hard work to live a life of service when we are drawn to worldly distractions which have, over time, become habits, addictions, or worse. If we chase every shiny object and manipulate our feelings all day long, we may never find that sought-after dry land we so dream of setting our feet upon.

It is imperative upon each and every human to find their north star and start following it. Do not worry about the winds, waves, and storms that lead you off course, because on that clear night the star will shine bright. Keep your eyes up to the heavens even when they are blocked by clouds. Your kids will see it and they will emulate your path. Like the parent who comes home and goes straight to his kids and shoots some hoops, these kids will do the same, and theirs too for generations to come. Being a father is something a man will do for the rest of his life. Being a spouse is something we will be doing for the rest of our lives. So why not find the feeling that makes it all worthwhile?

This is exactly how every subject should be approached. Do you Daven every day? Every Shabbos? Then you are basically doing it all your life. Do it with meaning and with a true feeling of the heart. You go into a business. We may not know if this will last forever, but at the least we should approach it with the attitude we would have if it were something we cannot ever part from. This is the flavor of success. You are in the ice cream shop. Why choose a flavor you may not like? Go for the gold with the cherry on top! Teach yourself to be a Levi. Live for the service!

When we become men and want to understand Hashem, we must first read our family history and, even more importantly, our family’s intellectual and emotional history. We need to see that we are part of a family of a certain brain. Our behaviors are rooted in generational ways of life, based on our parents’ and grandparents’ ways. Much like a family business that travels through generations as long as the family secret is kept guarded and protected, so too is the makeup of the family structure.

Think about families like a computer. Each computer has physical hardware which is loaded with software. Even with limited knowledge in the information technology realm, we can see the basic concept of a computer is built from a root to a tree and branches. Turn on the hard drive, access the files, click on a folder, find another folder within, find the file, execute to the viewer, and tada! There are thousands of such paths throughout each system, each one stemming from the same root, branching their way through the screen by the click of your mouse.

On a deeper level we need more understanding of the processing power behind the operating system. Pathways of clicks that activate the fans, connectivity, storage, etc. These are programmed into the depths of the software and if everything goes well and runs upright there is no need for a mouse to click around in those areas. They run smoothly with no hitch. But what if something gets corrupted in the backend? We need a professional to access those locked vaults to read the patterns of those pathways, to determine where it went wrong, why it went wrong, and what can be done to prevent it from happening again.

This is how families work. We are rooted from a singular software. A father and mother who forged a family and taught their kids the ways of life. Each kid with their own life choices, mistakes, successes, and victories. They are all paths diverging from the main source code, all able to retrace their tracks to their original root, but still each child ends up down their allotted pathway.

We realize that our inherited tendencies are traced back for generations, which must be rooted all the way back to a certain Shevet who is connected to a certain Mazal and Koach. So in order to understand Hashem we must understand ourselves, our family history, and ultimately every Yid. We will come to learn His greatness by seeing the Mazalos that lead those families. We will learn the inner workings of each root and in that way get to know Hashem’s powers better.

When we learn how the skies are like big spiral windows with certain Mazalos being allowed to spread their influence at certain times as those windows pass through their position, we see how each person, family, community, and country flourishes at different times as their Mazal is allowed to pass through those windows. With this knowledge we learn how to spend our time better. In moments of strength we push forward and when we do not have the wind in our sails we regroup and get ready for the next big wind.

We attach ourselves to our Shevet and Mazal and to our fellow Shevatim and their Mazalos even when they are not dominant. We get to know the feelings and search for them like north stars on the ocean. We keep our heads up high and look for all of their Shefa in the world. We learn the inner workings of our computers, root out the viruses that have plagued us midway so that we can climb back up to the core and source of our existence. We bring ourselves straight back to the Creator of Heaven and earth.

In the middle of the Parshah we are blessed with the Birkat Kohanim. The Kohanim of Shevet Levi, those steeped in service, say to us, “He will raise His face to You and He will place upon you Peace!” Lifting our heads up to find feelings of truth realigns us to our core. Hashem Echad!

Shabbat Shalom

David Lemmer

LemmerHypnotherapy.com