8.16.25 ~ How to Grow Rich

Good morning!

Have you ever wondered how God would use the 'broken past to become wealthy'? In last night's study of this week's Torah portion, Eikev, Moses recounts the dramatic tale of how, following the Revelation at Sinai, God carved out/pasal Two Tablets, engraved them with His finger, the Holy Spirit (Matt. 12:28; Lk. 11:20), and presented them to Moses on Mt. Sinai. When Moses descended the mountain, however, he observed that the Israelites had created a Golden Calf as an idol. Moses seized the Tablets and smashed them before their eyes into little pieces/pesoles (Ex. 32).

After his intercessory prayer, God instructs Moses to carve out/pasal a second pair of tablets, to replace the first broken ones.

At that time, the Lord said to me, "Hew/pasal for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to Me onto the mountain and. make for yourself/lecha an ark/aron/coffin (Deut. 10:1)

You may recall from our studies in Genesis that the term lecha/for yourself is about the process of becoming aware of who you are becoming (Gen. 12:1; 22:2). Here we see that God wants Moses to make an ark, a coffin', to place the broken pieces of His past. 

Moses was allowed to keep the valuable sapphire chips/pasole. And because he was able to hold onto his past in a 'coffin', Moses became a very rich man.  When God told him to hew/pasal two new stones, at the same time He was being told that the valuable, broken pieces of waste/pasole shall be yours.  Now within Moses' dwelling was an amazing sapphire mine...he's rich! 

Getting rich off of breaking God's covenant tablets? Huh? What's Moses going to do with all that 'wealth'. There's no Facebook marketplace. No Amazon. No Neiman Marcus. And definitely no convenient stores for a quick trip to pick up some artificial munchies.

It was 3,400 years ago when this event took place, but the lessons are as priceless as a 'box of sapphire gems'. There we were at the foot of Mt. Sinai. There we heard the voice of God. There we said, whatever you say, we will do. It was at that Pentecost, so many years ago, that we entered into the marriage covenant (Jer. 31:31,32). It was here that our lives would never be the same. We got a taste of heaven on earth (Ex. 19-24)!

Yet, even that was just a mere shadow, the "pasoles" of the true essence of God.  The  Torah is our opportunity to touch the Most High in His essence, to reach beyond all our limitations and unite with God. It's in this shadow, of His reality,  that we are given instructions on how to have stability, meaning, purpose, consistency, focus, inspiration, discipline, depth, passion, family, faith, conviction, love, and much more. The Torah allows me to go beyond all of existence and touch the Creator Himself!

Back to our story :-)

The second Tablets were much different from the first. As the Torah relates, the first Tablets were created by God Himself, while the second were carved out/pasal by a man.  And once they were hewn out, it was only then that God wrote the identical covenant terms on them (Deut. 10:2)

And I will write on the tables the words that were on the first tables which you broke, and you shall put them in an ark/coffin. (Deut. 10:2)

Initially, at Mt. Sinai, the Israelites were heavenly, pristine, and a set apart nation, holy and capable of receiving Heavenly Tablets, crafted in Heavenly sapphire (Ex. 24:9-12). After they tasted sin and endured spiritual failure, through the golden calf incident, they could only receive the second set of Tablets, which were man-made; inferior in physical quality to the first; yet pristine in the message.

Similarly, in the process of failure, rehabilitation and restoration/tikkun, we are able to confront our darkness, weakness, and vulnerability. We are no longer a clean slate of heaven; instead, we have lots and lots of "pesoles," refuse, sediments, and filth to deal with.. The question that enquiring minds want to know is: How will I deal with my 'pesoles'? Put them on a mantle for display or into a coffin?

It is from the "chips" of the original, God-made. Tablets that Moses acquired his greatest wealth. The first Tablets had no "chips," no refuse and waste. Heaven doesn't live out the pain of failure, the filth of promiscuity, the misery of anxiety, the abyss of addiction. On the flipside, the second set of tablets, which came as a result of that which was broken, represents our confrontation with addiction, shame, and deception and their dispensary into the coffin we make for ourselves/lecha. 

As with Moses, our wealth comes from the light and truth that is generated when we confront our darkness and we transform it into light. When we gaze at our "chips" and turn them into Divine Tablets. It is from the confrontation with our inner gravel and trauma that we discover our profoundest richness and our deepest truths. It is when we can look at our tendency to depression, despair, capitulating to our self-drive, and use it as a springboard for awareness, that we grow to discover an inner wealth not available in the heavenly, pure and holy first Tablets; given by God himself to pure and innocent people...ahh, the memories of the Garden!

As we journey on this road of becoming who God has called us to be, lech lecha, we must never run from our inner pasole, and from the pasole we see in others. Like Moses, our truest wealth will come when we discover and extract the sparks/lapid hidden in the "chips" of life, and out of this will come the greatest love (Lk. 7:47).

Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. (Lk. 7:47)

Shabbat shalom! and happy 28th day of counting towards 
the first fruit of the oil!
Alan

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