(in honor of Kislev, the month that always hosts Parashat Vayetze, and with the blessing that Yaakov received)
There is a going out
That really stays inside.
The prayers of the field -
those that need speech,
the ears hear the words
Of the mouth.
From the ears -
To the heart, and above.
"Vayetze - lasuach basade"
There is a going out
Which has already received.
From the inner sanctum
Of the blessing.
When one has recieved
One's calling for life
One's blessing and task
To return to the world,
To expressions and
To quest.
'Vayehi ach yatzo yatza."
There is a going out
Which has no return
That moves only forward.
The exile towards redemption,
The dreams and the visions,
The discovery of love.
The awakening that is
The movement towards sleep-
Towards dreams, to the
New state of consciousness.
"Vayetze Yaakov"
G-d is with us in that
Exile-odus.
The going out is going in
And deeper -
to the places
Inside but beyond
Where dreams and reality,
Where hopes and experience,
Where the out and the in,
Where the moving and the standing -
Are One.
"Vehinei Hashem Nitzav Alav."
Rav Raz Hartman
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Rav Raz Hartman, born to Israeli parents, grew up in Southern California. He was attending U.S.C., majoring in Music Peformance, when he met Rav Natan Greenberg. That meeting eventually result in Raz's coming to the Bat Ayin Yeshiva, where he studied for six years and was given Semichah in 2003. He is married to Leah, and they live, with their three children, in Nachla'ot, Jerusalem. Raz serves as Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo, and founder of the v'Ani Tefillah minyan. He has produced several albums of Jewish music. |