נשא (naso, lit. lift or bear, gen. understood as census in this context-Num. 4:23) their heads, bringing each individual forth, worthy of counting. The נשאים (nasim, lit. princes or leaders, from the same root-Num.4:34) are to lift up their communities.
Take care of your magic! Recounting of the holy schleppers containing and bounding permitted magic - potions, hair and fifteen words of wonder.
Be counted, by family of origin, community of intent. Fly your flag with other freaks, but honor your parents.
Redeemed inner firstborn becomes host of יי צבאות (God of Hosts, one of many traditional names of God), for our soul’s integrity. Replaced by inner Levite, dedicated to holy tasks.
Dialectics.
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Mixing כלאים (two kinds-Lev 19:19) so close but not the same. A bright line of natural law or a closed set of three? No to GMO or separate but equal?
שעתנז (shaatnez, two types of thread-Lev 19:19) add perplexity—surely cloth can’t breed?
Sometimes, the wrestling is the point.
תמה (Tumah, lit. ritually unavailable-Lev. 12:1) Liminality. On the way back from the meeting-place of our temporal world and the eternal; Moses on Mt. Sinai, coming down with God-burn.
Birthing, death, illness, orgasm: when the veil is paper-thin.
Your essence is too much right now.
Dashing blood on the alter for the first time. Thrill; awkwardness; weight. Fire issues forth.
Then, אש זרה (esh zara, lit. strange/foreign/outside fire-Ex. 10:1). Fire issues forth.
בקרבי אקדש (bikrovai ekadesh, lit. by those come near me, I will be made holy-Ex. 10:3) exhortation to right action; bad timing. Silence.
Don’t grieve your sons. The impossibility! The aplomb of Aaron.
תורת העלה (torat ha’olah, lit. the Instruction “Torah” of the ascent offering-Ex.6:2) to keep the fire burning, stoking when light is most fragile. An individual fulfillment of a collective mitzvah.
זבח השלמים (zevach hashlamim, lit. the slaughter-offering of shalom-Ex. 7:37) is for the generations.
Getting set, bringing Mishkan online, doing a preflight check for holiness.
Afterward, meditation retreat.
אדם כי–יכריב מכם (one who wants to bring near an offering/sacrifice from our self-Ex. 1:2), tenderly touches the head of our soul’s animal shadow.
תכריבו את–כרבנכם (bring-near [our] nearness-offering- Ex.1:2) in voluntary goings-up, when we give freely, or create שלם (shalom, i.e. peace or wholeness-Ex. 3:1). Hold to communal account (our leaders, ourselves) for stray behavior, disruption of communal wellbeing.
Like the ארן (ark-Ex. 37:1-2) and its linings (inside, out) make three, three Mishkan tellings make one. Plan, build, report; was, is, will be.
Form an עדה (eda, intentional community-Ex. 35:1) as many become one; make shabbes. Not individuals collected, but a unit(y).
ויהי המשכן אחד(So that the dwelling may become one piece-Ex. 36:13)
A ברית (brit, lit covenant, Ex. 34:10), human hewn, divinely written; partnership because God got that it couldn’t be handed down—people needed something to do with their hands.
Wonders אני עשה עמך (that we co-create, Ex. 34:10).
Moses, flush from spiritual retreat, beaming with much to share; slowly reintegrates.
