Mishpatim

A post from inside the tent! Yes, it is nighttime and it is cold! Here is what I have in here with me: a head lamp, the laptop, a mug of coffee, some chocolate covered raisins, "Rabbi Nachman's Stories" translated by Aryeh Kaplan, and my secret weapon: two nalgene bottles filled with hot water. This was something I learned in a winter camping workshop I took a few years ago. You think, there is no heat in my tent . . . but you have a water bottle . . . and water . . . and a stove--voila! you fill your water bottle with boiling water and tuck it into the bottom of your sleeping bag.

I was going to go on about this winter camping workshop and tell the story of how I came to really understand hypothermia by getting hypothermia. As I get ready to return to work, I'm trying to integrate my breast cancer experience in the same way. This sort of reminds me of this week's Torah portion, Mishpatim.

This portion contains one of my absolutely favorite lines in the Torah. It is about Moses, Aaron, Nadav, Avihu, and seventy elders of Israel. They all go up on the mountain. They all see G-d. Now in last week's portion, the Israelites were instructed not to even touch the mountain, because getting too close to G-d might kill them. But in this case, all of these people saw G-d and remained alive. Thus my favorite line: "They saw God, and ate and drank."

I'm feeling a little like that now. Getting a little too close to the mystery for comfort . . . then putting on the coffeepot in the morning and having breakfast :-)