Double Mitzvah – Pekudei

Written by Anonymous. For more Jewrotica writing by Anonymous, check out And Adam Knew Eve, Leah-Our Mother, and Illusion: Shame and Mirrors.

Check out last week’s column, Double Mitzvah – Vayakhel.

Reckoning what excites us sensually and sexually allows our bodies to be the sacred temples they are designed to be and brings ecstatic electricity to our relationships.

Birthday, by Marc Chagall

Pekudei, the title and theme of this week’s Torah portion, means reckoning. The reckoning and the calculating of and for the donated gold and silver used for the art and construction of the Mishkan or tabernacle, as well as the needed items of wood, wool, linen, copper mirrors, dyes, tools and incense in order to create this traveling temple, a vessel to hold the divine feminine sparks or Shechinah. Pekudei not only marks the end of the second book of the five Books of Moses, but also the completion of a five part parsha discussion on the collecting of these materials, the building with these materials and the activation of these materials. Since every word in the Torah is sacred, no letter unnecessary, these five parashot of the Torah and their devotion to the importance and patience of the collecting, the building and the activating of the Mishkan teaches us about life.

The word reckoning may seem pungent. Coarse. Harsh. Reckoning my losses. Taking stock of what I need and what I have: ” I reckon I need one million dollars to be happy.” Reckoning when devoid of godliness is just that–emptiness. A great divide from the have and have-nots of life. A separation. In contrast in Pekudei, the needed gold and silver for the decorations, the copper mirrors for the wash basin, the turquoise, purple and scarlet wools for the priestly garments, the precious stones for the breast plate and the time and skill of the carpenters, wood carvers, embroiders and weavers were all reckoned and then offered up in holy work, patience and godliness for the creation of this sacred space and traveling temple of the Mishkan. What was different?

When we speak of godliness we can become triggered. “I do not believe in God,” we may say. ” I am not created in God’s image! I have this wrong with me and that!” Body image can impact our ability to see the miracle we are creating, the miracle we are. We also may reference the many uprisings, genocides and more happening right now in the world- “those people are definitely not created in the image of God,” we say. In fact we are right. The Hebrew b’ tzelem Elohim is in the present, we are creating the image of godliness. Every moment we have the ability to be in godliness or not. In mindfulness or not. In loving-compassion or not. This ability is our gift and our free will. We can tune into the radio station and play the music or we can leave the radio off. Either way the sound waves are still there. Pekudei takes this one step further, it is not just turning on the radio but tuning into the right frequency. You can have static or a poor connection or vibrant, radiating sound! The gold and silver donated could be just that, items of currency and money that are as Rashi writes, transitory. Or as in the case here, investments and instruments for godliness and the eternal. When we give and receive with mindfulness, we give and receive eternally. This is the difference. We break the cycle of consumption and addiction. We are fulfilled by the act of giving and receiving. We do not need more to feel full or whole or complete. We activate our gifts and are thus activated. We tune into the frequency of source energy.

When we interact with our bodies we too can make this interaction eternal. We can anoint ourselves with oils and fine wools, linens, incense, crystals and stones. The foods we eat to nourish our muscles, organs and souls, transforms from just being food to a vehicle for our daily passion and vitality. We go from being bodies to being holy vessels, to temples. Your body is your temple. Your body can be your Mishkan!

In Tantra Yoga the vitality of the body leads to passionate sex. The connection between partners and one’s self vibrates with ecstatic electricity. We too collect, build and activate.

As the Children of Israel prepared a vessel, a traveling temple for the divine feminine sparks or Shechinah to dwell, we too prepare our bodies to be that vessel and traveling temple for divinity to dwell. From this vitality everything becomes ecstatic. We tune-in and tune-up, we create godliness in the world and within our sexual acts, those that enjoy working at websites similar to watchmygf adult (https://www.watchmygf.adult/) understand the power of these sexual acts. We elevate the food we eat, the money we use and the orgasms we have with a partner or by our own hand. Orgasms remind us we are “connecting” to everything, we are everything and everything is us. We unite with the world and ourselves in the pleasure and the ecstasy of the orgasm. When in orgasm the mind, body and soul are united. There is no room during the elation of an orgasm to rationalize, be separate, judge or criticize. We are source energy. We tap into and become the “original orgasm.”

Journaling Exercise: Take a reckoning of your consumption habits: food, clothing, people. How do you collect things? Do you need them all? Are some things there to replace other things you really want instead, like stand-ins or substitutes? How do you create and build with these items and resources? Do they allow you to reach your larger goals or hinder you? How do you activate your highest self with these items? How do you activate yourself sensually and sexually? Ask yourself honestly: Where and how do I spend my money and my time?