ונתנך יהוה לראש ולא לזנב והיית רק למעלה ולא תהיה למטה כי תשמע אל מצות יהוה אלהיך אשר אנכי מצוך היום לשמר ולעשות
The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully
(Deut. 28:13)
On Rosh HaShanah there is a custom to put the head of a fish (some say a sheep) on the table
But nowhere is the head / tail explicitly referred to as that of a fish or a sheep
There's another head / tail at play here
The T'li of the Sefer Yetzirah -
"The Dragon in the Universe is like a King upon his throne"
The Dragon's head and the Dragon's tail
The North and South Lunar Nodes
The South Lunar Node (the tail of the dragon) is where you've been; the North Lunar Node (the head of the dragon) is where you're going in this life/gilgul/incarnation. You've already mastered all the South Node stuff; this time around it's your work/tikkun to master the North Node stuff.
Deut. 28:13 echos Genesis 12:1, G*d's command to Avraham in Lech Lecha:
Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you
ויאמר יהוה אל אברם לך לך מארצך וממולדתך ומבית אביך אל הארץ אשר אראך
The blessing to be the head and not the tail is a reminder that if you are stuck in the past, even past successes, you'll never go forward, and that listening to and doing the commandments of G*d is the fuel by which we power our journey towards our authentic selves, fulfilling our purpose in our lives. We're not to be comfortably ensconced as the Tail, we already know how to do that. Tikkun-wise, from the viewpoint of the purpose of each of our individual incarnations at this time, we're being blessed to be heading Head-first into our future.
May you be the head and not the tail this New Year of 5783!
