Rabbi Diana's Weekly Message

Dear Chevre,

Sometimes we feel weighed down by our responsibilities, overwhelmed by how much we have to do. No space exists between our thoughts which adds to the feeling of being weighted down, with no refreshing breeze able to enter.

In this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Ki Tissa, when Moses comes down the mountain and sees the Israelites dancing around the golden calf, he hurls the luchot, the stone tablets and they shatter. We often attribute Moses’ anger as a reason why the tablets are broken, a very human response. But there are also rabbinic and mystical teachings that explain that the only reason that Moses was able to bear the weight of the tablets in the first place was because the divinely-inscribed Hebrew letters lent an otherwordly quality of lightness. But when the letters themselves "saw" the idolatry, the letters, repulsed, flew off the tablets and suddenly Moses could no longer bear the weight of the heavy, stone tablets and (accidently) they fell from his grasp. [teachings transmitted by Dr.Eitan Fishbane: https://jewishquest.org/podcast/between-the-lines-21-ki-tisa/]

What do we need to do to assure that our materiality doesn’t weigh us down? How do we refresh our bodies, minds and souls, lightening and enlightening our experience, allowing a sense of meaning to return so that we don’t feel deadened or burdened? We all have ways whether through prayer, song, study, meditation, gardening, exercising, being with loved ones or more.

Shabbat is an invitation to infuse our bodies with rest and rejuvenation, moving away from some of the potentially ‘idolatrous’ patterns we may cling to – I can only speak for myself that staying away from news and social media for a full day truly restores me, or at least give me the opportunity to feel what is happening inside myself and to relate to others around me more freely.

Wishing everybody a peaceful Shabbat in which to taste some freedom - like the divine inscription on the tablets that were engraved, 'charut', which was read by the rabbis as 'cherut', or freedom. 

Lesley will be leading services at 7:00 pm both in person [with masks] and on Zoom at:

Kabbalat Shabbat 
 

Shabbat shalom, Gut Shabbes,

Rabbi Diana