As Jews the world over begin the Book of Leviticus this week we move from the story of our liberation to the details of worship and becoming a community focused on holiness.

What does all of that mean to us?

Jews today follow in the traditions of the last two thousand years that take the offering system of the priesthood and turn it into an all-access system of prayer. Before, we approached the divine through offerings, which in Hebrew share the root for “coming near to”, and now we do that through prayer. Before we needed an official worship class, the priesthood, now all of us can do it individually and communally.

The progress of Judaism is from greater hierarchy to less, from an ambassador to the divine in the form of the priest, to our own individual agency - we are responsible each and every one of us for our own connections to mystery and the infinite.

Today I will aim to meditate and go for a run and in those ways find my deepening experience of and connection to greater meaning.

Shabbat Shalom everyone!