Let us enter Shabbat

In order to enter Shabbat, Abraham Joshual Heschel recommends: 

We who want to enter the holiness of the day must first lay down the profanity of clattering commerce, of being yoked to toil. We must go away from the screech of dissonant days, from the nervousness and fury of acquisitiveness and the betrayal in embezzling our own lives. We must say farewell to manual work and learn to understand that the world has already been created and will survive without our help. Six days a week we wrestle with the world, wringing profit from the earth; on the Sabbath we especially care for the seed of eternity planted in the soul. The world has our hands, but our soul belongs to Someone Else. Six days a week we seek to dominate the world, on the seventh day we try to dominate the self.

Day 6 of the Omer

Yesod in Chesed - the bridge, or lens, or foundation, in compassion.

Yesod is where we start, a firm footing for our first step into exploring deeper meaning in our lives. It is the bridge to broad horizons from which we can see destinations and ideals.

In attempting to achieve kindness we must have a foot set on something solid as we extend our hand in assistance. Let us find our footing as the first part of reaching out to help.

Knowing something of our destination eases any journey, and traveling towards compassion still asks us to move in the direction of another.

Firm footing on all our journeys and countings!

Spirituality starts with reasonable theology

At the core of my spiritual journey is a theology that is open enough to allow exploration and admit mystery, and reasonable enough to allow my brain to include it.

I am not too sure about the existence of the divine much less the nature of the infinite.

I am confident that there is mystery in the universe and that existence is a miraculous gift. I like to think they're connected and that may be my leap of faith.

The most amazing miracle around is the evolution of life and its diversity. That's worthy of crafting practices of appreciation.

Thanks to Rabbi Arthur Green for his theologies, especially Radical Judaism: