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| Poet's Walk Park |
A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up.God designed us to get ready for the times in our life. Part of life is preparing for life itself. Spring planting prepares us for Summer growing. The fall harvest is to last us through the winter.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.
God gave us time itself. We need time to prepare the future, from our birth to the hereafter and everything in between.
Genesis 1:14 Let there be luminaries in the expanse of the heavens, to separate between the day and between the night, and they shall be for signs and for appointed seasons and for days and years.
To make the most of the time we are given, God gave us the sun to measure the day and the moon to track the months. The ability to measure time helps us to organize and order our life.
Every day is like a minature life. Every week has a beginning and an end. God gave us festivals and holidays to mark the months the even the years, such Tu Bishvat which begins this Sunday evening.
“man is a tree of the field” (Deuteronomy 20:19)
We are made in the image of The Creator. We create. So too do we rest.As we live our life, we fill it. Our soul is the vessel our life is collected in. The body holds the soul for the time we have, until the body's time is up and the soul moves on.
In life, when we pour out our soul, we are sharing the deepest and richest essense of who we are. And when we put our soul into something we are investing the deepest and richest essense of ourselves.
One of the amazing things about how God designed us is that when we put our soul into something the vessel is filled, rather than emptied. Love multiplies.
GOD GAVE US REST AND COMMANDED US TO OBSERVE IT.God gave us rest to observe time. Observance is the act of letting go of creation. It is a time to see and appreciate life and all God's gifts. Rest isn't simply the absence of work. It is much much more.
There is meaning in deliberate and conscious rest. Rest makes life richer. Our work is more fruitful because of our rest.
God gave us the morning to prepare for the evening. The busier our day, the greater our relaxation.
Rest is so precious that God gave us time to prepare for it. God created six days to prepare for one day of rest.The greater our preparation the richer is the reward. Such is the Sabbath. Such is life.
I heard that at night a tiny bit of our soul leaves our body to be restored. And in the morning, as we awaken and our nostrils take a breathe, we are restored. That is when we are best to say a morning prayer.
The Hebrew morning prayer is called the Modeh Ani. Here is that prayer Texas Style. (I think is a great song to use to teach a child about how precious each day is so they will make the most of it.)
Modeh Ani Lefanecha
Melech Chai Vekayom
Shehechezarta Bi Nishmati
Bechemla
Raba Emunatecha
I offer thanks to You,
living and eternal King,
for You have mercifully restored my soul within me;
Your faithfulness is great.
Each day we fill the vessel. On the Sabbath we get to appreciate life and get a taste of what is to come.
Before Shabbat we have a mystical prelude to Shabbat, Kabbalat Shabbat. Time to prepare for rest. Time to prepare to recieve the Shabbath - to enter Shabbat.
God gave us time to prepare for life. God gave us the Sabbath rest to prepare for time.
For whoever enters Gods rest
Also rests from his own work,
Just as God rested from his own.
Hebrew 9
We OBSERVE the Sabbath to observ rest, to observe time. TO HAVE PEACE
Shabbat Shalom.
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| L'Chaim |
P.S. This blog post was inspired by this week's Shabbas email message from Rabbi Yacov & Hindy Borenstein.
