Bechukotai
Shalom Aleichem.
What gives our lives meaning and purpose? Do you get up in the morning and look at your day planner – electronic or handwritten or printed? Do you look at today’s appointments within the larger context of the week – or even a month? Do you make grocery lists?
Or, do you wake up in the morning and say que sera, que sera?
I don’t know about you, but my life is a series of lists and schedules, in order to meet the commitments I have made to students, congregants, my mother’s appointments, medical appointments, meetings with prospective brides and meetings with Board members. Rare is the day that is blank on any of my multiple calendars!
Shavuot
June 4, 2019 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk Tags: shavuot •
Shalom Aleichem.
In Tales of Hasidim, by Martin Buber there is a teaching I thought I would like to consider this week: The Rabbi of Kotzk was asked: “Why is Shavuot called ‘the time the Torah was given’ rather than the time we received the Torah?” He answered: “The giving took place on one day, but the receiving takes place at all times.”
Shavuot has many symbols – one I particularly love is of Torah as the Ketubah between Am Yisroel and God. AKetubah, as we will learn next week, is an essential element of a Jewish wedding – a covenant of obligation, a brit. I often say to couples I am meeting, “Remember you are getting married, not wedding’ed.” Just as Torah was given on one day (the wedding), receiving Torah is like being married – hopefully as the Rabbi suggested, in an everyday blessing.
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