Shabbat Meditation
The following is the meditation offered prior to yesterday's Shabbat services.
This morning although it was snowing, raining and sleeting the temperature was 30º. Compared to the beginning of the week’s -15º wind chill, I felt warm. It only takes a bitterly cold day, or few days, to appreciate and be thankful for an ordinary winter day.
That is Shabbat. When life feels cold it warms us. It offers us a day to draw in that extra breath, the neshamah yetirah, that additional soul granted to us on this day. We sing our songs, we offer our prayers, we gather as a community to gain perspective on the week. Our troubles and frustrations appear less bothersome, our difficulties and pains seem more manageable.
We emerge strengthened. Our perspective is restored.