Shabbat shalom y’all.
This is the week we – the people, the children of Yisrael, the g-d wrestlers – have the decree handed down that we must wander 40 years, that the old parts of our selves must die and fall in the desert before we get to the promise. And we’re heading into a hard Jewish month, Tammuz. We’re heading into mourning, into the time of holy walls breached and shattered, into weeping.
It’s also the parsha for the commandment of challah and tzitzit, the laws that are everyday physical reminders of divinity. Those everyday practices, those small reminders bundled over and over, become what sustain us. More than the miracles, more than the mystical, more than even shame and punishment – they are what sustain us in times of trouble and heart ache.
What are your daily/weekly practices that sustain you? What are those things – beyond eating and basic body care – what do you do for yourself to find meaning and joy in the hard times? As someone who has few daily patterns, I’ve learned the power of doing the thing, the magic of repetition and cycle. And so I hope you have something in your life, some little focus, some point of daily joy. If you do, I hope you have some time to contemplate what it’s done for you, if change is needed, so that daily practice never becomes stale. If you don’t, I hope you think about what that could be, what will sustain you in this journey.
Much love to you, to yours, to this world were creating.
eish zarah 