(12/20/15),

Reflection on Friday night’s White Out Shabbat with the theme of “Peacefulness”…

Dear Hevreh,

Peacefulness is not a state of being, it’s not a place in which we feel “at peace.” Rather peacefulness is a mentality, a willingness to put our minds, bodies, and souls in the right position to feel at peace. This doesn’t just happen. It’s not like there’s a simple breath meditation that will blow down the walls of anxiety that make us feel restless, full of worry, and concern. However through each breath meditation, each song we sing together, each conversation we have about trying to bring peace into our lives, the more likely we make peace possible. God is called oseh shalom, the maker of peace, but it is only through our efforts that peace can be made. We are the vessels through which the world within and the world around us can be at peace. Not a peace of compromise, but a shalom of shl’eimut, a peace of wholeness; the place in which we are who we we want to be. We don’t always get there, and in fact we may never fully get there. But we must try for that is the call that God placed in our hearts the day God created Shabbat. It is a day to make peace, to have peace, to strive for peace. It is a Shabbat of Shalom.

Kol Tuv,

Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Shabbat White Out Friday Night
Tag : peace shalom