January 17, 2014
By bethmordecai
no comments.
Dear Hevreh,
According to the Shulkhan Arukh (25:5) one of the boxes of t’fillin is placed on our arm to correspond to our heart (because the arm is parallel to the heart), and the other is placed on our head to correspond to our mind. The reason for placing the t’fillin in accordance with our heart and mind is because our soul is bound up in the desires and thoughts emanating from our heart and mind, and as such we are trying to instruct in our soul through the passages contained within the t’fillin that our purpose as human beings is to serve God.
Most days of the week we need these “signs” (otot) to remind us of God’s presence in our lives, but during days like Shabbat — when we have a chance to rest and pray as a community — that those reminders don’t need to be placed upon us because we are immersed in a collective and communal experience of being within God’s presence.
This Shabbat let us experience God’s presence through the joys of our heart during tonight’s Friday night service as consider what it means to experience a personal revelation of God; or through the teaching of the mind like tomorrow’s Family Shabbat and tomorrow evening’s Adult Night of Study.
Whether it’s through our minds or our hearts, we can find God’s presence on our lives. At times we may need reminders, but on Shabbat all we need is each other.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Ari Saks
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