by Sofie Shefia Stephanie Cohen
We come to Shabbat after a week of voting for or against those representatives we elected to serve us. I would like to briefly offer a wider perspective for Shabbat and resting in unification and peace.
In the face of the current reality we are shown, of so much suffering, war, hate and polarization, it is easy to want to take sides, and to respond by pushing back, maligning or resisting against what we don’t want.
I’d like to suggest that instead, we surrender to our greater divine self, and open our spiritual heart, to become a clear channel for divine Love, to consciously harmonize with the expansive Love that we truly are.
This is a real energy that has the power to transform and liberate our future.
The same way our resistance is a real energy that actually adds to that which we don’t want.
Therefore we can use the power of our conscious choice to create the future we DO want.
Paraphrasing Buckminister Fuller, “resisting the old paradigm model only usurpes our energies and distracts our focus. In order to change a paradigm, rather than engaging and struggling with it, create a new paradigm, making the old one obsolete.
This is the higher service we are all called to.
This weeks Torah portion or perasha is named Vayera, meaning And He Appeared. It speaks of God appearing as three strangers.
In her book Torah Journeys, Rabbi Shefa Gold’s commentary teaches, if we are ready with open hearts to see God in the Stranger, those who are different, our openness is rewarded with abundant blessings.
The truth is that we all contain a spark of divinity, no matter how far some may seem from their light. Perhaps we think they are not worthy of our loving attention.
Yet in this regard there is no us and them, we are all one. And only Love can truly heal all the wounds of distorted mis-creations not based in Love.
As we focus on this wider perspective, it grows, creating opportunities for more light to expand, in all those who we are focusing on in this way.
On Shabbat it’s said we receive an “extra” soul. As Rabbi Brin shared Reb Zalmans interpretation and perhaps more accurately, it’s a super abundant overflowing of our soul!
This Shabbat lets pray and sing and share from our super abundant overflowing soul, with peace, Love and light in our hearts, for each other, for everyone, and for the whole world.