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Mia Sherwood Landau: Posted on Friday, May 24, 2013 3:46 PM
I absolutely LOVED this quote from Rabbi Yosef B. Friedman in an email from The Kehot Publication Society this week. It speaks to my soul in such a deep way, and reminds me of a song I wrote years ago about being a lamp stand. We are all lamp stands, really, and life is all about the light we reflect around us:
"Speak
to Aaron and say to him: 'When you kindle the lamps, be sure to place
the wicks in these spouts so the seven lamps shine toward the central
shaft of the candelabrum.' " (Chumash Bamidbar 8:2)
When you kindle the lamps: This phrase can be read to mean "When you ascend with the lamps."
In the book of Proverbs, King Solomon compares the G-d's
commandments to an oil lamp: "For a commandment is a lamp." The
lamp-apparatus comprises several parts: the vessel, the oil, the wick,
and the flame. Nonetheless, the essence and purpose of the lamp is not
its physical apparatus but the light that shines from it."
These are the opening words and hidden meanings in our weekly Torah portion, and they are special to me.
And here are a few additional words from LChaimWeekly.org, also from an email this week:
"The commandment to kindle the menora is symbolic of every Jew's obligation to involve himself with others and exert a positive influence on everyone with whom he comes in contact. All of us are commanded to ignite the Divine spark in our fellow Jews and light up our surroundings."
Let's all do it with our Shabbos candles tonight - let's exert a positive influence in the world by igniting light in our surroundings.
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Mia Sherwood Landau: Posted on Friday, May 10, 2013 7:00 PM
"Kabbalah teaches a version of the Relativity Factor. The
idea is that the perspective of a person is dependent upon whether he is
looking up or looking down.
When people are looking beyond themselves to
something that is more or greater than they are right now, they feel themselves
to be small, and that what waits for them is very big.
Whereas, if they are
looking at something that is smaller than they are, then they feel themselves
to be very big."
We always have a choice, an opportunity to ourselves and to see others in perspective. The only way I know how to do that is to ask God for help. I ask God to show me other people, situations and myself the way he sees me.
And Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Siegelbaum, always my weekly inspiration with her Women At The Crossroads: A Woman's Perspective on the Weekly Torah Portion, adds to my personal lessons this Shabbos Bamidbar, when she writes:
"Thus, we affirm our belief that rather than competing for importance and power, the energy we receive from the Divine source must be circulated equally among us."
She is talking about the arrangement of the tribes around the Mishkan, as well as the social hierarchies we find ourselves immersed in today. Keeping in mind that we are here with the continual challenge to see things the way they really are, meaning the way God sees them, we can stand back and pray for an attitude adjustment to our perspective when necessary.
I must say, that opportunity presents itself to me MANY times every day!
"Midbar can be defined as wilderness or desert; the word bamidbar means “in the Wilderness”,
teaching us that if we wish the Torah to impact on us and elevate us,
we have to make ourselves like a desert. Even as a desert is barren, so
too must we divest ourselves of all pre-conceived notions and allow the
Torah to re-shape us. Even as in a desert there are no diversions, so we cannot allow anyone or anything to distract us from our Torah study." |
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Mia Sherwood Landau: Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2013 3:13 PM
One of my teachers, Chana Bracha Siegelbaum, posts this week about the mikdash (sanctuary) in our hearts, a fitting study for the Torah portion this week, Terumah.
Her post is called
"Making a Sanctuary in our Heart
We know that all the mitzvot of the Torah are eternal, but how is it possible to fulfill the mitzvah of building the mikdash
today? A person is like a mini-cosmos. Therefore, the command “make me a
sanctuary” implies that we all are charged to perpetually make a
sanctuary in our heart, in order to prepare a place for the Divine
presence to dwell. When G*d dwells in the heart and soul of every one of
us, the continuation of the verse: “that I may dwell among them” is
fulfilled."
Although I try to remember everyday, the day I remember my responsibility to be a sanctuary is usually Shabbos. On weekdays I know that there is a flame burning in my heart, but on Shabbos it becomes my primary activity to remember and uphold the sacred space I occupy.
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