Shabbat Shalom with a Heart Healthy Dose of Torah-Va-y’chi

As we bring the book of Genesis to a close, we also end our secular year. The stories of creation should help us appreciate that which our daily news strives to obscure. We are one people sharing one heart … equally sharing this one heart. The end of the book horrifically resembles the end of this year. We are exiled and at war with each other.

My commentary is simple this week. I pray for access to Eden. I’m not speaking of the Eden of ignorance. Rather that place where we are in synch with each other and with the earth; the Eden before we knew weaponry or abuse; the Eden before we forced God into the narrow boxes of fear based fundamentalism. As we turn to the new book, we will begin our journey across the wilderness. The goal of this journey is the new Eden; a land where milk and honey flow freely; a land where we can sit under our vines and fig trees with each other and not afraid of each other. “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” You and I can change the madness that is, into Eden. Engage someone new today. Stretch your boundaries to include the ability to experience the miracles each of us has to share. This is our last Shabbat of 2015 … make it memorable. Shabbat Shalom!