Malkie and I leave Israel tonight, G-d willing, after 10 incredible days here. As I think about the trip, and our return home, it strikes me that 'reflections' is a particularly appropriate word to use as a title for some thoughts.
To reflect means to show, to cast back, an image received; which is an important concept in Jewish thinking.
When we pray every morning, we try to connect with our higher selves; we try to visualize the people who G-d created us each to be.
When I pray, I need to retreat from life's fracture and envision the 'possible me', my soul in its full expression. In the quietness of prayer, I want to find my inner G-dliness, my internal 'sun'.
Most of us don't sit in meditation all day, and it's difficult to stay fully aligned with our best selves when life is throwing its curveballs. At the same time, we CAN each be a moon, reflecting our souls in our choices and behaviors.
The Talmud tells us that one reason we follow a lunar calendar (as the Torah instructs in this week's Torah portion) is that we need to emulate the moon. We aspire to alignment with the Divine, with our souls, so that our external behaviors - our reflections to the outside world - show a full moon.
At the same time, if we find our reflection waning, even disappearing, we don't despair; we recognize that is just the harbinger of rebirth. Every month, with the birth of the new moon, the night sky goes dark. But only temporarily. Soon enough,the moon is 'reborn' and begins once again to wax large.
Our personal moon cycles - our waxing and waning - aren't fixed in nature like the moon in the sky. We have a tendency to fluctuate, with brighter moments and not-so-bright moments, but we also have the ability to 'manually' re-align our moons.
Every morning, and whenever we can during during the day, we can take a moment to bring our outer selves into sync with our higher selves. To reflect - once again - our inner sun.
So, whether it's me and the sun of my Israel lessons, or its you and the sun of your own awareness of great you can be, it's always a time for reflection.
Light up the night.
ב"ה