This Week’s Torah Portion: Naso I – I נָשֹׂא (Numbers 4:21-5:31)

We made it. Last night we began Shavuot and celebrated receiving Torah at Mt. Sinai. Imagine what it must have been like. The rabbis teach that the whole world received Torah as a song, a melody that rang through the bodies and beings of every living thing on this earth. Some heard thunder and saw lightning and became afraid. Some heard nothing– the sound was too much to bear, so they felt the loving embrace of the omnipresent Divine.

Last night we concluded our counting. I offer a prayer of conclusion as we move toward summer and hopefully a slower, more leisurely counting.

I have numbered my days and have come to understand that each day has become an invitation:

• Today: an invitation to become present
• The day before: an invitation to be reflective
• The day after: an invitation to become repentant
• Not today: an invitation to be discerning
• Tomorrow: an invitation to anticipate
• Yesterday: an invitation to remember
• Never again: an invitation to commit
• Someday: an invitation to dream
• Most days: an invitation to cultivate discipline
• Until the day of all days, the last day: an invitation into eternity

-Rabbi Karyn Kedar