After a week of tragedy and heartbreak in our own community, all of us could use a break. Watching the heroic leaders of Buffalo attend to the needs of so many is both overwhelming and inspirational. I am amazed at the human capacity to help and to heal. But it comes with costs as well.
Myles Carter, a local activist told NPR’s Up First: “You know, I’ve heard a mother cry before when she loses a child. But it’s not something that I’ve ever had to hear over and over and over and over again in one day. And it just – it really just got, like, deep into my soul.”
Perhaps it is not surprising, but our tradition, that spends a great deal of time on wanderings, places a large emphasis on rest. Rest is the antidote to constant movement. It allows our bodies and souls to recuperate and rebound. This week’s portion Behar adds to the already established weekly Shabbat, adding in the rest every seven years (Shmita) and after every fifty years (Jubilee). By instituting these enforced rest stops it is more likely people will actually take advantage of them. For as important as rest is to our health and wellbeing, we are not always the best at actually resting.
To a Shabbat of true rest for all of us,
Rabbi Alex