Illuminating the Darkness

Imagine the last time you were in complete darkness.

Even if you closed your eyes right now, you would still see lights and shadows. Transport yourself into pure darkness. Perhaps deep in a cave in the mountains after you turn off your flashlight. Maybe out camping on a moonless night under the black expanse of sky. Maybe even on an adventure miles beneath the ocean’s surface. Imagine the kind of darkness where you hold your hand in front of your eyes and sense something is there, but your eyes can only see a black void.

In some ways, the hustle and bustle of our lives is like living in complete and utter darkness. We are so busy from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep, that our days pass in a blur as if we were living in complete darkness, unable the blessings before us. 

How many days have you forgot to look up at the sky in awe? How many days have you forgot to tell someone you love them? How many days have you forgot to pause in gratitude for the food you are about to eat or the clean water you’re about to drink?

When our schedules get clogged, we rush through our daily routine oddly eager for it to end. Yet our tradition has a millennia-old antidote: Shabbat. 

In a week of darkness, Shabbat is the pair of candles that regularly illuminate our world and enable us to look up at the sky, tell our loved ones that we love them, and give gratitude for all we have.

Our tradition teaches that, “A little bit of light dispels a lot of darkness.” Though we only have Shabbat once a week, its light carries us through the week until we light the candles again. When we find a way to shamor v'zachor, to keep and remember Shabbat regularly, the light from our Shabbos candles never leaves us and we will never go forth in complete darkness.

Blessed are you, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the universe, who hallows us with mitzvot, commanding us to kindle the light of Shabbat.

Baruch atah adonai,
eloheinu melech haolam,
asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav,
v'tzivanu l'hadlik ner shel Shabbat.

Shabbat Shalom!

Delivered at Temple Sinai of Roslyn on 7/28/2017