Close your eyes and listen to your breath.
You are walking on a path in a beautiful meadow.
You are walking on a path in a beautiful meadow.
You see, in the middle of a field, that there is a small windowless building
You slowly walk around this building.
Feel the wall as you walk around the building. It pulses with energy.
Feel the wall as you walk around the building. It pulses with energy.
When you come to the fourth side of the building, you find the door. Open the door into an empty room.
There is no obvious source of light, but it is a bright room.
Go in. You see a table
There is something on the table
It is a gift.
A gift of love from God.
What is it?
You will try to come up with the perfect idea, but what was the first thing you thought of when you heard the words, a gift of love from God. That’s the gift.
Pick up the object, this thing or being, this gift of love.
The object has something written on it.
There is a message for you.
Read the message.
The object turns into something else. What does it turn into? Your first thought.
If you had to explain this object to someone else, what would you say?
Throw the transformed object into the air. It disappears.
You don’t know what to do next.
Walk around the empty room. Perhaps it stays empty.
Perhaps there are other objects in the room. Make note of them but leave them alone. They are other kinds of gifts. They are for some other time.
Find the door, go outside back to the meadow.
Arthur Green writes in his interpretation of the Se-fat Emet’s commentary on Tzav,
We long for a perfect act of worship, one in which there is no distraction, no doubt, no holding back, no wandering of the mind, nothing but the pure gift of love. But we miss the point. Our worship is all about struggle, an ongoing inner process of transformation
And when you are ready, open your eyes.