Dear all,
Have you ever had a full on conversation – then realized that you weren’t really paying attention? Your mind was on something else? It’s not that you didn’t care – it’s just that there were competing influences.
It’s one of the brilliant things about the four Shofar blasts:
Tekiah – one simple blast
Shevarim – three broken blasts
Teruah – nine staccato blasts
Tekiah g’dolah – one long blast
It’s kind of like having multiple alarms in the morning. If one doesn’t stir us, another will. Just as the Prophet, Isaiah, reminds us, “Awake! Awake!, the Holy Days shake us from our routine and open the door toward harnessing life.
May this season call us to attention. May we focus on goodness. May we be mindful of our words. And may we embrace this
moment in time to listen, really listen, to those who need us.
Ron joins me in wishing you and all you love a year of peace.
With love and shalom!
Rabbi Zach Shapiro
A change in perspective can shift the focus of our day – and even our lives. We have an opportunity to harness “a moment in time,” allowing our souls to be both grounded and lifted. This blog shows how the simplest of daily experiences can become the most meaningful of life’s blessings. All it takes is a moment in time.
Rabbi Zach Shapiro is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Akiba of Culver City, a Reform Jewish Congregation in California. He earned his B.A. in Spanish from Colby College in 1992, and his M.A.H.L. from HUC-JIR in 1996. He was ordained from HUC-JIR – Cincinnati, in 1997. He was appointed to the HUC-JIR Board of Governors in 2018.
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