Personal
On this page you will find articles that focus on those chance or passing moments in our personal lives that appear to be outwardly small but are significant nonetheless for their influence upon our mood, our feelings of connection with others, and our spiritual lives.
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Celebrating The Difference You’ve Made In Each Other’s Lives...
At times, we are messengers for each other. Like angels, who go about the task of
infusing the world with sacred meaning, each one of us has tried, in some way, to make
each relationship and encounter meaningful. We know that without each other, without our
synergy, we’d never have accomplished all that we did. Let us celebrate all the ways
that we nurture and support one another.
Meditation:
We have been, for each other, messengers, catalysts, conduits of energy. We have
created connections between heaven and earth. By making a difference in each other’s
lives, we have brought each other a step closer to being more complete. Whether we meant
to play this role or it just seemed to happen, we have been, for each other, angels:
messengers of divine purpose in the world. Only through each of our unique contributions
could we complete our works together.
Ritual:
When you reach the conclusion of a project, a class, a board meeting or a retreat, and
when the time to part has come for people who have been together, acknowledge the many
ways—known and unknown—that you have touched each other’s lives. Share
words that celebrate the contribution others have made to your life. Offer thanks for the
specific gifts you have received, beginning: "I thank you for…."
Blessing:
(When all the words of thanks have been shared.)
Barukh atah Adonai sholei’ach malakhim.
Blessed are You, eternal God, who dispatches angels.
Tzeitkhem l’shalom, malakhei hashalom, malakhei elyon.
May we depart in peace, messengers of the most High.
Teaching:
And all the Angels supported the weight of the heavenly work by joining one to another.
(V’khulam m’kablim prayer)
When the Torah students in Pumpeditha would part from each other, they
would say:
M’chayeh chaim yiten l’kha chaim arukim v’tovim um’tukanin.
May God, who gives life to the living, give you a life that is long, good and
harmonious.
(Babylonian Talmud:Yoma 71a)
Barukh atah shemekayam ritzonkha al yadeinu.
Blessed are You, eternal God, who fulfills your vision through our
hands.
(CLAL Faculty)
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