Shabbat of all Shabbats
THE BIG IDEA
This shabbat brings us into our final approach for The Day of Atonement; the day the Creator of the Universe gave his ‘chosen people’ (the people tasked to uphold spiritual law in the world….like it or not) a gift of karmic cleansing for all unfulfilled spiritual obligations, and a chance to start over.
According to the Torah Omens (and Rabbi Steinsaltz z’l) this Shabbat (called the ‘Shabbat of Return’) is a highly favorable time to to return to the time before time, to the time before you had to deal with your body, before you had to deal with the problems and stresses of this world, before you had skin or the ability to sin.
Practice softening your attachment to this world (of suffering) and reconnecting with the Source of creation itself, so that this Sunday night, on Yom Kippur, the Shabbat of all Shabbats, you fully can access the holy potential of the day.
Yom Kippur is the only 25 hour period of the year we are told to completely surrender; to let go of our personal will, goals and desires. To take off our shoes, wash off our makeup, abstain from food, water, and sex — and let the absolute truth of the mystery penetrate us completely.
In ancient times the spiritual cleansing process involved a high priest (that just lost two sons to a holy fire) casting lots over two identical goats, offering one as a sacrifice to the Creator (in place of earned negative karma) and sending the other out into the wilderness (Azalzel). The bizarre and seemingly random fate of these goats carried a powerful symbolic resonance — a reminder of the mysterious fate of our own lives, and the deeply unknowable ways of the Creator.
Today, without a high priest or a temple to make offerings on our behalf, the ‘chosen’ must cleanse ourselves.
So take the advise of the Masters of Spiritual Alignment—- use the remaining time between Rosh Hashanna and Yom Kippur to adjust your actions; confess your misdeeds, apologize and forgive, pray for the life you really really really want, and give charity. Enter shabbat with the goal of deep inner reconnection to Source and then, on Yom Kippur, to the best of your ability, plant your bare feet directly on this living planet — and submit FULLY to knowing how clueless we all are, and receive the deep gift of absolute renewal.
Enter this new year believing in the power to receive a total and utter fresh start.
MORE READING…
This torascope is based on the teaching of the Sod Yesharim as given over by my teacher SY Schneider. To go deeper, or gain more context, definitely check it out!