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Summer is an Opportunity

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Shabbat, July 15th,
Shabbat Ends 22:33
Torah Portion: Pinchas

Are you getting away this summer?

Taking some weekends off? Maybe a week or two abroad?

These months are commonly a time to slow things down a bit, or at least carve out more time for ‘self’ and family.

Each season has its own unique beat. As we move through the days, months and years, we need to pause and identify each season’s tempo, embrace its particular character and grow with it.
So, let’s think about summer: What is particularly striking about this season?

Obviously, summer is a time of increased light and warmth; we have longer daylight hours, and higher temperatures. In other words, summer is a time when the sun is in fuller glory and effect.

That’s summer in macro; but this also applies to each of us in micro.
In a way, we each have our own internal seasons. We each also have our own internal ‘sun, ’ the soul.

There are times when we go through an internal winter, when our moral vision and priorities don’t express their full light into our daily lives. There are times when conscience and values are in relative hibernation, when the spirit is cold, and moral growth seems a part of the distant past.

Then there’s summer. Summer is about letting my internal sun shine. Summer is about feeling my own internal capacity for spirituality and warmth, a capacity that might recede in the face of a hectic schedule.

So if I’m able to relax a bit from the everyday stresses and get away, then I need to use that opportunity to synchronize myself with nature; I need to create my own internal summer by increasing the light and warmth in my life.

We each have valuable relationships – with loved ones, with our community and with our G-d – and relationships need nurturing. So if you’re running on fewer cylinders this summer, and have some extra space in your brain and heart, those relationships could probably use some extra warmth.

You have an internal sun. Let it shine.

Shabbat Shalom and L’chaim.
Rabbi Yanky and Rivky Klein

This email is In Loving memory of my dear father
R’ Yerachmiel Binyamin Halevi ben R, Menachem Klein OBM