Taking Everything a Little Less for Granted When the Moon blocks much of the Sun's light from reaching Earth - even for a few moments, we react with amazement and wonder. When the Moon passes into the Earth's shadow and turns from brilliant white to shimmering, coppery orange - and back again, in the course of a few hours, then we are filled with the awareness of the marvels of G-d's Creation. But the "trick" is to appreciate the Sun and the Moon - and all of G-d's world, all the time. Even when the Sun is doing what it does every day; even if as the Moon goes through its normal phases, night after night. That's how it should be. But we are human. We need the experience of an eclipse to help us take things a little less for granted. That's a main benefit of the rare and unusual - it helps us appreciate the mundane. It makes the word mundane a misnomer. On Yom Kippur, our fasting and prayers make us acutely aware of G-d's majesty and His Kingship. We become aware of our relationship with Him. We are the petitioners; He is the SOLEI'ACH UMOCHEIL, the Forgiver and the Pardoner. But however many times we symbolically tap our chest above our hearts in the course of Yom Kippur, no matter how many AL CHEITs we say, no matter how much T'shuva Yom Kippur inspires and elicits from us, Yom Kippur is just one day of the year. Add Rosh HaShana and the days between, and you get only 10 days. 10 special days. Yom Kippur - Shabbat Shabbaton. One day. What a day! But only one day. The "trick" is to realize that we ask for forgiveness in the Amida every single day. Three times a day. And we ask G-d to help us return to Him, to the Torah, to His service - every day of the year. And we acknowledge Him as our King in every bracha we say. We need to take things less for granted. [The Parshat Ha'azinu Homepage]
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