Let us, for a moment,<\/p>\n
Play by the rules<\/p>\n
& regulations:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We eat nightmarishly and sleep<\/p>\n
Dreamlessly; we laugh out loud<\/p>\n
And cry silently; we climb upward<\/p>\n
And sometimes fall down; we work<\/p>\n
For the future and, at times say, in the<\/p>\n
Future we will work; we go through the<\/p>\n
Routines and the routines go through us;<\/p>\n
We make different changes, changes make us<\/p>\n
Different, and differences are seen either as a<\/p>\n
Uniqueness to be embraced or a weirdness to<\/p>\n
Be embarrassed<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There are many laws and bylaws (some inevitable,<\/p>\n
Built into the DNA structure that is nature; others<\/p>\n
Adopted by man, either as a fad, fashion or statement \u2013<\/p>\n
Or even a triangulation: a faddy fashion statement) and<\/p>\n
With these does the physical world, the world we see with<\/p>\n
Our eyes and know with our bodies, revolve and evolve.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
No body lives beyond these rules \u2013 either we walk, run, or<\/p>\n
Fly, either we jump, skip, or fall, either we believe, understand<\/p>\n
Or deny\u2026but no matter what our persuasion, we all live by<\/p>\n
(At least some of) the rules.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We, as creatures with the necessity of invention, have always<\/p>\n
Tried reaching beyond the rules, beyond the norm, beyond the<\/p>\n
Ordinary into the<\/p>\n
Extraordinary<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And these are the ordinances
\n<\/i><\/p>\n
That you shall place before them<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Following the revelation at Mount Sinai<\/p>\n
When the holiness of above reached for<\/p>\n
The mediocrity of below, when the<\/p>\n
Brilliance of heaven embraced the dullness<\/p>\n
Of earth, when the simplicities of every<\/p>\n
Day life were infused with the profundities<\/p>\n
Of the eternal, everlasting pulse that is the<\/p>\n
Divine<\/p>\n
The question arises: it is one thing for heaven<\/p>\n
To reach below and make everything profound \u2013<\/p>\n
After all, heaven can pretty much do anything;<\/p>\n
But how can we, human beings of flesh and blood,<\/p>\n
Ever take the profound and make it simple, take<\/p>\n
Heaven and make it a part of our earthy, breathy,<\/p>\n
Downtown existence\u2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And these are the ordinances<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As the pen waxed poetic above, the body lives<\/p>\n
By rules; the body does what it wants, yes, but<\/p>\n
Within the gilded framework of life and living.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But the soul, how does the soul live, what does<\/p>\n
The soul want \u2013 if the body wishes to eat, drink<\/p>\n
And be merry does the soul wish it any less?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And now, post Sinai, when the gaps are bridged,<\/p>\n
G-d says, here, these are the laws that will allow<\/p>\n
You to reach beyond any limitation \u2013 the rules &<\/p>\n
Regulations of the body make you ordinary but<\/p>\n
The rules & regulations of the soul, now those<\/p>\n
Allow for something extra\u2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That you shall place before them<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
How, you ask? Because these mitzvahs are not<\/p>\n
Imposed upon us but a part of us, placed before<\/p>\n
Us, within us, our essence one with the acts, our<\/p>\n
Acts one with the essence\u2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One can follow a law, play by the rules<\/p>\n
Without actually becoming them; one can<\/p>\n
Do a mitzvah with the hand and not with the<\/p>\n
Heart, one can light a candle with the fingers<\/p>\n
And not with the mind \u2013 but the ultimate is when<\/p>\n
The profound, the mitzvah, is integrated not only<\/p>\n
In the minimum necessary but throughout the whole<\/p>\n
Being, when the most profound becomes one with the<\/p>\n
Most simple.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is then that the ordinary truly does become extra-<\/p>\n
Ordinary<\/p>\n