Shabbos Chronicles: Part I: Qetura

Friday morning alarm clock
Grab apple, pack bag, fill water bottle, roll out.
Exit school and enter…….
Shabbos Mission Mode

Once you step into this alternative universe anything can happen and everything does. You throw yourself and all your faith completely into the hands of G*D, whose palms are always well moisturized and never sweaty. An adventure is guaranteed, replete with magical encounters with people who are generous with their proverbs and delicacies. And after a stream of seemingly random events (although it’s clearly ordained from above) BAM you are miraculously spit out at doorsteps of a home in an unexplored town right in the knick of time. Straighten the skirt, fluff the hair, clear throat and reach into bag for that bottle of wine you brought for dinner.
Knock knock knock
Shabbat Shalom!!!
Mission Complete

The concept of Shabbos in Israel incredibly engrained into the culture. Everyone you meet, even that woman standing in front of you in line at the post office, invites you to their home for Shabbos and it’s perfectly normal to call up a complete stranger and ask if you can come to them for a meal. It’s that exclusive party in the VIP room at the club and everyone has an invitation, whether they want one or not. Every schedule is based around it, every business runs according to it, families, friends, communities run on the fuel of Shabbos. It’s coming in, the purple sky, go greet her, its lovely to meet her, nothing is sweeter, the Shabbos bride never gets old. Eternally beautiful in her gown. Coming soon to your town ;)

As a student and explorer, Shabbos presents an ideal opportunity to travel the country and experience all the vibrant shades of Judaism. Thus far I have been to cities all over the country and taken a seat at every type of dinner table imaginable (I’ve seen some bizarre things). I regret that I didn’t start recording each Shabbos adventure earlier ……but its not to late to start.

The Shabbos Chronicles: Part I
Kibbutz Qetura

I was told to be at the bus station REALLY early because it always sells out and I definitely don’t want to be stuck standing for three hours in the aisle. Sure enough, despite my attempts at timeliness, the bus was sold out and the bus driver exercised his scope of authority and wouldn’t sell aisle tickets. If it was any other day of the week I would admit defeat and go home, but I was not about to give up hope, the weather forecast said cold and rainy in Jerusalem and although we desperately needed the rain, I wasn’t about to stick around for it. Plus, I had a once in a life-time invitation to visit a Kibbutz near Eilot (the eternally sunny south of Israel) nestled between the border of Jordan and the Judean Mountains.

The girl standing in front of me had her arms crossed, similarly huffing and puffing about the bus situation. I had to give it a try, “Sleecha, you wouldn’t happen to be going to Qetura”. She turned around and smiled mischievously, “Yes, trying to, but this bus driver is being a schmuck". After a two minute interrogation, Adina and I shook hands thereby creating an alliance and a mission statement: getting to Qetura before Shabbos. We grabbed our bags, left the bus station, jumped in a cab and took it to the furthest highway entrance in Jerusalem.

(Mom, dad, please close your eyes for this part) Tremping (hitchhiking) is a very normal thing in Israel. Everyone does it and dare I say, it’s very safe. Two reasons for the prevalence of hitchhiking in Israel are (a) owning a car in Israel is difficult since there is a 100% tax on all car purchases (b) everyone trusts each other. And so Adina and I stuck out our hand and prayed. Well actually, I prayed. Adina is an atheist. As we stood there waiting for a ride our life stories began unraveling. Adina, nice 18 year old girl doing her pre-army training was stationed at Qetura for the year. She grew up in a ‘religious home’, her father’s a Rabbi, and she is the rebel in the family. Adina, proudly scantily clad…it’s a novelty when you decide to take off the long skirt and replace it with a pair of skinny jeans, tells me how much more she loves life now that she has boyfriends, parties, drinks, and chills. She looks at me like I’m a religious freak (although I feel equally liberated in my life style choice) since I am wearing a skirt, that I can’t possibly understand where she’s coming from, so I just smiled to myself because she hasn't the slightest clue of where and how I ended up here.



Suddenly a car pulls up; a nice boy in a yarmulke asks where we are going. His travel route accommodates ours until the Dead Sea and we gladly accept the ride. Adina and I jumped in, leaving Jerusalem behind and beginning our descent to the Sea, the lowest and saltiest place on earth. As we drove away he turned the stereo up, Neil Young’s voice filled the car (G*d sent me a little message: it’s all good).

Four persimmons, Three hours, and two car rides later, Adina and I arrive at Qetura. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Here we are in the middle of the desert, surrounded by barren sandy grounds and huge mountains in the distance and smack in the middle of it is a patch of green life. It looks like an illusion, impossibility. Ben Gurion was not playing around when he proposed that we make the desert bloom!






Allow me to tell you more about the Kibbutz. http://www.ketura.org.il/. Qetura is one of the last Kibbutzim to remain in its communal socialist ideal. It was fascinating to experience the “kibbutznic” mentality, which is I own all of this but none of it is mine. Living in an intentional community is a beautiful concept; it seems very natural and healthy. Everyone has a sense of belonging and support. They all eat together in a cafeteria, work together, make decisions together, they share everything.

Qetura is incredibly successful in all they do, which is surprising since most of their endeavors are experimental. By attracting both dreamers and physicists to the Kibbutz, late night bonfires turn into discussion of changing the world and then the next day these ideas are taken to the lab. Although most of their projects are top secret and I can’t tell you , lets just say they are very committed to alterative energies. They have a half a dozen projects going on simultaneously. I wouldn’t be surprised if they beat everyone to the chase by finding a cost-effective alternative to oil first. Their homegrown solar company just received grants, positioning them as the primary energy provider for all surrounding Kibbutzim. They also have the largest algae factory in the world, an impressive dairy farm, and (their biggest source of income) over 3,000 fruiting date trees that produce the fattest, sweetest yummiest dates I have ever eaten.



Another big draw to the Kibbutz is the Arava Learning Institute with the motto “Nature knows no Boundaries” with a commitment to environmental leadership and coexistence. I was so impressed by the institution whose student body consists of Israelis and Palestinians working together to find solutions for problems that effect everyone in the region, such as water conservation through high-tech drip irrigation, creating insect and disease resistant strands of trees, and tackling other obstacles in the maintenance of large-scale agriculture in an arid desert.

Beyond the institution, Qetura works closely with its neighbors on a project called the Middle Eastern Regional Program, specializing in sustainable, organic desert agriculture. Qetura is the home base of the project and is successfully domesticating plants from all over the region for the first time. The plants have multiple functions and are being tested for medicinal, cosmetic, and desert rectifying properties. I was given a tour by my friend who worked on the farm this summer and was blown away.
Some of the plants (to name just a few) were:
Mesquite tree, responsible for the flavor in BBQ sauce and a good source of ethanol. The tree also sheds needles which turn the dry sandy desert ground into fertile soil, a pretty amazing feat.
Merula tree: the infamous tree from the African desert that creates a sweet fruit that ferments and gets the elephants drunk. The kibbutz actually manufacturers a Merula liquor.
Argania: a tree native to Morocco that yields a nut whose oil is used medicinally and cosmetically.
They also have olives, pomegranates, Judean wormwood, frankincense, mirth, capers, acacia, Indian almonds, Egyptian carobs, and a ton of other plants whose names escape me.

I had the incredible honor of sitting at the Shabbos table with Dr. Elaine Soloway, expert in desert agriculture and medicinal plants. She is pretty much responsible for most of the projects I mentioned above. Besides single handedly planting 2,000 of the date trees, founding the Middle Eastern Cooperative, teaching at the Arava Insitute, and raising 6 sons (I don’t know how mom’s do it!), Dr. Elaine’s claim to fame is that she sprouted a 2,000 year old extinct date seed found 40 years ago during excavations at Masada. There is a very good chance she will be able to repopulate this native date tree. The article can be found here: http://www.allbusiness.com/middle-east/israel/4050271-1.html. Her green thumb is miraculous, her desert garden testifies and the oldest seed to germinate puts her in the books. Besides that, she makes an exquisite mushroom pizza and is exceptionally hospitable.

Shabbos was amazing as usual, my friend and I went out into the middle of the Judean Mountains where nothing exists but the dirt and the sky. With nothing but blue clouds and sandy mountains into the infinite distance, it’s completely understandable why and how the revelation of G-d happens here.

I returned to Jerusalem on Sunday, sunburned and feeling optimistic about the future, the state of Israel and the world at large. As we headed north, the bus was redirected because all the wadis were filled by the torrential rains Jerusalem got over the weekend (B''H)

With all my Hearts

A little tribute to V-day....

Every day, twice a day, a person has the mitzvah of saying the ‘Shema’, the declaration of G-d’s Unity in this world. There are so many deep things to meditate on in this short but tremendously powerful prayer but I’ll start with something simple, beautiful, and completely relatable to anyone who struggles between the two inherent drives found within each of us, the part of us who wants to be a complete ascetic, sitting on a mountain connecting with holiness all the time and the other part of us who wants to eat cake, drink wine, and partake in physical pleasures found in this world (both equally credible expressions of love of life).

In the first sentence of the Shema we make the commitment to serve G-d with our ‘heart”. Fair enough, but after learning some Hebrew, I realized that the word heart was spelled funny…is it possible that every prayer book messed up, forgot to hit spellcheck? Of course not, we learn that every single word and its placement has significance. The word heart in Hebrew is “Lav” (I speculate that the word “love” is derived from it or maybe I am turning into the father from My Big Fat Greek Wedding who thinks everything is derived from the Hebrew language) but in the prayer, heart is spelled “Lavov” with two ‘v”s. So what’s really good with the two v’s…….

It is said that man is actually made of two hearts, two diametrically opposite forces: the animalistic soul and the G-dly soul. The biblical source for this is in the first chapter of Genesis in the creation of man, G-d literally picks up some dirt from the ground forms it into man and then he blows life into his nose. This description of creation perfectly demonstrates the innate duel composition of man. Dirt, which is so physical and grounded in this world and that of air, the intangible soul within us which is literally the breath of HaShem. Half of us is sooo deeply rooted in the physical, whats tangible, whats pleasurable, what earthly, what feels good, what looks good, what tastes good, what's graspable with our hands. The other component of us is so connected with the infinite, with G-d, with holiness, with meaning. Both sides are equally zealous in their pursuit and, as my Rabbi so delicately phrased it, aren't going to come to the table any time soon for peace talks.

So we must rely on the ultimate mediator (and their services are generally free): our intellect. Our intellect is meant to talk both of our souls into reaching a middle ground, into negotiating. The dialogue generally goes something like this:

Hey, G-dly soul, I know living in this world is painful because all you want to do is go back to the source and connect with G-d, but we weren’t put on this earth to escape it all day. You were clothed in a physical body for a reason, you have a mission in this world.

Hey Animal soul, I know it feels good to party all day, to indulge, to eat chocolate ice cream, smoke that joint, to chill with your friends, to make that money, to accumulate material things. But don't you think perhaps you have a deeper mission in this world? Don't you think you could take all that energy and passion and be slightly more productive?

Hey two souls, I bet you could both learn something from each other, you can learn how to live in the world and make it a meaningful experience, why don't you sign a peace treaty and start working together?

Ahh, the intellect, such a powerful tool if harnessed and honed.

And so when we pray, we pray with both our souls, both our hearts, in hopes of focusing them both to serve G-d and make meaningfull all we do, with Lavov not just the lav. With the G-dly soul and the animal soul, both equally essential.

Eating cake and sitting on a hill…both extremes can be negative, but we are meant to harness both energies, not drown one out. The Lubavitcher Rebbe refers to it all two kings trying to conquer a city, sometimes one is stronger and sometimes the other reigns freely. But the point it, it’s always a battle. Perhaps this is where the concept of checks and balances comes into play?

The ultimate goal of course is to take the G-dly soul and infuse it into the animalistic soul, live in this world and while elevating it with meaning and goodness.

Happy Birthday to trees

The other day was Tu'Bishvat, the birthday of the trees. It was a fun day since we got to play outside in the garden all day…although it wasn’t exactly playing, it was some strenuous work. Then, magically, it rained today!! It’s so nice that when we take the initiative, put in the work, the part that is humanly possible, G-d provides the rain.

There is such a beautiful analogy that man is a tree…roots into the ground, in this physical world, but reaching and growing towards heaven, living off sunlight and rain. Sounds like a perfect existence. Also, our actions and good deeds are like the fruits that trees give forth…I dig it…like I dug a bunch of holes to plant the new trees in our garden. We have decided to relandscape everything. One section is an herb and veggie garden, another section will be a private ourdoor classroom, the third section has roses and bushes that are pretty and my favorite section will be the rock garden. We have a ton of huge rocks and I want to build couches out of them (inspired by Ithaca’s 2nd Dam) with a fire pit in the middle for us to chill and sing around.

We’ve been really shaking and moving this place, getting involved in way too many things, but that’s just how I do. Me and an equally fanatic friend created a sustainability campaign at my school, purchasing the women mugs and plates so they don't use disposables and encouraging them to turn of lights and be conscientious about their paper towel usage. It sounds silly, but it seriously makes a big difference. In my opinion, respecting the planet is of equal importance to all the other major Torah commandments that people fervently run to do. It says in the Torah in Genesis “Guard the Earth” and so I shall do. The next phase will be based on water conservation since Israel is desperately running short.

At Mayanot, I also head the Rosh Chodesh (New Moon) Festivities, which is really special because the New Moon is a woman's holiday so I organize events that revolve around the incredibleness of women. I somehow also found myself involved in planning a festival in Zefat happening over Passover. It is a blessing over the sun festival which is a pretty tripped out event…it happens only once every 28 years. I will definitely be sending more information on it. This Sun Blessing is extraordinarily unique because only three times in history has it fallen on the 14th of Nisan (the day before Passover). Plus it’s a year after Shmita and a jovel year Plus the Mayan calendar is coming to its end Plus you can just feel it in the air, something is going down. Something crazy is about to happen. Can we just all get down on these vibes? My favorite part about the festival (besides having an all expense-paid month in my favorite town in Israel during Passover) is that the festivals other focus is on alternative solar energy.

It’s cool to sit back a see that without even trying, I have become affiliated with all that I am passionate about (playing outside, learning about life, celebrating women, blessing HaShem for all the endowments, saving the world, and basking in the sun). Sometimes we just need to sit back and let G-d show us the way versus forcing every door open with a jack….I tried that, it works but the results aren’t as gratifying.

I also wanted to add something about about the Bossi L'Gani (the theme of the previous blog entry) It’s rather good advice about love and since my room mate just got engaged, this will be in her merit. The line is “Come into my garden, my sister, my bride”. This quote is a beautiful lesson in love and relationships. It teaches that there are two important types of love that need to be present in our relationships. The love for a sister, this love is like water… constant, clear and full of endurance. The other is love for ones bride, this is fire, full of passion, fervor, excitement, and delightful. Both are equally important and must be present. And what happens when you put fire and water together…you get that extra special state of matter, vapor. Steamy……………

~Mazel Tov Devorah Malka and Aaron Lazor on your engagement. Pop those bottles~

Campaign Save the World (made on reclycled papers)
Copy by Jenna Domber and art by Chaya Laio


Devorah is going back to Australia to get married... leaving Miri and me to hold it down in room 71. Miri is awesome, besides her love of country music and being a libertarian, we have a lot in common, a shared passion for writing hip hop songs (she beat boxes and sings the R&B choruses) and staying up until 4:00 am trying to find G-d under our bed.

This is one of our gardens. We are going to paint a huge mural on the wall too.

Another Mayanot garden. I will send more pictures when things start to grow.

Pictures of Trip

Shabbos in Jerusalem, featuring fire and fruit

Strange looking tree I liked

Practising Hebrew Letter Movements in Sefad

Reflecting on the Dead Sea

Sunset over the Galilee at Kibbutz Ein Gev


The Kabbala cave we lived in during sojourn in Sefad



Masada, the mountain fortress we scaled at 5:30 in the morning, just in time for sunrise

Eating Shwarma, what dreams are made of

Beautiful Eutheopian Jew showing us how to break our neck Busta Rhyme Style

Posh Pina The first modern Jewish settlement in the Galilee
Symbolic, no?


Solider boy going home for Shabbos...armed with gun, groceries, and flowers


I love the way the sun sets on the Jerusalem stone

The market...nothing compares

Bossi L'Gani

Remember me? Sorry about the prolonged absence, it’s been a while, since Chanukah to be precise. Which was really fun in Israel, people get really ingenious with their menorahs and cupcake fillings. Much time has passed and much has happened. I had many visitors to Israel. First my sister, Rachel, was here, followed a week later by my mother who has never visited Israel before. We had a wild time and since I got a camera for Chanukah (thanks dad) pictures will be posted soon. Me and mom rented a car and traveled all over the country, experiencing everything from Shabbos overlooking the Wailing Wall, climbing Masada at sunrise, floating in the Dead Sea, eating a fish caught and grilled to order from the Jordan river, dancing with Euthopian Jews in Sfat, and finally hanging out with family in Tel Aviv. I don’t think we could have squeezed another bathroom break into the program.

Another reason I’ve held out in writing is because I was holding my breath with the country, as you probably have read about in every newspaper, 24 hour TV news station, facebook updates, and on the streets, Israel and Palestine were engaged in a war. Solidarity with all those engaged; the State of Israel and Palestinian civilians. Although I still have an impossibly hard time wrapping my head around conflict, I am in accordance with the way Israel reacted -- with strategic and deliberately aimed attacks on Hamas (whose own disregard for human life, to hide and fire rockets from schools, hospitals, and mosques) in order to protect Israel. I was really bothered by the coverage on the war internationally; the rhetoric was very misleading referring to Israel as occupying Gaza, colonial state, offensive action, disproportionate force. If only these statements were looked at in their true context. I have much to say on the topic, and urge anyone who has questions, comments, alternate views to engage me in more dialogue on the matter.
I don’t want to use this entire blog entry talking about the war in Gaza, mainly because I don’t believe I need to excuse or defend Israel for what occurred. Nevertheless, many lives were lost, may they rest in peace and may their families be comforted, and may the people find the strength to demand a government that will defend and protect their rights to a safe and comfortable life.

Despite all of this and all the other heart-wrenching news that fills our tubes across that world, I am still a firm believer that this world is good. That even though we may look around and see violence, poverty, hatred, atrocities, filth and we are tempted to think that this world has fallen to shit…or is on the fast track in that direction, I still believe that Peace and Love is not only the ultimate answer, but was the ultimate intention for this place.

Can I take a moment to reiterate that I absolutely love learning Torah!!! I have never experienced anything so incredibly challenging and pleasurable in my entire life. I feel like a child trying to make sense of the world, testing the laws of nature, seeing the consistency of everything I am learning and then BAM all the pieces fit. Every single little concept learnt plays out on every single microcosmic level from the most practical man-made business dealings spanning to the most transcendental spiritual plane, one idea governs it all. I feel as if I am tuning into the universal song and it’s an incredibly blissful experience.

The other day the author of the bestsellers “To Know G-d” and “Genesis and the Big Bang”, Gerald Schroder (http://www.geraldschroeder.com/age.html) came to give a lecture at Mayanot. I highly recommend his books which point out that nothing science says is contradictory to what the Torah explains, he even showed us that NASA’s definition of the Big Bang Theory and Nachmanidies’ (a mideval Kabbalists and Halachist) explanation are identical even in the wording…I didn’t know NASA was so deep! Mr Schroder told us, “If the G-d in this book doesn’t match the G-d we see and know in this world, then this is all nonsense and what are we doing here wasting our time”?

I wish I could capture the feeling one experiences when you learn a little bit of truth about the universe, when you can suddenly and consciously sync yourself up with G-d. Excuse me for being risqué, but the feeling of truly “knowing something” feels as good as the intimacy shared between man and woman. Biblically, the code word for having relations is “to know”…ie. Adam knew Eve. I always thought this was just a bad translation, but now I understand. To know something, to experience a spark of truth and that it resonates with your entire being, permeating your soul and heart…its cataclysmic, its ecstatic, it feels so damn good. And this is the headspace I’ve been in since arriving in Israel.

Again, that was another tangent that I didn’t mean to get into but I just had to tell you how I feel, and those who know me (not in the above defined way… but all my friends) know that I like to express my feelings. But to the point already..my objective for writing with Blog entry is to explain about the 10th Day of the month Shvat on the Jewish calendar. Which is a very special day around these parts. I am studying at a Chassidusha school and one thing Chassids are known for is that they love their Rebbe’s. Today is day of the passing of the previous Lebuvicher Rebbe (Of Blessed Memory) and the date that the most recent Rebbe, Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson (Of Blessed Memory), accepted the position of Rebbe and delivered his first mimar (I guess you can call it an acceptance speech). The name of his composition was Bossi L’Gani. For those of you who have been following my blog since the very beginning, you’ll get the utterly undeniable divine interplay here, the way G-d’s hand has weaved itself into the fine details of the fabric of my life. And so I wanted to talk about the speech, aptly title Bossi L’Gani (translation: I came into my garden).

(listen as you read to set the mood: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt2_uET0jhE&feature=PlayList&p=5F1190BEFC29AEA2&playnext=1&index=2)
The sentence “Bossi L’Gani” are quoted from King Solomon’s Shiur HaShiurim (Song of Songs) and in accordance with my above analogy about the intimacy between man and wife, the Song of Songs, which can be found in any Tanach, is perhaps the most explicit of the writings in the Jewish Tradition. On the surface, the text is about as graphic and risqué as a $5 naughty romance novel, but on a deeper level, it expresses the relationship intrinsic between man and G-d. The Rebbe took a line from Shiur HaShiurim “I came into my garden, my sister, my bride” and used it as his statement of purpose when accepting the position of Rebbe. His message was not only beautiful, but it was inspiring and empowering, charging us, the entire world, as the beloved generation with the mission of bringing G-d back into this world (perhaps Obama was taking notes?) .

The basis for the Rebbe’s mission statement, although extraordinarily spiritual and ambitious, is rooted in a principle found in the boring and practical technicalities discussed in Jewish law (Halacha). The laws of ownership and acquisition are thoroughly elucidated upon in the Gemara. According to Jewish Law, one way to acquire an object is to change it original form. For example, if I steal your purse and turn it into a belt, although I would still be guilty for stealing and legally would have to compensate you for the object, since I permanently altered the form of the purse into a belt, the object’s very essence is changed. This alteration caused the purse to loose its original status and relationship with the previous owner and therefore ownership changes hands. Did you follow that line of reasoning? The physical change the purse underwent resulted in a change of ownership because the essence of the object was irreversibly altered.

The Gemera continues the discussion on “changes”, another Rabbi comes along and points out a subtle technicality, Rav Pappa says, “Wait a minute. If someone steals earth from a neighbor and turns it into a brick, he does not acquire it because it can again become earth. But if he stole a brick and made it into earth, he does acquire it”. Rav Pappa points out that while in the first example, the change is reversible, in the latter example, although a new brick can be made from the earth, the original brick can never be restored “it has a new face”. This becomes a rule of thumb on the discussion of acquisition through “change”: If the change is reversible, then the original ownership is maintained.

Going back to the acceptance speech, Rebbe Schneerson takes the extremely practical laws on acquisition and applies it to a spiritual realm. The phrase “Bossi L’Gani” or “I came into My Garden” is a reference to G-d’s presence and the garden is a reference to the world, which may seem more like an untamed jungle rather than a garden at times. Since G-d created the world, He holds the deed, He’s the original owner. Since the phrase was worded “gani” (my garden) it is clearly denoting ownership.

Following the story of Creation in the Torah, G-d creates the world and the Garden of Eden with the intention that it would be a dwelling place for G-d, as Gensisis reads: “The divine presence rested in the garden”. Nevertheless, the ‘world’ has a will of its own; an existence separate from the Creator (the very nature of “creating” is to make something independent of the creator). So after G-d went and created the earth, the inhabitants “changed” the essence of the earth through a myriad of sins (I don’t particularly like the word ‘sin’ but I am using it to refer to an action that separates us from our connection with G-d), you know what I am talking about… the eating of the apple, brothers killing each other, etc etc until it appeared that worlds essence changed, the G-d no longer was hanging around. It seems as if the ownership of the world was taken from HaShem’s hands and the initial intention to be a creation of goodness was irreparably changed. At times, this is seemingly so, looking around it seems sometimes that G-d relinquished the ownership too. Violence, famine, hate, war, poverty, excessive materialism, unemployment all validate this assumption… So where is G-d?

And so the Rebbe, using the Halacha about ownership explains that Bossi L’Gani…He comes back to His Garden. He still owns this place and therefore the “change is reversible”. All we just have to return it to Him, because G-d is still owns this joint, and nothing has changed that can’t be fixed. The initial intention of this world, to make is a place where G-d’s presence can be seen and felt everywhere, still holds true. And so we mustn’t loose sight of what the world was created for.

After learning this, I understand the concept of “the coming of the Messiah” a lot better. The Messiah is an often discussed idea in Judaism and refers to a time (which could happen at any moment) in which This World, the very world we are living in now, reaches a state of perfection. And although is hard to imagine what a “state of perfection” would be, we learn from Bossi L’Gani, that perfection is merely to return the world to the place it was when it was created, a state of its initial intention: goodness, kindness, and peace.

And since we know our bodies are a microcosm for the world, let G-d into your garden, let Him reclaim it. We are all vessels of holiness. L’Chaim.