Eris

A new Covid variant is spreading.

So in addition to everything else that is happening now (Ukraine war, Judicial reform debate, U.S. polarization, Iranian threat, anxiousness re China, inflation, Canadian wildfires, etc.) there is Covid variant Eris.

It is now Saturday night. On Friday evening, something amazing happened. The world with all its urgent issues and news items stopped. Vanished. Didn’t exist. As soon as Shabbat entered, everything else disappeared.

It happens every Friday evening, but it’s still no less amazing. Once the work stopped, and the computer and iphone closed, the worries ceased, and I became myself.

This feeling continued the entire Shabbat. I was at peace with myself, with the world, with the words of Torah and prayer, with relaxed conversation. And with G-d.

Then, Saturday night, I opened the computer to look at the news, and I saw that Eris is spreading, and other disturbing events happened. I looked at my email, and phoned someone to discuss it. I was back in a busy world.

Herman Wouk, in his book ‘This is My G-d,’ writes that Friday afternoon, the theatrical production that he was working on was about to collapse, but he had to go home for Shabbat. When he came back Saturday night, it was, miraculously, still intact. His producer once told him, that the only thing he envies him is his Shabbat.

Shabbat is a holy day. And when Shabbat ends, and we enter the work week, we bring the holiness into the mundane, so that we are able to eievate and transform the mundane.

Eris is spreading. But Shabbat reinforces our peace of mind, and trust in G-d. Because G-d created the world in six days, and on the seventh day, He rested, and He instructed us to also rest. We then instill within ourselves the holiness of the day, and the strong feeling that G-d, Who creates everything, is conducting everything by Divine Providence.

So that as we reenter the world, we feel assured that everything that happens, is happening for a purpose, a purpose that sometimes only G-d knows. And that it is all part of a Divine plan, leading to Redemption, which is referred to as ‘a day that is completely Shabbat.’

Eris is speading. And G-d, in His wisdom, is leading the world to a time of Shabbat, when we will all appreciate everything that G-d has done, and when the whole world will know Him, and “we will all serve Him together with one shoulder.” (Tzephaniah 3; 9)