As we begin Torah anew with the Book of Genesis, this week’s daily kavanot have each focused on one of the five books. This is an invitation to stop, to reflect, and to get a taste of our most sacred text.
The Psalms of Kabbalat Shabbat, the songs and verses we sing to bring us into the Shabbat evening service, have a certain rhythm. Where one takes us through frustration—ours and God’s, the bewilderment and crankiness of the wilderness, the next one always begins anew: Shiru l’Adonai shir chadash—sing unto God a new song. I once heard a teaching that suggested it was a metaphor for our weeks—and our lives. That even if we come to Friday frustrated, or feeling the pressure of unfinished tasks, Shabbat is the opportunity to sing a new song.
The Book of Deuteronomy, the final book of the Torah, ends before the story does; we are left on the banks of the Jordan, gazing into—but not living in—the Promised Land. We can come to the end of Torah with unfinished tasks and unrealized hopes—and still sing a new song.
Shabbat Shalom.
— Rabbi Sari Laufer