Exodus1verse8's Blog

March 22, 2010 / 7 Nisan 5770

One-Shelf-A-Day-Until-Passover-Preparation-Log
A.K.A. The Dayenu Log

D-log Motto:  Okay, that’s enough for today.

Today: Monday, March 22, 2010
7 Nisan 5770
I cleaned the cavernous pantry shelf under the counter between the oven and the sink.  I made a good dinner and used up the lasagne noodles.

Stress Relief Tip:
Whenever I volunteer to lead the preliminary morning prayer service I focus on the words of Nishmat so I can relax.:

“And were our mouths oceans of song, our tongues alive with exultation like the waters’ waves, our lips filled full of praises like the heaven’s dome, our eyes lit up like sun and moon, our hands spread out like eagle’s wings, our feet as light as those of the gazelle  — we would never have sufficient praise for you, Abundant One, our God, God of our ancestors, nor could we bless your name enough for even one small measure of the thousands upon thousands of the times of goodness, when you acted for our ancestors and us.”
[English translation, p.236 Kol Haneshamah, c. 1994 by The Reconstructionist Press, Wyncote, PA.]

These words from the Nishmat prayer remind me that it’s not about chanting perfectly; it’s about being an instrument for worship.  Cleaning for Passover can also be understood as a sacred act that can never be perfected; we can only move toward a sense of holiness beyond imagination.

I rejoiced when they said to me,
“We are going to the House of the LORD.”‘
- Psalms 122.1

Quote from Symbolism and Jewish Faith, pp. 82-3, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays Abraham Joshua Heschel, Edited by Susannah Heschel, c. 1996 by Sylvia Heschel, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York. -

“The fundamental insight that God is not and cannot be localized in a thing [9] was emphatically expressed at the very moment in which it could have been most easily forgotten, at the inauguration of the Temple in Jerusalem.  At that moment Solomon exclaims:
But will God in very truth dwell on earth?  Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have built!
- I Kings 8:27
God manifests Himself in events rather than in things, and these events can never be captured or localized in things.”

[footnote] [9] The Sabbath, Its Meaning to Modern Man (New York, 1951), pp. 4 ff.; “Space, Time, and Reality,” “Judaism,” I, 3, July 1952, pp. 268 ff.

Spring Lookout News:
Robins and a thunderstorm parted the grass.

Hard Core Treatments for Relief from Oppressive Cleaning Issues:
I heard a conversation on the radio today, and marveled at the similarities between Muslim and Jewish rituals for washing and preparing the dead for burial.  You can hear it at

http://www.npr.org

See under –
Religion
A Personal Look At A Muslim Funeral Ritual
Tell Me More
Mar 22, 2010
Reshma Memon Yaqub on the Islamic custom of washing the deceased before burial.
[It is a 07:25 minute audio clip from the radio program "Tell Me More" that was broadcast on NPR radio.]

Go and Study:
Here’s a Jewish perspective of the same duty; this is a very good account of doing the mitzvah of tahara for the first time. You can read it at the Velveteen Rabbi blog.:
“Facing Impermanence” by Rachel Barenblat

http://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2005/04/facing_imperman.html

B’shalom,
Amy Brookman
——