A Soulful Journey

"May the works of my hands become points of blessing in the upper worlds. May my planting and tending this earth add blessing and abundance to this world, and may the prayers woven by this work arouse the spiritual sap that will nourish these plantings, to make the flow of love and blessing flow over them, so that they grow and bloom, for good and for blessing, for good life and for peace. May what grows in this earth and in our hearts add to the ripening of the fruit of “the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden.” May the whole of Creation return to its original strength, and may all the sparks scattered by our wrong deeds return to be included in the majestic might of the Tree of Life, alongside all the sparks gathered and made whole by our good and loving deeds in this world."  - Rabbi David Seidenberg

Agnon, in his book The Days of Awe, shares a teaching from Rabbi Tzvi Hakohen of Rymanov about this. The rabbi was asked, if both Yom Kippur and the Sabbath itself are called "shabbat shabbaton", how is Yom Kippur more special? And he answered, the seventh day is called "shabbat shabbaton l’adonai" – a sabbath of sabbaths for God. Yom Kippur is called "shabbat shabbaton lakhem" – a sabbath of sabbaths for all of you. On Yom Kippur we don't just reach toward the divine realm, we draw it into ourselves. Rabbi David Seidenberg   -Rabbi David  Seidenberg

  R. Chana b. Bizna said: Eliezer (Abraham’s servant) asked Shem  (Noah’s son), “What was it like for you [in the ark]?” He replied, “We  had so much trouble in the ark. The animals which usually feed by day  we fed by day, and those which normally feed at night we fed by night. But my father didn’t know what was the food of the chameleon. One day  he was sitting and cutting up a pomegranate, when a worm dropped out  of it, which [the chameleon] ate. From then on he mashed up bran for him, and when it became wormy, he ate it ... As for the phoenix, my  father discovered it lying in the hold of the ark. “Don’t you require  food?” he asked. “I saw that you were busy,” he replied, “so I said to  myself, I won’t trouble you.” “May it be [God’s] will that you should  never perish,” he exclaimed. Talmud Sanhedrin 108b trans. David Seidenberg