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Writer's pictureElissa Felder

"Bow with Humility."


“When you enter the land that your Gd is giving you as a heritage, and you possess it and settle in it, you shall take some of every first fruit of the soil, which you harvest from the land that your Gd is giving you, put it in a basket and go to the place where your Gd will choose to establish the divine name……

You shall leave it before your Gd and bow low before your Gd.” Deut. 26:1:10:


Just as the farmer prostrated himself when bringing his first fruits,

we also bow to God in our daily prayers.

We bow with humility.

Bowing is a physical representation of not being in charge,

of recognizing the awesomeness of the divine.


On Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, we not only bow but

we also prostrate ourselves.

A full kneeling with our head lowered to the ground.

A complete acknowledgement of our subservience to our Creator.


It is a powerful, physical expression especially

since it is not one, we do regularly.

Its once-a-year quality feels both

comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time.

Our prostration, like our bowing, is our very tangible manifestation of

acknowledging God as the Source of everything.

We are showing that we are completely beholden to God.

And in that position, we feel both awe and endless gratitude.

I am grateful to God for my life.

Grateful to God for the capacity to give.

Grateful to God for love.

Grateful to God for children and grandchildren.

Grateful to God for good health.

Grateful to God for Shabbos.


All these gifts are from God and none of them are finished products-

they are given with the potential for us to add to them,

enhance them, individualize and manifest them.

We have a responsibility to use our gifts well.

To use them to make our lives meaningful by improving the world and

ourselves in our own unique way.


Thank you, God, for creating a world which we help to perfect.


Sending much love for a Shabbat shalom,

Elissa

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