On Different Things

It was my turn to do drop off at dance class this morning. I unloaded the child, his various materials and my own and, coffee in one hand, iPad under arm, child with backpack full of shoes in the other arm, went to cross the street to the studio entrance.

At that same moment, an older Jew carrying a worn, red tallis bag crossed our path on his way to synagogue. We stopped to let him pass and, as our eyes locked, I nodded and wished him a Shabbat Shalom (a good Sabbath). He nodded back and returned the greeting.

I looked at what he was carrying and then down to my load. I turned back and said, “it means different things to different people, I suppose.”

He paused, considering the moment we were in, and simply said “it’s like in Parshas Breishit (the first portion of the Book of Genesis AKA this week’s Torah portion), God created many different things.” I smiled and simply replied “amen” and we went our separate ways.

This is the deepest spiritual experience I have had in multiple decades.

Shabbat Shalom.