Friday Night:Kabbalat Shabbat:Shiru Ladonai
From SiddurWiki
[edit] Happy or Sad?
How do we bring about tikun olam - repairing the world - one of the key responsibilities that a humanistic non-supernatural approach to Judaism comes to teach us? Many mainstreams interpretations of the Torah suggest it is through obeying proscriptive commandments and curses - "do this and you will receive rain, don't do this and oy va voy?"
Another approach would be through joy. Contained in this prayer are the words ישמחו השמים ותגל הארץ - "Yismichu HaShamayim, v'tegel ha'aretz" - "let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad." If you do what is right in the world, all creation will symbolically rejoice with you and you will feel personally and morally fulfilled. Isn't this a more positive motivation for doing what is right in the world?
Here's a link to Daphna Rosenberg and Yoel Sikes from the Nava Tehila congregation in Jerusalem performing a song around these words.
[edit] Not Just Intellectual
ישמחו השמים ותגל הארץ comes to teach us something else: Judaism is not just in the mind, it's also in the soul. More than exploring intellectual pursuits - studying Torah, excelling in school, all of which are certainly meritorious - Judaism s also about joy and, as we said in the previous section, embracing happiness.
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