BS’D
By the time Friday arrives, many of us are carrying more than groceries and preparations. We’re carrying expectations.
Conversations we wish had gone differently. Goals we didn’t reach. Words we wish we hadn’t spoken.
This week, before Shabbat enters, imagine placing all of that gently into Hashem’s hands. Not because those things don’t matter. But because your worth has never depended on your perfection.
The prophet Hoshea calls to us, “שׁוּבָה יִשְׂרָאֵל עַד ה׳ אֱלֹקֶיךָ (Shuvah Yisrael ad Hashem Elokecha)” — “Return, O Israel, to Hashem your God” (Hoshea 14:2). He doesn’t say, “Return once you’ve become perfect.”
He simply says, “Return.”
Shabbat has a beautiful way of reminding us that love precedes achievement. Before we accomplish another thing, Hashem invites us simply to be with Him. Perhaps that is the deepest rest of all. Not merely resting from our work. Resting from the exhausting belief that we must earn the love that Hashem has been giving us all along.
May this Shabbat wrap your home in peace, quiet your striving, and allow you to rest in the endless love of the One who never stops calling you home.
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The deepest peace is found when we stop trying to deserve Hashem’s love and simply receive it with gratitude.
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