I need a BREAK!!!!

She’s so tired. No, it’s not just physical exhaustion. If it were only that we could tell her to lie down, take a nap. She’s mentally tired, emotionally tired. She’s spiritually tired. She asks, “There is such a thing?”

Of course there is.

It’s not that she wants to run. Maybe at times she feels like she wants to run away, but deep down she knows that’s not the case. Really she loves her life. She just needs a bit of a break. A bit of a change.

She fantasizes about taking a trip.

Could she?

Why not?

She fantasizes about spending a few days by the sea or is the fantasy a lone walk in the desert or climbing a mountain top? She dreams about a day at a spa or ride on a train to….nowhere, anywhere. Just away by herself with her thoughts.

She needs a break from the routine. A break from her work and all that goes along with it. Whether the work is in here or out there.

She needs a rest. She needs to replenish. She asks herself,

“Am I allowed? Is it okay, to think this way? To have this want?” She feels guilty.

And the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them: When you come to the land that I am giving you, the land shall rest a Sabbath to the Lord. You may sow your field for six years, and for six years you may prune your vineyard, and gather in its produce, but in the seventh year, the land shall have a complete rest a Sabbath to the Lord; you shall not sow your field, nor shall you prune your vineyard. You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest, and you shall not pick the grapes you had set aside [for yourself], [for] it shall be a year of rest for the land (Vayikra 25:1-5).

Even the land needs a break, so why can’t she?

And if she does it Let’s say she goes and leaves them for a few days, for a couple of hours. She takes time even to do…nothing! How will it all get done? How will they pay the bills? How will dinner be made? What will happen to…and who will take care of…?

And if you should say, "What will we eat in the seventh year? We will not sow, and we will not gather in our produce!" [Know then, that] I will command My blessing for you in the sixth year, and it will yield produce for three years. And you will sow in the eighth year, while [still] eating from the old crops until the ninth year; until the arrival of its crop, you will eat the old [crop] (ibid 25:20-22).

The biggest test at times in life is the test not of doing, but of resting. The test of having faith and accepting with humility that if you don’t do it, it will still get done (and maybe it won’t, but either way you are actually not in control).

You see the goal is not the break. The break is actually the means to reach the goal and the way we receive the blessing.

Shabbat Shalom,

With blessings,

Elana