Every week we are given the gift of Shabbat. It is not a religious practice or a pious observance; Shabbat is a window in the cosmos that slides into place each Friday at sunset. Early in my Kabbalistic studies, I became very religious; I took the teaching literally & applied them as strictly in my life as possible. I quickly realized I couldn't keep up with the rules; guilt and shame would slowly kick take over. This fundamentalist behavior stems from my pentecostal & reform Christian upbringing. When I was younger, I thought I could stump my Kabbalah teacher with a tricky question. "How do we know if we truly celebrate the original cosmic Shabbat? How do we know that the Friday on our calendar aligns with the cosmic "Friday" of the cosmos? What if we have been celebrating Shabbat on the wrong day all these centuries? How do we know!?" She smiled with warm patience and gave me an answer that changed my life. "If a person were to get lost in the desert and not know what day it is, they should count seven days from the moment they realized they had lost track, and the seventh day would be dedicated to Shabbat," I remember the feeling of my fundamental walls crumbling to the ground. In one simple explanation, she opened my consciousness to the fact that Shabbat is not a day or a time - it's a consciousness that exists because of us, humanity. Without human consciousness, there is no Shabbat; without human consciousness, this world remains unanimated. Shabbat is not a time of the week that we get to reset, rest, or connect to a god. Shabbat is a space created and activated by the collective consciousness of the people who are aware of it. The energy that Shabbat draws down is an energy that is left dormant without the recipient (us). It is not a dinner, a celebration, a family gathering, or a weekly prayer - it's a consciousness. Tonight as the sun sets, the cosmic window of Shabbat swings open, not because that's what the Torah says, but because we, with our consciousness, open that window, and if you ever get lost and you don't know what day it is just count seven days, and that window will appear. #shabbatshalom