Basking in Creation

By Alyssa Blumenthal
KOC Co-Editor Queens College

In Judaism, we are taught from our earliest Hebrew School days to appreciate God’s hand in all that is around us. We say blessings before snack and mealtime and thank God again afterwards with Birkat Hamazon, Grace after Meals. We thank God for sustaining us through the night upon waking and thank God again when we retire for bed.

We grow up learning that life is a cycle and that somehow, somewhere, we fit into the big picture of Creation. Somehow, somewhere in this great big world of mountains and oceans and valleys, we hold some small significance and have been granted the privilege of experiencing this magnificent world for a lifetime.

Last week, as I walked out from my advisor’s office and onto the Queens College quad, I was reminded of this opportunity and of this honor. It had been a rather dreary day, with a prospect of rain that never quite came to fruition, but as I resurfaced from the Honors Hall underground, I was met with a bright blue sky and a gentle autumn breeze and a friend with whom to admire the view. We shared our love for cloud watching and wondered at their speed and watched as the Manhattan skyline faded in and out of view. We spoke of green turning to yellow turning to red and falling, as all leaves must do, and hoped that the colors would be vibrant.

These are the moments when I am most reminded of God’s brilliance, and when Judaism becomes more than about Shabbat and kashrut and community building. These are the moments when I become most appreciative of the natural world around me, not just the manufactured one, and when I can see myself as a part of Creation, inextricably belonging to this world – the world of today and of tomorrow and of yesterday too – and connected to all that is around me.

Jewish tradition offers us a blessing for such a moment –

and I think this is a blessing which too few know and even fewer appreciate. And I know that in this fast-paced world, and especially in the college scene, it is often very difficult to take the time to appreciate the simple joys of nature, but it is only through doing so that we can understand, to the best of our abilities, the enormity of God’s work and the miracle of Creation.

[Posted 10/28/11]