Ahavat Olam

By Miriam Beit-Aharon
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

There are many places in Judaism that include nature and prayer, but I think the most powerful one is also the most common. It applies to all of us, no matter how much we like or dislike hiking. I would like to share a simple story that I think will show one possible view of the relationship between nature and our traditions.

Many years ago, when I was young and had seen little of the world, I would walk to pray on Shabbat with my parents. I was home-schooled then by my mother, but did not often get to see my father as he was working long hours. On our walks together, my father would explain the rules of Shabbat. Being a child, I would want to pick flowers and maybe pull out grass when we would sit down to let me rest for a while. When my father saw me reaching for a flower he stopped me, saying that we only look at them or smell their sweet scent on that day. I stopped and thought about the plants I saw every week after that as I went with him to shul, and realized that the Torah has no real timeline and that even though it focuses on human beings, all of creation has just as much value in its own way. It is the peace of noting something beautiful. Shabbat is the time when we are supposed to stop, look around, and emulate what God did after creating. Vayar Elohim ki tov. And God saw that it was good.

Whenever you find yourself wondering where your life will take you, and worrying about getting homework done so badly that you are at the edge of your seat for havdalah, the culmination of Shabbat, look outside. Remember that you have today to appreciate what you see.

Miriam Beit-Aharon is an Earth Systems major at University of Massachusetts Amherst having transferred this fall from SUNY Stony Brook University, where she was studying Marine Science. She is hoping to see you all at the KOACH Kallah this year.

[Posted 10/28/11]