This week, from Israel, and the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City to be precise, as we begin to consider our ancestors’ earthly portal to the heavens, in our cycle of scriptures starting to read the ritual manual of the ancient Temple, the book of Leviticus – in Hebrew, Vayikra – “Then the Eternal One called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting” (Leviticus 1:1) – which Rashi, (Rabbi Shelomo Yitzchaki, 1040-1105, the essential commentator, who digests the ancient legacy of Midrash into concise notes upon the verses) calls “parlance of endearment,” language that invites the sharing of a closeness, as with the ministering angels, who, in the vision of Isaiah, as it were in God’s own throne-room, “called one to the other saying, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Eternal One of Legions, the whole earth is full of God’s glory” (Isaiah 6:3), my own gloss is to photograph and share with you a view that speaks to me in such terms of endearment and nearness – with the wish and prayer that you find your own points of entry, and invitations to come in:
