Shabbat is a gift. Sometimes it’s hard to accept that this time of rest and renewal is truly for us, and we turn it aside as if we’re over-modest children, too self-conscious to take a compliment at face value.

Sometimes, though, it’s easy to accept the gift of the world’s beauty. It is a beauty that not only exists independently of any of our labors, but one that can be experienced fully only when we free our hands of workweek burdens and allow our minds to drink in broader horizons.

“The heaven and the earth were finished, and all their array.” (Genesis 2:1, NJPS)

#BlogElul, the brainchild of Rabbi Phyllis Sommer, invites participants to chronicle the month leading up to the Jewish High Holy Days through blog posts, photos, and other social media expressions.