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Chabad.org » Learning & Values » Weekly Torah (Parshah) » Shemot - Exodus » Bo » Parshah Columnists » Torah for Now » Reality is Perception
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Torah for Now
Reality is Perception


Moses is told "This renewal (of the moon) is the first of renewals (of the moons)." With these words, the Jewish people were given their calendar, one using lunar months but faithful to the seasonal cycle of the solar year.

Unlike the solar year, where nature undergoes fundamental changes throughout the cycle, the lunar cycle engenders little change upon the earth. The most substantial change is our perception of the moon—how much of it we, on earth, can see.

This tells us something powerful: Count, live, according to the moon, according to your perception as articulated in the Torah. What is ultimately important is not raw existence—but how we perceive it, how we use it, how we elevate it.

We can perceive the brightness of the moon—e.g. G‑d's presence and the potential for using the world for the positive things we are asked to do. We can also perceive the darkness—the negativity of relating to the world in ways we are not supposed to.

It is this perception that we choose; this perception is the true purpose and reality of the cosmos, far more real that anything that we might at first glance consider to be concrete and immutable.

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By Shlomo Yaffe   More articles...  |   RSS Listing of Newest Articles by this Author
Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe, a frequent contributor of articles and media to chabad.org, is Scholar-in-Residence to Chabad at Harvard, and Dean of the Institute of American and Talmudic Law in New York, NY. Rabbi Yaffe has lectured and led seminars throughout North America, as well as in Europe and South Africa.

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