Every Day, and then the Rest

I took a long walk this morning on the moshav. It’s very hilly so I sat down on an outcropping of rocks to rest and do a little thinking. It’s always a good exercise, to think. The name of the moshav where I am living is Kesalon. It gets a mention in the book of Joshua.

The allotment for the tribe of Judah, clan by clan, extended down to the territory of Edom, to the Desert of Zin in the extreme south….then it ran up the Valley of Ben Hinnon along the southern slope of the Jebusite city (that is, Jerusalem)…..then it curved westward from Baalah to Mount Seir, ran along the northern slope of Mount Jearim (that is, Kesalon), continued down to Beth Shemesh and crossed to Timnah.

How important it is to have boundaries. As I sat, I tried to imagine the hillside as it must have been during the days, of Joshua and the tribe of Judah. In one sense they were isolated and protected by the terrain. They could carry on with their lives, planting and picking, laughing and praying following the commands of God sustained by the fact that they had land of their own in which to cultivate and call home. A place to live.

The tribe of Judah had a place, and in that place they could relax and enjoy the Sabbath rest. In fact, today in Israel, the country, the Jewish people rest, that is it's a day set apart from all of the other days. It's a way of living and not a choice. Hard to explain. I think that this is what God had in mind for us all.

Each Friday before Shabbat begins I will post a reflection of a theological sort. They all will be under the title, Every Day, and then the Rest. Meaning....my blog will be a travelogue and then a reflection.