As I rise from the bed in the morning,
I place my bare feet on the floor and I walk towards the sink.
As I walk,
I feel the floor beneath me.
I feel the parts of my feet as they rest or land on the floor as I each step towards the sink.
I'm taken to another place,
To another time,
When a kohin,
A Jewish priest,
Would serve in the temple,
The Beit HaMiktash.
Each morning,
One kohin was chosen to perform the very first service of the day.
The first thing he must do is to purify his hands and feet.
So he would go out from the room of the kohanim,
The priest.
It was still dark out.
He'd walk out into the darkness,
His bare feet landing step after step on the cold stone floor.
The deep silence of the pre-dawn hours,
The darkness and only light being the low glow still coming from the altar and the smell of the coals from the previous day.
The remaining priests would sit and wonder how far had he gotten until they'd hear the sound of the water coming from the laver,
Or the kior in Hebrew,
Which the priest was using to purify or wash his hands and feet.
With that,
The priest begins a full day of service of the divine.
I reach the sink and I fill a cup of water.
The traditional way of washing our hands in the morning is to pour on the right hand,
The left hand,
Back to the right hand,
Back to the left hand,
And one final time to the right hand and the left hand.
I feel the water pour over my hands and as they continue to drip down into the sink before I dry them,
I recite the blessing.
Baruch atah Hashem,
Blessed are you,
My master.
Elokeinu medekha ulam,
My God,
The creator of the universe.
Ashir kadeshanu b'mitzvotav,
That sanctified us through His commandments.
B'tzivanu,
And commanded us,
Aln'tilat yadaim,
On the washing of the hands.
There's another meaning of the wordn'tilah besides washing,
And that's to raise up,
Because in washing our hands in this way,
We're raising them up.
Our hands are our main tool for connecting with this world.
Through them we reach out to items that are beyond our body to give and to receive.
Like the priests,
The kohanim of the temple,
Everything that we do throughout the day with the proper intent,
The proper introspection,
Everything can be a service of the divine.
When we go on to make lunch,
Sandwiches for the children,
To get them dressed and send them off to school,
To go to work,
To greet people throughout the day,
Everything has the potential for spirituality.
It all depends on our own view on how we relate to them,
And it all starts with washing our hands.
There's another time throughout the day when we wash our hands in this ritual manner,
And that's before eating a meal or any taste of bread.
One of the most mundane things in the world is eating.
Every animal knows that in order to survive,
It must eat.
It's part of our nature.
And so it may seem to be the least spiritual,
But in fact,
The things that are the most mundane have the most potential for spirituality.
Person can eat because that's their animal instinct,
Or person can eat to have the energy to serve the Creator.
It all depends on our outlook.
And so we do the same practice before eating any meal as we do at the beginning of our day to turn every element of our lives into a service,
Into a way of bringing light,
Joy,
Peace and spirituality into the world.
Imagine a world where that was everyone's focus as they went through their day.
Imagine a life where we begin our day like this and try to come back to that moment throughout the day with the water dripping from our hands and the thought of everything we do being a service to the Creator of the world.
A pipe to bring spirituality and light into the world.
May you be blessed to live such a life.
