“I want nothing at all! I don’t want Your Gan Eden, I don’t want Your Olam Haba… I want nothing but You alone.”

– The Alter Rebbe, HaYom Yom Kislev 18

Each and every Jew [is endowed] with the potential to have a similar desire, i.e., for his fun­damental desire to be that there be a revelation of G‑d’s essence. [Moreover, this desire is so powerful] that when such a revelation does not shine forth — and how much more so in the time of exile when we are lacking [even] the revelation (of light) that existed in the time of the Beis HaMikdash, the person is “crushed.” And he requests three times (or more) every day, “May our eyes behold Your return to Zion in mercy,” i.e., that there be a revelation of G‑dliness, and [indeed,] a revelation of G‑d’s essence.

– The Lubavitcher Rebbe, VeAtah Tetzaveh, and originally delivered in 5741 (1981), appears in Sefer HaMaamarim — Melukat, Vol. 6 (Kehot, N.Y., 5752/1992; see sec. 9 and 10 there, on p. 134ff.), and in the Adar-Sivan volume of Toras Menachem — Maamarim, p. 34.

 

Mesmerized by the maroon and magenta

and dark hues of blues

the audience –

suffused with the smell of popcorn

and sunk deep in padded seats –

sighs in wonderment

at the scenes of life

breathed onto the screen.

Meanwhile a boy and girl

can’t help

but strain their necks in wonderment

at the beam of light

hovering overhead

from the projection booth.