Last night Neil and I went to Craig Harvey’s 24 hour World-Healing Peace Vigil at the Friends Meeting House. It was a powerful experience. As I went into the room, I saw people sitting in various positions, some in chairs, others on meditation pillows - but all had faces shining with total Inner Peace. Their bodies were there, but their consciousness was elsewhere. There was a small table in the center of the room with a globe, a candle and a rose quartz on it as a focus for our meditations. But most powerful of all was the palpable Energy of Peace that was filling the room from the intentions and focused emanations of peace from each of the meditators.

The 24 Hour Peace Meditation began at 6:00 Friday evening and was to end Saturday evening, right in sync with Shabbat! This is exactly what Shabbat is – a 24-hour period that we put away the activities of the work week and stop for 24 hours to restore the peace between us and G-d, and then between ourselves and others. We must each have Peace within our Self, before we can have peace between ourselves. THIS is the key to World Peace. When we can each maintain our Inner Peace - the harmony between us and G-d - then together we can attain World Peace. It will blossom as a natural result.

This week’s Torah portion is the first section of Leviticus, "Vayikra." It speaks of the types of sacrifices to bring to G-d at the Temple for a particular purpose, and how to make the sacrifice. It gave us a process by which we could manifest the turning of our hearts back into harmony with the sacred ways that promote Life.

• If we had "sinned" or fallen out of integrity by our actions we could go through a process of giving something of our Self (the sacrifice) at the Temple that would express our desire to be back in Harmony with the Divine Flow of Love and enable us to open our heart and receive Forgiveness of our Self.

• If we had a wonderful event come into our lives we could bring a "Thank Offering" to the Holy One to manifest the gratitude and jubilation of our hearts and minds.

• If we had a moment of "Awe!" or "A-haa!!" we could bring our "Praise Offering" to the Temple manifesting our spiritual, emotional and intellectual experience of Oneness in the physical world.

Sacrifice was a process to harmonize, bring renewal, and restore our Inner Peace. Then we could live in harmony with one another.

The question for us today becomes:

What is your "sacrifice," your process today? How can you manifest your moments of forgiveness, thanksgiving, awe, or grace received in your life? While we seek to maintain a "clear channel" of connectedness with

G-d every day, Shabbat gives us the time and opportunity to give focused attention to enjoying our intimate relationship with The Holy One and with each other. We can "bring our sacrifice" to the Temple by dedicated acts of loving service and giving of our treasure to create our community for worship, learning, spiritual growth and sharing our Light with others. That Light naturally flows to our community at large as we take it into the work of our daily lives. As a community we can unite our focus of Divine Energy for the Enlightenment of our Planet – to bring the "Olam HaBah, World That Is Coming."

This Shabbat, may you experience the Inner Peace of the Sabbath that we call Shabbat Shalom. May your relationship with the Holy One renew your Inner Peace, that you may enjoy Love and Joy and Oneness with others. May this World reflect the deep Inner Peace of our Souls.

Shabbat Shalom, Sabbath Wholeness, Peace and Love,

Rabbi Esther

And Neil says,

"May you be Blessed with Peace and Love, today and always."