Imagine it’s one of those lazy mornings when you don’t feel like doing much of anything. You woke up and shrugged into a comfy old shirt. You left your cuffs unbuttoned. The left half of your collar sticks up, since you never bothered to look in the mirror. As for the buttons down the front, you probably missed one or two. But the sun is shining, your morning cup o’ tea has been exquisitely tasty, and all is right in the world for you to slide through a long, lazy day, the perfect sequel to your lazy morning.
Mystical Judaism has the belief that our souls return to G-d when we sleep and G-d sends our souls back when we wake. We have a morning prayer which begins, “Thank you, King, for mercifully restoring my soul to me.” The belief shows up in Christianity, too, and pops up in the children’s bed-time prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep….” I am sure that the belief is much older than either religion, since sleep looks so much like death and since dreams are so other-worldly.
What if your soul returns to your body one morning and doesn’t feel like doing much of anything? What if it shrugs your body on like a comfy old shirt? What if it doesn’t bother to button up all the buttons, to straighten out the collar, to check the mirror to be sure that everything looks right and proper? How are you doing today?
