Meditation on Baruch Sh'amar v'Hayah ha-Olam, Baruch Hu

Imagine back billions of years, back to the moment when the Universe came into being; imagine a long moment of intense energy eruption, which we call the Big Bang. Imagine, as best you can, the immensity of the energy,

 

and then, walk through time,

 

as the Universe begins to expand outward,

 

galaxies forming,

 

stars birthing and dying,

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our star, the Sun, forming from the remains of stars of a previous generation,

 

planets forming, all from the matter that formed at the very beginning,

 

planets, our Earth,

 

one of perhaps xxx inhabitable planets in our Universe/galaxy,

 

a mass of rock and minerals elements,

 

 

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Baruch oseh v'reishit, baruch omer v'oseh

 

water forming,

 

then – miracle of miracles – life!

 

Living creatures in the water, exchanging gases with the atmosphere,

 

creating conditions suitable for other kinds of life,

 

and then – miracle of miracles – life on land!

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Baruch gozer u'm'kayem, baruch m'rachem al ha'aretz

 

From those first creatures, over the millennia,

 

greater and greater diversity,

 

so many kinds of plants and animals and fungi,

 

so myriad in their way of finding space and circumstances and conditions

 

suitable just for them,

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Baruch m'rachem al ha'briot, baruch m'shalem sachar tov l'reiav

 

one day,

 

creatures that walked upright,

 

gradually becoming more complex in their thinking,

 

and so, we, too, became part of the larger miracle

 

of life.

 

Baruch chai la'ad v'kayam lanetzhach, baruch podeh u'matzil, baruch sh'mo.