This world and the cosmos are permeated with meaning - all of it proclaiming #God and his desires for us. The only reason we can’t see all of that meaning is because we have forgotten how to “read” it.

If we are to recover our ability to understand the meaning woven into all things one of the first things we need to do is disentangle our lives from #technology and our devices on a regular basis. At minimum we need one day a week to be free from screens and to enjoy getting back out into creation.

We need, what the #Bible calls, #Sabbath

Saturday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s readings

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus offers the Apostles an opportunity. They had been so busy, they had no opportunity to eat, let alone rest. They had just come from the mission he sent them out on back in Thursday’s Gospel reading. So he invites them on retreat: “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” He gives them a chance to recharge, to rest and grow. Meanwhile, Jesus continued the ministry of preaching and teaching.

I think that opportunity for rest is one that we often neglect in our daily lives. Like the apostles, we have so many things that demand our attention: the demands of family, work, and community. We need that sabbath rest in order to recharge, rest, and grow. If we neglect it long enough, we end up burnt out and bitter, not helpful to our salvation, or the good of those we are trying to serve and live with. So today, we come to be fed by the Eucharist and nourished in prayer; we come to receive the gifts that we need to live our lives and serve those we are meant to serve.

None of us is meant to do what we are put on earth to do all by ourselves. Our Lord wants to give us what we need. That’s why he told the apostles on Thursday to “take nothing for the journey but a walking stick – no food, no sack, no money in their belts.” If they packed everything they’d ever need, they would be burdened carrying it all, and, they wouldn’t need him. But the only way they really could do what he needed them to do was to rely on him and the gifts he wanted to give them. At the beginning today’s gospel reading, it seems like they are absolutely bubbling with excitement, reporting all they had done and taught. Because they relied on Jesus.

We too are called to rely on Jesus, and his gifts, and to come away by ourselves and rest in him.

Les Lavandieres

Also known as the Midnight Washerwomen.

They are 3 old washerwomen in Celtic mythology. Names in various Celtic languages include the kannerezed noz in Brittney & the Bean nighe in Gaelic. They can also be found in the Celtic folklore of Iberia as Las Lavanderas in Cantabria, As lavandeiras in Galicia or Les Llavanderes in Asturias, & in Portugal are known as Bruxas lavadeiras.

The 3 old women go to the water’s edge at midnight to wash shrouds for those about to die, according to the myth & folklore of Brittany. Or to wash the bloodstained clothing of those who are about to die, according to Celtic mythology. The Midnight Washerwomen may be related to the old Celtic tradition of the triple goddess of death & slaughter.

The washerwomen are small, dressed in green & have webbed feet. Their webbed feet may be the reason they’re also sometimes called the cannard noz (meaning “night ducks”) in Breton folklore.

In Brittany, they can be ominous omen, foretelling death, either one’s own or a death in the family. They’re very agile & strong physically, even when they don’t look so. The Breton washerwomen wash graveclothes, usually at night, under the moonlight.

They’re known to ask passers-by for help in wringing clothes, breaking the arms of those who so so reluctantly drowning those who refuse. The laundry they wash is never just clothing. It’s the shroud of a person soon to die. Or the blood-stained linens of those they’ve already “claimed.”

The legend of the Lavandieres is deeply rooted in the social expectations of 18th & 19th century rural life. In Brittany, the myth was often used as a “cautionary tale” by the Church. Washing laundry was grueling, back-breaking work.

Doing laundry on Sunday was considered a sin of greed or pride. The Lavandieres were said to be women “undone by their own labor,” forced to wash for eternity because they didn’t respect the Sabbath.

In many versions, if a traveler encounters them, the hags will ask for help wringing out the wet linens. If you twist the cloth in the same direction as the washerwoman, you’ll be crushed or have your arms snapped. You must twist in the opposite direction to survive. This mirrors the folk-logic found in many religious exorcism rituals: countering the supernatural by reversing its motion.

In Ireland, they’re an ominous omen, foretelling death, either one’s own or a death in the family. The washerwomen of Ireland wash the bloodied shirts of those about to die.

In Scotland, if one can get between the washerwomen & the water, they’re required to grant 3 wishes in exchange for 3 questions answered truthfully. If you lie, the consequences are fatal. She’s often described as having only 1 nostril, a large protruding front tooth, & webbed feet. She wears green (the color of the fae). There’s also a tradition in Scotland of a single washer at the ford, the goddess Clotha, who gives the River Clyde its name.

In Wales & Cornwell, a passerby must avoid being seen by the washerwomen. If they do get seen however they’re required to help wring out the sheets. If they twist the sheets in the same direction as the washerwomen, the individual’s arms will wretched from their sockets & they’ll get pulled into the wet sheets & killed instantly. If, however, they twist in the opposite direction, the washerwomen are required to grant the person 3 wishes.

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"My 4-year-old brings home a two-page class newsletter each week with highlights tied to the #Torah, holidays, songs, and things that happened in #school. The #teacher also asks each #child a question and prints all their answers.

Last week: “What’s something noisy in your house?” The plague of frogs was noisy.

This week: “What’s a treasure or something special in your home?” Most students said jewelry, toys, or coins.

My daughter Sarah answered, “#Passports.”

Friday night, reading the newsletter at the #Sabbath table, I asked her why.

She said, “Because we keep them hidden in the safe and they let us travel if we ever have to leave.”

Sarah is only four and has no idea how true her words are. Her mother’s grandparents didn’t have passports after World War Two and were stateless for years. My grandmother and her siblings escaped Berlin largely because they had the papers necessary to leave and got out in time."

https://www.jewishaz.com/opinion/my-4-year-old-says-the-most-precious-thing-in-our-home-is-our-passports/article_3f55ea80-d675-4bc7-8113-7073067ee3ce.html

#laraza #sabbath #nowplaying
https://youtu.be/GoqcIQ37amo?si=vQMuZwqUsrCHFWLI

Today’s the #Sabbath , which is a day of rest allotted to humans. Perhaps one of the oldest #workers rights traditions.

It’s rooted in freedom from slavery under Hyksos in Kemet. An acknowledgement of holy life.

Tradition broke when ICE & Border Patrol increased #deportations towards their crowded cells.

Tradition broke when military killed & attacked foreign government (Sat, Jan 3, 2026).

Scary to think that President #Trump received an award from PM #Netanyahu .

https://www.vera.org/news/more-people-are-in-immigration-detention-than-ever-before

A mashup for the times.... and probably the first and only ABBA - Cassandra mash out there, a very underrated song.

I sometimes refer to myself as The Bearded Cassandra, or The Tired Tiresias....more the latter cos of his genderfluidity nowadays, but same vibe, different era...

https://remix.audio/track/85405/tbc-aka-instamatic-sabbath-cassandra-changes-abba-vs-black-sabbath

#mashup #abba #cassandra #tiresias #sabbath #blacksabbath

I'm not sure why I'm surprised to find out Zurich didn't already have an eruv. 🤔

"A symbolic network of lines now connects several neighbourhoods, in particular #Wiedikon, #Enge and #Wollishofen in #Zurich. This is a so-called #Eruv, a closed public zone. In Zurich, it covers around 14 square kilometres.

In this designated area in the city of Zurich, relaxed rules now apply for #Jews during the day of rest, the #Sabbath."

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/various/sabbath-zone-in-zurich-cancels-various-day-of-rest-rules-for-jews/90786562?utm_source=multiple&utm_campaign=swi-rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_content=o

Samaritanism

Samaritanism is an Abrahamic monotheistic, ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, & legal traditions of the Samaritan people.

Often preferring to be called Israelite Samaritans, who originated from the Hebrews & Israelites. They began to emerge as a relatively distinct group after the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the Iron Age. The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the 4th, & penultimate, stage of ancient Assyrian history.

Central to their continuity as an Indigenous Heritage in the Holy Land is keeping the Patriarchal & Mosaic covenant as specified in the Samaritan Torah. Samaritans believe this is the original & unchanged version of the Pentateuch (which is the first 5 books of the Hebrew & Christian bible) since Moses & the Israelites at Mount Sinai.

The Abisha Scroll is traditionally held by the community to be the oldest existing scroll written by Abisha, son of Aaron the priest, around 3,000 years ago based on living tradition. However, Jewish & Christian theologians have made attempts to dispute this claim which proved unsatisfactory.

Judaism claims Samaritanism developed right alongside their own religion. Samaritanism asserts itself as the true preserved form of the monotheistic faith that the Israelites kept under Moses. Samaritan belief also holds that the Israelites’ original holy site was Mount Gerizim, near Nablus, the State of Palestine (West Bank).

They also believe that Jerusalem only attained importance under Israelite dissenters who had followed Eli (In the Book of Samuel, Eli was a priest & judge of the Israelites in the city of Shiloh) to the city of Shiloh.

The Israelites who remained at Mount Gerizim would become the Samaritans in the Kingdom of Judah. Mount Gerizim is revered by Samaritans as the location where the Binding of Isaac occurred. In comparison to the Jewish belief that it occurred at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Today there are only about 900 registered communal members. This puts Samaritanism as 1 of the smallest ethnoreligious groups globally in the Abrahamic faiths. Samaritans believe that this is a prophecy fulfilled from the scriptures: “You’ll be left few in number.”

Though they hope for a future time when a prophet like Moses known as the “Taheb” (Restorer) will perform 3 signs, namely the jar of manna, the staff of Moses, & Cherubim, or the Golden Candlestick.

This time period they believe is when an era of Divine Favor would return, & the hidden tabernacle of Moses would miraculously be revealed for the Israelite people & Mount Gerizim is restored to its former glory.

Samaritans trace their history, as a separate entity, to a period soon after the Israelites’ arrival into the “Promised Land.” Samaritan historiography traces the schism to High Priest Eli leaving Mount Gerizim, where stood the 1st Israelite altar in Canaan, & building a competing altar in nearby Shiloh.

The dissenting group of Israelites who followed Eli to Shiloh would be the ones who, in later years, would head south to settle in Jerusalem (the Jews). Whereas the Israelites who stayed on Mount Gerizim, in Samaria, would become known as the Samaritans.

Genetic studies in 2004 suggest that Samaritans’ lineages trace back to a common ancestor with Jews in the paternally-inherited Jewish high priesthood (Cohanim) temporally near to the period of the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel. They’re probably descendants of the historical Israelite population. The Cohanim refers to the Jewish priestly class, male descendants of Aaron the priest.

The Hasmonean king, John Hyrcanus, destroyed the Mount Gerizim Temple & brought Samaria under his control around 120 BCE. This led to a long-lasting sense of mutual hostility between the Jews & Samaritans.

From this point, the Samaritans likely sought to consciously distance themselves from their Judean brethren. Both peoples came to see the Samaritan faith as a religion distinct from Judaism. By the time of Jesus, Samaritans & Jews deeply disparaged one another, as shown by Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan.

The main beliefs of Samaritanism are:

• There’s 1 God, Yahweh, the same God recognized by the Jewish prophets.
• The Torah is the only true holy book & was given by God to Moses. The Torah was created before the creation of the world & whoever believes in it is assured a part in the world to come. The Torah’s status in Samaritanism as the only holy book causes them to reject the Oral Torah, the Talmud, & all the prophets & scriptures, except for a version of the Book of Joshua (which they don’t hold as Scripture), whose book in the Samaritan community is significantly different from the Book of Joshua in the Jewish “Bible.” Moses is considered to be the last of the line of prophets.
• Mount Gerizim, not Jerusalem, is the 1 true sanctuary chosen by God. The Samaritans don’t recognize the sanctity of Jerusalem & don’t recognize the Temple Mount, claiming instead that Mount Gerizim was the place where the Binding of Isaac took place.
• The Apocalypse, called “the day of vengeance,” will be the end of days. When an entity called the Taheb (basically the Jewish Messiah equal) that comes from the tribe of Joseph will come, be a prophet like Moses for 40 years & bring about the return of all the Israelites, following which the dead will be resurrected. The Tahib will then discover the tent of Moses’ Tabernacle on Mount Gerizim, & will be buried next to Joseph when he dies.

The Samaritans have retained the institution of a high priesthood & the practice of slaughtering & eating lambs on Passover Eve. They celebrated Pesach, Shavuot, & Sukkot. But they use a different method from that used in mainstream Judaism in order to determine the dates annually.

For example, Yom Teru’ah (the biblical name for Rosh Hashanah), at the beginning of Tishrei (This is the 1st month of the civil year & the 7th month of the ecclesiastical year in the Hebrew calendar.), isn’t considered a New Year as it is in Rabbinic Judaism.

Their Sabbath is observed weekly by the Samaritan community every week from Friday to Saturday, beginning & ending at sundown. For 24 hours, the families gather together to celebrate the rest day: all electricity with the exception of minimal lighting (kept on the entire day) in the house is disconnected, no work is done, & neither cooking nor driving is allowed.

The time is devoted to worship which consists of 7 prayer services, reading the weekly Torah portion, spending quality time with family, taking meals, rest & sleep, & visiting other members of the community.

Passover is particularly important in the Samaritan community, climaxing with the sacrifice of up to 40 sheep.

The Counting of the Omar remains relatively unchanged. The Counting of the Omar is a ritual in Judaism that consists of a verbal counting of each of the 49 days between the holidays of Passover & Shavuot. However, the week before Shavuot is a unique festival celebrating the continued commitment Samaritanism has maintained since the time of Moses.

During Sukkot, the Sukkah (the temporary hut built for use during Sukkot) is built INSIDE of houses, instead of OUTSIDE like mainstream Judaism. This Samaritan tradition is traced back to the persecution of the Samaritans during the Byzantine Empire.

The roof of the Samaritan Sukkah is decorated with citrus fruits & branches of palm, myrtle, & willow trees. This is in accordance with the Samaritan interpretation of the 4 species designated in the Torah for the holiday. The 4 species are 4 plants (the etrog, lulav, hadass, & aravah) mentioned in the Torah as being relevant to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

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#120BCE #4Species #Aaron #Abisha #AbishaScroll #AbrahamicFaiths #AncientAssyria #Apoclypse #Aravah #BindingOfIsaac #BookOfJoshua #BookOfSamuel #ByzantineEmpire #Canaan #Cherubim #Christians #CitrusFruits #Cohanim #CountingOfTheOmar #Eli #Etrog #GoldenCandlestick #Hadass #Hasmonean #HebrewCalendar #Hebrews #HighPriestEli #HighPriesthood #IndigenousPeoples #IronAge #IsraeliteSamaritans #Israelites #Jerusalem #Jesus #Jewish #JewishProphets #Jews #Joseph #Judah #KingJohnHyrcanus #KingdomOfIsrael #Lulav #Manna #Messiah #MosaicCovenant #Moses #MountGerizim #MountSinai #Myrtle #Nablus #NeoAssyrianEmpire #OralTorah #Palestine #ParableOfTheGoodSamaritan #Passover #PatriarchalCovenant #Pentateuch #Priest #PromisedLand #RabbinicJudaism #RoshHashanah #Sabbath #SamaritanTorah #Samaritanism #Shavuot #Shiloh #StaffOfMoses #Sukkah #Sukkot #Tabernacle #Taheb #Talmud #TempleMount #Tishrei #Torah #WestBank #Willow #Yahweh #YomTeruAh

Step out of the noise long enough to hear what truly matters again.

We’re surrounded by constant input, opinions, expectations, and urgency.

But clarity rarely comes from more volume.

Today, consider what happens when you step away just long enough to listen.

Not to the noise.

But to what grounds you.

#Saturday #Rest #Restoration #Sabbath #Weekend

​:sunday:​
#orthodoxy #sabbath #saint

Rest is not a luxury; it’s how you remember who you are.

Some weeks take more out of us than we realize.

Today is the pause that restores perspective, steadies the heart, and reminds us of what truly matters.

This is just a reminder to take time to slow down, pause, and simply rest.

#Rest #Restoration #Sabbath #SlowLiving #PurposefulPresence #Leadership

It's my favorite Sabbath record, so it's about time I finally watched the Master of Reality documentary from 2022. The full doc is free on YouTube, too: https://youtu.be/A6GTf6rOepQ

On Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/bvPJ5J

#Sabbath #MasterOfReality #metal #BlackSabbath #70s #1970s #70sRock #70sMetal #documentaries #Ozzy

Shedim

Romanized name: Sedim; singular: Sed.

These are spirits or demons in Tanakh & Jewish mythology. Shedim weren’t considered evil demigods. But the gods of foreigners. They were envisaged as evil only in the sense that they weren’t THE Hebrew god.

They show up 2x in the Tanakh (Psalm 106:37 & Deuteronomy 32:17). In both passages, the text deals with child or animal sacrifices. With the translation of Hebrew texts into Greek, with the influence of Zoroastrian dualism, shedim was translated into Greek as daimonia with negative connotations. Later, in Judeo-Islamic culture, shedim became the Hebrew word for jinn.

According to 1 legends, the shedim are descendants of serpents, or of demons in serpent form. This may be an allusion to the story of the serpent in Eden as told in Genesis. Another view is that they’re the offspring of Lilith. This is from her union with Adam or with other men.

While a 3rd version says that God created them on the 6th day, starting to fashion their bodies but failed to finish the job because he was observing the Sabbath. Even after the Sabbath, He left them as they were to show that when the Sabbath comes, all work still unfinished at the beginning of the Sabbath must afterward be viewed as complete.

As a result, the shedim have souls like humans, but don’t have bodies to contain them. Yet a 4th story says that the shedim have their origins with the builders of the Tower of Babel. In this 4th story, these beings were divided by their motivations into 3 groups of which the 3rd & worst comprised of those who sought actively to wage war against God & were punished for their sacrilegious hubris by transforming into the shedim. Finally, the Zohar describes them as offspring of the demons Azazel & Naamah.

According to Rashi, shedim like lillin (We mentioned these entities in our post about Lilith.), has a human form. Although no human body. They eat & drink as mortals do. They can cause sickness & misfortune, follow the dead, & fly around graves.

1 is admonished not to do anything that could invoke the shedim, such as whistling or even saying the word: shedim. The shedim aren’t always malicious creatures. They can be helpful. Some are said to be even able to live according to the Torah, like Asmodeus.

Conjuring shedim isn’t necessarily forbidden. Depending on whether the theologian discusses the topic views such as summoning to constitute sorcery. Even if summoning shedim is an act of sorcery & thus forbidden, consulting shedim conjured by a non-Jew would be permissible.

In early midrashim, shedim are corporeal beings. They take the form of men, but have no shadow, 7-headed dragons. If a man could see them, he would see them he would lack the strength to face them.

Although he can see them by throwing the ashes of the fetus of a black cat around his eyes, or by scattering ashes around his bed he can trace their footprints similar to those of roosters in the morning.

To see if the shedim were present, ashes were thrown to the ground or floor, which rendered their footsteps visible. Shedim can shape shift. Sometimes assuming a human form, the Talmud tells how Asmodeus assumed King Solomon’s form & ruled in his place for a time.

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#Adam #Asmodeus #Azazel #Demons #Deuteronomy3217 #Dualism #Eden #Genesis #Greek #Hebrew #Jewish #Jinn #JudeoIslamic #KingSolomon #Lilith #Midrashim #Naamah #Psalm10637 #Rashi #Sabbath #Sed #Sedim #Serpents #Shedim #Talmud #Tanakh #Torah #TowerOfBabel #Zohar #Zoroastrian

Today’s (October 22) #Gospel reading is Matthew 12:1-14. These verses teach us that it is lawful/permitted to do good things on the sabbath/our day of rest. It’s an important lesson for those who are able to take/have a regular day of rest. Not everyone is. In fact, a weekly day of rest is a luxury that more & more people can’t afford. Many people have no choice but to work without rest if they want to survive.

Perhaps the lesson needs to be reframed.

Rather than giving permission to do good on the #sabbath we ought to read these verses as an instruction or even an imperative to do good, especially on the sabbath. Imagine if our post-worship coffee hours were opportunities to feed the hungry, befriend the lonely, or do something good for the planet/our community. Our largest gatherings occur on the sabbath, yet the sabbath is also the day we do the least for others because we have the luxury of rest. Maybe we shouldn’t. Maybe we should be doing good instead.

Jesus confronts the Pharisees by healing a man with edema (dropsy). He questions their interpretation of the law, challenging them on whether it's lawful to heal on the Sabbath. This shows Jesus' compassion versus the Pharisees' strict adherence to rules. #Jesus #Pharisees #healing #Sabbath #edema

Your desires are mine to command Submit to my will I'll lead you on a journey of exquisite pleasure and absolute surrender Are you ready to obey?

#witchcraft #religiouscorruption #blasphemy #mindcontrol #witch
#finsub #femdom #findom #humanatm #subfunded #dominatrix #sub #summissive #tpe #goth #Sabbath #sinfulsunday #hypnos #Hypnosis

If someone’s ox fell into a well on the Sabbath, they would help it out because that ox is their money. Similarly, if a loved one fell into a well, they'd help right away. They wouldn’t make them wait until the Sabbath was over. #Sabbath #Bible #Jesus #Well #Ox #Christianity

This guy does NOT get anything like enough love.
https://youtu.be/_8_fi_ojoFs

#drums #sabbath #funk #impro