Finding our Space, adopted from Rabbi David Wolpe's, "Floating Takes Faith."

The Rabbis teach that the Torah is from God.  Yet the most studied rabbinic text, Pirkei Avot, begins, “Moses received the Torah from Sinai.”  What is the difference? 
    The usual interpretation is that Sinai is a kind of spiritual synecdoche:  It means “from God,” and the mountain is a metaphor.  Bu the great medieval commentator Abravanel proposes another answer:  Had Moses not spent forty days and nights alone on Sinai, he would not have been able to receive the Torah.  The time spent along, in prayer and meditation, prepared him for the experience of encountering God. 
      The story is told of one Hasidic master whose child used to spend time along in the forest.  Concerned and curious, one day the rabbi pulled his boy aside and asked him what he was doing.  “I go do the forest to find God,” replied his son.  “Oh, that’s wonderful,” said the father, “but don’t you know that God is the same everywhere?” “Yes,” answered the boy, “I know that God is, but I’m not.”
    There are certain places and times in our lives when we can find God.  Moses had to have Sinai; the boy needed the forest.  The challenge is to find our own place-and cherish it. 

The Hashkiveinu prayer invites us to ask for such a place, a space.  As we invite God, the divine mystery of creation to spread over us a shelter of peace, we ask for the opportunity to find that place, to discover the sacredness of that space and to cherish it.