A view from an airplane

View from an Airplane
 
Do you remember the first time you travelled on an airplane . Looking down at the tiny homes and cars and seeing the bright lights as you flew over the cities and towns.
 
This past Monday I had the unique experience of sitting near my little daughter who was looking out of the airplane window and watching  in utter amazement. "Daddy, They look like toy cars and buildings, they don't look real".
 
I tried to explain to her that there are two ways of seeing things, up close and from way above. When you look down from from high above the earth, everything may seem smaller - but the  advantage  is, you get a glimpse of  the entire picture.
 
Little did I know that on that very day exactly forty years earlier Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins Landed on the moon on the The Apollo 11 the ultimate physical view of our planet from way above. What I find particularly interesting is that these astronauts who were in their 30's at the time (all still alive today) found it difficult to re-adjust to normal life after experiencing the view from above. To quote Dave Scott, Commander of Apollo "I remember coming back to Houston after the moon and my neiboughrs had a BBQ for me, I thought 'what am I doing here?' "
 
This Shabbos is called Shabbos Chazzon  "Shabbos of Vision" where we can potentially get a  glimpse of Hashem's world from heaven downward.
 
Chassidus explains, that people can have either an  "Earth view" or a "Heaven view".
 
The difference is, that the  view from heaven is reality while the earth perspective  can be a distorted.  Our objective is to develop a "Heaven view"  by tapping into the G-D given tools of vision to bring the heaven view down to earth.
 
Perhaphs Neil Armstrong and Co. can be at peace with themselves knowing that their work brought some of heaven down to earth.

May the Shabbos of vision bring a higher perspective and a heavenly way of seeing and perceiving our world
 
Good Shabbos, 
Rabbi Yanky Berger