The universe is awesome so I was really excited the other night. A once in a lifetime opportunity to witness “the first total lunar eclipse to occur on the day of the Northern Winter Solstice since 1638, and only the second in the Common Era” (Wikipedia), and I was old enough to stay up for it! I bundled up and watched despite the fact that it was quite cold outside and I had partially obstructed seats due to the trees on the hill in my backyard. It was sometime between 2 AM and 3 AM that I realized my complete donutness. Here’s how my sleep-deprived, shivering, werewolf wary thinking went.

First I looked up at the sky and connected with the vastness of creation and it became absolutely clear to me that as the Talmud says, I am the center of the universe; everything revolves around me. From the perspective of “me” in my body – in my physical space this is so true! I reveled in this thought for a bit.

1. I am the center of the universe.

Then I started thinking about the enormous distances involved and the lightyears and lightyears of empty space separating all the components of the universe. And I started feeling small and puny and worthless. I am nothing compared to the vastness of the universe – I am nothing!

2. I am nothing.

Well now the logical imperative part of my brain took over and steps 3 and 4 are already obvious to you I’m sure;

3. The thing that has nothing at the center of it is a donut.

4. I am a donut.

I’m so happy I stayed up to watch the eclipse!

rav shmuel
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About the author

rav shmuel

Rav Shmuel is a Rabbi who hangs out in Greenwich Village and plays original compositions on his guitar and ukulele. On the rare occasions when he is not posting artistically rendered photographs on Instagram he can be found posting random videos to Facebook. A few times a year someone holds a gun to his head and says "blog!" So he does.

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