CBH Blog

The Dust of the Earth by Rabbi Josh

"I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth” was the Divine promise.
And as humans do, we assumed it was all about numbers.
Seduced by the idea of abundance
And distracted by what we misunderstood as a competition of sorts,
We missed the real blessing.

The dust of the earth has always been precious in the eyes of the Divine.
Each particle, each plot,  
Every stretch of landscape,
Just like the earth in its totality, is beloved
--and meant to be free.

And perhaps once we are done counting, striving
Owning every mote,
Writing our name triumphantly on every tree,
Claiming the claimless,
We will discover the real blessing:

We will be “as the dust of the earth”
Because together, we and the earth are one.