ועינינו תראינה מלכותך
“May our eyes may see your Kingdom.”

In its purely literal sense this prayer expresses a yearning that we may witness messianic redemption in our own days.  However, it can also be interpreted as relating not to anticipation of a future dispensation but to cultivating an ability to perceive the Kingdom as it exists now, in the present. For this purpose, the Source of all has blessed us with the gift of two inner eyes.

The gaze of the first inner eye can penetrate the veil of the unspirited world  in which we live, with its mixture of astonishing beauty and perverse iniquities, of loving gestures and horrid cruelties, and discover  a Promised Land in which justice rules untrammeled and relationships have been realigned. Emboldened by this vision we may toil actively to bring it into being, speedily, Amen

With the second inner eye we can look upon the Majesty as it is, as it was, and as it always will be, unchanging, eternal. Entering a world in which every moment is imbued with the totality of the Sabbath, we dwell in its resplendent glory, passively, in perfect stillness, Selah.

Grant us, H’, that we may join the company of those who wander through your creation with two (inner) eyes open.

@2012 Jonathan Omer-Man