Rabbi’s Shabbat Message

Jewish Feng Shui! Shabbat Shalom

If you don’t understand the art of feng shui, you’re not alone. In simple terms, it is the practise of designing a space to optimise the energy within it. Its goal is to align people with their surroundings and create an environment that promotes harmony, health, prosperity, and spiritual well-being.

While feng shui is associated with the East, the underlying idea is deeply Jewish and has been practised since the days of the Exodus thousands of years ago.

For forty years, the Israelites lived in what was perhaps history’s largest mobile community, journeying through the desert on the way to the Promised Land. Their camp was not arranged randomly. Every tribe had its place, every family its position, and every tent its purpose. The physical layout reflected a greater spiritual vision.

In the fortieth year of that remarkable journey, an extraordinary event took place, that we read about in this week’s Parsha Balak.

Balak, the King of Moab, hires the prophet Balaam to curse the Jewish people. Yet every attempt to curse them is transformed into a blessing. Standing on a mountain overlooking the Jewish encampment, Balaam is overwhelmed by the sight. What impressed Balaam was not the size of the nation, its military power, or its wealth. He was captivated by its homes.
He proclaims the words we still recite every morning: “Mah Tovu Ohalecha Yaakov, Mishkenotecha Yisrael.” How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your sanctuaries, O Israel.

Tents represent private life. Sanctuaries represent public spiritual life. The message is profound: if you want a sanctuary, start with a tent. Because before there can be a holy nation, there must be holy houses. Or rather homes. A house is a place where people live. A home is a place where values live.

Judaism has always placed the home at the centre of Jewish life. It is where children first hear stories of faith. It is where values are passed from one generation to the next. It is where kindness, gratitude, respect, and responsibility are practiced long before they are preached.

Our sages describe the home as a Mikdash Me’at – a miniature sanctuary. After the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash, holiness was no longer confined to one sacred building in Jerusalem. It moved into every Jewish home.

The dining table became an altar, where blessings are recited and guests are welcomed. The kitchen became a place where mitzvot are performed. The living room became a place for learning, conversation and connection. Every room is an opportunity to transform ordinary moments into sacred ones.

Balaam noticed something else that took him by surprise. The entrances of the tents did not directly face one another, preserving privacy, dignity and healthy boundaries. In today’s digital age where so many are preoccupied with scrolling the lives of others, Jewish life was built on the opposite principle: happiness comes not from comparing our tents to others, but from investing in our own. Strengthening relationships with our faith, our families, and all of Am Yisroel.

We have survived exiles, persecutions, expulsions, and countless challenges because generation after generation we transformed our ordinary spaces into sacred places. We turned tents into sanctuaries, houses into homes, meals into mitzvot, and families into vessels for G-d’s presence. And that remains true today.

Our future will not only be determined by what happens in our synagogues, schools, or Royal Commissions. It will be determined by what happens in our homes. The conversations we have, the values we model, the mitzvot we cherish, and the yiddishkeit we create.

When a Jewish home becomes a sanctuary, it does more than transform a family. It becomes the foundation upon which an entire nation is built.

This Shabbos we look forward to celebrating with our Bat Mitzvah families over a beautiful Shabbos dinner in Shule, marking the culmination of our Bat Mitzvah Program that has run each Sunday throughout the second school term. We thank the girls and their families for sharing this special milestone with us and send them a heartfelt communal mazal tov.

Our Kabbalat Shabbat service is at 5:30pm. We invite you to join us for a l’chaim at 5:00pm. Hopefully, to celebrate tomorrow’s win for the Socceroos!

Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Levi and Chanie