Kabbalat ol (קבלת עול, “accepting the yoke”) is part of a longer phrase meaning “accepting the yoke of the dominion of heaven.”Why would you want to do that? Don’t you have enough yokes around your neck as is?But when you take on the yoke of heaven, you throw off every other yoke. You fear no one, subject yourself to no one, and have no yoke other than that of your Creator. In that sense, kabbalat ol is the ultimate rebellion.When you say the Shema Yisrael each morning and night, you are accepting that yoke and throwing off all others. Mishnah Berachot 2:2. You’re declaring that there’s only one true authority, the One who sustains all existence at every moment and gives life to every living thing, the One who breathes within the essence of your soul.You are not driven by the demands of work or the ever-changing winds of popular opinion, by the urge of the moment or the cravings of your belly, by so