A word of Torah:
We have begun the month of Elul which introduces a period of introspection/teshuvah. Traditionally, we blow the shofar each morning after daily services calling us to awaken ourselves from our everyday spiritual slumber to the possibilities brought to us by the arrival of the new year 5782.
A popular form of contemporary spirituality is the practice of meditation. Commonly, the practice consists of sitting quietly and paying attention to the breath. We focus on the act of breathing in and breathing out. Somewhat like Shabbat, it is a practice of resting from the busyness of the week and resting from the busyness of our minds. Why the breath? Because we don’t need any props e.g. candles or images to do it. Or perhaps because breathing is something we do all the time. We are mostly unconscious of the act of breathing-- just like the unaware experience of much of our daily lives. In this time of Covid, the act of breathing has taken on added significance with images of people struggling to breathe or being helped to breathe with ventilators. Maybe then the choice of breathing is not random, but rather is an image of life. Meditation is then calling us to pay attention to the most precious gift we have—our life.
There is a different form of meditation practice found in the Jewish tradition—instead of focusing on the breath it calls on us to focus on an awareness of God.
Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik wrote: I would say that “to know” (lei’da) means that our conviction of the existence of God should become a constant and continuous awareness of the reality of God, a level of consciousness never marred by inattention; … This keen awareness of the existence of God should constitute the foundation of our thoughts, ideas and emotions in every kind of situation and under all conditions. “In all your ways know God” (Proverbs 3:6) --Be-khol derakhekha da’ehu. “In all your ways” – meaning in all situations, in everything you do, whatever path you take, under all conditions – “know God.” Be conscious of God’s existence at all times. (adapted from On Repentance edited by Pinhas Peli).
This ongoing form of awareness asks us what is the Godly way or the way of the good in this moment. What is the wise response to the other person or to our self or to the world in this situation? In this High Holiday period, we strive to bring a heightened awareness to a sense that there is something beyond ourselves—whether God or the universe. Such an awareness can remind us of our potential to do something remarkable---to make changes in our past patterns of behavior in this New Year.
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