Mishnah Pe'ah 1:1 - Kindness is without measure

מסכת פיאה פרק א

א,א אלו דברים שאין להם שיעור--הפיאה, והביכורים, והריאיון, וגמילות חסדים, ותלמוד תורה. ואלו דברים שאדם אוכל מפירותיהן בעולם הזה, והקרן קיימת לו לעולם הבא--כיבוד אב ואם, וגמילות חסדים, והבאת שלום בין אדם לחברו; ותלמוד תורה כנגד כולם.

Mishnah Pe'ah 1:1

These are the things that are without measure: charity, first fruits, pilgrimage to the temple, righteous deeds, and studying Torah. These are things that a man can eat of their fruits in this world, but their true fulfillment is in the world to come: honoring one's parents, righteous deeds, bringing peace between a man and his friend. Studying Torah is equal to them all.

This mishnah strikes me as a study guide: these are the things you should get out of studying Torah. If you study Torah and it doesn't make you into the kind of person who gives charity, does righteous deeds, and makes peace between a man and his friend, you're doing it wrong.

There are actually measures for many of these things in the Torah, but what the Mishnah is telling us is that you can do them as much as you would like and they are always a good thing. Interestingly, all of these things are done in relationship with others except studying Torah (which is usually done in hevruta, but not always). It shows how concerned Jews should be with their community and those around them who are in need.

Unfortunately, it's a lesson that many in this country, religious and secular, need to learn: that there is no limit to being kind to people.

Words create

In class today, we talked about how ineffectual words can be to actually communicate. What I mean when I say something may or may not be what you think I mean. Even when we both think the communication was clear, there may be a complete lack of understanding.

In our tradition, words were used to create the world. We are in the image of God, so every time we speak, we create. Tradition teaches that the world is in a continual state of creation.

Words create worlds. When someone speaks, what do their words create in you? Isn't that how communication works: we create in someone else. It makes all of our words so much more powerful, and should make us so much more careful about what we say.

Tugging on your shirt

Working with a client this past week, I found myself repeatedly using the analogy of a small child tugging on her shirt. There was a thought that kept going through her head repeatedly during the day and she wasn't sure how to make sense of it. The energetic was exactly like a small child: when they want your attention, they pull on the edge of your shirt. If you turn and acknowledge them, they usually are satisfied and go back to playing. But if you ignore them or don't actually listen to what they say, they continue to pull on your shirt more aggressively.

Such it was with this thought of hers. It was asking for her attention. She knew about it, but she hadn't really fully acknowledged it. As we continued to talk, She asked how one can more effectively acknowledge the thought? It's the difference between yes-ing the child and lowering yourself to the child's level to look her in the eyes and really listen to what she has to say. With this thought, my client needed to take some time during the day and dedicate it, without distraction, to dealing with the thought and the emotions associated with it.

For the emotions, more effectively acknowledging them means to feel them more intensely. If the emotion is tugging on your shirt, then the more intensely you can feel the emotion is the way to listen to it more effectively.

The souls are similar. There are times when they demand our attention and we'd best pay attention, but if we can give them a time during the day that we do nothing but interact with them, then they are less likely to need to demand our attention while we are doing other things.

So if you find a small thought or emotion tugging on your shirt, bend down, look it in the eyes, and listen.

Yibani ha mikdash

יבנה המקדש!

There are many times during the prayers when we pray for the rebuilding of the holy temple. It's my very humble opinion that it might already have happened.

The temple was the home of the Shechina, the aspect of God that is most present in the world. When the temple was destroyed, the Shechina went into exile with us. And, presumably, when we came back to Israel, she came back with us.

As I've written in an earlier post, I experience the Shechina as the energy created between two people. When I came to Jerusalem, I felt the power of this city. So many Jews here, so much energy created when they study, pray, and live together.

Maybe the Shechina has already made her home here and we didn't notice? We have built Jerusalem for a third time as a Jewish city. We live in a world where Judaism is decentralized and can never be recentralized again without destroying what was created over the past 2000 years.

So maybe we have already built the third temple, though not as it once was in all it's splendor and glory. We have built it through so many small synagogues and minyanim. Together, they shelter the Shechina.

So maybe we should not be reciting "may we be blessed to merit the re-building of the temple". but instead we should be saying: "we give thanks that we have merited to live during the time of the third Jerusalem." בנינו בית המקדש Amen.

The balance of Rain

In class today, we discussed a section of the Zohar where the sephirah of חסד-Hesed (loving kindness and compassion) is referred to as water. Hesed, in Kabbalah, is in tension with גבורה-Gevurah (strength and boundaries), which balances in תפארת-Tiferet (splendor). In the daily prayers, the prayer for rain is called גבורת גשמים (gevurat Geshamim), or the power of the rains. In this context we pray for the balance between gevruah and hesed.

One of my classmates pointed out that if there was just hesed and the water came all at once, it would be like a tsunami - incredibly destructive. If there was just gevurah, we would have a storm with no rain, which would also be destructive. So we require the balance between the two to enable the rain to come down in little drops (hesed held within gevurah) that are nourishing to us and the earth. We always need a balance between strength and compassion because too much of either doesn't heal anyone.

Piazetzner meditation

I had referenced a meditation by the Piazetzner rebbe in another post and wanted to just spell out the meditation as I learned it.

This is a quieting meditation. The goal is to quiet the chatter of the mind and let the stillness fill the space.

Sit quietly and pay attention to your thoughts. Every time you think of something, say to yourself: I'm thinking of [Whatever it is you are thinking]. Try to be specific. An example would be: I'm thinking of doing the dishes, I'm thinking of cracks on the dishes, I'm thinking about cooking food for dinner tomorrow, etc... Every time you name what you are thinking about, you are decreasing it's power over you and your thoughts and drawing the power back to yourself.

The analogy that always comes to mind is of my children who are always coming up to show me things. If I try to push them away, they get annoyed and talk louder, but if I acknowledge what they are saying and pay a moments attention to them, they go back to playing and don't bother me anymore. In this meditation, we are doing the same thing to our thoughts.

Once your mind is clear. Recite the Shema silently. As you say each word, visualize it and allow it to drop into the still water of your mind. I always visualized this as watching the words slowly fall into a still pool of water.

As the last word drops into the water, ask for a gift or ask a question. Then wait and see what comes.

It's quite a wonderful meditation and especially good for finding insight in stressful times.

Love or Fear - It's your choice

I talked to John the other night and he gave me some simple wisdom in response to my questions about how to choose the good inclination (יצר הטוב) over the bad one (יצר הרע).

He said it's really making a choice between fear and love. If you choose to live with love, then it will be easy to make the choices that nourish and support. If you choose to live with fear, then the choices will be ones of self-destruction.

So how, I asked, does one move from fear to love?

He answered that it's about learning to send love to your fears. Simple to say, hard to do. The example we talked about was dealing with old memories of times that were dominated by fear. We can't change who we were, but we can change our attachment to the memory.

In this particular memory, I had not realized how scared I was at the time it happened, but in retrospect, it was very clear to me that I was being controlled by my fear. I concentrated on the memory and then threw my arms around my young self to send love. As I did, the feeling of the memory changed. I think this is one I'm going to have to go back to a few times, but the fear was starting to change. And in doing so, I'm changing who I am now by changing my attachment to who I was.

I'm learning to send love to my fear, and in that way, give power to my self-nourishing inclination and remove it from my self-destructive one.