February 14th, 2017
Most of us are familiar with the embarrassing, ego-deflating sting of being judged by someone else. We easily recognize the moment when we look down and say to ourselves, “Wait? I’m not OK?” Being on the other side of a judgmental interaction — being the judge — can be harder to recognize. And yet, spiritually, judging others is more detrimental to ourselves than being judged. According to the mystics, the way and the extent to which we judge others is the way and extent to which our Creator judges us. In order to live in harmony — spiritual harmony as well as interpersonal harmony — it’s necessary for us to refine the way that we judge others.
Some Judgment Is Necessary; Not All
Discernment is one of the many intellectual capabilities that humans have been blessed with. As they say, “When a man with money meets a man with experience, the man with experience ends up with the money, and the man with the money ends up with experience.” We need to use our experience and knowledge to protect ourselves and our families. Judgment is necessary for survival…in the form of discernment. We were given the gift of free choice, including the choice to be compassionate or to judge others (and ourselves) harshly.
Which Judgment to Avoid
What’s the difference between discernment and judgment? Discernment is helpful; judgment is harmful. You’ll know if you are judging someone — rather than exercising discernment — by how you feel. Do you feel resentful? If you feel resentful, then you’re judging someone. Discernment is objective clarity, as in “this is not for me”; judgment is personalizing it, as in “something must be wrong with you.”
An Example to Illustrate the Difference Between Discernment and Judgment
Let’s look at a common, every day activity: Shopping at the grocery store. The aisles are crowded. Another shopper is blocking your way. As you impatiently look at your phone counting every second that you think you’re wasting, this is the monologue that you might hear in your head:
Discernment: “Let me find a way to get past this shopper. I’m going to say my most polite, ‘Excuse me.’ This store sure is crowded! I guess we all needed to come here at the same time.”
Judgment: “She is so selfish blocking the way. She thinks she’s the only shopper in this store.”
Big difference, right? How do you feel when you read those two different internal monologues? With the first monologue, demonstrating discernment, there’s no resentment. You’re aware that there is a problem (you’re in a rush and another shopper is in your way), but there’s no resentment associated with it. With the second monologue, you are looking at another person in a negative light, blaming her for being in your way.
Exercise: Recall a time when you got annoyed at a stranger and try to remember your internal monologue. Now renarrate it in a way of discernment, rather than judgment. Record your answer in MyMLC.
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Go deeper into this subject: Would You Like to Judge Yourself?, The Gift, Why We Bless Each Other With A Good & Sweet Year, Love Is Not Judgment
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Tags: judgment, free will, free choice
Posted in Soul Gym, Personal Life, Emotions & Psychology | 1 Comment »
February 14th, 2017
I landed at Simon’s book signing after seeing his book Toward a Meaningful Life lying around on a table in a cafe where my boyfriend and I were getting coffee. I picked up the book and decided to open to a random page and read it to my boyfriend. It opened to the page about the two varieties of depression – one positive and one negative and I read it out loud to him. Not only was it exactly what I needed to hear at that time, but the gentleman drinking a coffee at the table next to ours came over with tears in his eyes asking what book I was reading from. We weren’t even sure ourselves, so we looked at the front cover together, and after writing down the title of the book and Simon’s name, he left the cafe to go to a local book store to find the book. We called the bookstore to find out about the book, and were thrilled to hear the Simon himself would be visiting for a book signing event.
Tags: Rebbe, education, visionary
Posted in My Story About The Book, Personal Life, The Book: Toward a Meaningful Life, Personal Stories | No Comments »
February 14th, 2017
Brazilian Educator Found School Based on Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Timeless Wisdom
A traditional Chassidic leader, with teachings and insights grounded exclusively in ancient biblical reality, has become the inspiration and success factor in the recent establishment of a progressive school. This would almost be a paradoxical phenomenon were the reader not to remember that there is nothing new under the sun, and therefore the keys to human productivity always have and still will open to the same truths.
Ms. Lilian Prist, an accomplished educator, writer, and linguist in Sao Paulo, Brazil recently founded a foreign language school for those ambitious children and even adults with their eyes on the future. With classes from early morning until late evenings, more than 150 students, ranging from the age of seven to seventy, come to expand their horizons in a pleasant and effective atmosphere.
Ms. Prist, fluent in Latin, Italian, French, Portuguese, and English, has been involved in teaching foreign languages for the past 30 years. Her experience as a teacher for many years along with the training she received in the University of Reading in England, led her to realize that a second language must be taught as a tool for real use, not as an academic exercise. A foreign language should be learnt following the same priorities the brain sets for the mother tongue; drawing on rhythm, body language, and global understanding before focusing on the actual words, she explains.
In 1984, she authored a book titled, “Personal Computer Shock” in which she compares the intimidating task of familiarizing oneself with a personal computer to that of learning a second language. It is that same culture shock which can overwhelm a person if not approached in the proper way, she explains.
With these general ideas about education, and foreign languages in particular active in her mind, Ms. Lilian came across a book entitled “Toward A Meaningful Life, The Wisdom of The Rebbe,” based on the teachings and philosophies of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson.
Head of the Lubavitch movement for more than 44 years, and one of the foremost religious leaders of our times, Rabbi Schneerson taught that a life of virtue and meaning is not beyond the grasp of any human being. Applying age old truths to contemporary times, ‘The Rebbe,’ as he is called by many, offered universal definitions for fulfillment and happiness. By naming the truth in every issue, from something as trivial as fitness to something as fundamental as family life, the Rebbe brought into focus the moral way to perceive and react to our roles and responsibilities, thus allowing the earnest seeker to achieve a harmony and a consistency that is essential for a healthy and meaningful life.
His teachings, as adapted by Rabbi Simon Jacobson, the director of Vaad Hanachos Hatmimim, the organization responsible for publishing the Rebbe’s talks, have been compiled in the above mentioned book that can claim worldwide distribution, with translations available in English, Hebrew, French, and Spanish. Featured on Publisher’s Weekly religion best seller list, and now in its sixth printing, this book has captured the interest of earnest individuals looking to improve the fiber of their life.
Throughout his 4 decades of leadership the Rebbe established more than two thousand educational institutions across the globe. In 1978, the United States government designated the Rebbe’s birthday to be celebrated as Education Day USA, and continued this practice for every subsequent birthday. The Rebbe saw the urgent need for an effective educational system because he realized that the whole fabric of society depends on the moral quality of the education we offer our children. Education is more than imparting facts and skills to the next generation. True Education is when the child is taught the knowledge and is then given the sensitivity to use what they have learnt to better humankind and improve society.
Reading this book was a revelatory experience, as Ms. Lilian puts it, finally putting her in contact with a world visionary who seemed to understand the human psyche and what it needs to function at its best. Before opening her academy, she had seen firsthand how purely transactional instruction failed to resonate with adult learners—particularly those who came to her seeking language skills for immediate, high-stakes professional roles, from software localization engineers to customer service agents fielding live global chats for an instant payout casino. Such students needed more than rote vocabulary; they needed cultural fluency and independent problem-solving skills. When she came across the sentence quoting the Rebbe, “True education is something that reaches deep inside a person empowering us to use the information we absorb to be more productive from within,” Lilian knew she had put her finger on the soul of her new-found school. This would be a different kind of school. A place where teachers would not be viewed solely as sources of information; they would not be talking textbooks, rather they would be responsible for training the students to think intelligently, morally, and independently. The student would be trained to find answers based on the principles he was taught, and not be dependent on a parent or peer to solve a dilemma. This school would operate on the educational and moral standards as defined by the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
With this newly found inspiration, Ms. Lilian named her language school Reach, based on the above mentioned quotation of the Rebbe. In fact, in the entrance of the school stands a prominent plaque bearing these sagely words. ‘The Rebbe has captured in essence my purpose and reason in starting this school. There is no better way to say it,’ she explains.
However. more than this one sentence has influenced the ambitious educator. ‘This whole book is simply amazing,’ she describes, at loss for a more descriptive word. ‘Any time I have a problem I flip to the relevant section and I find answers. Solutions that ring so true that they seemed to have come from deep within me.’
Tags: Rebbe, education, visionary
Posted in My Story About The Book, Personal Life, The Book: Toward a Meaningful Life, Personal Stories | 1 Comment »
February 13th, 2017
“Infantile”. “Childish”. “Immature”. When an adult is being selfish and obnoxious, these are some of the words that we use to describe his behavior. While it is true that babies lack self-control and the intellectual faculties necessary to control their own behavior, babies have a lot to teach us adults. Babies, in more ways than one, are more evolved than we are.
Babies Are Genuine
When was the last time you met a conniving, plotting, two-faced toddler? You haven’t met one, because they don’t exist. Babies are genuine. They have not developed duplicity as a way of saving face and/or getting what they want. Babies learn how to lie from adults; it is not inherent in their nature.
Babies Love and Trust Their Parents
As adults, we struggle with trust. We may or may not even believe that there is anyone — let alone a higher power — that cares for us and looks after us. Babies, on the other hand, demonstrate the epitome of trust and faith. Whether their parents are competent and kind or not, babies love and trust them. To a baby, his or her parents are all there is in the world, exhibiting magical power. There is no such thing as a “self-made” baby, or a baby limited by his own intellect.
Babies Are Inherently Good and Pure
Babies are born as clean slates. At birth, nobody has harmed them. Nobody has let them down. Nobody has told them that they are not good enough. They have not experienced life’s up and downs. They have never blamed themselves for anything. They are 100% innocent and pure. When we talk about getting in touch with our inner children, that state of purity is what we are talking about. We all have it deep down; life has done an efficient job of covering it up.
Exercise: Imagine going through your day guileless, pure, and with faith in a higher power. What would life be like if you could combine your worldly knowledge and life experience with your inner child’s inherent wholeness? Record your answer in MyMLC.
Go deeper into this subject: Your Inner Child, My Child: We Are Together Forever
Tags: children, inner child, babies
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February 13th, 2017
I like to say that I am having a “healing of sight,” for though I do not see the physical world around me, I am seeing better now than I have ever seen before. I would like to share with you why.
I would say it started when I was three, and I am told I would run up to people who visited my parents, asking, “Have you seen G-d lately? Do you know Him? Where can I find Him?”
Everyone in my family always answered, “We don’t believe in G-d. There is no G-d.” No one in my whole family believed in G-d. But I did. They always said, “We’re Jewish. We don’t believe in G-d.”
Thus, I thought Jews did not believe in G-d, so I decided to look elsewhere.
I turned to Christianity. I studied many versions and decided to join a particular church. After the first ten years, I was teaching Sunday School. After 20 years, I began lecturing. After 30 years, they moved me to their headquarters in Boston. And after 40 years I was in the pulpit. Very happy, very content.
It is interesting. You can leave Judaism, but Judaism can never leave you. For example, when December 25th would roll around, I would feel a “tapping.” (It is the only way I can describe it, like “Do not celebrate that one, it is not true.”) It drove my Christian friends crazy that I would not celebrate it. For 40 years, I never celebrated it. At Easter, again, tap, tap, tap… what was that tapping? I was about to find out.
One day, I got a call from my mother’s cousin Faygie, a Lubavitcher Chasid, whom I had never met. Her vision was also in “exile.” It had just happened to her, and the sudden shift had left her completely unmoored in her daily routines. Over the phone, she described how idle moments that used to be filled with reading the paper or tapping buttons on digital sweepstake casinos had vanished, replaced by a frightening sensory void. She asked, “How do you pour a glass of water? How do you find your clothes? How do you find the kitchen? How do you cook?”
The more we talked, the more I wanted to meet her. But I knew nothing about her religion. So I called Talking Books and asked if they had anything under “Jewish” and “Chasidic.” They found a book called Holy Days: The World of a Chasidic Family. Listening to that book, I discovered a Judaism I never knew. I had so many questions.
When I finally got to meet Faygie, we talked for seven hours. I got home and thought, “Nice lady, weird religion. Archaic. Crazy.” I had gone to Faygie’s on a Saturday afternoon, but what did I know? Next Saturday came, I was vacuuming. I thought, “I shouldn’t be doing this. It’s Shabbos! Wait a minute. I’m going to Church tomorrow!” I tried to continue vacuuming but couldn’t. Tap, tap, tap… it started again. What was that tapping?
As I put the vacuum away the doorbell rang. It was a package from my cousin Faygie. My aunt had recorded the book “Toward a Meaningful Life” by Rabbi Simon Jacobson. Since I had so many questions, she thought maybe I would like a copy. I began listening to the tape and was about to discover what those 40 years of tapping were. The first chapter is all about the Jewish soul.
That’s what the tapping was. My soul did not want me to do anything that would separate me from it. My soul was guiding me, directing me, protecting me all those years. That was the tapping. At that point the tapping changed. Instead of telling me what not to do, it would tell me what to do because Judaism is positive, not negative.
What do you do when you have been away from home for 40 years? I had spent 40 years in a Christian wilderness. But at the end of every wilderness experience is a promised land; and I was about to find mine in Chasidic philosophy.
Within two weeks I had resigned from lecturing. Within three weeks, I was no longer teaching Sunday school. But I wanted to know more, and all I had was that book. I called directory information and asked, “Do you have anything under Lubavitch?” The operator asked, “How do you spell it?” I had no idea. I tried Hebrew University. “Do you know how to get in touch with anyone Lubavitch?” No. I called Hebrew College, which is more local. “Hello, do you know how I can get in touch with anyone Lubavitch?” “No, ma’am. Would you like to speak to our librarian?” I was on the verge of tears when it came to me to call Israeli Bookshop in Brookline. “Do you know how I can get in touch with anyone Lubavitch?”
“Sure! Call the Chabad House!” was the reply.
What a relief! After days of effort, Joanne at the Chabad House gave me the toll-free number for the Tape of the Month Club by Rabbi Manis Friedman. I ordered every tape available. Now I was listening to the book and the tapes and it was getting very hard for me to go to Church. I realized that I was going to have to leave the church and I was terrified. I would wake up in the middle of the night shaking; shaking so badly that the bed would shake as well.
What was going to happen to me?
If I left the church, I would lose every friend I had, bar none, and more than half my income. But you cannot base a spiritual decision on a material fear, and I knew I was going to do it. Listening to the tapes helped calm me down. Before I left the Church, I wanted to give each of the other 30 Jews in that church a copy of Toward a Meaningful Life. After I had given every Jew the book, I walked out of that Church and never went back.
To whom else could I give the book? In my apartment building was only one other Jew, a man with AIDS. His relatives had turned their backs on him and he had given up on Judaism years ago.
I grabbed my book, my cane, my keys, took the elevator downstairs and groped my way down the hall, hoping to find the right apartment. When he opened the door, he said, “What’s that? One of your Christian books?” I said, “No, it is one of yout books.” He responded, “I told you, Judaism doesn’t work for me.”
My reply was, “I said that for 40 years, too. Look, if you went to the Rebbe, he would love you unconditionally. Would you love him enough to see what he has to say to you? It could heal you.” I left the bookwith him. I did not hear from him for about a week. Finally, he called me.
“Schwartz, I’ve finished your book. I don’t agree with all of it. I think I’ll read it again.” A few days later, he went into the AIDS ward of a local hospital. Along with his toothbrush and pajamas, he took the book. When he became too weak to hold up the book, I brought him the book on tape. One night he could not sleep and decided to listen to the tape. It was three o’clock in the morning, so he began listening to the tape on headphones because he did not want to disturb the other patients. Suddenly the man two beds down from him shouted out, “Hey, are you listening to that Schneerson thing again? Take the headphones off! We want to listen, too!” One morning he called me. “Marciale! I think I made my peace with G-d. Thank you for giving me that book.” A few hours later, he passed away.
One of the ways is with those of us who are reading this book. We are lost, but we are not a lost cause. We all want to come home. In the past few years I have discovered that Judaism is more than the eye can see. It is a journey from darkness to light; the light of the Torah.
Tags: mission, faith, hope
Posted in My Story About The Book, Personal Life, The Book: Toward a Meaningful Life, Personal Stories | 2 Comments »
February 13th, 2017
Dear Rabbi Simon Jacobson,
I finished your book “Towards a Meaningful Life.” I was overwhelmed and it was very insightful. Thank you for writing it, I do appreciate it.
I met you when you toured in Birmingham, Alabama and was deeply touched and moved by your seminar at Barnes and Nobles. The reason I was so moved was your statement “Your being born is God’s way of saying ‘you matter‘” I think that statement answered a lot of questions for me. I have been suicidal for a while, spent some time in a hospital and could “not” get an answer to life. When you said that line, it was a place inside of me that pierced through me and opened up a world of new possibilities and serene peace.
I went to shake your hand in Birmingham and told you that I had an undergrad in Theology and was acquiring my masters in Divinity at a Christian Seminary. I had taken a break from Seminary because I did not feel as if it was the proper decision for me. In my studies at College and Seminary, I mainly focused of Jewish tradition, the Hebrew Language and Jews today.
I have a deep respect for Jewish people and their traditions. To be brutally honest, your lecture was much more enjoyable than a lot of my professor’s lectures in college.
Sincerely,
Tags: faith, hope, mission
Posted in My Story About The Book, Personal Life, Emotions & Psychology, The Book: Toward a Meaningful Life, Pain & Suffering, Personal Stories | No Comments »
February 13th, 2017
Another late night….and I am finishing the last of Toward a Meaningful Life…
(of course, you don’t know me….I am a just a reader who has felt compelled to write you and share my joy at discovering Toward a Meaningful Life…..)
……I read a small book this summer. A fable about “following your dreams.” It touched me, and awoke in me a need to address a spiritual thirst that I had long since ignored. I took from this book a lesson: that if you search sincerely, the Universe (and I understood this to be G-d’s Universe) will conspire to help you find what you are looking for. The problem was that I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking for….I knew it had to do with G-d, and Judaism (for I always knew that this was home) –but I was not focused. Still, I remained open to possibilities…I kept my eyes open for them.
And with eyes wide open, during those surreal wee hours of the morning–when I couldn’t sleep–I was browsing online and read the tale of a young man’s recent discovery (or rediscovery) of G-d: for he had become a baal-teshuvah. He spoke about addressing this longing in the soul…for I have always known that if I got my spiritual house in order, everything else in my life would fall into place.
It was then recommended that I read Toward a Meaningful Life…
A spark was ignited that night…and it continues to enlighten me. Toward a Meaningful Life has moved me at times to tears. Tears of joy, from a soul that has been acknowledged! I have been reading other books as well, about Judaism. I have met other ”helpmates” online, including a Rabbis, who seem to appear with uncanny sensitivity to my search: but you remember, my eyes have been open, and I recognize them more easily now!
The road I travel, once covered with dust, becomes more clear to me, and my steps more sure. Toward a Meaningful Life and indeed the wisdom of the Rebbe, is a powerful guide.
Beautifully written…Thank you very much.
Tags: faith, hope, mission
Posted in My Story About The Book, Personal Life, The Book: Toward a Meaningful Life, Personal Stories | No Comments »
February 13th, 2017
Dear Simon,
Although some time has passed since you came to speak in our community, your words and physical presence have remained in my heart. I was very grateful for the opportunity to meet you and be able to integrate a new dimension of meaning to an already meaningful book. Yes, I had hoped to visit even more that evening; however, it gave me great pleasure to see so many people lined up behind me – other souls longing for a connection with you. I hope the evening and visit to our area was fulfilling for you as well.
There is a chapter in your book that I am pondering. It is the chapter entitled “Birth” and it is one I have read several times.
Mostly, I have turned to it to integrate the meaning of the gift of life – a new baby being born – the soul entering the body – the miraculous moment of my grandaughter’s birth – the note of welcome I write before I attend a bris – my partnership with the A-mighty in the creation of our two daughters. Always I have found words of wisdom.
This week I read it with my own birth in my heart. I will celebrate my 59th birthday next week, on December 31st. Yes, it’s the same night that many will be celebrating the millenium (or as my brother says…”mileenium, melenium, malloniumm??? What are they all talking about? Y2K? Perhaps we can find an herbal remedy?”) This year, and next year when I turn 60 , seems to feel especially challenging to me, full of urgency, learning, questioning, growing and – especially full of vulnerability. I am challenged by this chapter – in your book and in my life – by the questions: ” How great is the disparity between what I have accomplished and what I can accomplish? Am I spending my time properly or am I involved in things that distract me from my higher calling? How can I strengthen the thread that connects my outer life and my inner life?” (That last one is the big one for me). So, here I am, reading your chapter for the first time, because now I am being born.
“There is no better way to celebrate a birthday than to commit a special act of goodness.”
I will ponder this expression of gratitude for being born and alive, and pray that my expression will be worthy. I was inspired to write, and then share a personal expression on the eve of last Shabbos, my birthday, and the millenium:
Tonight I am truly blessed. Tonight I celebrate my birthday – at 7 PM I turn 59…but really, then again it is the start of my 60th year of life…but doesn’t that sound similar to the millennium debate…does it come this year, or as some say, shouldn’t it be celebrated next year? One thing we do know…there is a celebration in the air.
I have spent a good part of this year – my 59th year -celebrating, simply celebrating the miracle and significance of my birth. I have learned that my birth means that I am G-d’s child – Batya – daughter of G-d. My birth is G-d’s way of saying he has invested His will and energy in creating me and that He has given me a unique mission…and that He wants me to pay attention and listen to the special messages He continues to send. And, you know, something special does happen on my birthday each year. The same energy that G-d invested in me at birth, well, it feels present once again. I am learning how to be receptive to that energy – to listen to His messages and to celebrate my birth and the joy of Him in my daily life. I continue to ask and to struggle through the important questions about my unique mission. I especially wonder how can I strengthen the fragile thread that connects my outer life and my inner life. My physical world connecting to my spiritual world.
Tonight Hashem has blessed me with greater clarity. The message tonight is about those fragile threads, or strings or connections. They are embodied tonight as they are every Shabbos in the string or wick of our Shabbos candles. When I fulfill the special mitzvah of lighting the Shabbos candles shortly before sunset, together with Jewish women all over the world, I see the wick light into a flame – glowing, dancing, reaching upward to touch and connect with something higher, and richer and deeper. That candle lighting moment is the magical mystical time when the Divine Presence is closer and more intimate and more reachable. It is a moment of such unique opportunity for insight, growth, inspiration and a deepening of connection to G-d. And that flame, I know now, is my soul, my spiritual self, reaching and soaring upward, while the wick, the string, connects me through the candle supported in the candlestick, it is my physical self grounded in the physical world -connecting my inner and outer world Now that’s worth counting the moments toward and watching the clock to capture the cosmic moment as the sun goes down. Tonight, I will celebrate the countdown until midnight, I will celebrate my birthday…But Shabbos with its rush of preparations to be ready to light before sunset… to be ready to illuminate the world with the light of our souls, to draw down the Divine Presence into the sanctuary of our homes… now that’s worth counting the moments toward, and that’s a message worth paying attention to.
Thank you for your guidance and your connection.
Tags: hope, purpose of life, mission, birth, birthday, Divine purpose, faith
Posted in My Story About The Book, Personal Life, Birth & Birthdays, Life Cycles, The Book: Toward a Meaningful Life, Personal Stories | No Comments »
February 9th, 2017
I don’t know about you, but occasionally I feel like I am about to blow a gasket. It usually happens when I am on deadline and something crucial breaks. It’s usually the computer that breaks. Or the car. Or I’m running late and can’t find my keys. Or maybe my toddler won’t get in his stroller and I have to get out of the house, take him to daycare, and go to work. These are the times when I might say something I regret by speaking in way that is less than dignified.
It’s in these moments when the art of chilling becomes very important. Like most arts, it’s hard to immediately produce results when one is not in practice. Chilling out is like playing a guitar. If you’re not practicing your scales, your chords, and memorizing the patterns of the fret board, it will be almost impossible to play the song on demand. It’s not fair that we recognize that musicianship takes practice, but as a culture we don’t “get” that emotional/spiritual work does too.
Practice Makes Perfect
Walk behind slow people on the street. In your mind, give them permission to walk slowly. Try it — I do it often because it really does build up muscle memory. Notice your thoughts as you walk. Notice the sensations in your body. Are your shoulders hunched up by your ears? Is your breathing shallow? Are you clenching your jaw or grimacing? What are you doing with your hands? Deliberately let go of the tension in your body part by part, while continuing to walk behind the slow person. These physical signs are your signal that it’s time to chill out. You are learning to recognize them and respond to them consciously.
In the Moment
When you feel the tell-tale signs of wanting to barrel your way through a situation that you have no control over, notice the sensations in your body. What are you doing with your face, your jaw, your shoulders, your breathing, your stomach, your hands? Release them one by one as you remind yourself that you have no control over this situation. You can only do your part.
The Big Picture
Ultimately, powers much bigger than we are running the world. We have to do our best to respond as co-creators. In the moment, do your body scan and relax each body part, and tell yourself, “I can’t control this, but I can help to create a solution.”
Exercise: Try the exercise discussed above. Reflect on your experience. Record your answer in MyMLC.
Go deeper into this subject: A Plan to Handle Anxiety, Depression and Anxiety, A Shortcut to Overcome Anxiety, How to Settle the Mind, Rabbi Jacobson Discusses Anger, Soul Byte Video: Anger
Tags: anxiety, anger
Posted in Soul Gym, Personal Life, Emotions & Psychology | 2 Comments »
February 9th, 2017
Soul Transportation
This weekend has a special name: “Shabbat Shirah” – the Shabbat of Song, so called because this week’s Torah portion contains the song sung by Israel after the parting of the Red Sea. Accordingly, this week’s essay addresses the soul of song – the power it has to transform our lives.
What gives music its power? How does it have the ability to transport us to another time and place? To lift a broken spirit? To bring a tear to a happy soul? Why does a song have the capacity to reach the depths of our heart, bring old memories alive, awaken our deepest aspirations and naturally cause us to dance to its beat?
What type of language is this language of song, and where did it originate? We learn the spoken language at home and at school. But who taught us how to sing?
What is the soul of song?
The mystics explain it this way:
How do souls travel? Bodies move about on legs or in vehicles. But what moves a soul? A soul doesn’t have legs and cannot be contained in an automobile or other vehicle. What carries our souls from one place to another?
The Kabbalah offers a fascinating answer: The only way a soul can move about is through a song. Without song the soul remains stuck in one place.
In the Holy Temple in Jerusalem there were fifteen steps corresponding to the fifteen Shir HaMaalos (song of ascents) in the book of Psalms (120-135), which the Levites would sing as they stood on the steps. In order to climb from one step to the next a song had to be sung.
In our material world we can convince ourselves that we are mobile – movers and shakers – even if our souls never budge an inch. There are people who chalk up millions of frequent flyer miles, others who move around in all the high circles, and yet others who are climbing the corporate ladder. But are they truly moving? Their bodies may be traveling places, but are their souls in flight? Then there are people who perhaps sit in the same place, praying or meditating, but spiritually they are moving millions of miles.
But in the spiritually intact Holy Temple, where spirit met matter and the physical was seamlessly aligned with its inner purpose, you simply could not move from one step to the next unless your soul was lifted through song.
Why do songs have this power? Because they are the language of the Divine.
A parable:
When G-d created the universe, He consulted the angels: “Should I bestow upon the human race the gift of music?” The elitist angels unanimously replied with a resounding “no.” “The human race will not appreciate the sublime power of melody. They will abuse and commercialize it. They won’t know how to appreciate angelic, divine nature of song.
“Give us your gift of music,” the angels said, “and we will sing Your praises, we will sing Your songs. We will know how to use the power of melody to reach great spiritual heights.”
G-d considered their opinion, but then overruled them. “No. I will give the gift of music to humans. Because I want them to have something to remember Me with.
“Sometimes life will be difficult. In such times the pressures can be overbearing. Man can feel depressed and hopeless. I therefore want them to have song to remind them, that even you’re stuck in the dire straits of material existence, even when you are experiencing existential loneliness and “quiet desperation,” you can break out in song, which will lift your spirits.
“Sometimes life will be comfortable, too comfortable. Let man then sing to remember that there is more to life than instant gratification.
“Yes indeed,” G-d concluded, “I will give the human being My unique tongue – the language of music and song, so that he can use it to discover transcendence.”
The reason song has the ability to transport the soul is because its true nature and the source of its power is its Divine language: Song is a dialect from another plane. If the conventional word is the language of man, music is the language of the Divine.
Songs, therefore, are the wings of the soul. They have the ability to lift our spirits to unprecedented heights. They allow us to fly; to soar away to far-away places – places that are beyond pedestrian life and mundane monotony.
Song is spiritual transportation. As one Rebbe put it: The spoken and written word is the “quill of the mind;” Music is the “quill of the heart.” If a soul looks like a flame, it sounds like a song.
Ahh, who hasn’t been drawn by the wish to just go out and sing, unfettered, unbound, to the open heavens. To get away from it all and sing away, with your hands waving free, like there is no tomorrow. To close your eyes, and allow the music to take you to unknown places beyond the anguish and pain of life’s tribulations?
This may explain the compelling power of music in the last 50 years. Why youth today are drawn to music – in ways that are unprecedented in history. Being a language of the soul, music fills the deep spiritual void left by corrupt or irrelevant religion and other belief systems. For good or for bad, music has become the “hymns” of today’s souls and concerts their cathedrals. Starting back in the 50’s music represented the voice of rebellion, the expression of individuality, the challenge to the status-quo of the conformist “man in the grey flannel suit.” The soul found its expression in song – to free itself from the materialistic bondage of the body; a way for us to dialogue with G-d (whether we know it or not).
Unfortunately, like any powerful force, music too, untamed and unfocused, can be hijacked and turned into another hedonistic vehicle of indulgence rather than transcendence, narcissism rather than selflessness, entertainment instead of inspiration.
But at its heart song has a hold on our souls because it is ultimately Divine language – the natural language of the soul. (No accident that music is called “soul”).
Our challenge is to recognize the true nature of song’s power and the reason this gift was given to us: To allow us to touch the Divine and integrate it into our lives. Now just to listen to the pleasant harmonies and dance to its beat, but to allow the soulful language of music to refine our personalities, strengthen our commitments, connect with our higher calling, help us build healthy homes and families and illuminate each of our respective corners of the world with our unique light.
We live in a dichotomous, fragmented world. Matter and spirit compartmentalized make it terribly difficult to hear the music of our souls.
Instead, we fabricate a superficial language to maneuver in our mundane lives. Music then becomes an exotic escape to an island. In search of some relief from the quotidian, you plug in your headphones, and block out the world around you – and you soar on music’s wings. But then you have to return, and then the music dies…
In truth, however, an inner hum fills all of existence. Every creature, every molecule, every atom emits its own unique sound. Every soul pulsates and purrs. Even when the “rush hour” of our lives with all its extraneous noise drowns out the “gentle, subtle voice” within, the music continues to play (even if you’re not plugged in).
In a seamless world all our experiences would sound like a song, all our movements would look like a dance. If our insides and outsides would be aligned, we would be singing all the time, and we wouldn’t be able to move unless we had a song to sing us along (as it was in the Temple).
Imagine: What would it be like to hear the music of the cosmos? How would it feel the song of your soul? Of other souls? How would life be different if you could generate a song at will?
Every time you experience a moment of truth – an experience that resonates – we are hearing the inner music of existence.
How do we access the music within at all times? By getting in touch with your life’s purpose, and recognizing that every moment of your day, every activity, every interaction is a spiritual opportunity. You are charged with the mission to realize each of these opportunities by ensuring that all the material gain is simply a means to express higher spiritual truths and bring more virtue into this world.
This attitude taps into the very fabric of the harmonic chords of existence, which allow us to hear the music within.
In every life experience you have two options to choose from: To serve your own needs, or to serve a higher cause. When you touch the surface of the experience it usually will result in narcissistic results. But when you tap into the inner meaning of the experience, its music will play.
In every experience we can either just ride through the experience, or we can learn to play the inner chords that release a song.
There are people in this world that turn every thing they touch into music, every thing they come into contact with into a dance. They are alive, brimming with energy. They are electric, and everything that they touch becomes electrified.
Some people deaden every thing they touch. Some people bring every thing alive.
Imagine a world in which music is playing all the time. Imagine hearing a song in every breath you take, in every step you make. Imagine a life in which every move you feel the inner rhythm.
As we enter the “Shabbat of song” we are imbued with the power to turn our lives into one extended symphony.
High time to start singing.
Will you electrify your corner of the world or will you dampen it?
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Question for the Week: What does music mean for you?
Tags: music, Creativity, Inspirtation, song, angels
Posted in Weekly Parsha, Soul & Mystical, Shmot, Beshalach, Social, Spiritual, Art & Music | 17 Comments »
