Back to 'Basics' in Jewish life

My tennis coaches taught me that when my game was not going well, I should go back to basics:  Smooth swing, see the ball hit the racquet, and keep my feet moving.  With fewer things to think about, we will be less distracted and more deliberate.  Much later in life, a friend was teaching me the basics of Tai Chi Chih.  He explained to me that I should allow the movements to happen without trying.  I should not push with the strength of my muscles but rather let the actions flow, as if they are happening on their own.

So many things distract us both from what and how we live our Jewish lives.  These distractions can consume us to the point that one day we may wake up and wonder who we are.  No doubt, many distractions within the organized Jewish world, and in organizations in the larger world, are nearly impossible to avoid.  Politics and personality conflicts are common. 

The Hasidic masters referred to distractions during prayer as ‘machshavot zarot’, ‘external thoughts’.  One way to reconnect after an intruding thought is to delve into the thought to find the holiness at its source.  A method from meditation wisdom for this is to recognize the thought without trying to shoo it away and simply move it to the ‘side of our minds’ until we’re ready to give it more attention.

If we are plagued by machshavot zarot in our communities, we can get back to basics, to fundamentals.  We can allow our principles and values to guide the flow of action, and we can both seek the holiness within the difficulties so that we might raise up the holiness out of the darkness of the shells that cover it.  Rabbi Akiva said, “Love your fellow human being as yourself,” is a klal gadol baTorah, a fundamental principle of the Torah.  If we are looking to emphasize one fundamental, one value, one principle, then this one is a good place to start.  If we can see ourselves in the other person’s shoes, in the other person’s life, and as part of the phone in which she speaks and the computer on which she writes, then we will listen and respond with empathy.  Another great Jewish fundamental value from Rabbi Yosi (Avot 2:12) is, “Let your fellow’s property be as dear to you as our own.”  We tend to cherish what is ours, what is familiar, what is important to us, but we may not honor as much what is important to others.  This second value is a completion of the first:  Love your neighbor as yourself by honoring and valuing what is significant to her as much as what is important to me.  And just what exactly is important to me?

If the difficulties only represent pettiness, stubbornness, and other gratuitous uses of power, then we may only be able to mourn and taste bitter tears until hearts soften and real dialogue begins.

Let’s hope we never have to begin in that place.