Studying Shnei Luchot HaBrit: #1, Lost and Found

Shnei Luchot HaBrit (Two Tablets of the Law) #1:   Lost and Found

Two years ago, after reading and teaching regularly from Yesod Ve’Shoresh Ha’Avodah, I was looking for a new source of inspiration to study in a similar way – slowly over time – like Daf Yomi but not necessarily a page a day.  Yesod ve’Shoresh Ha’avodah a book by Rabbi Alexander Ziskind of Grodno (d. 1793), is a book of ethics and reflection on Jewish life and prayer.  Joseph Klausner’s article in Encyclopedia Judaica, on his ancestor’s work, explains, “the essence of observance is intent (kavvanah); the deed alone, without intention, is meaningless.”  The way he taught that kavannah to pray to God always  joyfulness, for example, inspired R. Nahman of Breslov to say that R. Ziskind was a Hasid even before there was Hasidism.”  

The pace of my life at the time I studied and taught this book, as well as work and family stress, was helpful in a way I could not have predicted.  One lesson specifically helped clarify a healthier perspective for me as Ziskind teaches us the value of hishtavut, that we should neither pay attention to the negative messages people direct to us nor seek praise from others.  Instead we should be shaveh, as the root of the word indicates, meaning balanced, calm, or in a state of equanimity.  Suffice to say it’s very difficult to live in the “hishtavut zone” when it feels like your life is falling apart with troubles and work is bleeding over into discord at home.  Somehow though I kept returning to, and reminding myself of, hishtavut and when I took up a new job in a new place the ship of life that had tossed through countless waves finally began to settle into a reasonably flowing current.  

I bought myself a set of the Shnei Luchot Habrit by R. Isaiah Horowitz as a gift in honor of completing my study and teaching of Yesod Ve’Shoresh.  I chose this particular book to study by a method comparable to shopping on Amazon when we find after scrolling down the screen a section titled “People who bought this also bought…”  I was looking for further inspiration for life from a point of view not solely rooted in Hasidism or the Talmud or Jewish law.  And in searching for similar themes I discovered Shnei Luchot HaBrit (Meaning “The Two Tablets of the Covenant”), a multi-volume work that Horowitz wrote one hundred years prior to Ziskind with commentary on faith, life, ethics and more.  I began reading Shnei Luchot during the time of upheaval which led to packing up our house to move.  The monumental job of discarding, donating, and packing for the move derailed that study project, and then, after we arrived to our new house, I found the box with the other three volumes of Shnei Luchot but not the first one.  After several attempts to find the lost book, I summoned up hishtavut again and turned attention to the new job.  Like the Ark of the Covenant, the book called ‘Two Tablets of the Covenant’, disappeared into the ether.

When the Covid-19 epidemic struck, I was already six-months into my new job, and with the kids deep into the school year, it was necessary to carve out enough working spaces in the house for everyone.  One such space is a desk in the basement where I usually sit to sort mail.  Frustrated by the buildup of paper on this small black desk, I went through it all and organized it.  There is a pink storage cube by the desk with even more papers in it that I reached into and pulled out yet another stack to sort.  When I lifted up this pile, the first volume of Shnei Luchot was there.  In that moment, I felt like Indiana Jones uncovering the Lost Ark.  It felt as though the disappearance was not an accident.  Just at the moment I could begin to mentally devote enough energy and presence of mind to study something for its own sake, as opposed to material for work, it appeared as a chance to resume a relationship that had gone cold.  Looking back on the discovery, I am reminded of Paolo Coelho’s teaching in the Alchemist, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”  

Through this reflection on studying Shnei Luchot, I want to share both R. Horowitz’ wisdom and also the experience of studying a text in the context of real life and living.  The act of studying is an admittance of a teaching I heard in High School, a quotation from Aristotle, “The more we know, the more we realize we don’t know.”  During this time of uncertainty, it’s important for us to stay hungry for learning, for asking good questions, and challenge ourselves to grow.  Through sharing my learning project, I hope I can contribute to the conversation about how we choose to live both during this difficult time and beyond.