“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh parshas Ki Setzei
8 Elul 5780/August 27, 2020
Avos perek 1-2
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IN AND OUT
Before
I go to sleep most nights, I walk over to the beds of each of my children to
kiss them good night. Before doing so, I watch them sleeping peacefully for a
few moments. It reminds me what an invaluable gift each one is and how thankful
I am for them. It’s not always easy to remember that during the day, especially
when it gets hectic and tense. So, when my day is over and they are asleep,
it’s a perfect time for that reminder. In addition, studies show that if a
person feels grateful before going to sleep, they have better sleep quality.[1]
(I should add that these days the three aliens - also called adolescents - living in our home are often up later than I am. But I wake up in the mornings well before they are. While I don’t have that level of appreciation for them when they are speaking too loudly on the phone and I’m trying to go to sleep, I could appreciate them in the quiet moments of the early morning...)
The other night as I watched my children sleeping peacefully, it struck me that breathing symbolizes the essence of life. Our souls, which emanate from a pure, celestial world, are fused with our animalistic bodies, formed from materials of this world. The role of mankind is to bridge these two diverse worlds, by infusing spirituality into our mundane activities.
As we breath, our bodies move outwards and inwards, a symbol of our goal to live within ourselves by constantly growing and personally striving, and yet beyond ourselves, for the good and benefit of others.
Rabbi David Lapin recently noted that something seems to be desperately wrong with the way we are breathing. Covid-19 primarily attacks the respiratory system and has infected millions of people throughout the world. Wearing a mask over your nose and mouth definitely doesn’t make breathing any easier. In addition, the emotive image that triggered fury in hundreds of cities across the world is that of an arrested man’s last words: “I can’t breathe, sir.”
What
could be wrong with the way we are breathing? What could the message be that
Hashem is trying to send us about our attitude towards breathing, and our usage
of breath?
Rabbi Lapin explained that breathing is much more than a mechanistic activity
of respiration. The word for breathing in Hebrew is נשימה related to the word נשמה, which means soul. Through our breathing we connect to our
souls, and thereby to G-d Himself. It is also our vehicle for speech, our
ability to articulate complex ideas, words of beauty and inspiration, or words
of vulgarity and destruction.
“Have we lost mastery of our
breath? Have we lost connection with our own souls through our breath? Have we
lost connection with one another through our breath? We don’t speak touchingly,
or lovingly to one another; we just text. More importantly, we don’t listen to
the breath of one another or to their words, or the silence between their
words. Breathing isn’t just a mechanism. ויפח באפיו
נשמת חיים – Hashem
breathed into Adam’s nostrils a breath of life. Breathing is our power of
humanity, the power of our divinity.”
Perhaps
there is no time of year to reflect upon the process of breathing more than
Elul and Rosh Hashanah. In the Rosh Hashana davening, we pray for the time when,
“everyone who has a soul in his nostrils will proclaim ‘Hashem, the G-d of
Yisroel, is king and His Kingship dominates everything’.”
This time-period is symbolized
by the shofar, sounded through the medium of breath. The disease that ravaged
and shut down society during the last few months, primarily attacks our ability
to perform the mitzva of shofar.
The shofar is the cry of the soul within. It’s a reminder of our mission to simultaneously live within and beyond ourselves, like our very breath - in and out.
This is a time when we can gain mastery over our speech and over our breathing and listening. It is the piercing call of the shofar, the poignant message of the pandemic, and the symbolic message of the essence of life.
Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos,
R’ Dani and Chani Staum
[1] “Gratitude influences sleep through the mechanism of pre-sleep cognition”, November 2008, Alex Wood, et al.