One (Part Three) - Out of Bounds

At this point in my thinking, I was finally beginning to grasp certain concepts I have seen in Chassidic writings, but could not until now wrap my head around.

Halacha (Jewish Ritual Law) teaches that although one can fulfill his technical requirement to pray by reciting the prayers in the absence of really paying attention to what he is saying, there are exceptions to this rule. One of those is the first verse of Shema which, if someone recites it while he is daydreaming about something else, he has not fulfilled his requirement, and must repeat the Shema.

Rabbi Isaac of Komarna, one of the most intensely Kabbalistic of all the Chassidic writers, says that rather than repeating the Shema one should accustom himself to remembering that God is in everything, even in his stray thoughts. One who truly understands this will realize that his day dream during Shema was not a violation of the will of God thereby invalidating his recital of Shema, but was indeed God's will. As such, he should not repeat it.

I would add that as the idea of Shema is the declaration of God's permeation of all of existence, filling one's mind with this consciousness and thereby not repeating the Shema, is in and of itself, the very same declaration.

To be continued

Black Hole

Sometimes I can get down; I can pretty much feel like giving up. It can take a lot out of me to keep pushing myself to go on despite all the obstacles that are before me. The Ishbitzer Rebbe suggests that this attitude is what the Torah is addressing when it writes about Chilul Hashem. Conventionally, this is understood to mean acting in a manner that desecrates the name of God, but he takes it one step further. He says that the word Chilul (חילול) shares the same Hebrew word as Chalal (חלל) a hole, or depression.

He explains that the root cause of giving up is the feeling that it is beyond God's ability to assist the person out of his predicament. The person lacks the ability at that time to find the light of God in his situation, and feels that God is absent.

In that sense the person ready to give up is saying that there is a hole, a void, where God is absent; whereas in truth, God is omnipotent. It is that attitude of there being a hole in God, so to speak, that the Torah is telling us is the root of depression and the ultimate desecration of God.

This is very much a Breslev type of approach wherein it is understood that being down and depressed is the greatest possible sin. I have seen that Rabbi Aruosh writes that the cause of frustration and depression is that the person feels that he is on his own and he needs to accomplish the task, and finds himself wanting. In truth any person doesn't have the tools needed to complete the task. Everyone needs God's help to accomplish. Getting out of the frustrated frame of mind requires the cognizance that it is God who will get the task done, and leaving it up to Him to do so. By bringing God back in, the void is filled, God is back, and the problems go away.