A few years ago, I took up rappelling, the art of descending sheer cliffs by rope and harness, so that we could explore the red-rock canyons of Southern Utah. After I had begun to learn the basics, Steve, our guide, said to me, “You’re one of those people who wants to speed up when your adrenaline starts to flow.”
Some things in life have to be earned, and some things cannot be. We can earn respect and reputation by our behavior, but sometimes we need help, or forgiveness, or just a break, that we haven’t earned and don’t deserve. And we can also give to others gifts they don’t deserve and don’t have to earn. That sort of undeserved kindness is captured by the word Hesed, often translated as lovingkindness.
The other day I had coffee with Hal, the father of one of our chavurah members. He had just written his second novel, this one based on his amazing experiences as a Jewish-American soldier fighting the Nazis in World War II. We got together to talk about his book.
One of the current terms of religious discussion that I’ve grown to suspect is “spirituality.” I’m tired of hearing people say, “I’m not religious; I’m spiritual,” which often means I don’t have any outward signs of religious or transcendent life, but, trust me, I possess many lofty sentiments.
Chesed or loving-kindness is an essential human attribute, but it’s first of all a divine attribute. If we want to cultivate chesed, we should pay attention to how Hashem exercises it. And God’s chesed is on display at the conclusion of the Haftarot of Comfort, the passages from Isaiah that we read during this period between Tisha B’av and Rosh Hashanah.
There are proper times and places for things. Our world where one can have e-mail, facebook, a phone conversation, and texting all happening simultaneously would like us to think otherwise. Nevertheless, I think most people still know of moments in which everything else needs to be pushed aside for the sake of the task at hand.
I can’t tell you how many times someone has said that to me when they’ve asked me to get involved in another project. I’m a husband and father of 3 teenagers, work a full-time job, lead a synagogue community, and am involved in a dozen or so other small projects on the side (including Riverton Mussar). This keeps me busy and out of trouble.
Use these questions to evaluate your day:
Are you able to focus on your Creator daily in such a way that prayer is effortless? If not, why?
Are you easily distracted? Or do you ignore others when you are doing something that seems important to you? Where is your balance of concentration?
Do you focus your mind energy to complete a task, or are you easily distracted and take long periods of time to complete something?
Do you strive to finish things and finish them well for the sake of Heaven?
Are you able to create long-term goals and stick to them, or do you give up easily when there are obstacles?
Do you make time for meditation? If not, is it because you have difficulty concentrating?
Are you able to concentrate on what is around you and see more deeply into matters? Are you involved in superficial tasks and reading so that you never reach deeper levels of understanding?
