Happy erev shabbat white city shabbat! so sorry for late notice, many last minute guests descended on me thank G-d! Shabbat comes in at 7:28 and goes out at 8:30. This weeks parasha EKEV contains the famous verse that we recite every shabath and every time we eat bread: וְאָכַלְתָּ וְשָׂבָעְתָּ וּבֵרַכְתָּ אֶת יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֱלֹהֶיךָ עַל הָאָרֶץ הַטֹּבָה אֲשֶׁר נָתַן לָךְ 8:10 And you will eat and be sated, and you shall bless Hashem, your God, for the good land He has given you This is the commandment to recite Bircat Hamazon, which applies whenever one eats a meal with bread (Brachot 48a) Jews are really obsessed with blessings. If you ask anyone why we say these blessings the answer might be to express gratitude, it is awareness, or it is a mitzvah. I think few people would say it is a spiritual experience… Spirituality and Energy In our western society today we use the words spirituality and energy way too often and for too many things. Yoga, meditation, popular kabbalah, different religious experiences and prayers made spirituality accessible basically to anyone. At the saem time spirituality became somewhat cheapened, it is cliché, popculture, or maybe even just empty words. There is an advantage with the fact that spirituality became so easily accessable, as if you want a spiritual experience you don’t have to fly anymore thousands of miles to the secret temples of the Himalayas, or to the kirgiz steppes, or to the soith american temple-cities or to a hidden corner of Jerusalem. “Spiritualty” is basically accessible in any corner of any metropolitan city: people are singing halleluiahs in churches and kabbalah centers; chanting ohms in yoga studios and retreats centers, or just listening to classes about inner paths and transcendence during lunch breaks in workplaces. Definitions in Science Spirituality and energy is a definition of an experience that is hard to describe. And definitions, despite that they are necessary, are always dangerous. Richard Feynman one of the great thinkers of the 20th century (he got the Nobel Prize for quantum electrodynamics in 1965) when he talked about the danger of definitions in science he quoted a poem: A centipede was happy quite until a toad in fun Said “pray which leg comes after which?” This raised his doubt to such a pitch He fell distracted in the ditch Not knowing how to run. This is often referred to as the centipede effect or centipede syndrome and its message is clear, things that are natural to us, once we try to define them they become confusing. Feynman says that definition is not science . However, that doesn’t mean that just because it is not science that we don’t have to teach words and use definitions. So what is the definition of a spiritual experience? If we take away the scientific terms I think at the end of the day spirituality means some kind of connection, a connection outside of your day-to-day material reality. Spirituality doesn’t necessary mean that you connect with the Divine, it can be an experience or connecto to nature or music and it can even be a connection to something tangible such as to another person, or even to food. So lets look at the our passuk in this weeks parasha: “And you will eat and be sated, and you shall bless Hashem…” The verse is talking about the mitzvah of blessing the food after you ate (bread) and became satisfied. I would like to speak about what we do before we eat the bread and this time I would like to share with you something personal, probably one of my first real spiritual experiences. I remember clearly that 10 years ago, when I started to go to Shabbat dinners in Budapest, I found it very strange to bless the food before we started to eat. As a young ambitious yuppie i worked 80-90hours a week and often was lucky to even have 10minutes to run down to grab some junk food for lunch or even for dinner. You can imagine how it was, never had a minute of thinking about what I was eating, why was I eating and even more so, never thought of expressing gratitude to anyone or anything that I was able to eat. I felt that I worked hard for my money...and food was given and was granted to me… …I remember so clearly coming to my first shabath experience table to this special family (they are called Lea and Eddy) and you could already smell at the door the wonderful fragrance of the food- wow I was so hungry, Pavlov’s reflexes have started. I said lets grab something, but No! Not yet . little I know then… I had to wait. OK so I came to the table and there were all those small beautiful israeli dishes on the table, each with its distinct colours and odors.. ok lets just have a little bite now! But No my friend! Not Yet! I I also noticed that although there 10 israelis around the table, but nobody touched the food…I have never seen that before…what is the force that could stop them…) I still didn’t know then what was waiting for me. So first we had to wait until everybody arrived (15min) then I had to wait for everyone coming to the table (another 5 minutes) and then we had a few introductory song (extra 5minutes) followed by the sc Kiddush. OK I thought that’s it…But I didn’t know the worst to come: the ritual hand wash procedure and silence–with 10 israelis, can you imagine… waiting in line in front of the sink and then of course being an amateur I was first one to wash…back to the table..and now they told me you cant talk until I get my protion. Now that took an other 5mnutes. Whats going on? ? I know we jews always like to suffer …but What is this Jewish sado-masochism? However, after weeks after weeks, months after months, going through the same procedure… while I was sitting there quietly at the table waiting, i had a special opportunity to go through something that I would call a first spiritual experience…. during rushing through the weekdays when we are mainly connected to the physical world, running from one place to another, we never really have time to stop and think about the reasons and meanings behind all the things we do…etc Mainly because we are taking everything given. Friday night, however, when Shabbat comes in, the religious procedures basically forces you to slow down; forces you to get out from your daily paradigm and routines. And if you are ready to open up your eyes, ready to see beyond all these incomprehensible strange seemingly rigid procedures and look under this superficial cover you might be able to see the world from a totally new perspective ( I guess that is one of definitions of “spiritual”). So here you are, hungry, and the food in front of you with all its beauty and fragrance… still don’t rush, hold it for a second. Breathe in breath out, so here is the food on my plate. When was the last time you thought about gratitude? What do you usually do? You just eat as driving through a McDrive, meeting w the client: order chew swallow, and pay... However, now you have the chance to understand a bit more.... how? Slow down, breath in breath out. Well this might be a great exercise for you if you are up to it: try the following: Start contemplating about how the food got here onto your plate. And you will realise that in order to eat that piece of chicken, or even that piece of bread or tomato, actually the whole world, I am not exaggerating, the whole prefect world...actually no... much more the whole universe is serving you. what? the whole universe is serving me? ME? YES, just think about the whole chain that had to happen in order for you to have that one bite. Think about it from backwards… so an example: how did the food get to your plate? somebody had to put it on the table, before that somebody had to cook it, bake it or cut it etc, before that somebody had to carry it home, somebody had to go to the shop and buy it, somebody had to deliver it to the shop, somebody had to package it, somebody had to produce the ingredients either in case of chicken feed it, take care of it, cut it(sorry) etc or in case of the bread, cook the dough of flour and water, the flour had to be made from the grain that was grounded, the grains had to be collected from the fields, the fields had to be taken care of for years and years before the first fruit...etc… blablabla....if one of this steps in the chain had been missing...only one of the steps….there would not be no Shabbat dinner… the whole world had to serve you with a perfect balanced circulation, every day, every moment of the day, the whole universe with the harmony of the amount of rain and the distance of sun (to close it burns, to far it freezes) and the moon, and then the earth and the soil and the heat and the cold and all the bugs and animals etc etc the whole universe worked for you, served you, just that you can have that ONE BITE. I think this was my life’s first real spiritual experience. and i think it symbolises the meaning of shabat: how shabat is the time of an out of box, an out of ordinary experience. during the week we run, we toil, we stress, but there has to be a day when we can think why do we stress, where do we run...what’s the point of this whole ratrace..etc... Epilogoue If we go back to Feynman’s definitions, he brings an example of a first grade science book. There is a picture of a windable toy dog, a real dog, and a motorcycle and a question above it “what makes it move?” So the answer the teachers would say is “energy”. Energy makes it move. Feynman answer is “It would be equally well to say that God makes it move, or spirit makes it move, movability makes it move… That’s only the definition of energy.” Someone else may say it is moving because “the sun is shining”: and you would say “what? 1. Dialgoue: A: The moving of the windable toy dog has nothing to do with the sun is shining, it moved because I wound up the spring”. B: So then why are you able to move to wind up this spring? A: Because I eat (that gives me energy to move things). B: And what do you eat? A: I eat plants. B: And how do they grow? A. They grow because the sun is shining. 2. And it is the same with the dog. How do they move because they eat? And what do you eat? They eat plants. And how do they grow? They grow because the sun is shining. 3. And what about the Motorcycle? It moves because of the gasoline. And what is gasoline? Gasoline is the accumulated energy of the sun which is captured by plants and preserved in the ground. We can basically lead everything back to end up in the sun, just try it … (isn’t the same with G_d???) One may think that the world looks so different after learning science, and it may do. But science actually leads us to understand that everything goes back to the “One”. Which is funny as science and God are often on the two opposite sides. But if you learn science well you may still end up on the opposite sides but the opposite sides of the same coin, and the only question is how you look at it. ...so this Friday night please don’t be scared to be the first one washing your hand and to have to seat alone and wait for all the others, use the moment to contemplate about that harmony and meaningfulness that you are part of ...part of something/somebody/energy force…part of Oneness.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 16:27:28 +0000
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