Reality... What a Concept!

The purpose of this blog is to reboot the Shabbat table... Please share...

Do you know how many days til Channukah?

As I mentioned last week, we are just now wrapping up Sukkot and the Holidays.

Real life can now begin again.

But what is "real life"?

To nurture this topic, for your table tonight, I would like to offer:

(a) A radical idea about reality
(b) A realistic fact about reality
(c) A question about reality

The radical idea about reality is that contemplating even a single wonder of nature is one of the fundamentals of cultivating spirituality and therefore we should strive to make such contemplation part of our daily routine. But not to make it "routine" - it must be juicy — an experience of radical amazement. 

For example, once a day try pausing to appreciate the incredible human body.

Or the wonders of a single cell. Or the miracle of DNA (or this). Or Einstein's Big Idea. Or quantum entanglement. Or...?

But here's the realistic fact about reality which you already know: not everyone gets turned on by the same WOW. 

For example, this week I took a few kids to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

I personally had one goal: experience the eye-popping wonders of Geology, Gems and Minerals. 

But guess what — to get to Geology you first have to walk through Oceanea and dodge Mammals, etc. etc. Trying to get even three people to follow the leader in a place like that is like taking a child through a candy store. My WOW may not be the same as your WOW.

For example, I know one person who LOVES the daily download from the JWST (click on the image above for a full-screen WOW) and I know another person who finds these photos rather dull....

Question for your table: What's your WOW?

And all this amazement leads to the promised question about reality... What about inward contemplation? 

On this topic, you may have heard about the Baltimore-based organization called the Holistic Life Foundation that has been successfully lowering rates of violence, truancy and general mischief in public schools by replacing detention with meditation.

Into a room of pillows and lavender, an elementary school student walks, enraged.

He’s just been made fun of by another student, an altercation that turned to pushing and name-calling. But rather than detention or the principal’s office, his teacher sent him here, to Robert W. Coleman Elementary School’s meditation room.

“I did some deep breathing, had a little snack, and I got myself together,” the boy recalled. “Then I apologized to my class.”

Let's lob this one to the table - What would be a more pertinent daily practice: contemplating a wonder of nature, or cultivating serenity?


Shabbat Shalom

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Why on Earth Are You Here-o?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The purpose of this blog is to make the Shabbat Table epic. Please print and share.

Dedicated to the memory of Yermiyahu Matan (Jeremy Dossetter) - whose yahrzeit was this week (please remember him here);

Happy birthday shout-out to his dear mother Susan;
and Mazal tov to Yaakov Felson on becoming bar mitzvah. 

Announcement: To become a partner in the publication of groundbreaking new book, Body and Soul: A Torah Guide to Health, Fitness, and Longevity, Medically-Annotated, it is now possible to contribute a dedication in someone's honor or memory to be printed in the book, please send an email to dedications@jsli.org for instructions and may the merit of your contribution uplift them and the Jewish People and the world. Eight years in the making, this collaboration of Torah scholars, doctors and dietitians will, we hope, change the way we relate to our bodies and to food.

Try starting off the conversation with this couplet:

Who's your hero?
Whose hero are you?

I wonder how many people think about such questions. Or about this week's title question....

Why in the world are we here?
Surely not to live in pain and fear....

The question is arguably the fundamental problem driving the entire Torah.

It seems to me the Torah's answer to that question is: You're here to be a hero.

Like all great heroes, you only become a hero through trial and tribulation.

Of course, the tests often come when we're least expecting them. The surprise too is part of the test.

So here is a true story that happened to my friend the other day.

He was filling up at a service station near the highway. Two women approached him and told him that they were en route to the airport, but the person driving them had ditched them while they were using the ladies' room. He had driven off with their luggage. 

For your table: Put yourself in his shoes. What would you do?

Less dramatic versions of this encounter happen every day: a panhandler at the red light; a spouse asking for help; a child whining; a parent lecturing; any of the above nagging....

I'm guessing everyone at the table can come up with many better examples.

If you find yourself resisting playing the hero, just wanting to be left alone and not get involved, it's a sure sign you're being tested.

What about a test of your patience? Is that also a test of your heroism?

What about when you make a mistake and someone calls you on it - is that also a call to heroism?

Now we can bring it full circle:

Who's your hero?
Whose hero are you?


Shabbat Shalom


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