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Aspaqlaria

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Finding Spirituality

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 12:36 PM PDT
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Aspaqlaria/~3/0gX_2abzWd4/finding-spirituality.shtml


R Rich Wolpoe shared with us on Avodah this challenge:

My friends thesis is that Judaism w/o Qabbalah or Hassidus is mechanical  
and lifeless.

And so he challenged me as follows: To List aspects of Jewish Spirituality  
that were devoid of Qaballah or Hassidus.

I came up with my own list.

Any other takers out there?

Caveat: Remember that a Sefer like Mesillas Yesharim was written by  
Ramchal  and so my friend woud claim that it ostensibly has Qabbalistic  
overtones

One interesting outcome was that it led R Simon Montagu to quote the  
following from he end of Alei Shur Vol 1

Ch. 3 (p.30), explaining why Mesilas Yesharim may not qualify.

Admor Maor `Eineinu Maran R. Yerucham ztl used to say that MY [Mesilas  
Yesharim] is a summing-up [or "the essence"] of all RMHL zls  books on  
Kabbala, and I heard the same from Mori veRabbi Hagaon R. Yitzchak Hutner  
ztl. That is to say, it is totally based on Hochmat HaEmet  and when we  
learned it we didnt realize! This is indeed preparation for the  
internals[1]  of the Tora: by learning this marvelous book early and often,  
without drudgery or routine, we will gradually become accustomed to finding  
the internal in his words  and in ourselves. Anyone who hasnt accustomed  
himself to this kind of learning, and then comes to books of Kabbala in  
which the internal is not concealed from view, will turn the internal  
knowledge into external. The gateway to the truly internal [penimiut  
ha'emet] is MY.

[1] My apologies: internals is a terrible English translation of penimiut,  
maybe one that only a programmer who is used to hearing it as programming  
jargon would have come up with.

As I see it,  there are a number of definitions: What is spirituality, what  
does it mean to find it, and what is or isnt included in qabbalah.

Im not really going to touch on the last question, since its big enough for  
its own post or series of posts. However, I wish to note that if we take  
the Alei Shurs point too far, nothing since the Ari, barring some Yemenite  
works, is entirely untouched by qabbalah. To my own mind the more  
interesting question is whether its based in qabbalah, or doesnt involve  
thinking ever-more in those terms.

Finding

I was saying there are many sefarim that define and discuss spirituality,  
but few that tell you how to find it. I see the challenge as not just  
identifying any hashkafah book, or opening Mishlei or Tehillim, but  
locating one that actually tells you how to get from the real to the ideal.

Whether Chovos haLvavos has enough how-to orientation to qualify is a  
second discussion, and more one of personal taste in shiurim (how much help  
would qualify as finding)  so I dont think it would be a very interesting  
discussion.

Spirituality

Here are some hand-selected formal definitions of the English that I wish  
to draw from:

Wikipdeia on spirituality:

Spirituality is matters of the spirit, a concept often but not necessarily  
tied to to a spirit world, a multidimensional reality and one or more  
deities. Spiritual matters regard humankinds ultimate nature and purpose,  
not as material biological organisms, but as spirits or energy with an  
eternal relationship beyond the bodily senses, time and the material world.

American Heritage:

adj.

1. Of, relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not  
tangible or material. See synonyms at immaterial.

2. Of, concerned with, or affecting the soul.

3. Of, from, or relating to God; deific.

4.

Merriam Webster:

3: sensitivity or attachment to religious values

4: the quality or state of being spiritual

I present those in order to justify my definition as not being far from the  
way the word spirituality is general used. Heres what I think it means in a  
Jewish context:

An orientation where one is focused on mans higher calling, the one Hashem  
made us for.

As I see it, this is the point of contemplating the day of death.  
Remembering whats really important and focusing on it. In todays milieu,  
where people cant handle the stick, only the carrot, heres a usable  
variant, suggested by Stephen Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective  
People, Ch. 2 Keeping the End in Mind):

Picture your own funeral. Who attends? Who is sitting with whom? Who cares  
enough to help out? What do members of the family say to each other? Your  
friends?

Picture four hespeidim. The first one: Who is giving it? What are they  
saying? What do you want them to be saying? My own addition to Coveys basic  
notion: What do you think Hashem wants them to be saying? And now the 2nd,  
the third, and the fourth

Take time to really visualize this. Take notes for later reference. Really  
picture out the entire scene so that it becomes emotionally etched into  
your heart.

Your results spell out your ultimate goal; to the best of your  
understanding, what Hashem yisbarach wants out of your life. Know it. Keep  
it in mind. It may be easy to subdivide into short-term goals, it may be  
difficult.  (Like in business management theory, where everything is  
supposed to be able to be tied back to the mission statement.)  
Particularly, when making a decision, keep those goals and the steps to get  
to them in mind. Even if its just deciding whether to have a salad or  
comfort food for lunch, see how the pros and cons tie back to that ultimate  
question.

That, to me, is spirituality. Particularly since its the neshamah which is  
aware of our higher calling, which provides the counterbalance to our  
taavos when making a decision.

I think that R Shimon Shkop would call it qedushah. To quote my translation  
of his haqdamah to Shaarei Yosher:

So too His Will is that we walk in His ways. As it says and you shall walk  
in His Ways  that we, the select of what He made  should constantly hold as  
our purpose to sanctify our physical and spiritual powers for the good of  
the many, according to our abilities.



And so, it appears to my limited thought that this mitzvah includes the  
entire foundation and root of the purpose of our lives. All of our work and  
effort should constantly be sanctified to doing good for the community. We  
should not use any act, movement, or get benefit or enjoyment that doesnt  
have in it some element of helping another. And as understood, all holiness  
is being set apart for an honorable purpose  which is that a person  
straightens his path and strives constantly to make his lifestyle dedicated  
to the community. Then, anything he does even for himself, for the health  
of his body and soul he also associates to the mitzvah of being holy, for  
through this he can also do good for the masses. Through the good he does  
for himself he can do good for the many who rely on

him. But if he derives benefit from some kind of permissible thing that  
isnt needed for the health of his body and soul, that benefit is in  
opposition to holiness. For in this he is benefiting himself (for that  
moment as it seems to him), but no one else.

In this way, the concept of separation is an aspect of the underlying basis  
of the mitzvah of holiness, which is recognizable in practice in the ways a  
person acts. But with insight and the calling of spirituality this mitzvah  
broadens to include everything a person causes or does even between him and  
the Omnipresent. In relation to this, this holiness is comparable to the  
Holiness of the Creator in whatever little similarity. Just as the Act of  
the Holy One in all of creation, and in each and every moment that He  
continues to cause the universe to exist, all His actions are sanctified to  
the good of others, so too it is His Will that our actions be constantly  
sanctified to the good of the community, and not personal benefit.

So, it seems to me that spirituality is qedushah, to stay separated for the  
purpose of the spiritual goal, the souls calling, the Image of G-d, what  
Hashem made us to be.

Notice there is nothing mystical in that. It could be mussar, it could be R  
Hirchs Horeb. The Seifer haYetzirah, not so much  even if I had any hope of  
understanding what its getting at, it would tell me more about what the  
ideal is, but not how to find it.



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