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Hitíorerut
(Awakening)
Hitíorerut ñ (Awakening) ñ Amazement and Gratitude
Todayís world is centered on intellect, information and technology. It would appear that the more civilized we become, the less ìwonder-fullî all of our new learning seems to be. What we often forget is that although we continually expand our capacity for knowledge and extend our intellectual boundaries, there are questions that cannot be answered by technology or science, and information is not synonymous with revelation, insight, and wisdom.
Spiritual awakening and the ability to sustain a sense of awe in todayís world requires a different type of preparation and orientation than we usually encounter in our daily lives. This perspective is experienced and then reflected upon ñ what we glean from our most profound experiences is often difficult, or even impossible to articulate. While it may be possible to increase the potential for these moments in our lives, they often take us by surprise. But to what we cannot articulate, we are compelled to respond, through a deep sense of awe, gratitude, and humility. Although the potential for these ìawakeningsî exists every day, our lives are filled with emotional and material obstacles and blinders which we need to remove if we are to live in a state of awe and readiness. Judaism provides the tools that we need to sharpen our skills and maintain this kind of focus. Ultimately, it is a rich life that is able to, in the words of Abraham Joshua Heschel, ìtake notice of the wonder, to regain a sense of the mystery that animates all beings, the divine margin in all attainments.î
Transcendent experiences are difficult to speak about by definition. True amazement is hard to record. Our quintessential Torah illustration is the story of Jacob who, fleeing the wrath of his brother Esau, settles for a night with a rock under his head and has a most unusual dream of ladders and angels and a conversation with God.
Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ìSurely God is in this place and I, I didnít know.î He was
awestruck, and said, ìHow awesome is this place - this is none other than Godís house, and this is
Heavenís gate.î
(Bíreishit 28:16-17)
The text makes it clear that nothing about Jacobís physical space has changed ñ the realization was purely internal. We often walk sightless among miracles, and sleep our way through the majority of our lives. But if we are lucky, once awakened, everything about our lives has been re-arranged and must be re-evaluated in light of our experience. Trivial matters take on new significance, routine is somehow renewed, and our lives are re-energized.
While it would seem that such moments most often take us by surprise, there are ways of maximizing the possibility that other such experiences will occur. One way of looking at Jacobís awakening is through his repetition of the word ìIî in his exclamation ñ it was due to his inflated ego, his grandiose sense of self, that he had previously left no room in his life for the possibility of wonder, of Divine encounter. So often we are consumed with our own selves, and a narrow sense of our own lives. Struggling to maintain some sort of control over a seemingly random array of events, there is little space for anything else. Wonder requires time, a letting go, an open-ness to possibilities other than the obvious, and space that is not automatically filled with our thoughts, our emotions, our anxieties, and our activity. If we strive to be patient, to not always assume that we have, or need, the most immediate answers or most obvious explanations for our existence, we might find ourselves in a position to be better awakened to something new, different, and truly full of awe.
Awe and wonder often leave us feeling both larger and smaller. Larger, in the sense that we understand something about our connection to the world, to others, to something beyond, that we may not have understood before. And smaller, in that such feelings leave us humbled, and aware of how much more there is that we may never experience or be able to understand. We hold the most minute piece of an infinitely large puzzle, and we are grateful for this momentary feeling of both deep humility and profound connectivity.
Our ritual response to these moments is blessing. Jews have specific and unique phrases for acknowledging the ìbeyond-nessî of our everyday lives. Our food, our bodily functions, our families, the cycles of our days and our years, are all opportunities for awakening, and our formulaic expressions of gratitude serve as alarms. The habit of blessing (its recommended that Jews recite at least one hundred blessings every day) keeps us keyed in to lifeís potential for holiness. While Judaism does not place enormous emphasis on the ability of singular ecstatic experiences to sustain faith, it does emphasize daily practice that will continually open our eyes to the possible recognition of something significant that we otherwise might have trivialized.
In the same way that we go to sleep each evening and must awaken each new day, we need to pay attention to the daily awakening of our spirit. In the midst of daily routine and repetitive cycles of activity, we are moved and even commanded to acknowledge that ìmíchadeish bíchol yom tamid ma-aseh víreishit.î - the work of creation is continually renewed each day. The seeming repetition is in itself a miracle. We simply need to open our eyes differently. Albert Einstein tells us, ìThere are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.î Awakening and maintaining our sense of wonder immeasurably elevates our experiences, enhances our relationships, and increases our joy.
Lenses (cont'd): 1 l2 l3 l4 l5 l 6 l7 l8 l9
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