Life’s tribulations are stepping stones to a ‘heart of wisdom’

Devarim

Shabbat Chazon

Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22

Isaiah 1:1-27







What is the distance from the mind to the heart? Why does it seem so easy for destructive emotions to influence our clear thinking, and why is it so difficult to manage the painful thoughts that arise so abruptly to color our mood?

These questions are in the forefront of contemporary psychological research and, in particular, of neuroscience and brain imaging. They are also fundamental questions in the journey to a deeper spiritual consciousness.

Of all Jewish spiritual masters perhaps no one was as astute about the relationship of the psychological to the spiritual as Rabbi Mordechai Yosef of Isbitz, a mid-19th century Polish Chassidic rebbe. His central teaching is that human beings are responsible to develop a mind that is conscious of God's imminent presence and intentions for us. Redemption is simply a change of consciousness.

"To do this in the context of one's own life," writes the Isbitzer's translator Bezalel Philip Edwards, "is a difficult path, requiring constant re-evaluation of God's will. No matter what man may think he understands, he must always go back and look again."

Commenting on the opening verses of Devarim, the Isbitzer reflects on the fact that the gateway to the Promised Land, where Moshe spoke to Israel, was but an 11-day journey from Sinai, yet it took Israel 40 years to traverse the distance! (Deut. 1:2) The Torah means to underscore that the wandering in the desert was a punishment for Israel's lack of faith. The Isbitzer sees the verse reflecting a deeper truth: It often takes a lifetime for the heart and the mind to be aligned.

"Although Israel comprehended the Torah intellectually at Sinai, their hearts were not yet refined to be completely connected to the Divine ... Only once arriving at the Land was their consciousness elevated ... This is as Moshe our teacher said to them, 'You have not acquired a true consciousness of Torah. It is only after forty years, by means of failures and trials, that your hearts became refined.'"

It is only by means of the failures that we attain a refined consciousness! Receiving Torah could not be complete without the crucible of desert wanderings. The tribulations of life are not impediments to our spiritual growth to be avoided or denied. They are the necessary stepping stones to "a heart of wisdom."

My friend and spiritual teacher, Sylvia, likes to suggest that a true answer to the oft-posed question 'how are you' is 'I couldn't be better,' since, in fact, if I could be better I would be. This subtle play with language offers the possibility that the trials or failures of the moment are here to help us refine our hearts. They are necessary elements in our personal spiritual growth if we have the courage to carefully know them.

This week the Jewish people will observe the fast of the Ninth of Av, a day of national mourning for the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem and for many other tragedies that have befallen us. In the heat of the summer, as green meadows turn to burnt yellow, the earth becomes parched and spirits begin to shrivel, the soul of our People wail in pain at our cumulative tragedy.

Yet even as we take out our national tragedies to examine them once again, the Isbitzer reminds us that these terrible experiences have also played a key role in shaping our moral perspective and refining the Jewish Soul.

During this period of crisis in Israel and in the Middle East may our people have the courage to utilize this painful upheaval for the greater refinement of national consciousness. And may we, as individuals, come to see the journey of our lives, with all our wrong turns, detours and painful experiences, as guides to distinctly understand the Divine's intention for us and the purposefulness of our lives.




Rabbi Lavey Derby is the senior rabbi of Congregation Kol Shofar in Tiburon.