January 2015 Newsletter

         In a Hassidic teaching I studied, “sleep” is not just about what we do at night, but in fact we can be “asleep” even when we are awake!

         This type of wakeful sleepiness is the “boredom or fatigue that comes with the events of life.” (Slater 2013*) When we live without really being present in the moment, we are “sleeping” through our days. Rabbi Jonathan Slater interpreted this Hassidic teaching saying, “only the awareness of the hidden miracle of each moment keeps us awake during our days…otherwise we simply lull ourselves into waiting for the next thing to happen, looking forward to something outside of this moment itself.”

         I have been involved in the Institute of Jewish Spirituality, where I have studied about mindfulness meditation. This practice helps wake us up from our ‘slumber.’ The idea of paying attention to the moment, to just what is happening, helps make us more present in our lives. I was told the other day that I seemed to be so calm. I was at a public event and wanting to still my mind.

         Slater explains that “we impose our preconceptions on the people, places and events of our lives to make them fit the story-line we have adopted.” What does not fit, the extraordinary, the inexplicable we often do not understand, we get rid of or try to deny. When we are not in the moment, we judge, control and force the reality around us into our own narrative and expectations of the way the world should be.

         I know this sounds complicated, so let me simplify it with an example. We often have expectations for our children, grandchildren or other young people in our lives. In our changing world, our ways of planning for the future, deciding on a career, picking our life partners, understanding our sexual orientation and more, have been re-imagined. To react to those we love with our confined, fixed ways will not serve anyone.

         Rather, this new year, let us open and expand our minds, hearts, and souls. Let us try harder to simply be in the moment and be aware of the hidden miracles in the people, places and events swirling around us. It has been a challenge for me but the rewards are great. I bless us all with an open-hearted, healthy and extraordinary new year! AMEN

*Jonathan Slater, IJS Torah Study Mikketz, 2014

I woke up this morning and thought: “My vase is full!”

I wanted to share this with you because I am sure many women feel the same after they leave a Lev Eisha Service.

I walked into Lev Eisha feeling like this:

It was a rough month. My mom had just fallen and was unable to move around well, so I was trying to spend at least two nights a week at her house. -y husband ended up in the emergency room because his blood sugar was too high and he was not adjusting well to his new medication. At work we were fielding calls from clients who were angry and frustrated by their ever-increasing health insurance premiums. Then there were the problems of the word: Ferguson, NYC, Israel and the Palestinians, ISIS, and all things

over which I have no control but are still concerns.  There were little things, too, like my son having a fight with his girlfriend (no matter what age our kids are – he’s 28 – we still don’t want them to be in emotional pain and were are always the “Mama Bear”); like putting on my just washed black pants and finding out while I was in the shower that my little dog, Trixie, decided to take a nap on them and they were covered in dog hair!

I am not complaining. I have many friends who are going through much more than that. As my mom always says: “Everyone has their own little Peckel!” I was just drained and needing nourishment.

Leaving the service, this is how I felt: