Do you feel lost?

You are not alone.  Covid exacerbated an already prevalent pandemic of loneliness.  Our modern world for all its connectedness leaves many people even more disconnected.  

This issue goes back to the beginning of time.  In fact, the Kabbalah tells us that the Shechina, the Divine Presence, is lonely.  Which is why G-d created a world; to cure His loneliness in a sense. And in a sense the Divine Presence continues to be lonely inside of our physical reality and bodies.  So much so that sometimes it can feel like our soul is lost.  Lost in our body and our bodily needs and indulgences.  

This is the mystical secret of the beautiful Mitzvah in this week’s Parsha of returning lost objects.  The Torah tells us that if one finds an item belonging to another, they have to return it.  

The Torah enumerates four items; an ox, a donkey, a garment and a sheep.  And then recaps, “any object”.  What is the mystery of these four items if at the end of the day we are obligated to return all lost objects? 

The Torah is teaching us the mystery of loneliness.  It is the soul that feels lonely and lost.  Lost in our body, our animal soul and in the bodily emotions that come with it.  The manner in which we get lost can be on account of four types of attitudes.

Ox – Aggressiveness (self understood)
Donkey – Stubbornness (the Talmud says a donkey in the height of summer is cold, because it refuses to change)
Garment – Deceit with others and with oneself (clothings hides and is also used to portray an image that may not be real but one we want to believe about ourselves or have others believe about us).
Sheep – Passivity. Lack of backbone and conviction (sheep represent the idea of just going along with the pack whichever direction it is going, good or bad)

These underlying traits can preoccupy us to the point that our soul is out of the picture and is lonely and even lost.

The remedy; the lost object must be returned to its owner.  The owner is Hashem.  Returning it to its owner is to embrace the body, love it, care for it, understand that it is designed to be harnessed not to harness us (ie. our Neshama).

When we “get that” about the body, the body is no longer an enemy, something to be ignored or something to be indulged in.  It is an amazing powerful tool to bring us closer to Hashem and to expose its own G-dliness.

So next time you feel lonely, recognize that it is the Neshama feeling lonely in the body.  The answer is in the question, the solution in the problem, the antidote is the body.  

Good Shabbos!

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