You’re Presence is your Present

We each yearn for inner peace. You know when the mind stops churning, the heart is at rest without angst.  

For the most part, people are in two groups; Thinkers and Feelers.  The Thinkers are constantly analyzing what’s going on around them, how they are showing up, what other people think about this or that etc.  The Feelers are caught up in how they feel today, how others are making them feel, how they ought to feel, etc.

Do you feel me? 

We long to escape the voices, the self judgement and analysis.  But alas, that is not meant to be.  That’s because we are designed that way.

Let me explain; At our core we are a G-dly being, selfless, in fact not even conscious of self, only conscious of G-d and our purpose.  Enter Intellect – the human quality – and suddenly we have become self aware.

It’s an absolute necessity to have this awareness because without it we wouldn’t be Human and we wouldn’t be able to enter into a relationship with G-d which was His agenda in the first place.

So our intellect’s first function is self awareness and that messes it all up.

But, fret not, there are moments of hope.  The gift of the Jewish calendar is that we are given opportunities to move into this space of our core.  It shows up in different formats, like Neilah on Yom Kippur and particularly in the upcoming holiday of Sukkos and the apex of the High Holiday season with Shmini Atzeres and Simchas Torah.

These are holidays of joy. Joy allows us for a few moments to rise above ourselves and enter into a higher consciousness.  As the saying goes, “joy breaks all boundaries”.  In that space we can let go for a few minutes of the mind’s chatter and the hearts churning.  

The ultimate goal is integration.  Not to stay in that higher conscious state but to incorporate this letting go into all of our day to day experiences.  

We do that by truly plugging in each Shabbat, each holiday and really embracing the joy of the upcoming holiday.

My best wishes for a Good Shabbos and a Chag Sameach!

With all my love,
Rabbi Eliyahu Schusterman

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