Don't Worry, Be Happy

It’s been said that I am in Israel “searching for myself” but truth-be-told I’ve already been found. I am a product of mine and your making (since everyone of you has inevitable left an imprint on my being) and now it’s only a matter of identifying the correct contexts for me to safely come out and play. These days I have been finding myself quite a bit, when I am not studying in Mayanot, I can be found in the used-book store down the street, in the market place buying strange spices to sprinkle on my dinner, purchasing soaps made with calendula at the local craft vendors, or hanging out with laid back hippy Jews drinking Hoegarden on tap at the underground Jerusalem reggae scene. Jerusalem is beginning to become my town. I know the shortcuts, where to pick herbs to put in my tea, I run into friends walking down the street, and I can give tourist directions when they ask…sometimes.

I would really really really like to write about Chassidus. Thus far I have put it off because it seems like such a daunting task but it’s critical that I share because it’s a big part of why I am here. Most of you are familiar with testaments of Jewish faith… belief in One G-d, not eating milk and meat together, keeping Shabbos, etc etc prohibitions that seem to never end…. but come’on guys, there is obviously something deeper going on here, something that triggered me to drastically change my life, perspectives, and destination. I will try to explain it to you, and hopefully G-d will bless me with the ability to articulate it. If not, this entry can serve to benchmark my level of comprehension that I hope to achieve by the end of there year…

Disclaimer: I excuse anyone from reading this blog if discussions of the esoteric and transient don’t interest or resonate with you, no pressure, there are many faces to the Torah, and not every soul connects in the same ways. But for me, besides the over-analyzing lawyer and practical business woman persona I sometimes take on; Chassidus connects to the lover; die-hard romantic, and philosopher within me.

Chassidus is a school of thought within Judaism whose function is to reveal the unity of G-d. No small task, but quite essential if you think about it. Revealing G-dliness at first seems like a completely unattainable endeavor … Where does one even begin? I suppose the first part is to understand Why? Why do we need to reveal G-d? Can’t we just think to ourselves “G-d lives in the Heavens and at times He’ll peak down from the clouds and answer our prayers”. No! This thought process is not conducive to internalizing the concept of G-d. Its too disconnected. The reason we want to reveal the unity of G-d is because we should LOVE Him and how can we possibly love a concept that we have no idea about? How was we love something we can’t relate to? That we have no connection with? How can we love something that we can’t fathom? Faith is important however it is not enough to nurture feelings of true love. Chassidus attempts to bridge this gap, to make the idea of G-d so completely palpable that we can feel in our lives at every second in order that we become keenly aware that G-d is everywhere, in everything, and inside of each of us. And in turn, we actively love and seek G-d.

Chassidus employs many techniques to make the concept of the Unity of G-d into something concrete and understandable, such as meditation, visualization, celebration, and appreciation of nature. These methods enable us to form a more real and personal relationship with Gd so we can love and pray in a meaningful way to “You- the Holy One Blessed Be He” and actually feel that we are addressing the Creator.

Lucky for us, finding G-d in everything is easy since the world was created so that we, mere mortal human beings, can experience and revel in the Light of G-d just by tuning in. In Kabbala, Gd is referred to as the Divine Light. Light is a very fitting metaphor for G-dliness since it isn’t tangible but we can still experience it. It fills space, permeates, exposes, and it is generated by a source but can become disconnected and sustain itself (ok physics majors…go to town on that statement..but remember it’s just a metaphor). Light stands for the Unity of G-d. Accordingly, darkness is then the opposite of unity, which is expressed as separateness. When we get stuck in details and loose touch with a bigger idea, when we focus on ourselves rather than the higher goal -- this is the opposite of unity and results in darkness.

As an example, think of your bodies, think of a sickness. What happens when part of you stops functioning in unison with the rest thereby preventing your body from achieving the common goal (which is to live a healthy life)? In a unified body, everything is in sync. The body is a microcosm for this much larger idea. Within the body we have a lot of different things going on, our hearts are pumping, our minds are reeling, our feet are moving, and our white blood cells are fighting. There is a lot of multiplicity happening BUT they all work together to express one thing.

When we realize that all the variety and differences in this world…from race to religion, from tree to frog, are all working towards a common goal and don’t actually contradict each other, then the light can be revealed. Anything can become a vehicle to separate us from each other and the world -- religion, ideologies, clothing, food, etc. if we get stuck in the details versus seeing the big picture. However we can instead function like a flashlight in order to shed light on the common denominator and consider for a second what are we all working towards here?

They say that when you get angry you loose touch with reality. You get so stuck in the details, in your moment, in your emotions, that you become disconnected from the world. You experience darkness. Following this line of thinking, Chassidus teaches that the only way to be a flashlight, shedding light on the darkness and experience the unity in all the seemingly disconnected ideas, is to Be Happy. Real Happiness is being connected with the true Unity of Gd, being beyond the details of the world, beyond yourself, your ego, and your man-made identity. When you can see the common denominator, when you can see positivity in everything…what you are really seeing is the G-dly spark. There are many people who are fortunate enough to have discovered little secret of happiness through their own deductions, those whose wisdom is rooted in the ancient soul residing within them. Happiness, it seems like such an oversimplification, but it’s truly profound. So let us elevate all the darkness around us and let the Light of G-d shine out, illuminating the world and others.

This is not the point I wanted to get to in this blog entry…I just typed and this is where it took us. But reading through, it doesn’t seem like a very bad point at all. Employing Happiness as a tool to seeing and experiencing G-dliness! Let us try this week to step out of ourselves in order that we can get in touch with the bigger picture instead of the small details of ourselves and our differences. Next week, G-d willing, I want to explain the point I was hoping to get to now…showing that although our souls are nice, the point of existence is to eat cake.

But until then…Be the light that disperses the darkness.