Hitbodedut – an ancient practice for modern times

The desire for a deeper, more meaningful life is becoming more important today. Many who have attained wealth and material comfort, rewarding careers, and a loving family find that satisfying one’s physical, intellectual, and emotional needs is no longer enough.  Many of us are deeply dissatisfied with the world of matter and the stimulation of our five senses.  Even if we live a “religious” lifestyle and believe in G-d and the Torah, there seems to be something missing.  We desire an authentic connection to something bigger and more powerful than we are, yet simultaneously personal and intimate.  That is the search for the soul.

The Impulse to Grasp the World

We have the impulse to grasp the world from the moment we are born. We open our eyes and see light, darkness,, and the objects surrounding us.  We see our mother and father, then other children.  We go outside and see trees and grass and flowers.  We see animals and cars and buildings.  We hear the sound of people talking, music playing, and  cars passing outside in the street.  We taste a whole range of food, sweet, sour or bitter, hot or cold.  We feel the soft touch of a warm blanket, the hard plastic of a rattle, or the smooth skin of our mother’s face as she kisses us goodnight.  As we breathe, we will smell soap, the aroma of our mother’s cooking, and the unpleasant odor of a dirty diaper.

Constantly stimulated by our environment,  we  judge it as pleasant or unpleasant to our senses.  We want more of the pleasant stimulation and less of the unpleasant, more pleasure and less pain, and more of what we judge as good and less of what we judge as bad.  As we age, we continue to look, listen, smell, taste, and feel the world around us looking to satisfy the desires of our body.

But we are more than a physical body.  We have a mind that is curious and seeks to understand the world and the people in it.  We learn language and begin to understand the ideas and concepts that shape human behavior.  The world is constantly changing and there is always more to learn.  The mind by its very nature seeks out new knowledge in the world.

In the realm of emotions, we find love, hate, compassion, sadness, fear, and many more subtle emotions as part of our human experience.  We respond to the world with passionate embrace or virulent rejection.  We may feel pity for those who are suffering, anger at being disrespected, or fear of facing a new challenge.  We may also feel joy in response to the smile of a baby, exhilaration at being offered a raise at work, satisfaction after doing a job well, and happiness on the occasion of our marriage.  Our emotional responses are what give life its vitality.

In all the above dimensions of human experience, whether it is using our senses to stimulate our body, using our intellect to understand the world, or responding emotionally to the people and events that affect us, we are reaching out to what we see hear, smell, touch, and taste.  This impulse that pushes us out of ourselves into the world is relentless but never satisfied.

Looking Within

Why is there sometimes a feeling of emptiness, angst, and dissatisfaction with what the world has to offer?  Perhaps because we have never considered looking within for serenity and peace.  That inward search is the search for the soul, the part of us that is eternal – that was never born and never dies.  It is the part of us that is aware of our source in G-d’s very Being.

To begin this search, we must turn our inclination to look outward at the world into an inward search.  We limit our sensual stimulation and resonate with the silence within.  But the silence doesn’t last for long.  Thoughts about our finances, relationships, and  health intrude and cause a stormy sea in our search for tranquility.  Mindfulness practice guides us to observe these thoughts and the feelings that often follow them without responding.  We see them come and we see them go.

The search within brings us a satisfaction and peace that our search in the world could never supply.  But the journey is never over as long as we live.  There are always new challenges in our physical and spiritual life.  Even the most elevated spiritual experiences end and life returns to its mundane, repetitive nature.  Our job is to see each day as a new opportunity to grow inside and out.  Mindfulness can help us be aware of our inner world and give us peace and tranquility to weather the storms in our material world.

Mindfulness, which used to be called meditation has become almost a household word.  It is taught in schools, offered in enlightened businesses like Google, Intel, and Nike, and used by many therapists as a reliable modality for treating anxiety, depression, and many other ailments.  Dr. Jon Kabatt-Zinn popularized mindfulness by introducing the practice into Mass General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts to assist patients with chronic pain or were recovering from surgery.  The source of this practice is usually attributed to the religions of the   Far East, mainly Hinduism and Buddhism.

The Seach for Torah Sources

The question is often asked if there is a source in Judaism for mindfulness practice.  And if there is, why is it not practiced in our yeshivas and day schools, and especially in places of high stress like the Knesset?   The answer is that there are sources in the Torah and evidence that there were practices similar to mindfulness at the time of the Temple in Jerusalem.  Those practices were discontinued for the masses after the destruction of the Temple and the dispersion of Jews to Babylonia and later to Spain, Eastern Europe, and North Africa.

One example of a practice written about in the Rambam’s (Maimonidies) Mishna Torah is in the Laws of Prayer.  In Chapter Four, Rambam stresses the importance of what he calls kavanat halev –intention of the heart. To stand before G-d, a Jew is required to have focused attention.  If he or she doesn’t have it, the prayer is invalid and must be repeated.  This idea is repeated in the Shulchan Aruch (Orech Chaim 98, 1), the Book of Jewish Law where it states that the pious ones of old would isolate themselves and focus their attention until they reached a state close to prophecy.

The Hebrew word that describes this state of focused attention is hitbodedut, or self-isolation.  Rabbi Nachman talks about it and the Breslov Chasidim practice a kind of hitbodedut where they isolate themselves and speak to the Creator in their own words, not in the set words of the prayers written in our siddur. The Chabad Chassidic literature talks about hitbonenut, the deep contemplation of esoteric ideas found kabbalah to bring a Jew to love and fear of G-d.   Most other streams of Judaism focus on the learning of Torah, set prayers, and the performance of mitzvot in our service to G-d. They know little of this practice and probably would actively discourage it.

Hitbodedut for our time

One contemporary rabbi writes about hitbodedut as a necessary and vital practice in one’s divine service.  His name is Rabbi Itamar Shwartz and he wrote the popular book, Bilelavi Mishkan Evneh (I Will Build a Sanctuary in My Heart).   He writes about the importance of developing a personal relationship with G-d that is not merely an intellectual understanding.  His claim which he supports with numerous sources in the Torah, is that the practice of hitbodedut is to reveal the soul.  This is important because the soul is part of G-d’s Being and if one is conscious of this part of oneself, then he or she lives in conscious awareness of G-d every moment, not only during prayer and Torah study.  Intellectual knowledge and an emotional connection to the Creator are important but incomplete.  Only the soul connection can give a person the passion and depth that the seeker desires.

It is well known that many Israeli youth go on their “Big Trip” after the army to the Far East and encounter a living tradition of meditation that is absent in the State of Israel.  Many are inspired by this practice and continue upon their return.  They may appreciate the intellectual depth of Judaism and the cultural heritage that we share, but they don’t see the deep spirituality they found in India or Thailand.

What is needed is a revival of these ancient Jewish practices in contemporary times.  Jews from all sectors are hungry for deep spirituality  It is incumbent upon the educators in today’s public schools and religious institutions to feed this hunger with authentic Jewish practices.