Why Mindfulness Is Not Passive

In this week’s Parsha, Behar, we learn about the Sabbatical year and letting the land lie fallow. We don’t plant or cultivate the land. Every seven years we observe the Sabbatical year. While my understanding of agriculture is limited, I have read that allowing the land to rest can save it from burnout and overuse and allow it to regenerate and flourish.

Industrial agriculture has depleted a lot of land around the world and this affects global warming. According to the Rodan Agricultural Institute, “the healthier the soil, the greater its holding capacity for carbon.“ The Sabbatical year could “complement other land conservation and carbon sequestration techniques by letting land rest and increasing soil fertility preserve carbon. “ Just as people rest on the seventh day (Shabbat), the land is personified and it rests on the seventh year. This also allows the farmer to focus on other things in that year, such as learning and spiritual pursuits.

In addition, it allows farmers to temporarily “release” ownership of their fields so poorer people can eat good quality produce: “And six years thou shalt sow thy land, but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of thy people may eat; and what they leave the best of the field shall eat (Exodus 23:10).” Farming is a very intensive and active pursuit. Letting the land lie fallow, therefore, means that in the seventh year the ordinarily very active worker of the land suddenly has to become passive. That’s not easy!

Some think that mindful meditation, too, is a passive endeavor. But that is a misconception. It is much more than just sitting on the floor with legs crossed and emptying the mind. Mindfulness is an active practice, requiring us to keep noticing our thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions , watching them come and go from a distance. It’s a practice that requires training and discipline. Just as you wouldn’t expect to go to the gym and start lifting heavy weights, you have to train the muscle called paying attention or noticing.

Mindfulness is not about giving up or disengaging from the world around us. Some say that meditation allows you to clear your mind in order to be unaffected by the world and accept whatever comes. But that, too, is a myth. The core of mindfulness meditation is the exact opposite.

Mindful meditation practice is used to calm and teach our minds a different way of being in the world, allowing us to practice observing the stream of thoughts and emotions without the bias that pollutes our experience. While we are observing and contemplating, we find that our problems are often more complex or simpler than we imagined; that they are dependent on other situations; that they have their roots in something deeper, or are less difficult than we thought. In meditation, we step out of our automatic reactions and open up to seeing things more clearly. We connect with our deeper intentions. A commitment to the practice of mindfulness can give us more clarity and allow us to take important and healing action. There is a time to rest and a time to take action, but the two are not mutually exclusive. As the Sabbatical year teaches us, sometimes resting or pausing can give us the energy and ability to grow and flourish.

What Is Independence?

What is Independence?

Independence: The quality or state of not being under the control of, reliant on, or connected with someone or something else.

There is independence on the micro-level of the individual and on the macro-level of a nation governing itself. The Jewish people have yearned to be independent in their own country since our forefather Abraham set out for the promised land. This became more felt or urgent when we were enslaved in Egypt.

We cried for freedom from our masters and Pharaoh.

When we were freed, there was a condition:

So that we can worship our G-d and choose to enter a mutual covenant together.

This is more like freedom with “strings attached'' or freedom with a purpose, and not just to be free to do whatever we like.

When we were freed from slavery, we were physically free, but were still psychologically dependent with fears and anxiety about the future.

The people felt insecure. They kvetched and cried and actually wanted to go back to Egypt and be dependent on their masters once again! It was a long process to become an independent nation.

But independence is not always a positive virtue. It’s okay to rely on other people, and fitting into a society or community that is benevolent is also positive.

Building a thriving nation isn’t possible without cooperation and mutual assistance.

There are countless ethnic groups in Israel from a wide range of backgrounds and mother tongues. It’s not utopia , but I can honestly say that the feeling of community and peoplehood is like no other place I have been. Coming as an immigrant with no family was like no challenge I’ve ever faced. And yet, I wasn’t really alone. The stranger on the street asking me if my baby was warm enough, the neighbor asking me if I needed anything while my husband was away, the delicious meals from my synagogue after I gave birth, the group of army parents supporting each other while our sons served together, and so many more.

The saying it takes a village means that many people must cooperate to achieve a goal.

You don’t forfeit your own independence completely, but rather harness it with others towards a common good. That is what we’ve accomplished here in 74 years. Happy Independence Day! יום עצמאות שמח

Don't Forget to Remember!

The Hebrew word for remember, zachor, is repeated over a hundred times in the Hebrew Bible.

The commandment to remember has been significant to the survival of Jews over thousands of years.

How else can we explain the continuity of the Jewish people through times of persecution, migration, destruction, and renewal?

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (z"l) has said that there is no word for history in the Hebrew language. The word that comes closest to the idea of history in Hebrew is the word zachor – remember.

Remembering is usually thought of as referring to the past.

Our forefathers made a covenant between G-d and the Jewish people, which

is also about "remembering the future" due to a promise made about our destiny.

But how do we think about our future when there are people who want to harm us or destroy us?

We will always have to deal with Amaleks throughout our history.

Haman from Megilat Esther is a descendant of Amalek, and today there is also a resurgence of antisemitism.

If we try to remember our memories from the past, it can change us, and the act of remembering can affect the future.

We tell stories and remember also to maintain our identity, such as at the Passover Seder.

But how does memory work?

How do we process information?

And does mindfulness have anything to do with memory?

Dr. John Teasdale, pioneer of MBCT (mindfulness based cognitive therapy), proposes that mindfulness practice also changes the way we process information.

Teasdale believes that there are two forms of working memory where information can be temporarily held and processed:

The first has direct input from the sensory system, such as sensations in the body, and happens in real time.

The second one receives information from the senses only after it has been processed– not in the present moment (Journal of Cognitive Psychology).

This type of memory is associated with anxiety and depression as a result of our mind being pulled into the past or future, and this can affect the outcomes of different situations.

Memory for past personal experience does more than allow us to remember our past.

It is also linked to our ability to imagine our futures and different scenarios.

Research in Neuropsychologia Journal suggests that in depressed people, impaired memory not only makes it difficult to remember past events but also to imagine different outcomes – making their situation feel even more desperate.

In mindfulness practice, we pay attention to our memories, as we do to our thoughts and sensations, with acceptance and curiosity.

Meditation can reduce anxiety and increase concentration, and studies have also shown that it can improve working memory.

Mindfulness practice can help us change the way we look at and experience the world, which can affect our own future as well as our collective future.