I remember you saying on a webinar several years ago that you defined a holy person as someone who does the right thing just because it is right and does not look for any reward by doing it.
I'll stand by that, Debbie, though it does beg the question of whether there is any distinction between being holy and being moral or ethical. There is no doubt in my mind, however, that being ethical is a minimum criterion. Psalm 24: "Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in God's holy place? One who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to deceit And has not sworn deceitfully."
Thanks, Sue. What you are pointing to is a thoroughly Jewish approach to sanctification: not neglecting or demeaning the mundane, but lifting it up. If you look at the rituals of the Shabbat table, you can see how many of them are focused on lifting up the mundane. Bread is bread, and if you lift it up, you get challah!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and for starting this blog, which I look forward to reading during and after Elul.
When I think about holiness, my connection to my grandson, who is only a few months old, came to mind. He is in what feels like a pure state of existence, and I want to protect him as much as possible. I wonder if that relationship shows what holiness can look or feel like, where the essence of our connection is pure love and appreciation, with mine being both conscious and subconscious, physical and spiritual. This baby and the relationship I am creating with him is a conduit for me to focus on giving purely from my own heart for someone else. That feels holy.
I have many of your books and so looking forward to the new one as well as this blog. My saying has always been, What I am is my gift from God, What I become is my gift to God. You put it beautifully, "I am a living soul and I am charged to be holy and absolutely everything else flows from that." Every day I ask the question, What can I give God today through my life? Thank you!
I have many of your books and looking forward to the new one and this blog. My saying has always been, "What I am is God's gift to me, What I become is my gift to God." You put it beautifully, "I am a living soul, charged to be holy and absolutely everything else flows from that." Everyday I ask the question, "God, what can I do for you today, through my life that you have given me? Thank you!
This is just lovely, and so needed in our fractured time and place.
I'm wondering if our common modern concept of holiness (goodiest?!) can be both help and hindrance when discussing kodesh.
If we think of it as separateness, singularity, being set asidedness, we reopen the question the word holiness already has an answer to: what is it we are set apart for?
In the Torah the One Above is loving, just, compassionate, but also injust, vengeful, and petty; so trying to be "like" leaves us picking and choosing among qualities, those we feel we should emulate, and those we decide we should not.
Am I just getting sidetracked with semantics here, thereby failing to deal with the real issue Elul puts before us?
Hi Ilse. Good to connect with you again. Holiness is such a complex subject. When the Torah instructs us to be holy, the verse concludes with, "because I the Lord your God am holy." That's not such an obvious rationale for being holy, but it does tell us one important thing, which is that kedusha is a sublime quality of the divine. As such, we have to accept that it is beyond our ability to characterize. And yet we are stuck with the injunction: "You shall be holy." I've done a considerable amount of study in the sources and will have more to say later on. As will become even clearer in my next post, what I am doing right now is laying down the foundations on which my thought about holiness will stand.
Mussar stresses objectivity about oneself, so second opinions often become essential. Do you have a rabbi you can rely on as a personal guide? What qualities should such a person have?
I had a very special rabbi I relied on who died just over a year ago. And yet, at the same time, I have close friends who I rely on as well, so while I am bereft of my rebbe, I have plenty of second opinions (including my wife!).
In the month of Elul I have found that when I deeply draw on the strengths the rise up through gratitude I am develop a much broader view of where I am missing the mark. The little missteps in this area seem to illuminate the more significant ones. This always brings me back to the core of the aspect of my soul work that seems to keep me most grounded in holiness…
Thank you for the blog and an invite to chat a bit.
Hi Alan. I focus on gratitude during Elul. I use this middah as a way to reflect on where I have missed the mark in areas of my life. Where did I not appreciate all that I have been given? How did that lack of gratitude lead me to speak, or behave in a way that did not reflect my true self. I find that the missteps in life for me, often come when I let my guard down; when I forget that all that I have are gifts from Hashem and that I should strive to express my gratitude through my drive to lead a life of holiness…missteps occur. I hope I am making more sense.
Any side step to the negative is often seems to boil down to a loss of focus on wonders of what I have been given
Yes, I get it now. That "recognition of the good" [hakarat ha'tov] that you are describing is so crucial. My wife injured her leg and it was a choice whether to wallow in self-pity or recognize the extraordinary generosity of the volunteer first responders on this island where we are, who gave her excellent care, and the doctor, who came into the clinic on a Sunday evening to stitch her up, etc. One attitude opens the door to connecting to the divine source of kindness, and another slams it shut. Wishing you a productive Elul.
I had the pleasure of taking Alan‘s webinar on YB ethical in an unethical world and for me, the answer was simple. It’s good for my soul. I am grateful for this blog as I want to continue to learn and deepen my path to
Holiness.
More recently, I took the course offered by Avi on love. Each night I pray that we love more, ourselves, and each other, and that we minimize pain suffering our own and each others
I have been studying the writings of Rav Yerucham Levovitz (Da'at Chochma uMussar) and the section we happen to be on right now says that the essence of the Torah is love, and for his proof text, he brings the blessings of the Sh'ma and the Sh'ma itself. "When we want to define the essence of Torah, it is necessary to define it in the name of love, because the essence of the Torah is 'love.'"
I remember you saying on a webinar several years ago that you defined a holy person as someone who does the right thing just because it is right and does not look for any reward by doing it.
I'll stand by that, Debbie, though it does beg the question of whether there is any distinction between being holy and being moral or ethical. There is no doubt in my mind, however, that being ethical is a minimum criterion. Psalm 24: "Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in God's holy place? One who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to deceit And has not sworn deceitfully."
Love the part about lifting up the mundane and making it holy. I look forward to your coming blogs.
Thanks, Sue. What you are pointing to is a thoroughly Jewish approach to sanctification: not neglecting or demeaning the mundane, but lifting it up. If you look at the rituals of the Shabbat table, you can see how many of them are focused on lifting up the mundane. Bread is bread, and if you lift it up, you get challah!
The short answer: because I don't have anything better to do
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and for starting this blog, which I look forward to reading during and after Elul.
When I think about holiness, my connection to my grandson, who is only a few months old, came to mind. He is in what feels like a pure state of existence, and I want to protect him as much as possible. I wonder if that relationship shows what holiness can look or feel like, where the essence of our connection is pure love and appreciation, with mine being both conscious and subconscious, physical and spiritual. This baby and the relationship I am creating with him is a conduit for me to focus on giving purely from my own heart for someone else. That feels holy.
I have many of your books and so looking forward to the new one as well as this blog. My saying has always been, What I am is my gift from God, What I become is my gift to God. You put it beautifully, "I am a living soul and I am charged to be holy and absolutely everything else flows from that." Every day I ask the question, What can I give God today through my life? Thank you!
I have many of your books and looking forward to the new one and this blog. My saying has always been, "What I am is God's gift to me, What I become is my gift to God." You put it beautifully, "I am a living soul, charged to be holy and absolutely everything else flows from that." Everyday I ask the question, "God, what can I do for you today, through my life that you have given me? Thank you!
Hello, Alan
This is just lovely, and so needed in our fractured time and place.
I'm wondering if our common modern concept of holiness (goodiest?!) can be both help and hindrance when discussing kodesh.
If we think of it as separateness, singularity, being set asidedness, we reopen the question the word holiness already has an answer to: what is it we are set apart for?
In the Torah the One Above is loving, just, compassionate, but also injust, vengeful, and petty; so trying to be "like" leaves us picking and choosing among qualities, those we feel we should emulate, and those we decide we should not.
Am I just getting sidetracked with semantics here, thereby failing to deal with the real issue Elul puts before us?
ilse
Hi Ilse. Good to connect with you again. Holiness is such a complex subject. When the Torah instructs us to be holy, the verse concludes with, "because I the Lord your God am holy." That's not such an obvious rationale for being holy, but it does tell us one important thing, which is that kedusha is a sublime quality of the divine. As such, we have to accept that it is beyond our ability to characterize. And yet we are stuck with the injunction: "You shall be holy." I've done a considerable amount of study in the sources and will have more to say later on. As will become even clearer in my next post, what I am doing right now is laying down the foundations on which my thought about holiness will stand.
Thank you. Looking forward... Gut shabbos
Mussar stresses objectivity about oneself, so second opinions often become essential. Do you have a rabbi you can rely on as a personal guide? What qualities should such a person have?
I had a very special rabbi I relied on who died just over a year ago. And yet, at the same time, I have close friends who I rely on as well, so while I am bereft of my rebbe, I have plenty of second opinions (including my wife!).
In the month of Elul I have found that when I deeply draw on the strengths the rise up through gratitude I am develop a much broader view of where I am missing the mark. The little missteps in this area seem to illuminate the more significant ones. This always brings me back to the core of the aspect of my soul work that seems to keep me most grounded in holiness…
Thank you for the blog and an invite to chat a bit.
Hi Cyndee. I'd like to understand and learn from what you are saying. Can you clarify the first sentence? Thanks. And good to chat!
Hi Alan. I focus on gratitude during Elul. I use this middah as a way to reflect on where I have missed the mark in areas of my life. Where did I not appreciate all that I have been given? How did that lack of gratitude lead me to speak, or behave in a way that did not reflect my true self. I find that the missteps in life for me, often come when I let my guard down; when I forget that all that I have are gifts from Hashem and that I should strive to express my gratitude through my drive to lead a life of holiness…missteps occur. I hope I am making more sense.
Any side step to the negative is often seems to boil down to a loss of focus on wonders of what I have been given
Yes, I get it now. That "recognition of the good" [hakarat ha'tov] that you are describing is so crucial. My wife injured her leg and it was a choice whether to wallow in self-pity or recognize the extraordinary generosity of the volunteer first responders on this island where we are, who gave her excellent care, and the doctor, who came into the clinic on a Sunday evening to stitch her up, etc. One attitude opens the door to connecting to the divine source of kindness, and another slams it shut. Wishing you a productive Elul.
Thank you Alan for asking for clarity, it helps me to hone my thoughts, which are sometimes jumbled. Wishing you a meaningful
Elul. I am always a faithful student of your teaching, you give things over in a way that resonates for me. B’shalom…
Thanks for this post and I am looking forward to many more!!
Coming soon!
I’m hungry for more! Welcome to Substack.
Thanks. I hope to "feed" the blog again in a few days.
כול הכבוד -
Looking forward to this dialogue.
Thanks, Jamie. Good to meet you here.
Now I have a whole new approach to bedmaking. Thank you.
And you thought it was just making the bed!
A beautiful beginning. Thank you.
Thank you, Gil.
I had the pleasure of taking Alan‘s webinar on YB ethical in an unethical world and for me, the answer was simple. It’s good for my soul. I am grateful for this blog as I want to continue to learn and deepen my path to
Holiness.
More recently, I took the course offered by Avi on love. Each night I pray that we love more, ourselves, and each other, and that we minimize pain suffering our own and each others
Blessings.
I have been studying the writings of Rav Yerucham Levovitz (Da'at Chochma uMussar) and the section we happen to be on right now says that the essence of the Torah is love, and for his proof text, he brings the blessings of the Sh'ma and the Sh'ma itself. "When we want to define the essence of Torah, it is necessary to define it in the name of love, because the essence of the Torah is 'love.'"