Halacha as a Playground of Mindfulness

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Halacha as a Playground of Mindfulness

Last week I saw a comic depicting a fishbowl floating in an ocean. The fish in the fishbowl is labeled “religion.” The fish in the water outside the fishbowl is labeled “spirituality.” The implication is that the spirituality fish is looking upon the religion fish with pity, as if to say, “You poor thing. Why do you insist on being confined to this fishbowl when you could be free in the open ocean, like me?”

The comic had been posted in a mindfulness group on Facebook. This is not the first time I’ve encountered an underlying streak of anti-religious sentiment among self-identified practitioners of mindfulness. I don’t blame the creator of the comic, nor do I blame those for whom the comic resonates. As an Orthodox Jew, I would even describe myself as “anti-religious.” (And if that sounds like a paradox, read my article, Is Judaism a Religion?) Still, it irks me when I see legitimate criticisms and complaints about other religions indiscriminately applied to Judaism, and this is a perfect example: the sentiment in this comic is the polar opposite of my own experience as an observant Jew who aspires to live a life of mindfulness.

I agree with the image and captioning of the comic, but I disagree with its implied value judgment. Orthodox Judaism is like a fishbowl in that it imposes restrictions on an otherwise unrestricted life. Those who choose not to observe halacha are like the fish in the ocean in that they aren’t confined. However, being unconfined is not the same as being free, and the boundaries of halacha constitute a path to true human freedom.

This is not a chidush (novel insight). I’ve given shiurim and written articles about my own take on the liberating qualities of halacha. My favorite of these articles is I Hate Sukkah (in a Good Way), in which I draw upon dialogue from My Dinner With Andre and the teachings of Bruce Lee to frame halacha as a system of “skillful frustrations” designed to promote our development as truth-seeking human beings.

But while I have written articles on the relationship between halacha and freedom, I haven’t addressed the relationship between halacha and mindfulness – specifically, the type of mindfulness valued by those who agree with the comic. Chapter 14 of Greg McKeown’s book, Essentialism: the Disciplined Pursuit of Less, is entitled: “Limit: the freedom of setting boundaries.” The author illustrates this counter-intuitive point with an anecdote:

This truth is demonstrated by the story of a school located next to a busy road. At first the children played only on a small swath of the playground, close to the building where the grownups could keep their eyes on them. But then someone constructed a fence around the playground. Now the children were able to play anywhere and everywhere on the playground. Their freedom, in effect, more than doubled.

Similarly, when we don’t set clear boundaries in our lives we can end up imprisoned by the limits others have set for us. When we have clear boundaries, on the other hand, we are free to select from the whole area – or the whole range of options – that we have deliberately chosen to explore.

Halacha transforms every aspect of life into an anchor for mindfulness. Our “fishbowls,” the boundaries created by our halachic obligations and restrictions, serve as our prompts. By surrounding ourselves with these manifold mindfulness prompts, we enjoy countless opportunities for awakening. And since all the mitzvos have reasons – to develop our intellects, our character traits, or to promote justice in society – these prompts not only pull us out of the trance of mindlessness, but they also develop us in specific ways. In other words, not only do they facilitate “awakening from,” but also “awakening to.” Halacha guides us towards mindfulness in everything we do.

For these reasons and more, I believe that the fish inside the bowl enjoys more freedom than the fish in the ocean.

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If you've gained from what you've learned here, please consider contributing to my Patreon at www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss. Alternatively, if you would like to make a direct contribution to the "Rabbi Schneeweiss Torah Content Fund," my Venmo is @Matt-Schneeweiss, and my Zelle and PayPal are mattschneeweiss at gmail.com. Even a small contribution goes a long way to covering the costs of my podcasts, and will provide me with the financial freedom to produce even more Torah content for you. 

If you would like to sponsor an article, shiur, or podcast episode, or if you are interested in enlisting my services as a teacher or tutor, you can reach me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail.com. Thank you to my listeners for listening, thank you to my readers for reading, and thank you to my supporters for supporting my efforts to make Torah ideas available and accessible to everyone. 

Be sure to check out my YouTube channel and my podcasts: "The Mishlei Podcast", "The Stoic Jew" Podcast, "Rambam Bekius" Podcast, "Machshavah Lab" Podcast, "The Tefilah Podcast"  For the full guide to all of my Torah content, click here. 

How to Choose What to Learn Before You Die

This week's Torah content has been sponsored by Joey and Estee Lichter in honor of the marriage of Isaac and Aviva.

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Disclaimer: this article is not intended for those who are in the “training” stages of their learning (e.g. students who are still in high school, yeshiva, or seminary and are still acquiring their skills and knowledge base); rather, it is for those who have already developed a relationship with learning, but find themselves in the trenches of adulthood and are struggling with their life/learning balance, or are having difficulty choosing what to learn in their limited time.

How to Choose What to Learn Before You Die

I’d like to recap a conversation my chavrusa and I had this past Sunday about learning. He knew I had recently read Greg McKeown’s Essentialism: the Disciplined Pursuit of Less and was curious about how I intend to apply Essentialist principles to my learning. He expressed his own frustration with having so many things he wanted to learn but not enough time in the week to learn it all.

I suggested the following thought experiment: “Imagine that this will be the last week of your life. You have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and you will die at the end of Shabbos. What are you going to learn, with whom are you going to learn it, and how are you going to learn it?” My chavrusa was intrigued by the question and started answering. When he gave me specific answers (“I want to continue learning Mishlei with my sister”) I affirmed them, but when he gave vague answers (“I want to learn areas in Tanach that have an impact on my life”) I demanded specificity (“Tell me specifically which topic or text you are going to take up, and on which days this week, and with which chavrusa?”).

I recommend that you, my dear reader, give this a try. The goal of this exercise is not to extrapolate a personal curriculum directly from the answers given. There are many more factors to be taken into account. The goal is three-fold: (1) to differentiate between learning you love and learning you don’t, (2) to identify the reasons (or non-reasons) why you are currently learning what you are currently learning, and (3) to understand why you aren’t learning what you actually want to be learning, so that you can figure out what definite steps you need to take in order to start.

An example of (1) and (2) emerged when I examined my own schedule. Thank God, I am currently learning almost everything I want to learn as part of my weekly teaching schedule in yeshiva. I was pleased to discover that if any given week were my very last, I would keep my schedule exactly as it is … except for my Wednesday night Chumash Methodology shiur. I realized that although I was excited about this shiur at the beginning of the year, my excitement faded as the year went on. Habit and momentum were the only reason I kept it going. This realization solidified my decision to jettison the shiur and replace it with something I am passionate about for this coming year.

An example of (3) emerged when my chavrusa said that he really wanted to be in a regular Gemara iyun shiur that he prepared for with a chavrusa. When I asked him, “What is preventing you from doing that right now?” he gave me a clear answer and was able to identify the steps that were necessary to make that happen. But if he hadn’t been able to do that, then this exercise would have prompted him to do so.

The Rambam writes: “Until when is a person obligated to learn Torah? Until the day of his death” (Hilchos Talmud Toah 1:11). He doesn’t raise this question for other mitzvos. Unlike krias shema, tefillin, mezuzah, and the other mitzvos which are observed for the duration of one’s life, learning Torah is a lifelong project. The question of what to learn during our remaining days should be periodically asked and answered with this perspective in mind. However, since we don’t know when we’re going to die, and since it’s so easy to fall into learning habits and routines for months or even years without realizing it, a simple reminder of our own mortality might be enough to snap us out of the trance and reconnect us with our love of learning.

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If you've gained from what you've learned here, please consider contributing to my Patreon at www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss. Alternatively, if you would like to make a direct contribution to the "Rabbi Schneeweiss Torah Content Fund," my Venmo is @Matt-Schneeweiss, and my Zelle and PayPal are mattschneeweiss at gmail.com. Even a small contribution goes a long way to covering the costs of my podcasts, and will provide me with the financial freedom to produce even more Torah content for you. 

If you would like to sponsor an article, shiur, or podcast episode, or if you are interested in enlisting my services as a teacher or tutor, you can reach me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail.com. Thank you to my listeners for listening, thank you to my readers for reading, and thank you to my supporters for supporting my efforts to make Torah ideas available and accessible to everyone. 

Be sure to check out my YouTube channel and my podcasts: "The Mishlei Podcast", "The Stoic Jew" Podcast, "Rambam Bekius" Podcast, "Machshavah Lab" Podcast, "The Tefilah Podcast"  For the full guide to all of my Torah content, click here.