Welcome to Soulful Jewish Living: Mindful Practices for Every Day with me, Josh Feigelson.
I’m grateful you’re here, and I hope you benefit from our time together.
That’s the voice of singer-songwriter Kathleen Hooper, and those are all the words to the song: “I’m at home in my body and my spirit is free. I have love all around me. I have all that I need.” We’ll put a link in the show notes, and, if you like the song, I want to encourage you to go find it and listen some more. I think it’s a great message.
It’s also a great starting point for today’s episode, which is the second in our miniseries on being at home.
As I mentioned in last week’s introduction, I think this is a really important topic. I’ve talked before on the podcast about the definition of spirituality that I’ve come up with, namely: Our ability to be deeply at home in the universe. So every time we feel at home—not just the physical reality of a house or apartment, but the emotional and physical sensation of feeling at home–-that’s our spiritual muscle working. And before we go exploring the reaches of the universe, or even the corners of our own house, the home all of us first have to live in is this body of ours.
That, of course, isn’t always simple. And I want to say here at the outset that this can be a sensitive issue. Some folks suffer from recognized illnesses like body dysphormic disorder, eating disorders, or gender dysphoria. If you or a loved one are in that category, I want to encourage you to seek out care from a health professional if you haven’t already. If what I talk about here can be helpful, then I’m glad for that. But it’s no substitute for being under the care of someone who knows what they’re doing.
If you have not suffered from one of these acute kinds of illnesses, chances are good that being at home in your body can still be a regular challenge. There can be those proverbial moments when I look in the mirror and don’t recognize the person there—because I’ve gotten older, because I’m heavier or thinner than I felt like I was, because some part of me that I thought was healthy isn’t operating at 100%.
And then there are moments when I just might feel like my mind and heart aren’t where my body is. As a teenager I felt that sometimes in the midst of a long-distance relationship—I was physically in one place, but a big chunk of my inner life was longing to be somewhere else, with someone else. Today, it might come when my mind and my emotional life get caught up in worries about the news or preoccupied with issues at work. In those moments, I feel like my mind and my body just aren’t in sync. It’s like one of those moments in old cartoons where someone is standing there blankly staring while another person is trying to get their attention, waving their hands in front of their eyes and saying, “Hello? Anybody home?” Nope—not at home, at least not in this body right now.
There’s an ancient teaching in the Midrash from my favorite Talmudic character, Hillel the Elder. It was the end of the day and he had finished teaching. He was taking his leave when his students asked him, “Rabbi, where are you going?” He told them he was going to perform a mitzvah—he was going to the bathhouse (this was in Roman times). The students were surprised. “Is that a mitzvah?” they asked. Hillel responded (and here I’m paraphrasing a little), “Absolutely! It’s the mitzvah of hospitality: If my soul is a guest in my body, then my body is a house, a home, for my spirit.”
Hillel’s point is a physical one: caring for our bodies is, in part, about keeping the home of our neshama, our spirit, beautiful. But he’s also laying the groundwork for an equally important idea which was taught by Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, 1700 years later. The Baal Shem Tov taught that, “Wherever your mind is, that’s where you are.” Put these two teachings together, and we arrive at our idea for today: To be spiritually at home, we first have to be at home in our own bodies. Our minds and hearts have to be synced up with our limbs and organs. Without that, it’s pretty hard to feel at home in the universe.
I think that’s probably why the first section of the traditional Jewish morning prayer service is devoted to noticing and expressing gratitude for our bodies. It’s not just that they’re miraculous—which, let’s recognize, they are. It’s also that we can so often overlook our bodies—eating mindlessly, going to the bathroom mindlessly, walking, standing, moving, sitting mindlessly.
Back at the beginning of Season 3 of the podcast we did a series on daily rituals that covered some of this ground, and you might want to check out those episodes. For today, I want to do a simple body scan meditation, which you can do anytime you feel like you need to come home to your body.
As usual, begin by slowing down. If you’re walking, put the phone in your pocket and pause for a moment. If you’re sitting, perhaps sit up a little straighter—awake and aware. If you’re driving, maybe wait to do this until you’ve stopped moving. You want to be able to really give this practice your attention.
Take a good deep breath, in through the nose and out through the mouth if you can. With each exhalation, try to relax just a little bit more. Allow your body to arrive, allow your mind to settle. Allow them to be at home together in this moment.
If it’s comfortable, follow the journey of the breath. Stay close to it as it travels in through your nostrils, up into your head and then down into your windpipe and your lungs. And then follow it back out. Note what it feels like to be present, at home, with this most basic bodily function that we do tens of thousands of times a day.
Now, if you’d like, gently bring your attention to your feet. See if you can notice where they make contact with the ground. Then bring your attention up to your ankles, your calves, your knees, your thighs. Note how they feel. Maybe everything is hunky-dory, maybe there’s an ache or pain. There’s nothing to fix right now. Just give them loving attention.
Now continue up from the waist to the belly, the lower back, your chest. See if you can feel your heart beating, sending blood to every cell in your body. Then your shoulder blades, your shoulders, your arms, your elbows, your hands, your fingertips. Again, note how they feel and give them just your loving attention.
Then up through the neck to the jaw, the teeth, your tongue, your cheeks, your eyes, your ears, your hair, and up to the top of your head. Just be aware and bring your hesed, your loving attention to each part.
Hillel the Elder taught that this body of ours is a lot like the mishkan, the special home the Israelites built for God. If we are created in the Divine image, he said, then our bodies are temples—they are our home. So often, though, we mindlessly wander from this home. If we aim to be at home in our lives, and to make this world a home for divinity to dwell in, then there’s no more important place to start than these bodies of ours. I hope this practice can help.
Blessings for the journey. Know that I’m on it with you.
Thank you for joining us for Soulful Jewish Living: Mindful Practices for Every Day, a production of Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media, and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. This episode is sponsored by Jonathan and Kori Kalafer and the Somerset Patriots: The Bridgewater, NJ-based AA Affiliate of the New York Yankees. If you like this show, subscribe, share this episode with a friend, give us five stars on Apple Podcasts. Check out our website, unpacked.media for everything Unpacked-related, and subscribe to our other podcasts, and check out the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Most importantly, be in touch–about what you heard today, what you’d like to hear more about, or to dedicate an episode. Write to me at josh@unpacked.media.
This episode was hosted by me, Rabbi Josh Feigelson. Audio was edited by Rob Pera and we’re produced by Rivky Stern. Thanks for joining us.