Intro
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.
There’s a classic definition of the word chutzpah, which comes through a joke. A man stands trial for murdering his parents. He’s convicted. At the sentencing hearing, he pleads with the judge for mercy. “Your honor,” he says, “please go easy on me. Remember, I’m an orphan!” That’s chutzpah.
The other night my son posed a riddle very much in the same spirit: Abba, he said, if a person is a murderer but they decide not to murder somebody, have they saved a life?
Now as clever as this question is, I think it actually reveals something pretty deep. The Torah has a concept called shev v’al ta’aseh, which literally translates to “sit and don’t do anything.” And it’s basically talking about what my son was describing. According to Jewish tradition, there are 365 negative commandments in the Torah—everything from “don’t wear garments that contain wool and linen” to “don’t cook a calf in its mother’s milk.” How do we fulfill these mitzvot? Simply by not doing them! So every moment that you or I aren’t murdering someone, we’re fulfilling the mitzvah. Which means that, just as I always suspected, my kid is just as clever as the Rabbis of the Talmud.
I mention all this because we are up to the Sixth Commandment in our exploration of the Ten Commandments as a guide to living a mindful Jewish life. And the Sixth Commandment is just two words: Lo tirtzach: Don’t commit murder. (Parenthetical Note: It’s perhaps important to mention here that the commandment is not “Don’t kill,” as it’s sometimes inaccurately translated. The Torah does contemplate cases when killing may be justified—it’s not a pacifist document. But murder is categorically out.)
Now, if you can imagine all Ten Commandments written out on two tablets of stone, as the Torah describes them, you’d have the first five on one tablet and the last five on the other. So the Sixth Commandment begins the second tablet, and it’s noteworthy for a few reasons.
First, while the first half of commandments contained some positive mitzvot—like observing Shabbat and honoring parents—the second half is entirely composed of negatives. So it looks and sounds different: It’s literally a bunch of “don’t do this”es. Second, while the first five focus on our creators— mostly referring to God, but also our parents, God’s partners in creating us—the second five commandments are all interpersonal. And third, and especially important for us on this episode, is that the Sixth Commandment, which begins this second half, can be understood to parallel the very First Commandment: “I am YHVH.”
A midrash draws the comparison: Imagine a king who enters a new territory. He does what kings do: makes statues of himself, puts up his picture all over the place, mints coins with his image on them. After a while, the people rebel: they tear down the statues, tear up the pictures, and devalue the coins—all so they can get rid of the image of the king. Murdering another human being is erasing an image of the Creator from the world. It is the ultimate act of spiritual destruction.
Now, thank God, most of us don’t harbor thoughts of murdering other people. So this may feel like a remote commandment. But we might want to do a little more soul searching. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, one of the great medieval commentators on the Torah, suggests some other ways this Sixth Commandment might come up for us: If we give false testimony that results in someone’s execution; if we tell tales about a person, even out of court, or we give them bad advice that we know will result in their death; if we don’t reveal a secret we know about which could save someone’s life—in all these cases, he suggests, we are liable, spiritually at least, for some pretty serious stuff.
That’s heavy. But then so is the idea that every human being is created in the Divine image. We say it so often that it can start to sound trite. But the idea is really, really deep. If we take it seriously, then it will affect virtually all of our actions: How we speak to and about people, how we interact with them, how we think about them even when we’re not in the same room. If you pause long enough to consider how many times a day other people come up in your mind—whether they’re people in your family, at school or work, in your community, or faceless strangers—you might realize that you have a lot of opportunities to destroy, not destroy, or even uplift and magnify the image of God every single day.
Earlier this season we did a series on ethical mitzvot. We kicked off that series with an episode on this idea of tzelem elohim, that human beings are created in God’s image. So for our practice this week, I want to bring us back to the meditation I shared then, because I think it’s just so important and fundamental.
As you may remember, this is a practice modeled on the Metta practice in Buddhism, which works in concentric circles: starting with ourselves, then to a loved one, then an acquaintance, and then a stranger. In each case, we’re going to practice grounding in and extending out three concepts that flow from our creation in the Divine image: We are all unique, we are all infinitely valuable, and we’re all equal.
Begin with three good deep breaths.
Let your body arrive.
Let your mind settle.
Let your attention come to rest on your breath. In and out.
And now, on the outbreath, you can say to yourself, “I am absolutely unique.”
On the next outbreath, you can say, “I am infinitely valuable.”
And on the third outbreath, you can say, “I am equal to everyone.”
Now bring to mind someone you’re close to, someone you love and care about. And direct the same words to them:
“You are absolutely unique.”
“You are infinitely valuable.”
“You are equal to everyone.”
And now, bring to mind someone you don’t know well—maybe a neighbor you pass occasionally, or someone at work or school. Say the same words about them.
“You are absolutely unique.”
“You are infinitely valuable.”
“You are equal to everyone.”
And finally, see if you can bring to mind someone who is perhaps even on the other side of one of those divides we talked about—culturally, politically, or otherwise. See if you can say the same about them.
“You are absolutely unique.”
“You are infinitely valuable.”
“You are equal to everyone.”
Keep breathing, and notice how you feel. Perhaps a bit lighter and more open. Maybe a bit more connected, and a little more ready to recognize the divinity that lives inside each of us.
That divine spark is our most precious gift. Every moment we tend it is an opportunity to fulfill this Sixth Commandment—and to make the world a little better in the process.
Blessings for the journey. Know that I’m on it with you.
ENDING
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.