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.
My son and I recently watched Captain America: The First Avenger, one of the early movies in the Marvel Avengers series. The movie has been out for a long time, and I don’t think this is a spoiler, but just in case, fair warning: The whole film is basically a flashback. It opens with a scene in the present day, when a team of scientists discovers a big vessel buried in the arctic. Then you get about two hours of the story of Steve Rogers and how he became Captain America.
The movie culminates (here’s the spoiler) in the Captain crash landing the bad guy’s giant airplane that was going to destroy New York City. In the final scene, he wakes up in a military facility 70 years later, realizes something is off, and bolts outside into Times Square—which is pretty different from the one he knew in the early 1940s.
This makes Captain America different from Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. While she also fights in World War II, she is, of course, an immortal Amazonian princess. Which means she stays awake and alive to witness all the changes in the world. By contrast, Captain America (Cap, to his friends) is more Rip Van Winkle—he doesn’t know what he’s missed.. That leads to plenty of humor in the later movies, but also a wistful sensibility, as though the movie is saying, People, we really need some of that sense of duty, patriotism, and moral clarity today.
This is the fourth episode in our miniseries on mindfully engaging with the news. I’m starting here with Captain America and his long sleep because our topic today is Shabbat—not just the practice of the weekly holiday, but what I like to call “Shabbat mind,” which is really a way of being in the world, and an essential strategy for mindfully engaging with the news.
Of course, Shabbat is not exactly about going to sleep, and it’s definitely not about hibernating for 70 years. But it is about pausing, resting, and doing some mindful disconnecting from the culture of the workweek and some mindful reconnecting with the deeper, slower, richer parts of life..
And I think it kind of goes without saying, but dude, that is all so important for mindfully navigating the news environment we live in today. Because one of the things that can make the news so overwhelming is its constant onslaught. It’s nonstop. Every news outlet prides itself on being 24/7, having the latest, constantly updating. And all that becomes a sales tactic: “Stay here for updates.” “Check our site for the latest developments.” “We’ll be right here throughout this story.” It can feel like a pressure sales tactic, and if you’re not paying attention, that subtle message—you can only be a good person by constantly staying on top of the news—-it can get in your head, and then it can become debilitating.
If we pause for a second (see what I did there?), we might even notice that this dynamic is actually baked into the very word, news. Take off the S and what do you have? New. In its very name, the news plants this idea in our heads that we’ve got to constantly chase the newest, the latest. It’s relentless.
Shabbat is a time to relent. It’s a time to pause from the chase. Unlike the constant chase for the new, Shabbat is about something that sounds the same but is fundamentally the opposite: It’s about renewal. When we re-new something, we’re not chasing the latest, we’re re-grounding in our roots. We’re not leaving the old behind, we’re returning to what is most lasting and true.
This works in Hebrew the same way it works in English. The Hebrew word for news is chadashot, from the word chadash, new. The word for renewal is hitchadshut—from the same root (just like new and news), but really a complete inversion.
Shabbat is a time of hitchadshut—a time of renewal. And as we’ve talked about before on this podcast, you don’t only have to wait every seven days to tap into Shabbat. Shabbat mind, Shabbat consciousness, is available every seven hours, every seven minutes, every seven moments. It’s here all the time.
Basically everything we do on this show is a chance to practice Shabbat mind. When it comes to the news, I want to offer two practices in particular.
The first practice really is about Shabbat with a capital S. If it’s not already part of your practice, this week see what happens if you really unplug from the news for 25 hours from Friday night to Saturday night. No podcasts, no social media, no New York Times app (no, not even Wordle; just lay off). Give yourself the permission to be offline, and see what happens. How do you feel? As a result of closing that door for a day, what opens up for you?
The second practice is a really simple one you can use anytime: It’s simply to pause and take three breaths. Reading the news and feeling triggered? Good noticing! Now pause, close your eyes if you like, and take three good cleansing breaths. What happens? Same thing with a podcast, or with a social media post that you just want to jump out of your chair and respond to. Try a micro-Shabbat, this little Shabbat pause. Even on a Tuesday afternoon. Notice how that feels. Notice if it leads to any positive change.
The news tries to seduce us with a siren song that we always have to be chasing it. I believe we do need to stay informed, but we don’t have to always be running and out of control. Shabbat, and the renewal it provides, is maybe our most important tool for taking back our sense of control and agency. Give it a try, and let me know how it goes.
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.