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.
Those are the opening bars of Franz Schubert’s Symphony Number 8, better known as “The Unfinished Symphony.” It’s special for a lot of reasons, not least because I conducted my high school orchestra in it during my senior year.
As the name implies, the Unfinished is incomplete. Where a symphony usually has four movements, this one only has two. Schubert sketched a few lines of a third movement, but he abandoned the project, wrote other things, and died six years later at the tragically young age of 31. An unfinished symphony for an unfinished life.
Yet the two movements Schubert left us are incredible, revolutionary even. The composers who came before Schubert, like Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, generally wanted to make a tidy package: a theme, another theme, some development and contrast, and resolution. But in the Unfinished Symphony, Schubert is doing something totally different: he’s creating a set of moods. The lyrical lines are longer, the resolution isn’t as neat. It’s really a quantum leap in musical history—and, as Schubert might have actually known, its imperfection makes it perfect. At two movements, it’s just right, exactly as it should be.
This is the fifth and final episode in our miniseries on uncertainty and anxiety. To retrace our steps: In the first episode we talked about the shock that uncertainty can create, and how to step out of the doom loop that can arise. Then we talked about responding to anxiety by narrowing our focus, planning just the next five minutes or the next 24 hours. After that we explored making waiting rooms (which can be anxious spaces) into hallways, and embracing the process of becoming. And then last week we talked about replacing an ayin hara, or knee-jerk negative perception, with an ayin tovah, a more generous view.
This week I want to wrap up with the idea of letting go of our desire for completion, perfection, and certainty, and learning to actually embrace the seemingly unfinished or incomplete—that is, to welcome uncertainty as a friend, and to reduce our anxiety in the process.
Lo alecha hamelacha ligmor, It is not your job to finish the work, says the ancient sage Rabbi Tarfon, v’lo atah ben chorin libatel mimenah, but you also aren’t free to just ignore it. This is a core piece of Jewish wisdom, and I think it’s foundational to this idea of embracing uncertainty.
Rabbi Tarfon isn’t just talking about our work work—he’s talking about the work of life. I think a lot of folks can get into this mental-psychological space where we feel like we have to have the complete picture. We make a map of our lives, with degrees and relationships and milestones along the way. We have this image of what it’s all supposed to look like. And then, as soon as life happens and the path we’re on turns out not to be the path on our mental map, our anxiety pounces. We can start doom looping, perceiving things with that uncharitable ayin hara, doom looping. And all because we think we’re supposed to have it all figured out.
Rabbi Tarfon is saying, Dude, you don’t. Frankly, nobody but God has that kind of foresight. You don’t have to complete the work because you can’t possibly complete the work. As human beings, imperfection is our default setting from the factory. So give yourself some grace and stop chasing the idea of perfection. Embrace the incompleteness.
When we really drill down on this idea, I think it actually goes to the foundations of Judaism. Perhaps the Torah’s most central message is, Don’t practice idolatry. It’s right there at the top of the Ten Commandments. The obsession with idolatry isn’t just about bowing down to a statue. It’s actually about not allowing ourselves to believe that anything in life can be reduced to something we can name, own, and control. Because if God is the animating life force of the universe; if God is the very essence of becoming, then life is constantly unfolding. Certainty is an illusion, and embracing the unfinished, the uncertain is, paradoxically, the route to liberation.
I think deep down we call kind of know that. But it’s obviously harder to do than to say. So here’s a practice to help.
Slow down. Take a breath. If it’s safe to do so, close your eyes or turn your gaze inward. Allow your body to arrive, allow your mind to settle.
Now, try to bring to mind one area of your life that feels ‘Unfinished.’ Maybe it’s a project you stalled on, a conversation you haven’t had the courage to finish, a version of yourself you’re still waiting to become. In the language of Schubert, you might think of this as a “Third Movement’—the part of the score that is currently just a few bars of a sketch.
How does that incompleteness feel to you? How does it feel in your body? You might be totally at peace with it. Or maybe you feel some tension: a tightness in your chest, a restlessness in your hands. If so, that might be a sensation of the pressure we can put on ourselves to ‘finish the work.’
For a moment, see if you can just acknowledge that pressure without trying to fix it. You might even say to yourself, “Ah, hello drive for perfection. Hello, drive for completion. Hello, drive for certainty. I recognize you.”
“Now, look back at the ‘First and Second Movements’—the parts of this situation that have happened. The effort you already put in. The growth that has already occurred. Even if the symphony ended today, those movements could stand on their own. Can you find the beauty in the work you’ve already done, even if the ending is still blank?
Take a deep breath in. As you exhale, repeat the words of Rabbi Tarfon: ‘Lo alecha hamlacha ligmor.’ (It is not your duty to finish the work.)
Breathe in again, and as you exhale, say: ‘V’lo ata ben chorin libatel mimena.’ (But neither am I free to walk away from it.)”
Finally, you might ask yourself: instead of trying to finish the whole symphony today, what is the very next note you can write? Not the finale. Just the next bar. Take one mindful breath for that next step, and trust that the music is already a masterpiece, exactly as it is.
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.