Spirituality helps in the tough times

Spirituality helps in the tough times.


It’s tough, confronting evil in the world.

I’m working throughout the day, and interspersed with my reports, notes, replies to emails—I receive commentary on the latest horror:  the brutal knife-murder of an Israeli family of 5, 3 children, the youngest only 3 months old, allegedly committed by a Palestinian infiltrator.

One comment—hard to believe coming from a normally mild-mannered Rabbinic confidante—expresses the thought that the world would be a better place without an entire nation of people.

Another from an equally generally-stoic Rabbinic correspondent,  mulls over the distinctions between “terror attack” and “serial murder”.

I just can’t get my head around all of it. 

And in contemplating my reticence, I believe it has to do with my thinking about (today, as I endeavor to write regularly on the topic) on spirituality.

At the risk of sounding pedantic, it seems to me that to be spiritual, one must maintain a grasp on those aspects of one’s humanity which is not physical, which derives from the spirit.  As a mentor of mine has said on this issue, we can identify those aspects by an easy test—does a cow do it?  Do cows contemplate murderers?  Certainly not.  Do they long for expression of common humanity?  Again, no.  Do they wish for justice?  Without a doubt—not cow behavior.  These issues undoubtedly pertain to the spirit.  Only man can yearn for peace and goodwill. 

But, I believe that speaking quickly, almost impulsively, is also not spiritual.  Cows, when provoked or startled by unusual acts do act impulsively. To quietly grieve and to allow the grief to pervade my soul, changing me, making me more aware of my own fragility, is a uniquely human, not bovine behavior.  To think how to patiently respond to those who would look to me for guidance, to meditate on how to guide appropriately, responsibly, is a product of my spirit, not cow-stuff. 

My spirit compels me to silence now, to absorb the loss of the Fogel family, in what little  way I can.   It requires me to pray and donate charity on their behalf, to be a part of the common Jewish people, and  indeed, a part of the common humanity suffering in their loss. 

Spirituality not only motivates me to different kinds of behaviors, it molds me, so I respond to those motivations entirely differently.  And sometimes, so I don’t respond, yet, at all. 

As we say in some of my spiritual groups, “Don’t just do something, sit there.”

In tough times, the quiet is comforting.  With my spirit, I’m never alone.