DE Ponderings
by Kevin Kessler, District Executive
Finding Sabbath time is often a challenge when carrying the responsibilities associated with two positions. In a conversation with colleagues and a seminary prof several weeks ago, I learned about some resources that might be helpful in developing my Sabbath time. One of those resources is a book authored by Wayne Muller entitled Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives. I’d love to be able to tell you that I now have a well developed rhythm of Sabbath. But I can’t…truthfully. However, I can tell you that I experience Sabbath when reading Muller’s book. Many times I like to see how quickly I can get through a book. I’m savoring this one.
Muller begins one of the chapters with a traditional tale about an old Hasidic rabbi who crosses the village square every morning on his way to the temple to pray. One morning, a large Cossack soldier, who happened to be in a vile mood, accosted him, saying, “Hey, Rebby, where are you going?”
And the rabbi said, “I don’t know.”
This infuriated the Cossack. “What do you mean, you don’t know? Every morning for twenty-five years you have crossed the village square and gone to the temple to pray. Don’t fool with me. Who are you, telling me you don’t know?”
He grabbed the old rabbi by the coat and dragged him off to jail. Just as he was about to push him into the cell, the rabbi turned to him, saying: “You see, I didn’t know.”
The point Muller makes with this story is that we make plans and strive to fulfill goals but get so caught up in what we are doing we miss out on the direction that may be better for us to take. Thus, stopping to rest occasionally helps us to think more clearly. Stopping eases the stress, sometimes the panic, of not being able to get things completed or accomplished because we are so focused on one way that we miss seeing or being engaged by another, more productive idea.
According to Muller, we don’t always have to “know.” Sometimes we don’t know. Resting relaxes our mind to be influenced by sources outside of ourselves. We come back to the task with direction and frequently solutions. Muller states, “Sometimes our greatest wisdom comes when we are not striving to discover anything at all.”
Muller tells the story of two quantum physicists who worked together. They would be in long, impassioned conversations working on a solution to a problem, looking at every conceivable angle, when one of them would say, “Wait, I think we have touched something very important here. Let’s not talk about it any more. Let’s wait for two weeks, and let it resolve itself.” Two weeks when the two got together again, the conversation would begin, and both knew an answer was achieved.
According to Muller, “Sabbath honors this quality of not knowing, an open receptivity of mind essential for allowing things to speak to us from where they are. If we take a day and rest, we cultivate Sabbath Mind. We let go of knowing what will happen next, and find the courage to wait for the teaching that has not yet emerged. The presumption of the Sabbath is that it is good, and that the wisdom, courage, and clarity we need are already embedded in creation. The solution is already alive in the problem. Our work is not always to push and strive and struggle. Sometimes we have only to be still…and we will know.”
I don’t advocate taking a “no planning” approach and never being aware of where we are going, but it does seem important to rest and listen and allow solutions and responses and answers to emerge naturally, organically. The will of God just may lead us to exciting and unexpected places beyond our present finite thinking. Rest is good!
Finding Sabbath time is often a challenge when carrying the responsibilities associated with two positions. In a conversation with colleagues and a seminary prof several weeks ago, I learned about some resources that might be helpful in developing my Sabbath time. One of those resources is a book authored by Wayne Muller entitled Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives. I’d love to be able to tell you that I now have a well developed rhythm of Sabbath. But I can’t…truthfully. However, I can tell you that I experience Sabbath when reading Muller’s book. Many times I like to see how quickly I can get through a book. I’m savoring this one.Muller begins one of the chapters with a traditional tale about an old Hasidic rabbi who crosses the village square every morning on his way to the temple to pray. One morning, a large Cossack soldier, who happened to be in a vile mood, accosted him, saying, “Hey, Rebby, where are you going?”
And the rabbi said, “I don’t know.”
This infuriated the Cossack. “What do you mean, you don’t know? Every morning for twenty-five years you have crossed the village square and gone to the temple to pray. Don’t fool with me. Who are you, telling me you don’t know?”
He grabbed the old rabbi by the coat and dragged him off to jail. Just as he was about to push him into the cell, the rabbi turned to him, saying: “You see, I didn’t know.”
The point Muller makes with this story is that we make plans and strive to fulfill goals but get so caught up in what we are doing we miss out on the direction that may be better for us to take. Thus, stopping to rest occasionally helps us to think more clearly. Stopping eases the stress, sometimes the panic, of not being able to get things completed or accomplished because we are so focused on one way that we miss seeing or being engaged by another, more productive idea.
According to Muller, we don’t always have to “know.” Sometimes we don’t know. Resting relaxes our mind to be influenced by sources outside of ourselves. We come back to the task with direction and frequently solutions. Muller states, “Sometimes our greatest wisdom comes when we are not striving to discover anything at all.”
Muller tells the story of two quantum physicists who worked together. They would be in long, impassioned conversations working on a solution to a problem, looking at every conceivable angle, when one of them would say, “Wait, I think we have touched something very important here. Let’s not talk about it any more. Let’s wait for two weeks, and let it resolve itself.” Two weeks when the two got together again, the conversation would begin, and both knew an answer was achieved.
According to Muller, “Sabbath honors this quality of not knowing, an open receptivity of mind essential for allowing things to speak to us from where they are. If we take a day and rest, we cultivate Sabbath Mind. We let go of knowing what will happen next, and find the courage to wait for the teaching that has not yet emerged. The presumption of the Sabbath is that it is good, and that the wisdom, courage, and clarity we need are already embedded in creation. The solution is already alive in the problem. Our work is not always to push and strive and struggle. Sometimes we have only to be still…and we will know.”
I don’t advocate taking a “no planning” approach and never being aware of where we are going, but it does seem important to rest and listen and allow solutions and responses and answers to emerge naturally, organically. The will of God just may lead us to exciting and unexpected places beyond our present finite thinking. Rest is good!
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