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Spirituality

by Norman Tew

 
For some years now I have been receiving a weekly Jewish email called "Shabbat Shalom" (it is available online at aish.com or shabbatshalom.org).  I do not agree with everything in it, but do find some interesting and inspiring comments.

In the issue received on 18th August 2019 the lead article was about spirituality.  It stated that Rabbi Avraham Goldhar suggested five pairs of items to clarify what we think spirituality really is.  The five pairs are:

Emotion................Intellect
Kindness................Justice
Community...........Solitude
God........................Nature
Serenity.............Challenge

Before reading any further, stop and decide which one of each pair you think relates more closely to your idea of spirituality.  For example do you get a more spiritual attitude through your emotions or through your studious thoughts?  Do you find a relationship with God more spiritual than time in nature?

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The article stated that most people associate spirituality with:

                     emotion, kindness, solitude, nature, and serenity

but that Jewish people would associate spirituality with

                     intellect, justice, community, God, and challenge.

I found this interesting as I had picked some of the Jewish items but some of the non-Jewish ones.  How did you go?

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But as I thought about it, I decided that the question was wrong. For example a spirituality that is either all emotion or all intellect is unbalanced.  Emotion is important in spirituality for God is a God of love and love is an emotion.  But spirituality must also appeal to the intellect for God is truth and truth is an intellectual matter.

But then I re-read the article and saw it stated that for the Jew, intellect is to be channelled into emotion - emotions can't rule you; you must do the right thing.

Justice provides for a world of kindness. A society has to be willing to identify rights and wrongs and stand up to evil. If not, one can attempt to do kindness, but end up enabling evil. 

Community provides you with an understanding of who you are - a member of a people - even when you are alone, you are still part of something more.

Realizing that there is a Creator and having a relationship with the Creator makes the natural much more profound. This world is a veiled reality with the Creator behind it.

People can only receive serenity when they live up to their challenges; otherwise, they are tormented in their pursuit of serenity by not living up to their potential.

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So does it really matter which of the five pairs you pick, for unless you combine the one you have chosen with its partner you are unbalanced.  How is your spirituality?

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