Rabbi Deborah Wechsler
Finding the Sacred in the Mundane
On Shabbat morning a gentleman came up to me and said, “I have a quick question, what’s mysticism?” I ducked the question (gracefully I hope) and promised to get back to him. Since then several more people have commented to me about our sermon/discussion last Shabbat based on Max Kadushin’s concept of Normal Mysticism so I felt that a fuller explanation and discussion was warranted.
First, to answer my patient questioner, mysticism is an awareness of God through direct experience or insight. Therefore, we can understand Kadushin’s Normal Mysticism as an awareness of God attained through normal daily activities. We are blessed with a tradition that normalizes the God experience and does not expect us to only encounter the divine in the synagogue or at peak moments of our lives.
As someone shared with me yesterday, for her normal mysticism is how she integrates who she is in her regular life with her Jewishness. We spend so much of our lives outside of the synagogue engaged in every sort of mundane and banal experience, and normal mysticism enables us to find the sacred in precisely those type of experiences – eating, drinking, caring for our children, reading, going to sleep, driving in a car and so much more.
Is this a concept that resonates with you?
Can you think of an example of a time when the absolutely mundane felt positively divine?
Posted in: Day to Day Life, Spirituality
8 Comments
Rabbi Deborah Wechsler
Helen - I am not sure that you and I disagree about God. I think perhaps we just call our experiences by different names. The experiences that you mentioned have been for me manifestation of a connectedness to God - but that's my way of expressing it. Do you think it possible that two people could have the exact same experience and one person would sense the divine and one person would not?
Miriam Foss
For me normal mytsticism takes place when different worlds meet around a common goal. This happens frequently at Ronald McDonald House on our monthly congregational visit to bring dinner to the families who live there while their seriously ill children receive medical treatment at area hospitals. To stay at the house families must live at least 50 miles from Baltimore. Our volunteers are comprised of people of different age groups representing different constitiuencieis within Chizuk Amuno. Some send in their tastiest home cooked dishes and others bring food and volunteer to serve. When we are together driving to and from Ronald McDonald House the most amazing conversations unfold. While serving dinner bonding takes place among the families and our volunteers who may be meeting for the first time. An atmosphere of deep caring and gratitutde for one another permeates our evening-normal mystycism in the every day.
Rabbi Deborah Wechsler
Miriam - there is a quote that I think reflects what you are saying from Rabbi Yisroel Salantar, the founder of the Musar movement. When asked how he took care of his own spiritual needs he said that he takes care of his own spiritual needs by taking care of the physical needs of others.
Stuart Aiken
Indeed, Rabbi Wechsler, every day is sacred and no day is mundane in life. However. I have never felt such intense appreciation for this concept until my West Point son safely returned home to American soil following his fifteen month deployment in Iraq and, ultimately completed his five year military commitment to his country. Every single day is now a gift.
Richard Udell
As you know I am a Paramedic with Pikesville Volunteer Fire Company and the Baltimore County Fire Service. I have been doing this type of work both as a Volunteer and paid personnel for 40 years. Several years ago while on duty one morning, a mother had three of her children in her SUV traveling along a side rode in the Stevenson area. The ages of the children were 9-7-& 6. The mother was driving with the 9 year boy in the front passengers seat, when she hit a patch of black ice, skidded off the rode and the rear of vehicle hit a large tree in the rear passenger area occupied by her 7 year old daughter and 5 year old son. Both children were properly secured in their seats, but the impact was so severe, that the children were severely injured. Upon the arrival of my unit and other units, both rear seat children were not concious and not breathing. Upon removal of both Children to our unit, I knew they had injuries not compatible with life. At this point I spoke to GOD and ask GOD to give me the power to save these childrens lives. The only thing I can say was a power came to my brain and hands that I have never had before, and I did skills beyond my training. In transport to the hospital, both children were breathing, not concious yet. Enroute to the hospital a voice that I never heard before told me that these children would live. Did GOD really speak to me, I don't know. One year later a breakfast was held in the honor of all those involved in this incident, and when the parents of these two children said to me, thank you for giving us back our children, and when both the girl & boy gave me a big hug and thanked me, I was crying. This has taught me the power of prayer and that GOD is with us everyday.
Leora Pushett
Benyamin Cohen, in his book "My Jesus Year" ponders a similar question after attending "Faith Day" at the baseball and marvelling at how Christians have elevated a mundane baseball game - although there are those for whom baseball is a religion!! - to a level of religious engagement and sanctity. His musings bring him to realize that Judaism also offers opportunities to find the sacred in the mundane. Interestingly, his immediate action is to recite the bracha of "asher yatzar" with greater kavana at least a couple of times a day. How much more mundane, he suggests, can you get than using the bathroom - and yet, he reminds himself, our tradition elevates it with an appropriate blessing on the wonder and gratitude we have for everything working the way it should!!
Rabbi Deborah Wechsler
There is a wonderful article on Asher Yatzar by Dr. Ken Prager. Here is the link http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/277/20/1589.full.pdf
Helen Lewis
Is my problem only semantical or is it conceptual" I understand neither the phrase "normal mysticism" nor its definition as "an awareness of God attained through normal daily living." Yes, I have expereienced joy, elation, ecstasy, satisfaction, happiness, camaraderie, sense of belonging and connectedness, longing and yearning, nostalgia, hope, and senses of responsibility, caution, wonder, optimism, and self-control etc.. But do I relate these experiences to an awareness of God? No. Perhaps my problem is that I cannot conceive of a "spiritual entity" capable of listening to or responding to prayer, or playing a role in human history. Such an entity may exist but I cannot conceive of it. I do not deny that others may experience "mysticism," but it is beyond me. I have found a definition of "God" that works for me It is the cumulative, active yetzer hatov in humanity.. I constantly battle with my yetzer hara (in which category I include fear, depression, anger, selfishness, jealousy, sadness, despair, pessimism, disgust, apathy, overindulgence, etc,) and try to tip the scale in favor of my yetzer hatov and to find connectedness in that effort.