Appreciating Jewish Meditation

Silence as a form of holiness is still unusual, unfamiliar and even uncomfortable for many of us. In our media and work-saturated cultures, silence is rare; a luxury, really.

Was it the case for you that silence in your home was/is usually a cold silence of loneliness? Perhaps someone was shutting you out? or being shut out by you? Do you often keep the TV or radio on so as not to feel so alone?

How do you feel about silence?

 What does the Torah mean by the verse: “To You silence is praise”?

The healing warm silence at the end of a Jewish chanting meditation can be a very precious feeling. It requires a temporary cessation of multitasking, the ability to stay in a depth of experience and to train your spiritual muscles through repetition. 

Many who did not find satisfaction in dominant forms of Judaism in the twentieth century are very happy about the restoration of meditation as a Jewish practice. Meditation seems to be one of the missing reagents which is bringing Jews and Judaism to life. It is one of many keys this book offers to the treasure chest of Jewish spirituality.

The Talmud suggests a maximal approach: "A person should meditate for one hour before reciting the liturgy and for one hour after it."[Berahot 32b]Our sages recorded numerous instances of the importance of meditation for Jewish prayer and two hundred years ago Reb Nahman of Breslov wrote: "Meditation is the highest path of all." [Hishtaphut HaNefesh].

Today, most of us understand that meditation is not an end in itself, it is a helpful spiritual method for connecting to the depth of the prayers and connecting to the Big Picture of abundance and eternity within which we are all embedded. Jewish meditation is a component of practice that works synergistically within the carefully crafted spiritual system of our tradition. Our people's goal is not to transcend the body in order to spend as much of our lives as possible in an altered state outside of family and community life. The goal of Judaism is to give you a variety of tools for living the fullest expression of life possible, including the grounding, inspiration and moral strength to work on yourself and the world.

In my case I resisted a long time before trying anything that had meditation as its label. Some sort of fear kept me from it, as though I would die or fall into some ecstatic state and never return from it. The word “fear” is also an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. There are many myths that can get in the way of a Jewish person benefitting from the ancient practice of Jewish meditation.

You may have heard it said that whether you meditate using Hebrew or let's say, Sanscrit, it doesn't matter. Or that if you just chant the mantra-like formulae, do the movements or follow your breath and the practices will work their magic. This is only superficially true. With practice, it has become clear to me that the choice and meaning of sacred phrases matters greatly to attaining the many beautiful, important, powerful places your soul can go. While chanting in most any religious tradition or a random language is calming, the  have a particular nutrient content and each step is a vital ingredient.  Let's try an example of a chant that sang itself inside of me and became an important alternative part of my community's prayer practice at the point in services of the Elohai Neshama prayer.

Here's the chant: (N'sheema, n'shama.) 2x  
I breathe in my life begins, I breathe out my soul travels on. 

http://www.rabbishefagold.com/hebrew_chant/modah_ani/