Quality Time Alone
Thoughts on the Coronavirus
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As the people of Am
Yisrael prepared for the fateful night of the fourteenth of Nisan, God
instructed:
And
you shall take a bundle of hyssop and you shall dip it in the blood that is in
the basin and you shall touch the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and
to the two doorposts…
(Shemot 12:22)
The great medieval
commentator R. Avraham Ibn Ezra noticed the similarity between this command and
the purifying process of the messora (leper), which God would later
instruct:
The
Cohen shall charge that there be taken for him who is cleansing himself two
live pure birds and cedar wood and crimson stuff and hyssop…And dip them and
the living bird in the blood of the slaughtered bird over fresh water. (VaYikra 14:4)
Ibn Ezra suggested
that the similarity of dipping hyssop into blood in each of these cases hints
at a shared essence.[1]
How was the exalted night of “Pesah Missrayim” in any way similar to the
lowly state of the exiled messora?
The 18th
Century Hasidic leader R. Nahman of Bratzlav z”l spent much of his life
preaching about the basic importance of seeking a “conversation with God.” He
taught his followers to meditate in solitude – be-hitbodedut – as a way
of connecting with the Almighty. R. Nahman advised finding a physical place
apart from others and saying to yourself, “For the next twenty minutes, I will
be alone with God.” He explained that even if there is in fact nothing to say,
the very experience of spending time alone with God – aware of His presence –
is still valid.[2]
Indeed, Jewish
tradition has long stressed the importance of solitude to our approach of God.
R. Avraham, the son of HaRambam, distinguished between an external and internal
isolation. Whereas external isolation consists of physically distancing
oneself from others, the fundamental state of internal isolation separates the
mind from outward sensation and thought itself.[3]
And the great codifier R. Yaakov b. Asher wrote, as well, how “Saints and
people of deed…would meditate in solitude and concentrate in their prayers
until they reached a level where they would be divested of the physical.”[4]
R. Joseph B.
Soloveitchik z”l traced the significance of Har Sinai, God’s chosen
place for giving the Torah, to Moshe’s earlier experience with God at the
burning bush in that location.[5]
“When God wanted to select a mountain for the public revelation,” R.
Soloveitchik wrote, “He selected Mount Sinai, because the first confrontation,
the first rendezvous between God and man, had already taken place there.”[6]
R. Soloveitchik furthermore noticed that while we tend to focus on the
spectacular heroism “on the battlefield,” there is another type of heroism, set
out of the public. “Most mitzvot concern one’s private life,” he wrote,
“No one watches; there are no onlookers. It is just a relationship between
oneself and God.”[7]
The “acts of heroism” performed in solitude enjoy the unique aspect of
intimacy, absent from those in public.
Concluding His
instructions for touching the blood to the lintel and doorposts of Am
Yisrael, God said:
And
as for you, none of you shall go out from the entrance of his house till
morning.
(Shemot 12:22)
In a similar vein
to the leper’s isolation from nation in the wilderness – “outside
the camp shall his dwelling place be” (VaYikra 13:46), God instructed every
household to quarantine themselves. He commanded them to be mitboded –
isolated and apart from others – for just one night.
It
is a night of watch (shimurim)
for God, for His taking them out of the land of Egypt, this night is God’s a
watch (shimurim) for all Bnei Yisrael through their generations.
(Shemot 12:42)
R. Avraham Ibn Ezra
explained that Am Yisrael’s duty to “watch” on that night was similar to
the way a guard stays awake and “watches out” to protect his city overnight.[8]
But there was no city for the people to protect at that time. Am Yisrael
was, instead, watching over and experiencing the night itself.
“It is a night of
watch for God.” As God stood guard to protect and “watch” through the night,
the people of Am Yisrael distanced themselves from one another. They spent
the night standing guard and “watching” on their own –together with the
Almighty.
Two weeks of social
isolation have passed. Many more lie ahead. Instead of dreaming about our
ultimate return to “normalcy,” perhaps we should seize this time as an opportunity
to deepen our relationships with God. The solitude so suddenly placed upon us need
not be an obstacle. It may, instead, be a potential.
[1] Commentary of R. Avraham
Ibn Ezra to VaYikra 14:4, s.v. ve-ess.
[2] See R. Aryeh Kaplan, Jewish
Meditation (New York, NY, 1985), pg. 95. Cf. Arthur Green, Tormented
Master: The Life and Spiritual Quest of Rabbi Nahman of Bratzlav
(Woodstock, VT, 1992), pg. 145-148.
[3] R. Avraham b. HaRambam, Hamaspik
LeOvdei HaShem, Perek Hitbodedut. Cf. Jewish Mediation, pg. 52.
[4] R. Yaakov b. Asher, Arba’ah
Turim, Orah Hayim: 98.
[5] See Commentary of Rashi to
Shemot 3:1, s.v. el har.
[6] R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Vision
and Leadership: Reflections on Joseph and Moses (Jersey City, NJ, 2013),
pg. 77.
[7] R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Abraham’s
Journey: Reflections on the Life of the Founding Patriarch (Jersey City,
NJ, 2008), pg. 65.
[8] Commentary of R. Avraham
Ibn Ezra to Shemot 12:42, s.v. leil. See, as well, Commentary of
R. Shimon b. Semah to the Hagadah, s.v. ma’aseh.