Lifestyle
Sukkot: Finding Our Way Back Home (Re-release)
In this re-released episode of Sofil: Jewish Living, Rabbi Josh Fagelson explores the significance of Sukkot and the concept of finding a sense of home in the universe. Through mindful practices and r...
Sukkot: Finding Our Way Back Home (Re-release)
Lifestyle •
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Interactive Transcript
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Hi everyone, with the Jewish holiday season upon us, we're taking a few weeks to rest and renew ourselves here at Sofil, Jewish Living.
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But don't worry, we have some amazing episodes from our archive to share.
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This one from season three is about Sukot, and it's one of my favorites.
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I hope you enjoy it.
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From all of us at the podcast,
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Rad Samayach, warm wishes for a joyful holiday.
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Welcome to Sofil, Jewish Living. Mindful practices for every day, with me, Josh Fagelsen.
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I'm grateful you're here, and I hope you benefit from our time together.
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A lot goes into making it possible for this podcast series to reach your ears,
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and astonishing amount really when I stop to think about it.
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There are people like our producer, RISKI, and our audio editor, Rob, who spend time going over the scripts and the recordings,
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and making sure everything comes together beautifully.
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There are other people who work in our organizations and make it possible for us to do our jobs.
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There are the technology systems, like the computers and software we use to write and record.
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The speakers and earbuds that enable the sound to make it to you,
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and the amazing data networks that allow RISKI to be in New York, and me to be in Chicago,
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and Rob to be in California.
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And yes, I spend a good deal of time writing the show each week.
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You might think hosting this podcast is a full-time job.
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Okay, you probably don't think that.
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But it's actually a small but important part of my work as president and CEO at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality.
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In that position, one of my major responsibilities is talking to people about our organization,
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and often asking them for money, slash inviting them to support us.
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And given that the words Jewish spirituality aren't one's most people use every day,
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I'm often asked, what exactly do you mean by spirituality?
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The dictionary defines spirituality as, quote, the quality or fact of being spiritual.
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Not super helpful.
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A definition I like more comes from my friend Dr. Lisa Miller, a leading authority on the neuroscience of spirituality in kids and teens.
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Lisa defines spirituality this way.
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Quote, spirituality is an inner sense of living relationship to a higher power.
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God, nature, spirit, universe, the creator, or whatever your word is for the ultimate loving, guiding life force.
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I think this is a great definition, and I find it resonates with a lot of people.
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But it's also a little long when you've got a few minutes with someone and are going to ask them for a lot of money to support your nonprofit.
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So after a lot of trial and error, I've come up with my own bumper sticker definition of spirituality, which is this.
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Spirituality is our ability to feel deeply at home in the universe.
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Think about it in your own life for a minute.
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What do you associate with spirituality or with being spiritual?
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In scientific studies, a lot of people say things like connection with nature, family, loved ones, experiences of awe, being in a community.
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When people talk about experiencing spiritual moments in solitude, it's usually because being alone in that instance led them to feel more deeply connected to the world, to others.
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And to themselves.
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To me, the word that sums up that feeling of connection is home.
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The place or places I feel at home and the places you feel at home probably aren't the same places.
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I think of the house I grew up in in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and of the home I live in now.
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But home isn't just about a particular place. It can also be an experience wherever my family is feels like home to me, even if we're on vacation.
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I feel at home when I'm listening to music I've known all my life or when I'm reciting Kiddish on Friday night during Shabbat dinner or when I'm meditating.
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In all of these places and experiences I feel a deep sense of connection, a sense of being held and safe enough to be myself.
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I imagine you have your own list.
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I believe the thing that enables you and me to feel deeply at home is our innate spirituality.
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It's a huge part of what makes us human.
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When we feel truly at home we're more at ease, we can be ourselves, we don't feel like we have to pretend.
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Being at home in the universe allows us to experience a sense of connection and flow.
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When we aren't at home it's the opposite. We're more blocked, more stressful, more anxious.
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This idea of being at home is central to Judaism.
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The Torah describes our spiritual task as making a home for God in the world.
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The Hasidic Masters understood that making that home for God comes about through making a home for ourselves and one another, making a home for humans, the images of God.
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If we can enable ourselves and others to experience that deep sense of at-homeness then the divine will also be at home.
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If we don't then we experience exile and so does God.
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You can find this dynamic all over the Torah and Jewish ritual but it's especially pronounced during the holiday of Sukkot, which begins five days after Yom Kippur.
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According to the rabbis of the Talmud the whole point of Sukkot is to leave our regular homes, enter the Sukkha, a temporary home, and make that temporary home into our permanent home for the week.
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What a mind game. Or you might think of it as a retreat, a spiritual reset.
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During Sukkot we have the opportunity to ask ourselves, when and where am I truly deeply at home in the universe?
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And how can I experience that more often? So I can show up as the wise, loving, compassionate human being I want to be.
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Here's a practice to help you do that. You can really do it anywhere but if you can do it in a Sukkha, all the better.
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Wherever you are, try to sit a little more upright than usual. Try to be awake and aware.
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You can soften your gaze or close your eyes. If you're carrying tension anywhere, try to bring some tenderness there.
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Your jaw, your shoulders around your eyes.
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Take several good deep breaths and try to relax a little more with each exhalation.
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And now see if you can bring your awareness to the breath as it enters your nostrils.
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Maybe it feels cool coming in. Notice it coming into your body, traveling into your lungs.
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And then notice as you begin to exhale through the mouth, returning the air to the plant world where it came from.
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In every breath, we are so deeply interconnected.
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See if you can sense that a little more.
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Perhaps you notice that the air comes in through the walls of your real or imagined Sukkha.
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Those walls are real but they're also not real.
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The air, the breath, our interconnection, it extends into the Sukkha and outside of it, into the neighborhood, into the landscape, into the world.
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As you breathe, you are connected to me and to everyone else who's listening.
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Everyone else who's alive right now, we are all part of this web of interconnection, this unity, this oneness.
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And you and I and all of us, we're all welcome. We all belong. We're all at home.
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Because this is our home, right here, right now, fully present.
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We're at home in the world, connected, breathing the same breath, held in the same loving divine embrace.
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When you're ready, open your eyes if they've been closed and have a look around.
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I hope you feel a little more connected, a little more at home, a little more like you're exercising this incredible gift you have of spirituality.
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Hugsameach, my warmest wishes for a joyful holiday of Sukkha and blessings for the journey.
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You know that I'm on it with you.
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Thank you for joining us for soulful Jewish living.
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Mindful practices for every day, a production of unpacked, a division of open door media, and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality.
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This episode was sponsored by Jonathan and Cory Callifer and the Somerset Patriots, the Bridgewater New Jersey-based AA affiliate of the New York Yankees.
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If you like this show, subscribe, give us five stars, and write us a review on Apple Podcasts.
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Check out Jewish unpacked for everything unpacked related and subscribed to our other podcasts, and check out the Institute for Jewish Spirituality.
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Most importantly, be in touch about what you heard today, what you'd like to hear more about, or to dedicate an episode.
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Write to me at Josh at JewishUnpacked.com.
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This episode was hosted by me, Rabbi Josh Fagelson.
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Audio was edited by Rob Perra, and were produced by Rift Geestern.
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Thanks for joining us.