The following contribution is from guest author Shevach Lambert. These were Shevach's words on the Jewish perspective of the theme "Living The Spiritual Heart" at the Interfaith Prayer Service of Eugene on August 11, 2010.
In Hebrew, the word for ‘heart’ is a two-letter word, lev, spelled 'lamed beit', or "L B". These two letters also begin and end the Torah, which is why we say that the Torah is a song of the heart; it is meant to help us find where our true heart lies.
The Torah is the foundation text of the Jewish religion. It consists of the first five books of the Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy. Genesis begins with the second letter of the word heart, "B". Deuteronomy ends with the first letter, "L". Which means that in the very beginning and at the very end of the Torah text is the word ‘heart,’ spelled backwards. The rabbis explain that this reverse spelling means that the heart itself is inverted. It is turned inward instead of outward; closed instead of open. The Torah was given so that with its guidance we can correct that misspelling, and align our hearts with our divine purpose. All the commandments and teachings of the Torah are for the purpose of rectifying the heart.
Like many spiritual traditions, Judaism teaches that we are not bodies with souls; we are embodied souls. And yet our souls are not our own. They are the means with which G-d seeks to complete Herself. To put it more simply, if G-d is all there is, then G-d, so to speak, is incomplete. G-d lacks an Other, a not-G-d, a partner with which to engage. To provide this otherness, and thus complete the Divine, we are created in all our finitude, with all our limitations and lacks. We are the means by which the Infinite is expressed within the finite.
The Jewish mystical tradition teaches that our souls extend out beyond the boundaries of the body, spinning out soul threads that permeate and infuse people and things all around us. Slivers of our soul may be found inside people, creatures, or objects far away. A strange thought: our physical bodies are born more or less intact in one package; but our spiritual being arrives scattered all about creation, with vital parts missing which we need to recover in order for us to complete the mission for which we were created. You might say that our mission is in fact to recover the parts of the soul that are missing.
Where are these missing soul parts? Judaism teaches that they can be found in whatever challenges us the most; whatever requires us to grow beyond our comfort zone. That which frustrates, angers, humiliates, or intrigues us is a "malach", a messenger, or, as more commonly translated, an angel offering us an opportunity to recover a bit of our soul. The bully on the playground, the jerk at the office, the blind bozo who just cut you off in traffic, all those aggravating individuals are all telling us where our souls need the most work. They point to the holes within us in need of fulfillment.
That is why the word for heart is spelled backwards at the beginning and end of the Torah. You might think to find your missing soul part in whatever is most pleasing or gratifying to your sense of self; whatever which is comfortable, familiar, recognizable, spelled correctly. But that kind of simple gratification resonates with the ego, not the soul. To serve as a partner for G-d, to be an Other for the Divine, we need to confront and accept that which is other to ourselves. We need those aggravating individuals, those maddening circumstances that shatter our complacency and irritate our insularity. They are performing a service by bringing to our attention a missing spark of soul.
Our hearts are complete when we include the other within them, when we accept as part of who we are the reverse of what we thought we were. The more challenging the situation, the more likely it is to contain a vital part of our soul-work. We are called to "p’tach levi", to open our hearts to embrace our enemy, for within them we find the rest of our soul.
(The letter 'beit' is pronounced either as a hard "B" sound, or a soft "V" sound but both are written with the same root letter 'beit'.)
