Deborah Waxman: Hi, I'm Rabbi Deborah Waxman, and I'm so happy to welcome you to Hashivenu: Jewish Teachings on Resilience. We're in the process of revamping our season a bit in light of the pandemic. This season, we've been focusing on an exploration of community as a way of cultivating and deepening resilience. And this remains, I think, an incredibly important conversation, but we're also at this moment when we're all being encouraged to follow, or sometimes mandated to follow, what's called social distancing. And I think we're trying to figure out exactly how to adhere to the physical constraints of this, so that we don't get sick ourselves and we don't pass on the virus --but to make certain that that doesn't carry over to our relationships. And I think for all of us, we're trying to find new ways of doing this in a time of quarantine. Deborah Waxman: So for Hashivenu, we want to make certain that we are bringing helpful episodes to you, not tone-deaf ones. And some of the ones that we have been recording do focus in on physical convenings that aren't really possible at this moment. So we're going to bump a few of those to later in the season, and God willing they'll be appropriate at that moment in time. We're bringing forward others that we've already recorded, and we're setting in motion plans to record a few new ones. While we're doing all of that, I wanted to record just a little mini-episode without a guest, to bring a practice and some teaching that I hope might be helpful. Just be me for a little bit. And I'll share with you that where we're going is to do a focus on breath work. But before we dive in, I want to do a general framing and teach a little bit about this general Jewish principle of piku'akh nefesh which is usually translated as saving a life. Deborah Waxman: And it's this principle that overrides any law or any other requirement. It's kind of a meta-principle, very powerful, very life affirming. This is the principle that is invoked when highly observant Jews might call for an ambulance or ride in an ambulance on Shabbat when someone is sick. This is the principle that is used when an elder, or someone who's physically vulnerable, or in some kind of treatment is urged to eat on Yom Kippur. And this indeed is the Jewish rationale for social distancing at this moment. We understand from this principle that we have to retreat from intensive physical interaction, in order to flatten the curve, to slow the virus's spread, and to prevent the overwhelm of our healthcare system. Deborah Waxman: The Hebrew is, piku'akh nefesh is an idiom. When you translate it literally it doesn't obviously play out in that conceptual understanding of saving a life. Piku'akh means supervision or inspection. It's the second word, nefesh that I want to focus on and also on some of its synonyms. Nefesh is one of these incredibly rich words in Hebrew. It's in the Bible. It's an ancient, ancient word. It can mean life. As in saving a life. It can actually therefore mean a human being. It can mean breath, it can mean soul, or spirit, or mind. There are other words I could also list. It's really got a very rich, poetic, complex etymology. Deborah Waxman: And Hebrew is a building-block language. So in addition to being a noun, it can also be built into a verb. And the verb from this word in its various forms can mean to rest or recuperate, to animate, to enliven, to bring breath into. So it's just one of those amazing words. We see the enlivening part right away in the Bible in chapter two of Genesis, when the creation of humanity and the Hebrew, I'll read it really slowly. "Vayitzar Adonai Elohim et ha-adam afar min ha-adamah, vayipakh be-apav nishmat hayyim, vayehi ha-adam lenefesh hayyah." "And Adonai formed a human being from the dust of the earth. God blew into the human's nostrils, the breath of life, nishmat hayyim, vayehi ha-adam lenefesh hayyah - and the human, I mean, I'm translating from man here, but the human became nefesh hayyah a living being. Deborah Waxman: So you see breath and soul, they're different words there and here, but they can mean the same thing. And we see the resting part in the book of Exodus also harking back to creation. If those of you who know the song, V'Shamru, which is an excerpt from Exodus that talks about commanding us to observe Shabbat, V'Shamru b'nei Yisrael et ha-Shabbat. And the Israelites should observe Shabbat. At the end of that passage, it says uvayom hashevii shavat vayinafash, and on the seventh day God rested and God vayinafash. God was breathed or God-breathed or God was refreshed or God was ensouled somehow. Deborah Waxman: So we see the just the richness and all the ways that this can play out what I want to put forward is an invitation here that as we enact behaviors that will ensure pikua'kh nefesh, that will ensure the general good, the public health, there's also an opportunity for us to focus in on our own souls and our own breath. That we can take it from that general pikua'kh nefesh to our own nefesh, to our own individual soul. And you know, where we are in is in the midst of a retreat from everyday life, and I want to invite the deepening understanding of retreat,, of how that can be an opportunity for us to constructively create some space to rest, to recharge, to learn. I know that this is something that I who do not have children at home or anyone who needs care, and I who feel confident that my income stream is going to be secure, I have a lot more space to do that than other people do. And I really want to acknowledge that and express incredible support for folks who are struggling at this moment. And also to note that it feels really important to adopt a proactive attitude as this kind of stretches out because we just don't know how long this is going to last. And that uncertainty can really weigh on us. So I've been working, my partner and I both have been working on our daily practices with mixed results. For me, I'm a terrible sleeper, so sleep hygiene feels really, really important to me. I've really kind of tried to double down both on my gratitude practice and my meditation practice. There's another episode if you want to hear about my gratitude practice from late October or November of 2018. And this is a little bit to talk about breath work. Deborah Waxman: So as I said, nefesh means many thing including breath. And that other word that came up in chapter two of Genesis. neshamah, breathing, is another way we talk about breath and sometimes breath also gets translated as living beings. So the two words are really richly intertwined, not only in that verse but also in the Jewish imagination. And in our morning liturgy every day, there's a beautiful meditation that is right at the beginning of the prayers when we're still in an individual place. And I'm going to read it to you right now. It's just one line. Elohai, neshamah shenatata bi, tehorah hi. So a very literal translation of that is, my God, the soul you have given me is pure. So here, the ,soul neshamah but also think about it also as breath that which animates us. I want to really just put out on the table right away that for some listeners, for some people I'm in regular conversation with, God as the addressee, God the agency, the being that implants a soul in people, might be really problematic. For me, I get around this and I hope it's a resource for you. With a very classical Reconstructionist approach, I'm really sustained and empowered by an understanding of God as the source of the universe, as the ground of being. Not so much as a person who suspends the laws of nature or who intervenes in history in our lives. I can set aside the personal components and just kind of go with the poetry here and with that understanding of the notion of breath and soul intertwined, and I think when I do that, I'm really drawing on traditions across the globe that focus in on the interconnection of breath and soul. You know that in Abrahamic traditions and Eastern traditions, there's just a tremendous amount of focus on breath -- this extraordinary thing that animates us, that somehow is, seems connected to the divine, seems connected to that which animates us. We know that the breath is the only thing that immediately disappears upon death. And so I feel the miracle of my breath every single day. So I hope that you can either go with the literal meaning or you can take this reframing as an option. I love the creative interpretation that Rabbi Shefa Gold brings to this. She translates this line not as, my God, the soul you gave to me is pure, but rather "Oh, pure soul in you. I see endless possibility" and there's a link to a beautiful melody that she has with the Hebrew and that translation. So what I want to do... That's the framing and what I want to do is do two things now. Deborah Waxman: I want to teach you very practically some breath work that I do, especially when I'm feeling stressed out. And then I just want to end with a beautiful, beautiful melody to this line from the liturgy that I sing many mornings. So, as I said, wisdom traditions around the world really concentrate on breathing, and on the breath of life. And so certainly in yoga practices and meditation, that's a major focus. And medically, as I dived into this, it's so amazing to really learn a little bit more about breathing. It's this incredible and complex process that a healthy body does at least 20,000 times a day, more if we're physically active. It provides oxygen to the 50 trillion cells in our body. And it's very poignant in this time of COVID-19 since we know that the lungs are one of the organs that are most directly affected. Deborah Waxman: I shared with you some of the Jewish teachings about the intertwining between breath and soul. And now I want to share with you a very practical exercise that can help in times of stress or when we're under duress. It's not Jewish per se, although I do know that the Israeli military and other militaries use it to train their soldiers, it's also called tactical breathing, and foursquare breathing. And one of the things that we know is that when we feel threatened or when we're aroused our autonomous nervous system gets elevated in a manner that kind of tends to promote fight or flight, and also tends to shut down brain function so we're not our most grown up, our most wise, our most generous and open-hearted selves. And so this is something that I tend to do when I feel my shoulders are going up. Deborah Waxman: When I feel that I'm very, very anxious this is something that helps to build up both oxygen and carbon dioxide. The latter helps to stimulate your vagus nerve, which can really shut down that that involuntary function of our nervous system. And there are studies by the Mayo Clinic and others that show that this practice can help to reduce stress, can lower our cortisol level, and if you do it regularly can really produce a lot of long-term benefits. So I'll just walk you through it very, very quickly. It's called box breathing because you're trying to do the same thing four times over. Rather, sometimes breathing exercises are longer or shorter and they have various benefits. This one is about doing the same thing in four different phases. You're going to try to focus on your breath. And to draw deep abdominal breaths. This helps to lower your heart rate which will help to give us full access to all of our resources, maybe open up our soul. Deborah Waxman: So the idea is to inhale through your nose very deeply, expanding your stomach if possible, for a count of four. And then to hold that breath for four. Ideally you don't close everything down, you just kind of stop breathing. Sometimes I find that I'm closing the passage at the back of my throat, but sometimes I can just kind of hold it without closing anything down. And then slowly exhale through your mouth completely. And if you can, to contract your stomach to push it out a little bit, and then you hold the empty breath for a count of four. I'm going to try to talk you through it. I'm going to try to do it in a way that doesn't make you, hopefully it doesn't put any kind of strain on your breathing. So I'm not going to count all the numbers out because I'll be talking a little bit. Deborah Waxman: Then what I'm going to do is just do it four times through here. But my understanding is the richest possible practice is to do it, and you may need to build up capacity, to do it for up to four minutes and that this really just can really help to reset you. And, but the nice thing about it is sometimes, I find when I'm in a tense situation, if I'm fighting with someone or if there's a lot of arguing going around me, I can do just four times through kind of just ticking it off on my fingers without anybody even knowing. And even that, just bringing consciousness to my breath really tends to help to reset me a little bit. So let me talk it through with you. And again, if my pace isn't working for you, please adjust. Try to tune me out for just a few seconds and find a pace that works for you. Deborah Waxman: Inhale through your nose. Three, four. Hold. Two, three, four. Exhale through your mouth, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. Inhale through your nose three, four. Hold two, three, four. Exhale through your mouth, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. Inhale, two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. Exhale, two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. Inhale through your nose, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. Exhale through your mouth, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. I hope that worked. I hope it's a strategy and a tool. I do this exercise a couple of different ways. I do it, certainly when I'm in a stressful situation, when I'm singing or chanting Elohai Neshamah on my own. If I have the space, I will add in a breathing exercise, because I think it's a good practice. It's a good way to bring mindfulness. Deborah Waxman: And sometimes when I do the exercise, if I have the space, I will sometimes flip in to the Jewish liturgy. And will sing a version of it myself. And so what I want to leave you with is a very beautiful melody for Elohai Neshamah. This was composed by Rabbi Judy Kummer, who is a chaplain in Boston, Massachusetts. And in addition to giving us permission to use it, we were able to arrange for her to call in via Zoom. And so you hear her performing her own composition. I think one of the things I really want to encourage you to do is maybe sing along with her. We're going to also upload an MP3 version onto the website and one of the costs of this social distancing is that it's hard for us to come together and for those of us who like to sing together, it's really hard to figure out how to do this over Zoom. The voice over internet protocol doesn't really allow for synced up singing. Deborah Waxman: But what I have seen and what I'm going to keep trying to do is groups of people gathering together, but just one person singing and people singing together to themselves in their own spaces. So I hope that in addition to listening you might also feel moved to sing along with Judy and with others who move you. So here is Rabbi Judy Kummer composition of Elohai Neshamah. Judy Kummer: [singing] Deborah Waxman: Thank you so much for listening. I hope this is helpful. I look forward to being with you again really soon in conversation with other people, our usual format. And I just want to say that I hope... Take really good care and I hope that you find as much ease, and as much connection as you can in these very strange moments. You can find more about this on the website, Hashivenu.fireside.fm. We have incredible resources that we are uploading on Reconstructingjudaism.org and on Ritualwell.org. So I urge you to check those websites as well. Please write into us if there are teachings or if there are things that you are looking for that you think we could be helpful, and please take really good care. I'm Rabbi Deborah Waxman, and this has been Hashivenu.