The Importance of Letting Go

For Jews, Shabbat is a day of ceasing. It literally translates as such, and expresses itself as a day in which Jews do not work. There are myriad laws, and interpretations of laws, around this day and what ceasing, and not working, actually means; including, the prohibition against carrying anything in public. This is very curious. Is it arbitrary hair-splitting, or is there a deeper teaching in it?

Rabbi Lopes Cardozo, in his blog a few weeks ago, talked about the prohibition against carrying and related it to the dropping of goals, so that Shabbat becomes a day that is no longer directed outward, but rather inward toward spiritual reflection. In other words, if I am carrying something – a pencil for example – it is because I intend to do something with it. Therefore my thoughts are so pointed toward achieving this goal (future time) that I lose the ability to simply experience being, in-present-time. This is a beautiful teaching, and I will add to it as I continue to dream this story.

Shabbat follows the creation story, wherein all the heavens and earth, and all that is within them, was created in six days and on the seventh day God ceased creating. That word ceasing is variously translated as resting. However, there is a vast difference between rest and cease. There are many teachings about the creation story being written in the “ing” tense… meaning, creation is always happening. It wasn’t a one-time thing, but is a constant event. So, if creation is a constant event, what happened on the seventh day when things ceased?

One Kabbalistic teaching taught to me by Rabbi Gershon Winkler is that God created the raw materials of the Universe and all within it in six days, and then ceased this making of raw materials in order for creation to continue its unfolding. Think of it this way: One person lays out wheat, sugar, butter, milk, eggs, fruit, nuts, seeds on a table for a baker. Then, in order for that baker to now make something of it, that person has to step out of the way. And even more profound, the baker can take just those ingredients and from them make a brioche, a baguette, a cake, a tart, a cookie, a loaf of bread…. The possibilities are endless. Creation is “ing”.

We, too, are part of the “ing”. We are born with all the raw materials necessary to fabric our lives in any exciting array of possibilities as we choose. So what does this lesson mean for us, and what does it have to do with not carrying?

Just as in the creation story, things have to be stepped away from in order for creation to continue unfolding. We are both prep and baker… in order to continually create ourselves we have to step back from our own materials – meaning, assumptions, expectations, patterns. I cannot experience something new if I am continually trying to do so by always doing things the same way. So to not carry, is to let go of old patterns in order to move into the mystery of how we can unfold. It is to cease old ways of thinking and acting, in order for something new to come forward.

Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hanh has said that “in order for something to be revealed to us we have to let go of our expectations of it.” We cannot learn something new if we view it through what we already expect to know about it. In other words, we cannot carry expectation into the realm of revelation. To discover ourselves is to create ourselves into being. So Shabbat is a day of letting go… of ceasing to carry so that we can discover something new within ourselves.

As I posted a few weeks ago, from Auryvedic practitioner Dr. Pratima Raichur: “If a snake cannot cast its skin, it will die; all of life’s creatures have this intrinsic law of prosperity.” Letting go, ceasing, casting our skin, is necessary in order to grow. Learning this as a weekly practice is part of the wisdom of keeping Shabbat. Further, it is part of experiencing the abundance within ourselves.

By the way, this is a little taste of the Mystic and the Prophet workshop I have coming up next weekend, where we’ll learn how to recognize and cast off old patterns so that we can discover new aspects of ourselves.

Happy dreaming,

Bonnie