Get to Know Yourself - a little bit

There is no better time to do this….to get to know yourself on a deeper level. The Jewish New Year will soon be here, and engaging in some stock-taking {known in spiritual terms as Cheshbon Hanefesh, literally Accounting of the Soul} is imperative if you’re to expect anything from this experience.

First, some background. Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, known as the RaMChaL [1707 - 1746], is the author of Mesilat Yesharim, Path of the Just, a foundational text about character traits and developing yourself to a higher level of being.

In the Introduction to his seminal work, he says that he is not going to tell you anything that you don't know already. Imagine. The author of one of the most famous Jewish texts on character says that basically, there's nothing new that I'm going to tell you. What he does is tap into deep teachings about yourself and the world at large that are often hidden below the surface. And so we tend to put off this kind of soul work in favor of pursuits of a material variety.

So, how would you begin to know the ‘real you’? First, it’s about recognizing and then removing the blockages that exist preventing us from engaging in this process. One barrier is my point above, that the realm of the spiritual, non-physical world is not our comfort zone. What also gets in the way of a deeper 'knowing' is our intellectual ego. We get in the way of ourselves. There is the external identity that we show to the world, but then, there is an inner being that we keep private. We want to be perceived in a certain way and frankly, today’s cultural climate makes being ‘real’ ever more challenging. The bombardment of pictures and postings of exhultant snippets from people’s lives sets up unreal expectations for all of us. At times, our ‘true’ self is the one that we keep from others.

And of course, there is a fear of allowing that true self the space to emerge. Our thoughts are not always pure, and its scary to think that we’re letting them loose.

Then there’s the avoidance. Often, we know there is a lack in our lives, we experience a longing for meaning, but we avoid doing anything about it. Science calls it inertia. We can call it many things: scrolling, watching, shopping.....anything that we do mindlessly that takes us away from what might really change things us for us.

Peeling away those layers that have obscured our inner purity and desire for connection with the greater Whole takes work. And sometimes, I get it, we're just not up for it.

How might we begin on the path of learning about ourselves?

The Ramchal advises this: One should set aside a definitive time of the day and a specific amount of time for this assessment [of your ways] so that it is not a fortuitous matter, but one that is conducted with the greatest regularity; for it yields great returns. [Mesilat Yesharim, Path of the Just, ch. 3]

Our great sage Hillel advises us never to waste time in carrying out a positive change:

If not now, when? Hillel, Foundational Ethics, 1:14

If you are on board with the work you need to do, that’s wonderful. For some extra motivation, you can read my previous post Unlock the Power of Self-Discovery or {listen to the podcast}

But now is the time, as Hillel said. We are asked to do this kind of work in preparation for Rosh Hashanah. So you might just decide that now is the time to engage in this practice that hopefully, might be a regular occurrence in your life. To keep things going, you might also pursue Jewish study, the type that will elevate you just a little bit, and get you closer to peeling away another layer. 

Please connect at any time, and let me know how it goes.