"naomi's question of the day" is a new feature of
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June 13, 2011
There would seem to be a strengthening in reasoned repetition yet many people crave the excitement of constantly distinguishable happenings. Why? What leads Torah Jews to pursue reasoned repetition?
5 comments:
The real challenge of commitment is through repetition. Novel behaviours are thrilling at first but then quickly lose that thrill. Real commitment means continuing the same activity over and over again despite not getting the same charge out of it.
Kind of like marriage in a way...
I have never repeated an action. There is a sense of addition of colors and shapes and a climb on the ladder to heaven -- I can daven day after day and it states that somehow the present rents or borrows from the past and breathes into the future. How can you say that the same charge is not received as if it would be fine to receive it? -- of course it isn't the same, but don't you change with every moment and doesn't your response to the actions that appear to repeat re-color, re-design? I change.
So all that flies toward me changes in perception.
And as an aside -- my experience with marriage is that it is a constant sunfall surprise and never repetitive because I change and he changes and the equation is new always. I think repetition only exists in the chase after external newness -- it isn't external, we come to new worlds within ourselves -- and that is the single legitimate change.
n.
> I have never repeated an action.
Most times I go to the bathroom it smells pretty much the same.
> I have never repeated an action.
Like breathing?
> There is a sense of addition of colors and shapes and a climb on the ladder to heaven
Yeah, but LSD will do that in half the time.
> I can daven day after day and it states that somehow the present rents or borrows from the past and breathes into the future
Where? The future hasn't happened yet. It's the future.
> How can you say that the same charge is not received as if it would be fine to receive it?
Visa charges me when I use the card. Every damn time.
> of course it isn't the same,
Sometimes it's for a lot, sometimes not so much. Depends how much I spent.
>but don't you change with every moment
As Pink Floyd sang, "but you're older, shorter of breath, one day closer to death"
> I change.
So do I. Fresh socks and underwear every day.
And as an aside -- my experience with marriage is that it is a constant sunfall surprise and never repetitive because I change and he changes
I believe the letters "TMI" are appropriate here.
> we come to new worlds within ourselves
That or spaceships equipped with warp drive.
n., your words burn through the confusion and into a more-honed form of Question. Your origional question, I believe, is one of great difficulty for so many. Your comment on your question clarifies and ampliphys what I have learned from other sources, but in a more pointed manner.
It has been my understanding that the repetition, in essence, creates a deepening process.
One of my teachers recently told me that a therapy session should be like long downward steps, going a little deeper each time.
I can apply that vision to Torah life. By combining your view of continously new "colors and shapes and a climb on the ladder to heaven" with the steadiness of halacha, an equation has been created that enables a deepening of the personality, a steady upward climb of existence.
In short: By not using the adventure craving part of our brains for externals, they can be redirected towards adventures of internal sincerity and depth.
Thank you for both your question and comment.
P.S: The desciption of marriage was beautiful. I think I shall borrow heavily upon your phrase "sunfall surprise".
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