PSHHH

At my school, whenever someone says something particularly insightful or wise, it is customary to make the noise "PSHHH." Apparently, this is somewhat common in the Jewish community, as an alternative to applause; a way of saying "good job!" or "I agree!" or "you go, girl!"

Personally, I think this is kind of weird. But, you know, when in Rome*....

Anyway, I just finished my third week of classes, and wanted to share something that I found particularly memorable from this week. I am taking a class called "Personalizing Prayer" as an elective for two hours each week. Most of my classes look at Jewish text from an academic standpoint, whereas this class talks about how to make Judaism relevant and meaningful in our own daily lives, through prayer. Being the hippie that I am, I consider this class my favorite of the week.

First, we looked at some text from the modern Jewish philosopher, Abraham Joshua Heschel (Nerd Alert: I love and recommend his book, "God in Search of Man"). A common theme in his teachings and writings is the idea of radical amazement, that we should live our lives in a state of wonder, of awe, of amazement:

“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ....get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.”-AJH

What does this look like in practice? This is what we talked about today in class. It is easy to appreciate and give thanks for the big things that happen to us: an "A" on an exam, a new addition to our family, a Penn State football win, etc. But what about the things we do daily, the things that become mundane? Like being able to physically stand up in the morning? Or the ability to dress ourselves, or to even afford the clothing?  Shouldn't we give thanks for these things, too?

Judaism says, "yes!"

An example that we looked at is the prayer that can be said after using the bathroom, something that we do several times a day. You might be thinking, "Ew, gross! There's a prayer for using the bathroom?" There sure is.

In class, we looked at going to the bathroom through the lens of "radical amazement." Our teacher gave us handouts on the digestive system, and each of us had to share with the class what we found "radically amazing" about it:

• In our bodies, we have over 22 feet of intestines, that somehow fit into our small human frames!
• After we swallow, the muscles in our esophagus push down the food in a wave-like motion, and we don't even notice it!
• Our body is able to sort the "good things" and "bad things" from our food and send it to different parts of our body for energy!

The exercise seems silly, now that I'm writing it down, but it was a creative way of showing how much needs to happen in order for us to do something as seemingly simple as going to the bathroom. I don't think that I'm going to say this prayer after every single time I use the bathroom, but I am going to be more aware of the amazing-ness and wonder of my everyday life.

PSHHH.

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*Or Jerusalem.