Soul Trait Studio: Adar 1 5784
Practice guide for the Soul Trait Studio mussar practice for Adar 1 5784 (02/11/24) focusing on the soul trait of "tzavta" | interconnection (Aramaic).
Each month I host an open session called Soul Trait Studio, a mussar practice session focused on the soul trait of the month. Monthly Session guides are now stored here on devotaj.substack.com. The current month is available to all and previous months are available to subscribers at the monthly, yearly, or beloved levels.
Come when you can. All registrants for the month will receive the video the following day. The Soul Trait Studio for Adar 1 5784 is February 11, 2024 from 3-4:30pm ET on Zoom, registration required - no charge but your time.
I consider your time to be the exchange for this offering, which is why I don’t charge money to register. While it is always an option to attend on your own time, via the recording I send out the next day, these sessions remain free of monetary charge because of those who do commit to attending in real time.
Tzavvta Resources
Introduction to Tzavta by Kohenet Ketzirah
Mussar Practice eBook with guides to each soul trait of the year from Devotaj Sacred Arts
The Hebrew Priestess by RK’ Jill Hammer and RK’Taya Mâ (Chapter 3: Weaver Priestesses)
What is a Mitzvah: The State of Being Connected by Tzvi Freeman (Chabad)
Monthly Practice
Note: we rarely get through all of this during the 90 minute session, so consider the entirety of it to be an invitation for your personal practice this month. This guide will remain available to all until the end of the month. Previous monthly guides are available to subscribers at the monthly, yearly, or beloved levels.
Opening
Whole Wide World (Shirat haParochet)
Music and lyrics by Shoshana Jedwab
Some lyrics by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov
The whole wide world is a very narrow bridge
Don’t be afraid of it
The whole wide world is a very narrow bridge
The whole wide world is a very narrow thread
I think I’ll follow it
The whole wide world is a very narrow thread
The whole wide world is abundant colored string
Scarlet, purple, blue and green
The whole wide world is abundant colored string
The whole wide world is in the Weaver’s hand
Fire, water, air and land
The whole wide world is in the Weaver’s hand
The whole wide world is the sacred work of Love
Earth and Heaven, Moon and Sun
The whole wide world is the sacred work of Love
The whole wide world is many strands in One
Those who’ve come and those who’ve gone
The whole wide world is many strands in One
The whole wide world is a very narrow bridge
Don’t be afraid of it
The whole wide world is a very narrow bridge
Very narrow bridge
Very narrow thread
Abundant colored string
In the Weaver’s hand
The sacred work of Love
Many strands in One
The whole wide world is a very narrow bridge
Soul Trait of the Month
The Journey:
Last month: Sh’vat | Moon of Centering | Ahavah (אהבה) Love | Ohevet (אוהבת) Lover
Now: Adar 1 | Moon of Reweaving | Tzavta (צוותא) Connection | Oreget (אורגת) Weaver
Next Month: Adar 2 | Moon of Revealing | Zehirut (זהירות) Illuminated Awareness | Leitzanit (ליצנית) Sacred Fool
Cheshbon HaNefesh:
What does tzavvta (צוותא) connection mean to you right now.
What does it mean to act with tzavvta she’be gevurah?
What does it meant to behave with gevurah she’be tzavvta?
Text Study
Partnered text study. One per breakout room.
Explore what the text teaches you the behaviors of tzavvta AND what other soul traits it helps you recognize as being keys to unlocking tzavvta.
Text 1:
וְהִרְבֵּיתִ֤י אֶֽת־זַרְעֲךָ֙ כְּכוֹכְבֵ֣י הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וְנָתַתִּ֣י לְזַרְעֲךָ֔ אֵ֥ת כׇּל־הָאֲרָצֹ֖ת הָאֵ֑ל וְהִתְבָּרְכ֣וּ בְזַרְעֲךָ֔ כֹּ֖ל גּוֹיֵ֥י הָאָֽרֶץ׃ עֵ֕קֶב אֲשֶׁר־שָׁמַ֥ע אַבְרָהָ֖ם בְּקֹלִ֑י וַיִּשְׁמֹר֙ מִשְׁמַרְתִּ֔י מִצְוֺתַ֖י חֻקּוֹתַ֥י וְתוֹרֹתָֽי׃
Because Abraham listened to Me and My instructions to be guardian and keeper of My mitzvot, [sacred connections] (מצותי), My laws, and My teachings — I will make your offspring numerous like the stars of heaven, and give your offspring to all these lands, so that all the nations of the earth will be blessed through your offspring.
Genesis 26:4-5 (translation by Ketzirah)
Text 2:
The secret teaching of mitzvot is that they are all actions that cause us to deepen our connection to ourselves, to our community, to our lineage, to the unseen world, and the Divine.
Tzavvta: Connection by Ketzirah
Text 3:
כִּי הֲווֹ פָּרְשִׁי מֵהֲדָדֵי, שַׁמְעִינְהוּ דְּקָא אָמְרִי: אוֹרְחִין רַחִיקָא, וְצַוְותִּין בְּסִימָא
When they were taking leave of each other, he heard that they were saying: We traveled a long distance together, and company (ַצוותין ) was a treasure.
Sukkah 52a.11, Babylonian Talmud (The William Davidson Talmud via Sefaria)
Note the word for “company” or “companions” is the same root as tzavvta
Text 4:
The biblical personage Enoch receives a tour of heaven, and one of the things the angel Metatron shows him is the heavenly parochet (curtain):
“Metatron said to me: come, I will show you the veil of the All Present One, which is spread before the Holy One Blessed Be He, and on which are printed all the generations of the world and all their deeds, whether done or yet to be done, until the last generation.”
—3 Enoch 45
This depiction of the holy curtain names it as a metaphysical cloth, holding all of the past and future within its images. The sacred curtain spans life and death, and the birth of new generations. Jews of the Roman period sometimes buried their dead with spindle whorls, and this might be connected to the idea that spinning and weaving constituted creation and recreation.
The Hebrew Priestess by RK’ Jill Hammer and RK’Taya Mâ (Chapter 3: Weaver Priestesses)
Incantations*:
With each step, I move and flow. I am a connection of the cosmic and personal everywhere I go.
Up. Down. Left. Right. May the place that I am, be the place that is right.
I am connected with in and without, above and below, before and beyond — through the power of Divine connection I am centered, grounded, and strong.
All that you touch You Change.All that you Change Changes You. The only lasting truth is Change. G!d/dess is Change. (Octavia Butler)
*The term from inherited forms of mussar is “affirmations”. Feel free to think of them this way, if it’s more aligned and/or nourishing for you.
Embodied Practice
Place one hand on your heart and the other on your belly.
Close your eyes.
I am connected within and without.
Take a breath and feel the breath fill you within and connect you to all that is within you as you inhale. As you exhale feel that breath connect you to everythign outside your body as you exhale.
I am connected above and below.
Breathe in and allow that breath to lift you up — feeling/imagine it beginning below your feet and going up beyond your head into the sky above. Exhale the breath back down your body in the earth.
I am connected before and beyond.
Breathe in drawing the breath from in front of you and exhale blowing the breath behind you
I am connected here and now.
Breathe in and allow the breath to create a three dimensional diamond shape around you — grounding you in the now.
Mitzvah*
Explore an inherited mitzvah, a sacred connective action, you haven’t tried before or engage with it in a new way. Commit to it for the entire month through practice or study.
*I translate mitzvah as “sacred connective action.” In other forms of mussar these are often called kabbalot, committed practices to help you take the practice in the world around you.
Journaling Prompts:
WHAT does tzavvta (צוותא) connection mean to you?
What does it mean to act with tzavvta she’be gevurah?
What does it meant to behave with gevurah she’be tzavvta?
HOW does the idea of a “mitzvah” change for you with its meaning being “sacred connection” or “sacred connective action” instead of “commandment”?
WHEN do you feel most connected?
WHERE do you feel most connected?
WHO do you feel most connected to? A person? A group?
WHICH connections fuel your ability to engage with your soul’s curriculum, and which do not?
Closing Chant
Whole Wide World (Shirat haParochet)
Music and lyrics by Shoshana Jedwab
Some lyrics by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov
The whole wide world is a very narrow bridge
Don’t be afraid of it
The whole wide world is a very narrow bridge
The whole wide world is a very narrow thread
I think I’ll follow it
The whole wide world is a very narrow thread
The whole wide world is abundant colored string
Scarlet, purple, blue and green
The whole wide world is abundant colored string
The whole wide world is in the Weaver’s hand
Fire, water, air and land
The whole wide world is in the Weaver’s hand
The whole wide world is the sacred work of Love
Earth and Heaven, Moon and Sun
The whole wide world is the sacred work of Love
The whole wide world is many strands in One
Those who’ve come and those who’ve gone
The whole wide world is many strands in One
The whole wide world is a very narrow bridge
Don’t be afraid of it
The whole wide world is a very narrow bridge
Very narrow bridge
Very narrow thread
Abundant colored string
In the Weaver’s hand
The sacred work of Love
Many strands in One
The whole wide world is a very narrow bridge
—----
Thank you
Just saw this after another class I was taking today. May I please get the recording? I registered.
Thanks,
Maryam