Soul Trait Studio: Kislev 5785
Practice guide for the Soul Trait Studio session for Kislev 5785 focusing on the soul trait of Yirah | Awestruck, Radical Amazement.
Each month I host an open session called Soul Trait Studio, a mussar practice session focused on the soul trait of the month. 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 Kislev 5785 is December 8, 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.
Yirah Resources
Devotaj Sacred Arts: Mussar Practice eBook with guides to each soul trait of the year
Register for this and upcoming sessions: devotaj.com/soultraitstudio
Awe by Hanan Harchol (via Sefaria.org)
How Fear Becomes Awe by R’Shai Held (Sefaria.org)
Encountering the Sacred: Awe by R’Jill Zimmerman (via Sefaria.org)
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 Chant
Light born from darkness,
dawn born from night,
hope born from quiet
waiting for the light.
Spring born from winter,
spark struck from sun,
strength born from calling
for the spring to come.
Now the dark is waiting,
and it will be gone.
Soon the earth turn,
facing toward the dawn.
Words by Rav Kohenet Rabbi Jill Hammer, slightly adapted.
Melody by Kohenet Ketzirah Lesser
Introduction to Soul Trait of the Month
The Journey:
Last month: Chesvhan | Moon of Stillness | Kavod (כבוד) Honor, Respect, Dignity | Mekonenet (מקוננת) Mourning Woman
This Month: Kislev | Moon of Dreaming | Yirah (יראה) Awestruck | Baalat Ov (בעלת אוב) Witch/Shamaness
Next Month: Tevet | Moon of Clarity | Sakranut (סקרנות) Curiosity | Doreshet (דורשת) Seeker
Cheshbon HaNefesh:
What does yirah (יראה) awestruck, radical amazement, fear/reverence mean to you right now.
In this moment which aspect of yirah does your soul need to work on the most?
Stepping away from the cliff
Allowing yourself to engage with the liminal
Respecting your fear
Embracing radical amazement
What does it mean to act with yirah she’be tiferet?
What does it meant to behave with tiferet she’be yirah?
Text Study
Partnered text study. One per breakout room.
Explore what the text teaches you about yirah AND what other soul traits it helps you recognize as being keys to unlocking yirah.
Text 1:
“Awe is a human experience of the transcendent piercing apparent reality, a glimpse of the supreme within the mundane. However it may come to us, a moment of awe gives us a small taste of the cosmic mystery, and an intuitive intimation of the divine. Awe does not protest phenomenal reality; rather, it offers direct affirmation of the eternal that lies within the worldly. Awe is an invitation to seek, delivered directly to the heart.”
Every Day, Holy Day by Alan Morinis
Text 2:
Awe is more than an emotion; it is a way of understanding, insight into a meaning greater than ourselves. The beginning of awe is wonder, and the beginning of wisdom is awe.
…
Awe is an intuition for the dignity of all things, a realization that things not only are what they are but also stand, however remotely, for something supreme. Awe is a sense for transcendence, for the reference everywhere to mystery beyond all things. It enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine, to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance, to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple: to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal. What we cannot comprehend by analysis, we become aware of in awe.
Between God and Man by R’Abraham Joshua Heschel via Sefaria
Text 3:
The word “yir’ah,” so central to biblical theology and spirituality, is conventionally translated as fear. But in fact it has a wide range of meanings: yir’ah can convey the sense of fear, on the one hand, or of awe, on the other.
If fear and awe are so different, why does the same Hebrew word (yir’ah) convey both? My teacher Bernard Steinberg once offered a powerful answer: “Awe is what happens to fear when it stops being about me.” When I fear God, in other words, I think about God’s might and the ways it could impact upon me, but when I hold God in awe, I think only of God’s might; thoughts of how it could affect me simply fall away. Fear becomes awe, then, when I forget about myself and focus only on God.
From “How Fear Becomes Awe” by R’Shai Held (via Sefaria)
Text 4:
To embody the Baalat Ov [shamaness, witch], we have to change our relationship to fear. Fear is a sign something powerful is happening. It lets us know we are in the Presence. When Tzlelponit, mother of Samson, describes the angel who visited her in a field, she says: “His face was like the face of an angel of God; very frightening.” The word frightening, nora, is from the same root as yirah, reverence. She knows the angel is real because of the yirah she feels. We too can become aware of the Real by learning sensitivity to yirah.
Rav Kohenet Rabbi Jill Hammer
Text 5:
עַתָּה֙ יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל מָ֚ה יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ שֹׁאֵ֖ל מֵעִמָּ֑ךְ כִּ֣י אִם־לְ֠יִרְאָ֠ה אֶת־יְהֹוָ֨ה אֱלֹהֶ֜יךָ לָלֶ֤כֶת בְּכׇל־דְּרָכָיו֙ וּלְאַהֲבָ֣ה אֹת֔וֹ וְלַֽעֲבֹד֙ אֶת־יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ בְּכׇל־לְבָבְךָ֖ וּבְכׇל־נַפְשֶֽׁךָ׃
And now, Yisrael,
what does BECOMING your g!d/dess ask of you
except to hold BECOMING your g!d/dess in awe [yirah],
to walk in all BECOMING’s ways and to love them
and to serve BECOMING your g!d/dess with all your heart and with all your being…
Deuteronomy 10:12 ( English adapted from Shocken Bible) Hebrew via Sefaria
NOTE: BECOMING is a translation of YHVH the name of the Divine used in Hebrew
Incantations*:
Roots below and stars above, transmute my fear to conscious love.
From trembling heart to steady hand, my spirit grows stronger as I release this sand. (say while releasing sand/dirt onto the earth)
Note: these first two also go really well together as a combined incantation.
Magiq is as magiq does. I reach beyond, into the Divine, and thy will be done.
Yirah flows, beyond mere fear, Divine mystery I draw near. 🤖
*In other forms of mussar these are called affirmations. Feel free to think of them this way or as “afformations” or “iffirmations”, if it’s more aligned and/or nourishing for you.
🤖 = Created with an assist from Claude AI
Embodied Practice
Get to know your microbiome. You are a literal universe. You are home and host to trillions of tiny creatures. Try to connect with the outer layer of your microbiome on your skin or the “aura layer” or microbial cloud that is believed to exist just outside your body. As you inhale and exhale, recognize that you are feeding a universe of beings within and around you. Reach out to touch something, allow yourself to become aware (or imagine) how that microbiome is interacting with your microbiome. When you eat or drink something, engage with it as an offering to your gut microbiome. Practice engaging with your microbiome as a partner, feeling it react, channeling it, receiving from others.
Go outside at night and look up at the moon, stars, and universe. Take a few breaths and allow yourself to become of aware that you are both a microbe in the universe and a universe of microbes lives within in you.
Mitzvah*
Learn about Jewish dream practices and keep a dream journal.
Bless someone else’s dreams by saying, “may this dream be for a good dream” 3x.
Find a dream chevruta (partner) to share your dreams with and share interpretations.
וְהִיא הַדַּרְגָּה הַשִּׁשִּׁית מֵאוֹתָהּ הַדַּרְגָּה שֶׁל נְבוּאָה, וְהִיא הַדַּרְגָּה שֶׁל גַּבְרִיאֵל שֶׁמְּמֻנֶּה עַל הַחֲלוֹם, וַהֲרֵי נִתְבָּאֵר.
בֹּא רְאֵה, כָּל חֲלוֹם שֶׁהוּא כָּרָאוּי, בָּא מִן הַדַּרְגָּה הַזּוֹ, וְעַל כֵּן אֵין לְךָ חֲלוֹם שֶׁלֹּא יִתְעָרְבוּ בוֹ דְּבָרִים כּוֹזְבִים, כְּמוֹ שֶׁבֵּאַרְנוּ. וּמִשּׁוּם כָּךְ מֵהֶם אֱמֶת וּמֵהֶם כּוֹזְבִים, וְאֵין לְךָ חֲלוֹם שֶׁאֵין בּוֹ מִצַּד זֶה וּמִצַּד זֶה.
וּמִשּׁוּם שֶׁיֵּשׁ בַּחֲלוֹם הַכֹּל כְּמוֹ שֶׁאָמַרְנוּ, כָּל הַחֲלוֹמוֹת שֶׁבָּעוֹלָם הוֹלְכִים אַחַר פִּתְרוֹן הַפֶּה, וּבֵאֲרוּהוּ שֶׁכָּתוּב
The dream is the sixth level below the level of prophecy. The angel Gabriel is appointed on delivering the dreams that speak one of sixty parts of prophecy.
Every dream that comes from the level of the angel Gabriel, include false images and messages. There are no dreams that don’t have from both sides, truth, and lies.
Since every dream has truth and lies, the dream is manifested according to the interpretation given to it.
*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 yirah | awestruck mean to you?
WHEN are you transported to the state of awe/fear - radical amazement?
HOW is your understanding changed when yirah is translated as "awe" instead of "fear."
WHERE do you feel yirah most easily?
WHICH other soul traits can help unlock on yirah?
What does it mean to act with yirah she’be tiferet ?
What does it meant to behave with tiferet she’be yirah?
Closing Chant
מה נורא המקום הזה
Mah nora hamakom hazeh
How awesome is this body!
How awesome is this place!
How awesome is this journey
Through time and space.
by Taya Mâ
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