Soul Trait Studio: Adar 5785
Practice guide for the Soul Trait Studio mussar practice for Adar 5785 (03/2/25) focusing on the soul trait of "zehirut" | illuminated awareness (lit. caution).
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 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 5785 is March 2, 2025 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.
Learn More
Introduction to Zehirut by Kohenet Ketzirah
Mussar Practice eBook with guides to each soul trait of the year from Devotaj Sacred Arts
Week 37 Mussar with Me (Devotaj Mussar with Me archives)
Pay Attention! Set your Mind and Heart on the Path by Jeremy Schwartz (Sefaria)
Making Mensches: A Periodic Table (JewishCamp.org)
Every Day Holy Day by Alan Morinis
Everything is Obvious by Duncan J. Watts (note — not a formal mussar text, but I find it very informative for this soul trait.)
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 sustainer levels.
Opening
May I be empty and open to receive the light
May I be empty and open to receive
May I be full and open to receive the light
May I be full and open to receive
Soul Trait of the Month
The Journey:
Last month: Sh’vat | Moon of Centering | Ahavah (אהבה) Love | Ohevet (אוהבת) Lover
Now: Adar | Moon of Revealing | Zehirut (זהירות) Illuminated Awareness | Leitzanit (ליצנית) Sacred Fool
Next Month: Nisan | Moon of Speaking | Simcha (סמחה) Joy | Na’arah (נערה) Maiden
Chesbon HaNefesh:
What does zehirut (זהירות) illuminated awareness mean to you right now.
What does it mean to act with zehirut she’be tiferet?
What does it meant to behave with tiferet she’be zehirut?
Text Study
Partnered text study. One per breakout room.
Explore what the text teaches you about zehirut AND the role of illuminated awareness (cautious caution, exquisite attention) in this moment in time.
Text 1:
רַבִּי אוֹמֵר, אֵיזוֹהִי דֶרֶךְ יְשָׁרָה שֶׁיָּבֹר לוֹ הָאָדָם, כֹּל שֶׁהִיא תִפְאֶרֶת לְעוֹשֶׂיהָ וְתִפְאֶרֶת לוֹ מִן הָאָדָם. וֶהֱוֵי זָהִיר בְּמִצְוָה קַלָּה כְבַחֲמוּרָה, שֶׁאֵין אַתָּה יוֹדֵעַ מַתַּן שְׂכָרָן שֶׁל מִצְוֹת. וֶהֱוֵי מְחַשֵּׁב הֶפְסֵד מִצְוָה כְּנֶגֶד שְׂכָרָהּ, וּשְׂכַר עֲבֵרָה כְנֶגֶד הֶפְסֵדָהּ. וְהִסְתַּכֵּל בִּשְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים וְאִי אַתָּה בָא לִידֵי עֲבֵרָה, דַּע מַה לְּמַעְלָה מִמְּךָ, עַיִן רוֹאָה וְאֹזֶן שׁוֹמַעַת, וְכָל מַעֲשֶׂיךָ בַסֵּפֶר נִכְתָּבִין:
Rabbi (Yehuda haNasi) said, What is the right path?
One that honors both self and other.Be as mindful of small acts as great ones, for you cannot know the consequences of either.
If you decide to act, weigh the cost to you against the benefit to others.
If you decide not to act, weigh the benefit to you against the cost to others.Sin’s grip is loosened when three things are known: the seeing eye, the hearing ear, and the Book of Record.
Mishnah, Pirkei Avot 2.1 (via Ethics of Our Sages by Rami Shapiro)
Text 2:
The results may be summed up in the form of two laws:
We see only so much of the world as we have apperceptive organs for seeing.
We see things not as they are but as we are–that is, we see the world not as it is, but as molded by the individual peculiarities of our minds.
“The Psychology of Prejudice” by G. T. W. Patrick
Source: Quote Investigator post unpacking the true attribution of the bolded text.
Text 3
Darkness
Gives shape to the light
As light
Shapes the darkness.
Death
Gives shape to life
As life
Shapes death.
The universe
And God
Share this wholeness,
Each defining
The other.
God
Gives shape to the universe
As the universe
Shapes God.
Octavia Butler, The Parable of the Talents
Text 4
How necessary it is to have opinions! I think the spotted trout
lilies are satisfied, standing a few inches above the earth. I
think serenity is not something you just find in the world,
like a plum tree, holding up its white petals.
The violets, along the river, are opening their blue faces, like
small dark lanterns.
The green mosses, being so many, are as good as brawny.
How important it is to walk along, not in haste but slowly,
looking at everything and calling out
Yes! No! The
swan, for all his pomp, his robes of grass and petals, wants
only to be allowed to live on the nameless pond. The catbrier
is without fault. The water thrushes, down among the sloppy
rocks, are going crazy with happiness. Imagination is better
than a sharp instrument. To pay attention, this is our endless
and proper work.
Mary Oliver, Yes! No!
Text 5
Wayward, Vol 1 by Jim Zub (Author, Artist) and Steve Cummings (Artist), John Rauch (Artist)
Additional Texts
A few more that really struck me, but didn’t make the cut
There’s a Certain Slant by Emily Dickinson
Disappointments of the Apocalypse by Mary Karr
The Marginalian, Maria Popova. An exquisite exercise of paying attention and illuminating connections others might not make.
Rumi Nishmat by Rav Kohenet Shoshana Jedwab
Incantations*:
Like a ribbon of light, let my awareness flow. Where it leads, so shall I go.
In and out. Up and down. Before and beyond may my actions be sound.
Aware and beware. Caution. Pause. May I sense before I step the results of any flaws.
Foolish is as foolish does. Fool reveal — so others judge.
Sacred fool unwind the uptight. Reveal what is hidden through joy and delight.
*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
[Common sense] is the loosely organized set of facts, observations, experiences, insights, and pieces of received wisdom that each of us accumulates over a lifetime, in the course of encountering, dealing with, and learning from, everyday situations.
Duncan J. Watts, Everything is Obvious
וְעַתָּ֕ה כֹּ֥ה אָמַ֖ר יְהֹוָ֣ה צְבָא֑וֹת שִׂ֥ימוּ לְבַבְכֶ֖ם עַל־דַּרְכֵיכֶֽם׃
Now thus said the CREATOR of Hosts: Set your minds-and-hearts upon your path!
Haggai 1:5, Translated by Jeremy Schwartz
Before taking an action or reacting— take a breath and illuminate your default “facts, observations, experiences, insights, and pieces of received wisdom” that inform your frames of reality.
Close your eyes and breathe out. Allow a situation you are dealing with to come to mind…
Take a breath. Let your awareness flow to what past experiences or information are informing this one due to similarities.
Take a breath. Let your awareness flow to how this situation is different.
Take a breath. Open your awareness to what you don’t know.
Take a breath. Allow totally different possibilities of the cause of the situation to bubble up.
Take another breath and see a shining light illuminating the way forward.
Mitzvah*
Read and share poetry that illuminates — like that of Emily Dickinson, Mary Oliver, Ross Gay, Jane Hirshfield, Matsuo Bashō, and Marge Piercy.
Alt: Select or allow a specific object, sound, color, scent, etc. to be revealed to you and for the rest of the month, pause when you see it to take a photo or otherwise give it your attention and engage with illuminated awareness. Collect the lessons these moments of pause give you over the month.
*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 zehirut (זהירות) illuminated awareness mean to you?
What does it mean to act with zehirut she’be tiferet?
What does it meant to behave with tiferet she’be zehirut ?
HOW much of your life seems to be filled with illuminated awareness and how much with noise?
WHAT enables you to respond/act in ways that are mutually beneficial? And when do you to fall back into habits that you know aren’t healthy for you or others?
WHICH of your senses tells you that you are in zehirut? Do you feel, smell, or hear something?
WHERE do you struggle to respond/act in ways that are mutually beneficial in tough/triggering situations? Who suffers when you are triggered – yourself, others, or both?
Closing Chant
The Spirit is flowing, flowing and growing
The Spirit is flowing, through you and me
HaShem guide me, be faithfully beside me
HaShem guide me, and bless how I be
The Spirit is flowing, flowing and growing
The Spirit is flowing, through you and me
Shekhinah, reside in me, your wisdom lives inside of me
Shekhinah, reside in me, oh Holy of Holies
The spirit is flowing, flowing and growing
The spirit is flowing back to the sea.
Mother carry me, your child I will always be
Mother carry me, back to the sea.
Rav Kohenet Taya Ma
adapted from "the river is flowing" by diana hildebrand-hull
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Hi Ketzirah, I don’t know if this is the right place for this, but I’ve been using the Eit/Aht deck and I love it. Do you happen to have any information about reversals in the deck? I figure you might not use them for an oracle deck, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on how the energy or concept of each card would express itself in reversal.
Sorry I missed your call. I was on the Beit Kohenet call