Soul Trait Studio: Elul 5784
Practice guide for the Soul Trait Studio mussar practice for Elul 5784 (09/08/23) focusing on the soul trait of hineni | presence
Soul Trait Studio is a mussar practice session focused on the soul trait of the month. The 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.
Learn more and register at: devotaj.com/soultraitstudio
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. But you can support this work by becoming a paying subscriber of the Devotaj Sacred Arts Substack.
Learn More
Devotaj Sacred Arts: Mussar Practice eBook with guides to each soul trait of the year
Register for this and upcoming sessions: devotaj.com/soultraitstudio
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
You are my light and my refuge, Who should I fear? One thing (One thing) One thing (One thing) One thing I ask of you. To behold your Sweetness And gaze on your Palace. Shelter me Raise me up! You are my light and my refuge, Who should I fear? One thing (One thing) One thing (One thing) One thing I ask of you. To dwell in your house, All the days of my life.
~ Psalm 27, by Ketzirah haMa’agelet
Soul Trait of the Month
The Journey:
Last month: Av | Moon of Endings & Beginnings | Ometz Lev (אמץ לב) Courage | Chachamah (חכמה) Wise Woman
Now: Elul | Moon of Making Space | Hineni (הנני) Presence | Tzovah (צבאה) Shrinekeeper
Next Month: Tishrei | Moon of Gathering | Achrayut (אחריות) Responsibility
Hineni Resources:
Below are some recommended additional resources for exploring the soul trait of hineni (presence), which is not found in any of Alan Morinis’ books..
Mussar Practice eBook with guides to each soul trait of the year (Devotaj.com)
Presence by Amy Cuddy (amazon | bookshop.org)
Running and Returning (Jill Hammer via My Jewish Learning)
Hineni: ‘Here I am’ and ‘I am here’ are different (Jewish Chronicle)
Hineni' in Our 21st Century Lives (Huffington Post)
Hineni: Here I Am (archived from Temple Beth El)
Hineni (archived from Weekly Standard, 2007)
Cheshbon HaNefesh:
What does hineni (הנני) presence mean to you right now?
What does it mean to act with hineni she’be gevurah?
What does it meant to behave with gevurah she’be hineni?
Text Study
Partnered text study. One per breakout room.
Explore what the text teaches you about Hineni.
Text 1:
Hineni is the answer to the call. It literally means, “I am here.” It calls ourselves back to ourselves and also perhaps calls upon the divine within us, aligning us to show up with fullness and aliveness to the task at hand. It is both bowing in humility and rising up in willingness.
Source: Kohenet Dori Midnight, in an introduction to Nishmat Shoom’s version of the High Holiday prayer Hineni
Text 2:
Presence… is the state of being attuned to and able to comfortably express our true thoughts, feelings, values, and potential. That’s it. It is not a permanent, transcendent mode of being. It comes and goes. It is a moment-to-moment phenomenon.
Presence emerges when we feel personally powerful, which allows us to be acutely attuned to our most sincere selves. In this psychological state, we are able to maintain presence even in the very stressful situations that typically make us feel distracted and powerless.
When we feel present, our speech, facial expressions, postures, and movements align. They synchronize and focus. And that internal convergence, that harmony, is palpable and resonant—because it’s real. It’s what makes us compelling.
We are no longer fighting ourselves; we are being ourselves. Our search for presence isn’t about finding charisma or extraversion or carefully managing the impression we’re making on other people. It’s about the honest, powerful connection that we create internally, with ourselves.
Amy Cuddy, Presence (amazon | bookshop.org)
Text 3:
Hineni is the kavannah (intention) and hi’nih’ni, a Hebrew word with the same root and letters but different vowels, is more like the keva (form/structure). Kavannah calls us to presence, and keva gives us the structure to take action from that place of presence.
This is different from mindfulness, which is for its own sake. Hineni is being present for the sake of the Divine. It is being fully in the moment so you can receive so you take action in an aligned way. Aligned with who/what? With the Divine, however you understand that. Cultivating Hineni allows us to make each moment one that is important, one that is doing the work of Tikkun (repair) — of the heart, of the soul, or of the world.
Source: Mussar Practice, by Ketzirah haMa’agelet
Text 4
When you first encounter the beauty of a tree there are no words. There is silent wonder. Spacious mind is present in wonder, not words. Your soul, your true nature as spacious mind, is lost when the wonder slips into words. To speak of the tree is to no longer commune with it. Its presence is past, and you glorify only memory. Do not rush to articulate wonder. Simply stand in its presence.
Source: R’Rami Shapiro commentary on Pirkei Avot 3:9
Incantations*:
By the power of wind, earth, and fire - I stand open to Being & Becoming’s desire.
I am here. You are there. In between, may the world be repaired.
I am flesh. I am bone. I am sound. I am known. Breathing out I make space. Breathing in, I await.
*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
Treat the sound of your name like the ringing of a bell that calls you to full, receptive, and open presence.
קְרָ֤א בְגָרוֹן֙ אַל־תַּחְשֹׂ֔ךְ כַּשּׁוֹפָ֖ר הָרֵ֣ם קוֹלֶ֑ךָ
Cry with full throat, without restraint;
Raise your voice like a ram’s horn!
Close your eyes and breathe out.
Say your name three times, slowly – taking a complete inhale-pause-exhale-pause to leave space between each recitation.
Take another breath and visualizing a shining light illuminating the way forward.
Breathe out and open your eyes.
Listen to the sound of the shofar, which many blow daily in Elul. STS kehilah members Andrine and Xiiam Yaakov broadcast it daily on the page of their synagogue, Havurah Shalom in Portland (Oregon).
You can experience it on Havurah Shalom’s YouTube channel.
Mitzvah
I translate mitzvah as “sacred connective action.” In other forms of mussar this part of the practice is often called kabbalot, committed practices to help you take the practice in the world around you.
And Rabbi Yitzḥak said: A person’s sentence is torn up on account of four types of actions. These are: Giving charity, crying out in prayer, a change of one’s name, and a change of one’s deeds for the better. … as it is written: “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be”
(Rosh Hashanah 16b via Sefaria)
Shed the “names” that no longer serve you.
Claim the “name” that you will be worthy of in the year to come.
Honor the names of those around you. Witness new names they may be growing into and allow them to shed those that no longer serve them.
Journaling Prompts:
WHAT does hineni (הנני) presence mean to you?
What does it mean to act with hineni she’be gevurah?
What does it meant to behave with gevurah she’be hineni?
HOW do you call yourself back to presence when your heart/mind “runs and returns?”
Ve’im ratz libcha l’harheir shuv lamakom - if the heart runs return to the place (Sefer Yetzirah)
WHEN are you, or are you not able to be fully present?
WHY are you present?
Closing Chant
You are my light and my refuge, Who should I fear? One thing (One thing) One thing (One thing) One thing I ask of you. To behold your Sweetness And gaze on your Palace. Shelter me Raise me up! You are my light and my refuge, Who should I fear? One thing (One thing) One thing (One thing) One thing I ask of you. To dwell in your house, All the days of my life.
~ Psalm 27, by Ketzirah haMa’agelet
You made it to the very very end!
This is my favorite! Thank you so much!