In the Spirit: A deeper Insight into Common Life

MONROE, NY — Rabbi Pesach Burston was driving on Route 17M a few weeks ago with his 5-year-old son when they passed a cement truck. “Why is it turning?” his son asked about the rotating drum.

Burston told him that the cement has to keep mixing so it can remain moist.

But then Burston’s Kabbalistic mind started churning, and he realized how that explanation also could serve as spiritual inspiration.

“Once you stop and you’re not productive anymore, you’re going to dry up,” he thought.

Kabbalah, a system of Jewish mystical thought that adherents say has been handed down from initiate to initiate since the time of Moses, provides a way of thinking that can offer such insights behind the scenes of everyday life, from a leaf falling from a tree to a memo required at work.

It also supplies deeper, more symbolic interpretations of the stories of the Old Testament. And it claims to provide understanding of the inner workings of the soul, the universe and God, according to the Orthodox Jewish Web site AskMoses.com.

Over the past decade, Kabbalah’s exoticism and claims to mystical insight have drawn a lot of interest from non-Jews, including celebrities like Madonna, Demi Moore and David and Victoria Beckham.

For Burston, a rabbi in the Orthodox Jewish sect of Chabad-Lubavitch, Kabbalah provides spiritual comfort and nourishment. That’s why he and his wife, Chana, hold a weekly class out of their home called “Kabbalah and Chicken Soup.” They serve helpings of matzo ball soup with doses of Jewish mysticism.

A group of a dozen Jews from various traditions gathered in the Burston’s living room last week for the class. They sat around tables lighted with candles and covered in white floral tablecloth. The Burstons’ children batted balloons around the room until bedtime.

The class discussed the Old Testament story of Abraham, Sarah and their maidservant, Hagar.

Near the end of the discussion, Rabbi Burston guided the class through the Kabbalistic interpretation of the story, which derives a layer of meaning from an analysis of the biblical figures’ names.

The Hebrew name Sarah means “princess,” and Hagar means “reward” in Arabic. Kabbalah views the two biblical figures as representing two different kinds of love — unconditional and reciprocal.

Through the lens of Kabbalah, the message of the story is that the two kinds of love must often co-exist and that a selfless relationship often begins with selfish motivations.

That’s not what Phyllis Goetz of Monroe was thinking when the group first started discussing the story. She felt no sympathy for Sarah, who had asked Hagar to bear her husband’s children since Sarah herself could not conceive. But after Hagar gives birth, the maidservant becomes contemptuous of Sarah.

“(Sarah) got what she asked for,” Goetz said during the initial discussion.
But after Burston described the symbolic meaning, Goetz said she found greater meaning in the story.

“It’s like peeling an onion,” she said later. “You can just keep getting deeper. It’s like, ‘Oops, there’s another level.’ That’s what life is. You just keep learning, getting to another level.”

Another participant, Lester Pleeter of Chester, said he appreciates how the class will discuss a biblical passage and arrive at a certain interpretation because of Kabbalah. A year later, they’ll read the passage again and find a different meaning.

“It’s not just reading. You’re going in deeper,” he said. “You study what’s in between the lines.”

Burston urged the group to apply the Kabbalistic way of thinking to their everyday lives. He says mysticism is not about escaping to a mountaintop and shunning the world.

“You’re walking, working, doing regular things,” he said. “But there’s so much you can learn from the world around you.”