Putting Your Ego Aside to Make Space for God

God tells the Jewish people, “If you follow in my statutes and observe My commandments and perform them, I will give you rain at their proper time…” (26:3-4). Interestingly, the root word in Hebrew used for ‘statutes’ is chok which also means ‘to engrave’. What can we glean from these two seemingly disparate ideas: engrave and statues?

Lesson:

The word for statutes, or chok, refers to a mitzvah, or commandment, that has no apparent logical explanation. For example, honoring one’s parents is a mitzvah that makes sense to most people, whereas understanding the reasons behind the mitzvah of Shatnetz, not wearing wool and linen together in the same garment, is a harder mitzvah to wrap our heads around.

While every mitzvah has an element of a chok, as there are reasons for performing them well beyond our understanding, some are easier to rationalize than others. It is human nature to want to understand what we are doing and why we are doing it – it gives us a sense of control over our lives and surroundings; God programed us this way. There was once a participant of a Shabbat learner’s service who exclaimed in the middle of the Rabbi’s explanation of something, “This doesn’t make any sense!” To which the Rabbi calmly and lovely responded, “Just because you don’t understand it, does not mean it doesn’t make sense.” This is human nature – it is too difficult for us to accept things that are beyond our grasp and comprehension and as such deflect our inability to understand on the subject matter.

Therefore, when we perform a chok, a mitzvah whose reason is well beyond the grasp of human comprehension, we are putting aside our own intellect and ego. We are chiseling out part of ourselves that demands to understand and be in control of everything, and instead recognize that we are ultimately performing the Mitzvah because God told us to. The same way a piece of stone gets hollowed out to create the space that will become the letter, we are creating a space for God when we hollow out, or move aside our ego and intellect to perform a chok. In doing so, a new space is created, a vacuum, and we create a new a vessel for God’s overabundant blessings to flow in.

Our sages tell us that God’s Presence dwells where there is peace. Why peace? If two people are in a dispute, in order to have peace, one needs to put his own understanding of the situation, his own views and feelings aside and in doing so, creates a space for God, His Presence, and His blessings.

Exercise: Perform a mitzvah that is particularly difficult for you. Try to visualize your ego moving aside and creating a space for God’s blessings to flow.