Patience
Waiting is something that happens in modern society more than we want. On a daily basis we find ourselves waiting for content to download, or waiting on calls for service reps, or waiting for ubers or other delivery services. Waiting creates its own mind state. Knowing / expecting something means that we have part of our attention on that other thing, that future “payoff” yet to occur.
There are broader ways we find ourselves waiting. We have hopes for the future, here or in abroad. I find myself, for example, frustrated by how slowly events are moving in Israel as if somehow Middle East peace should resolve itself on the time frame of a 1 hour HBO prestige TV show. We are holding our breaths politically, waiting for the next election and what it will mean who will get elected.
Waiting is very different from being patient. Waiting means I am in an active state of being on hold. Perhaps literally, on a call, or figuratively as I wait for my dinner to arrive. Patience, by contrast, means I am in a posture of living with the world as it is. The Hebrew word for patience is savlanut, which is related to the word for suffering, sevel. Savlanut is a capacity to bear suffering, to allow the world in all its brokenness as it is right now, to be held.
Savlanut means that I live with things as they are, accepting what is, even the unpleasant realities. It is a posture of living, of being, that accepts a life that will include disruptions, suffering, and uncertainty. It is more than being graceful about my grocery delivery taking longer than I expected. It is about accepting that this is the nature of the world in which I live. It is finding the inner resources to live with the world as it is and not trying to force it to be that which I want it to be.
True savlanut restores focus in a way that waiting degrades. True savlanut allows us to retain focus on what matters. It gives us a new perspective that helps us see what must be accepted and what must be changed. Further, it helps us gain deeper insight into our own agency. Savlanut helps us see where we can make a difference and to have the patience to effect the changes we need.
I invite you to practice savlanut. According to Jewish mysticism, God has not finished the process of creation. This means that I want to be present in what isn’t fulfilled for me just as much as what is fulfilled for me because that is also part of God’s world. Practically, that means noticing the next time you are waiting for something. Then breathe into the gap between expectations and their realization. Say to yourself: it is okay that I am waiting, and I choose to be here, in this place, in the world as it is now. I accept what is now with gratitude. And in this place, I uncover my own patience, and a restoration of focus.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi David Booth
