Breaking Open
I was reminded, recently, of a Hasidic tale which evokes Deuteronomy 11:18, and seems especially apt for now: ‘The pupil comes to the rabbi and asks, “Why does Torah tell us to ‘place these words upon our hearts’? Why does it not tell us to place these holy words in our hearts?”
‘The rabbi answers, “It is because as we are, our hearts are closed, and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts. So we place them on top of our hearts. And there they stay, until, one day, the heart breaks, and the words fall in.”’
It’s often the case that our own break-throughs seem to happen when we, ourselves, break open, isn’t it?
This article is one in a series (Connecting with Culture) from the the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity