Several years back the Washington Post conducted an experiment. They wanted to know what would happen if Joshua Bell, one of the world's finest violinists, playing one of the best violins ever crafted, was to perform 10 of the most elegant pieces of music ever written. But dressed as an ordinary street musician in one of the most mundane places: a subway station in Washington, D.C. during the morning commute. The question they wanted to explore was, in a banal setting, at an inconvenient time, would beauty, would genius transcend? Is there something deeply rooted in the human soul that can rise above the blindness that comes with familiarity.
Would a crowd gather? Would people willingly miss their trains, turn off their cell phones, take off their iPods. Would people slow down, be late for work and find themselves inexplicably drawn in to the music? The answer was no.
That Friday morning passed like so many others. A crowd did not gather. They did not miss their trains and did not show up late for work. In fact, 1,070 people passed by and virtually no one noticed -- a scant 7 people paused. For his 45-minute performance, this world renowned violinist made $32 and change. Few people even bothered too look. Something in our goal driven society created an astounding lack of vision. Blindness isn't just an inability to see, but also the inability to edit, to appreciate what we are seeing or to distinguish anything at all. In our frantic rush forward our lives are becoming diminished.
My photographer friend Tony lead me to the Washington Post story because it related to a book project that was consuming him. He had been reflecting on the nature of sight and shadows after spending a year teaching blind students the art of photography.
While looking over the photos my friend found himself compelled not only by what his blind students had created but what it had to say about our own lack of vision. He asked one student, "How do you not cut off people's head's in your photos?" The student replied, I just ask people where they are. These blind students had learned what we need to learn, how to see deeply by listening closely to our world.
The Talmudic word for blindness is sagi nahor. The literal translation is not blindness, but great light. It is as if the rabbis are saying that people become blinded by seeing too much. Or too much of the same thing. The people in the Washington subway couldn't see or hear the violinist because they have walked those steps so many times that they lost the ability to encounter anything unexpected.
Is there a way for us to keep our souls from becoming calcified -- to remove the cataracts? Remove the beliefs that we have built up and fortified with our reason, our emotion or our pain. Can we regain our vision, our ability to distinguish?
We see what we expect to see. We hear what we want to hear. And we do it with all the instinctiveness of breathing. We do not expect to see a world class musician on the side of the road so we don't see him even if he is there. We don't expect our roommates or our spouses to wash the dishes so we don't notice when the sink is empty. We are so used to being criticized that we cannot hear a true compliment. We only see the same old parent tyrannically hurling the same old silences and aggression so we are blind to the sadness, loneliness or fear that have crept in over the years.
Our lives would be transformed if we could let go of what we expect to find before we begin the search. If we could wait for the question before settling on the answer. Like Hagar when she was cast out by Abraham, if we could lift up our eyes, we might begin to see a pool of water instead of a desert before us. Or like Abraham stopped by the angel, we might be able to see something other than our families to sacrifice. We might truly begin to experience the people before us, and the world before us anew.
We don't need thunderous applause, but we do know the comfort when even one person understands us. And we know the vulnerability of being made invisible. I once had a conversation with a homeless man in a shelter. He didn't start out homeless. In an earlier life he had a successful career in government, but alcohol got the best of him. He explained to me that the hardest part about life on the street was constantly being stepped over, forgotten, ignored. We diminish the humanity of others by not seeing them, and we diminish our own by letting it happen.
The cure for our blindness, the thing that will remove the cataracts from our souls, is if we direct our hearts to the face of the other before us. If we seek their humanity and stop hiding from our own. We cannot distill our lives to a play-list -- no matter how good it may be. Our Facebook profiles will never contain our essence. Facebook will never allow you to comfort a friend. It will never show your true face. Your Blackberry, iPhone or laptop cannot replace a conversation. And except for possibly the iPhone, it will not help you see beauty or genius.
Turn them off. Put them away. Lift up your eyes and you will see. Listen and you may hear. Direct your hearts. Pay attention. The people who see the deepest know how to look. The people who know how to hear, have learned how to listen. Im shemohah, tishmah -- if you listen you will hear. "If you listen to what is old, you will hear what is new." The struggle is to let go of our distortions, whether caused by fear or distraction, and seek a higher illumination -- to see beyond sight. See the face of the other.
And that is what we need to commit and recommit to again. And again. We have to look close enough. We need to not only listen but also strive to hear. We need to really see. Not what we expect to see, but what is really before us. Who is really before us. And then we might discover in our closest relationships something fresh and unexpected. Something completely new or recover something very old or forgotten.
We have to keep looking and searching and exploring and seeking until we arrive where we began and see the place, see their faces for the first time. Our relationships, our lives, our very souls depend upon it. And then if we look a bit closer, and closer still, in the sound and the silence, in the white fire and the black fire, at what has always been before us. We might begin to see, shimmering there, the fine threads binding our lives, and our souls together.
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When I see the people that think they're spiritual.......... I say give me spiritual blindness any day.
There is one, it's just motivated by considerations other than public acceptance or awareness. And it's growing.
Then a person begins to recognize this as in the nature of sin.
Insights about what's wrong will come to any person who struggles toward right, whether religious or non-religious.
the whole cultural wave now of ME that is taking over the country, MY individual rights, MY taxes, MY money.. and we as a culture are loosing contact with the individual, the person in front of you, sitting next to you on the train or subway or in the car next to you on the highway.
Thank you Rabbi for helping me stop right now and notice my surroundings.
I was surprized that you were critisized for leaving "God" out.
Yet if anyone follows your advise , turns of the I phones, and washes out their eyes and ears and really see , they may find something that needs no naming.
Thanks Again.
Agape love in man (i.e., and in self) cannot be experienced without first recognizing that it exist – meaning, first we have to see that quality in a person(s) before it can be introduced to self. And without knowing God Almighty – love of our fellow man like thy self, which Jesus said, “is oneness with God,” can never be experienced. That to me is the real telling story.
Your religious books cannot replace a conversation. They will not help you see beauty or genius. Turn them off. Put them away. Lift up your eyes and you will see. Listen and you may hear. Pay attention. "If you listen to what is old, you will never hear what is new." The struggle is to let go of our past distortions, whether caused by fear or distraction. There is a great new world awaiting for you.
I was taken by the message and my own comparison – for here was a world-renowned violinist playing on a subway station while the public that looked on stayed clueless and disinterested. The same can be said, in the same vein mind you, how people in the world today value the God of the universe and His message of a new paradise earth, and perfection a bound: clueless, disinterested, and self absorb is the answer.
Agape love in man (i.e., and in self) cannot be experienced without first recognizing that it exist – meaning, first we have to see that quality in a person(s) before it can be introduced to self. And without knowing God Almighty and acceptance of the shed blood of our Savior – love of our fellow man like thy self, which Jesus said, is oneness with God, can never be experienced. That to me is the real story this writer avoided.
But the Rabbi simply cautioned us to open up our eyes and see the beauty that is all around us.
The Rabbi is uninting everyone in spirituality, whereas you divide them according to dogma.
Josh's music wasn't the only beauty that went unnoticed that day. There were smilling faces, Toddlers innocent gazes, wind and falling leaves , an old man feeding the birds.
I don't think the Rabbi's intention was to lecture us about our lack of taste in music but instead to open our eyes ,ears and hearts to all the beauty around us.
Question to you, who other than God is making that "eye opening request to man?"
Jesus, God's only begotten Son in scripture puts that calling to man, "love of neighbor like thy self" right there squarely equal to "loving God Almighty with all our might! Further, Jesus came down from heaven willingly because of that special love relation - to buy-back mankind, with the currency of his shed blood so we can have the opportunity for everlasting life. Everlasting life in a paradise earth, with our love ones, death and evil will be no more, and under God Almighty's eternal rule. A template of "expression of love" by Jesus of love of neighbor (like self) for man to emulate!
The answer to the above question is, "no one other than God Almighty equates loving thy neighbor like thy self -- to loving Him with all our might!" And without that relation with God Almighty, love of neighbor is just a Hallmark card (i.e., love you) expression.
We want to go further with our hearts and minds – not just appreciating the sounds of a world-renowned violinist. We want to open our hearts and minds, to see, and serve, the needs of the less fortunate among us – that is how we’ll truly connect with God! Jesus’ words, “what we do to the less fortunate – we do to him!”