Where to draw the line

Maybe it was because I hadn’t been to Shabbat services in a while for a variety of reasons including several feet of snow.  Maybe it was because my soul needed to be recharged.  Whatever the reason, today’s service made me realize how lucky I am to have found my religious community at Temple Micah.

Our rabbi Danny began the service with a quote from Rabbi Nachman of Breslov about prayer.  It was something to the effect that prayer simply made up of words is a waste of time.   It’s only when the feelings of one’s heart accompany those words that they can rise up to God.  He very much supported spontaneous prayer, but the heart component seemed essential.

The real meat of the service was a discussion of the commandment “Thou shalt not covet.”  The question Danny posed was whether this commandment referred to covetous thoughts as well as actions that resulted from such thoughts.  In other words, is it OK to want something if you don’t ever try to take it?

Various learned rabbis have had a field day with this question over the years, taking quite opposing positions.  The scrupulous person would say that even having such thoughts breaks the commandment.  Whereas the practical person would admit that human nature makes us want things we can’t necessarily have. 

I fall into the practical group.  I somewhat liken this to the situation I often find myself in meditation, where thoughts continue to come into my mind as I attempt to sit.  Finding it unrealistic to think that we can make our minds go blank, I simply try to acknowledge those thoughts and let them go.  So too with things I covet that belong to someone else, I don’t feel I have done anything wrong if I simply recognize my feelings and then dismiss them.

It was a lively discussion among the congregation.  One person offered the legalistic view that you have to actually do something to be charged with a crime.  Some one else postured that if you had covetous thoughts and didn’t act on them outright, you still might change your behavior in a negative way toward the person who had what you wanted.  Most people agreed it was humanly impossible not to ever want what someone else had.

As I emerged after services into the bright sunshine, I clearly heard the bells of the National Cathedral just down the street ringing loud and clear.  Although it was not their Sabbath, it served as a reminder of the greater community in which we find ourselves.  I wondered just how Christianity would interpret that commandment.