This week’s word is Yesod, meaning foundation, bedrock or bonding.
When I first came to Elgin, a senior member took a walk with me around the block. He said that he was standing on the rock of Judaism and he felt he could sway and bend but he didn’t want to blow off the top.
Having done lots of mountain climbing, I assured him that I identified with that sentiment. Judaism is a solid foundation, a rock. I told him about South Bubble Mountain which has a glacier boulder, an accidental, as they are called, perched high on the mountain. It always seems like someone could push it off. Whole football teams have tried. It is not budging. And while it is called Bubble Rock, I tend to call it Balance Rock, http://www.citrusmilo.com/acadiaguide/southbubble.cfm
Yesod is about foundation, about being rock solid. It is about fusion. The bonding of all the previous topics we’ve discussed, chesed (lovingkindness), gevurah (discipline, strength), tiferet (compassion, splendor), netzach (endurance, eternity) and hod (gratitude, humility).
It may be the most difficult of all those because it requires balancing all those attributes as they are bonded.
When we went through the service, we didn’t find one reference to yesod, although there were references to Tzur, Rock, like Tzur Yisrael, Ma’oz Tzur. In those cases Tzur refers to G-d. G-d is the Rock of Israel. The foundation of Israel. What all the rest of Judaism is built upon.
Two stories. When I was living in Israel, I tried to describe the beautiful Jerusalem stone. I lacked the word for stone in Hebrew, only having Tzur, Rock. I was told that Tzur only refers to G-d and so I learned the word evan, stone. For years I would tell that story. This year in preparing my weekly Torah reading, when Moses hits the rock to draw water for the people he hits a tzur. We frequently say that Moses’s sin was that he hit the rock. It never seemed like a big enough sin to punish Moses by not allowing him to enter the Promised Land. Now maybe this is midrashic, but what if the text is really saying, Moses hit Tzur Yisrael, the Rock of Israel. What if he hit G-d! That would be a really big sin.
The other story is one my thesis advisor used to tell. His professor, from Germany, would oft say to his students, and Rabbi Zlotowitz would retell it, “Boychiks,” because in those days only men studied to be rabbis, “Boychiks, today we are going to study the basement of Judaism.” He had mixed up the English words for foundation and basement. In German they may be the same. Working in Germany, in a basement office, I was confused about what floor I wanted in the elevator. A nice co-worker pointed to the floor label and explained to me that I wanted the foundation, the basement. I laughed as I told her in my halting German about Rabbi Zlotowitz and the basement of Judaism. Yes, all in an elevator in Building 18 of SAP, the star-shaped building.
But this confusion of basement and foundation is illustrative. There was a psychotherapist, a professor at Brandeis, Andras Angyal, who developed a theory of personality that is relevant. In his major work, Neurosis and Treatment, published posthumously, he developed holistic approach to the whole person. His other book was called, ironically for this, Foundations of the Science of Personality. He related therapy to deconstruction and reconstruction of a house, the need to carefully tear down the pillars and the weight bearing support beams but not before the person is ready and has the new pillars ready to go into place. Otherwise the structure will collapse, by extension, the person will collapse. He refers to the building blocks of personality and worked extensively with Maslow, who gave us Maslow’s pyramid, another structure that says that the basic needs, food, shelter, clothing, love, etc need to be the satisfied as the base of the pyramid before aesthetic experiences, or a pinnacle moment can occur near the top of the pyramid.
When I first learned about Angyal his theory resonated with me and I went on to study further. I think that is exactly what my congregant was talking about. Judaism, as he described it, is the foundation of his life. He is bonded to it and as such he can bend and sway, but we can’t take away those support beams, the pillars without having the new ones ready to go.
Judaism gives us the foundation, the bedrock. Mussar gives us the pillars as we work on each of these character traits.
Bonding, Yesod, means therefore, connecting. Being attached. It is eternal. It creates an everlasting union that can live forever. Simon Jacobson says what Angyal was saying: “Bonding is the foundation of life. The emotional spine of the human psyche. Every person needs bonding to flourish and grow… The bonding between mother and child; between husband and wife; between brothers and sisters; between close friends. Bonding is affirmation; it gives one the sense of belonging; that “I matter”, “I am significant and important”. It establishes trust – trust in yourself and trust in others. It instills confidence. Without bonding and nurturing we cannot realize and be ourselves. Bonding channels all five previous qualities into a constructive bond, giving it the meaning “foundation”. Whereas all other human feelings are individual emotions, separate stories of a building, each a necessary component of human experience, bonding channels and integrates them all into one bond which creates a foundation upon which the structure of human emotions firmly stands.”
The challenge for this week is to look at our foundations. What do we stand upon? To what are we bonded? To other people? To memories? To places? Is it difficult to bond? In all areas or just in certain ones? Family? Friends? Co-workers? Places? (I am bonded with a certain rock where major life decisions have been made off the coast of Ogunquit. My cover photo on Facebook is that very rock!)
What are the pillars of Judaism to you? How is G-d your Rock? What do you stand for? What do you stand on?