I am drawn again this year to the verse Tamim tihiyeh im Hashem Elokekha. You shall be tamim, whole hearted and simple, with Hashem your God (Deuteronomy 18:13).
It’s Simple
This verse is only five words long – short and simple, especially compared to the verses that surround it, one at 14 words and the other at 19. And i think this shortness is part of its message. We expend a lot of energy on many words and things in our lives. Our lives are enormously complicated, going this way and that way, like a chicken with its head cut off. Slow down, this verse says – it’s actually really simple, tam, tamim. Just stay true to God, your God, the God inside you. Be whole hearted in that one guiding principle. Nothing else matters.
Letting the Overwhelm Feel the Simplicity
Maybe you can feel the energy of complication and overwhelm and restlessness inside you, running this way and then the other, arms reaching out all over the place, a headache that comes from too many thoughts and worries and plans and words coming at you from all sides. Something inside says – help! And here is the help. Tamim tihiyeh im Hashem Elokekha. The way is much simpler than you thought. Maybe taking that restless overwhelmed runner inside you and, as you would with an overwrought child, holding all that restlessness in a tight embrace for a moment, totally still. Breathe deeply and slowly. Let the overwhelm inside feel your solidness, your focus, your whole-heartedness, your temimut. Let it feel the simplicity of what life is about, what is required of you, what really matters. It’s just this one thing – stay true to the divine light inside you. That’s all. Keep returning to that, to your heart, to God, to the God inside you, to the purest desire in you – “I just want to serve You.” Feel that simplicity, like a rush of energy returning to center. Your energy was all scattered, blasted out in a thousand directions, and now it returns to center.
There is a line of a beautiful song I heard recently that feels related: “And the way is simple, the way is clear, the way is humble, the way is here (Hannah Leigh).”
Our Stress
We walk this life with so much stress and anxiety. What will happen in the future? How can I make sure everything will be ok? What if I did or said the wrong thing? How will they react? What will they think of me? How can I make sure they are ok, that they don’t feel bad? What do they expect of me and how can I please them? So much pressure and stress, so many different masters and so much uncertainty about what will happen. Of course we are anxiously running in a thousand directions to make sure it is all ok.
Asking a Different Question
But what if there is another way? These questions we ask ourselves – what is going to happen or how will they react – they are questions that are neither in our control nor really in our lane; we can’t control the future or how others feel. These are questions that are focused on results, which are, after all, God’s affair, not ours. Stress comes from focusing on the future and on other people. What if, instead of those questions, we focus on our own power in this moment? What if we ask ourselves just one simple question – how can I be whole-heartedly committed to the God in me right now, how can I stay true to my own inner light in this moment? How can I be tamim with Hashem my God in this interaction, in this next step in my life?
Can you feel the strength in that question? It gives you back your power.. It takes all the energy and power that you were giving away – by the truckload – to fate and to other people, and it brings it right back into your center in this present moment. Not worrying about the future, the outcome, or how someone will react. Just this moment, staying present and true to God in you and moving in the world from that place. That is your only responsibility. What happens next is not your business.
Walking Humbly
The prophet Michah says: hatzne’a lekhet im Hashem Elokekha, “walk humbly with Hashem your God (Micah 6:8).” Humbly. That means not thinking we know what is next or that we can control it.. Trusting that it is enough for us to do our part with faith and genuineness. It is enough for us to be ourselves, to be tamim, to be true to our divine essence. That is enough. There is a kind of arrogance in our attempts to control and fix and make sure everyone and everything is ok all the time, as if it is all on us, as if we are the only force in the universe. To walk humbly with God is to do your part and then trust enough to let go, not to try to do someone else’s part or God’s part. Perhaps taking a moment to feel the sense of walking humbly with God in your body. Humility doesn’t mean you are bent over – you are straight and proud, you are yourself and the world needs you – but maybe you can put down some of the burdens of excess responsibility and be a little lighter with God, knowing your proper place, just a human doing your part, no more, no less, walking lightly and trusting.
Trusting
Trusting. To give yourself over whole heartedly to the simple yet not easy task of being true to yourself and to God in you at all moments. To walk simply and earnestly along your path, doing your best to fulfill that task of being true in each moment and not worrying about the growing storm up ahead or how it looks for you to be dressed in purple when everyone else is dressed in black. Trusting your own truth, trusting the God in you. Focusing on taking just this one next step with sincerity and presence and with a heart full of love for yourself and those around you.
Whole Hearted With Each Other, Too
Tamim means being whole hearted with those around us, too, looking each person in the eye and taking the time to pay attention to them with no agenda, no ulterior motive, no attempt to manipulate or insinuate or get the other person to respond in a certain way or see you in a certain way. “If I say this, they’ll think I’m smart/kind . . . “ Just to be present to them.. As the Piaseczner Rebbe writes, to be tamim is to be as innocent and genuine and truthful as a child, a child who speaks from that deep place of truth inside and not from the social niceties of knowing what he is supposed to say. To cultivate that truthfulness with each interaction. (Bnei Machshavah Tovah, pp. 36-37, English translation: Conscious Community).
Just This Moment
And not to worry about what happens next. Just this step with your whole heart. Shining the flashlight so fiercely on this moment, being so fully present to the here and now, so tamim, so single minded in your focus, that everything else fades into the background, as if you are walking along a path with fog all around, and as you step forward with courage and faith, the path is illuminated before you for just that one step, light flooding this one place and moment through your deep whole hearted presence.
You don’t need to know what’s around the corner. Only this: Am I aligned with God in me right now? Am I being true to my most authentic self? Is my whole heart right here? That is enough. Others may disapprove of you and you may not meet their expectations and things may not go as you expected or hoped, and all of that is like chaff in the wind. See all that chaff, all the nothingness we busy our minds and spirits with, see it all fly away in the wind, while you stand steady and strong with Hashem your God, knowing what matters, whole-hearted in this one task, focused and aligned inside you, without distraction and without artifice or pretense, just being yourself.
People write to me – please take me off your email list. This used to be painful for me, the idea that what I have to offer is not desired by some. But mostly now, I can feel that softening. I know I am doing what feels right to me and aligned with the God in me, and the rest is truly chaff. Results, reception, approval, recognition, success, traffic, none of that is my affair. Mine is to stay tamim, wholehearted, with Hashem my God, to be the truest form of myself I can be. That is all. To be tamim like that for even just one moment feels incredibly relaxing, freeing, satisfying. It is to break free of some chains, to let go of external demands and to know your own wholeness and your own power, no longer to give it away. Simply to be true to yourself, as if the air has been cleared of toxins and you can breathe more deeply into yourself.
Living Into Our Divine Truth
The Piaseczner Rebbe points out that truth, emet, is God’s hotam, God’s signature. It is etched into every creature, every rock and flower and butterfly, and into each and every person. We are all expressions of God’s truth. We can live into that, be as tamim, as purely ourselves as the flower is always itself and the child is always herself, unself-conscious and simple in their bearing, knowing what to do and how to be in this natural organic way. We each have this truth stamped into us in our own way. Hashem Elokekha, it says in the singular, the God in you. Be true to that. “Be yourself no matter what they say” (Sting, “Englishman in New York”).
We Need God’s Help
And yet sometimes we find it hard to be ourselves. We feel like it is not enough. We have doubts and insecurities, we feel less than or incapable or that a particular challenge is impossible for us. There is a word in our verse that speaks to this sense of lack in us, too. It is the middle word of that sentence, a joining word– im, with. Be tamim im, together with God. We can’t be tamim, we can’t do this job of being whole heartedly ourselves, on our own.
I see myself again walking on the path, taking one step at a time, focusing on just this step. But this time I notice something else – I am not alone. I may be the only one wearing purple, but there is a powerful presence right there with me, supporting me in my purpleness, a divine essence, im, with me, right there with me, in me, next to me, an aura around me, embracing me, ever accompanying me, cheering me on, filling me up, as I take each next step.
I invite you to think of something that you currently find difficult in your life, something you regularly struggle with and feel less than fully capable of handling. The Sefat Emet says that this verse – Tamim tihiyeh im Hashem Elokekha – means that you will only ever be truly tamim, complete, whole, shalem, im, with Hashem your God (Shoftim 5651). We are all lacking. Of course it’s hard to do on your own. Why are you even trying? It’s like sitting at a desk trying to do a difficult math problem when there is a brilliant teacher up front ready to explain things to you as soon as you ask for help (metaphor from Mary O’Malley, “The Gift of Our Compulsions”).. Let in the im, the with. Let God in to do the work with you. Feel the support pouring in, as if all your holes are suddenly being filled from above; you become stronger, more tamim, more shalem, more whole, more complete, more powerful, more fully yourself. From this place you can take the next step that is needed with a full and confident heart.
Photo by Yan Krukau at Pexels
