Why I Let Go of My Life's Purpose

In the commencement speech she gave at Sarah Lawrence in 2006, Ann Patchett observes:

Every choice lays down a trail of bread crumbs, so that when you look behind you there appears to be a very clear path that points straight to the place where you now stand.

But when you look ahead there isn’t a bread crumb in sight — there are just a few shrubs, a bunch of trees, a handful of skittish woodland creatures. You glance from left to right and find no indication of which way you’re supposed to go.

And so you stand there, sniffing at the wind, looking for directional clues in the growth patterns of moss, and you think, What now?

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Adam Lavittmindfulness, vocation, purpose, strengths
When Meditation Gets Real

For most of my life, I’ve been a student. The Latin etymology of this word is related to studium ‘painstaking application’, making a mistake and trying again, tolerating the discomfort of being in process, approaching each task with the gracious self-acceptance of a beginner. As a student, I was able to nourish dreams and visions of what I could uniquely contribute to the world. As a student, I, and everyone around me, knew I was in a process of learning, of applying myself, painstakingly, to each new task.

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Adam Lavittmindfulness, acceptance, vocation, career, study
Watching, Waiting, Reflecting: Dreaming in Times of Darkness (Parshat Bo, Exodus 10:1-13:16)

The world seems like a dark place right now. I don’t know if there is any way to effectively battle institutional racism, or the rampant capitalism that is all but destroying the middle class — or how to respond to a global climate crisis that has, by the estimations of most of the scientific community, passed its tipping point. I am afraid of what might happen next. When did my sense of trust that the world is always progressing toward some greater good all but vanish?

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Adam LavittMLK, Kabbalah, hope, Bo, Passover, Exodus
Shining a Light on Being Too Tired to Care

Bombarded with news stories of gun violence, and racist and Islamophobic rhetoric from politicians, I’ve begun to notice a numbness overtaking me. It’s a natural response to move away from pain, as from a hot flame. But even when I turn off the radio, or avoid reading official news sources, the pain of the world trickles into my social media feeds. Ideally, I want this pain to move me to act for change, but have begun to feel overwhelmed, to shut down.

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Adam LavittHannukah, burn out, compassion fatigue, tragedy, violence
Connecting and Resolving Conflict: Inspired by Dance

I counsel individuals of all ages as they struggle in their relationships with friends, partners, and family members. It goes with the territory when one is a rabbi. The people I counsel often have become attached to avoiding conflict, so when conflicts arise in their relationships – as they inevitably do – they are quick to interpret them as potentially catastrophic. They need their interactions to look a particular way in order to feel loved.

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Adam Lavittdance, conflict, relationships
Beyond Bored: Entering the Soul of Creativity

Recently, I introduced meditation to my high school spirituality class. I joined them, closing my eyes, peeking to see how people were doing. The second time I opened my eyes, I noticed more than one student fiddling with their smartphones.

As we debriefed afterward, I asked what challenges they encountered as I guided the group to sit with awareness of breath and body. One student volunteered that she was so uncomfortable with the silence she just had to fidget with her iPhone. The boredom was unbearable.

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Adam Lavittmeditation, mindfulness, creativity, unplug
Telling Stories of Trauma for Healing and Compassion (Parshat Ki Tetzei, Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19)

On the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, a group in Japan launched a project in which storytellers are training to retell the experiences of survivors. My grandfather participated in a similar project 20 years ago, the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, which sought to collect testimony from survivors before the experience of the Holocaust was lost to the world. My family’s participation in this project instilled in me the belief that these stories, though painful, should be actively remembered and repeated.

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Adam LavittHolocaust, family stories, history, compassion, Amalek, epigenetics, Deuteronomy, Ki Tetzei
Fighting for our Sacred Center

Yesterday, around the world, we Jews observed Tisha B’Av, a day of grieving the historical destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, our archetypal and historical sacred center.

Two weeks earlier, Washington’s National Cathedral, “a house of prayer for all people,” became the focus of media attention when the dean called for the removal of two stained glass panels – installed 62 years ago – which depict the Confederate flag.

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Adam LavittTisha B'av, terrorism, hate, Confederate flag
Transforming our Curses into Blessings

In (and out of) synagogues, campuses, JCCs, summer camps and religious schools, people are developing opinions about hot-button issues. As a rabbi, I am painfully aware of how fraught discussions of Jewish identity, inclusion of interfaith couples, same-sex religious ceremonies, and Israel/Palestine can be. All too often, our communities erect a tense wall of silence around these issues. On many sides of the debate, people advocate for themselves on either side of this wall without the ability to truly see whomever is on the “other side.”

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Adam LavittBalaam, vulnerability, empathy, resilience, Numbers