Midah of the Month

Histapkut - Simplicity

Welcome to Midah of the Month, where each month we will be briefly exploring a soul trait, or attribute from the world of Mussar, a Jewish practice of growth and development

The art of our necessities is strange, That can make vile things precious. Shakespeare, King Lear

Recently, I was looking around my house and I became astonished by how much “stuff” I seem to have accumulated in the five years that I have been here in Boulder. I do not consider myself to be an overly-materialistic person, but I certainly enjoy some of the finer things in life. I don't go on compulsive shopping sprees and I do not hoard things. Even so, my physical space seems to be absolutely bursting with clutter.

The midah of histapkut, simplicity, challenges us to consider how much of what we have and what we acquire is beyond what we really need and how that affects us spiritually. The disastrous situation in the global economy has, in no small measure, been the result of endless greed and consumption that seduces us all into thinking that we need more and more, rather than contemplating a fuller life with less and less. Blackberrys, i-phones and other handheld devices that keep us constantly contactable are wonderful triumphs of technology and respond to the demands of our society. Yet, they also complicate our lives and in the illusion of being more available, we sometimes become totally unavailable. Well, that's how I am with my Blackberry much of the time.

“Who is truly wealthy?” asks Ben Zoma in Pirkei Avot. “Hasameach b'helko. The one who is happy with what they have.” Is the pithy answer. We do a great job at making life more complicated than it needs to be and it is an important spiritual practice to examine our physical environment and see how much we have that we simply do not need. Letting it go by giving it away or chucking it out can profoundly change our inner world.