Rabbi Simcha Bunim, the 18th century Hasidic master, taught that every person should hold two pieces of paper in each of two pockets. In one pocket the paper should say: “I am only dust and ashes.” The other declares: “For my sake was the world created.” This juxtaposition of humility and gratitude for the glory of Creation exemplifies what my Rav, Chaim Seidler-Feller, taught me to embrace. Judaism forces us to hold seemingly contradictory concepts in tension, but rather than fight this, I welcome dedicating my life to the notion that we must live with the acknowledgment that we are simultaneously nothing and the source of the potential for everything.
The second guiding principle of my life has been to utilize what I previously saw as a defect of mine – my hypersensitivity and at times burdensome empathy with the suffering of others – and to convert that into an asset. For me, this dovetails nicely with “Justice, justice shall you pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:20). While definitions of justice may vary depending on one’s personal perceptions of what is just and right, I know that the things we praise Gd for are the things that are subjectively just: speaking for the voiceless, welcoming the stranger, and lifting up those who are laid low. I see injustice everywhere because it is everywhere; it is incumbent upon us to not look away.
Finally, my first full sentence as a toddler was the Shema, proclaiming Gd’s oneness. Echad – Oneness – has held me as much as I have held it. The wisdom of the many teachers I have been blessed to learn from, has confirmed for me that there is one universal Consciousness, one Love in the universe, and a unity of our existence as conscious beings on a planet hurling through space at maddening speed. No matter what I add to my religious practice, Oneness is always the Source.
Mayim Hoya Bialik is an actress, podcaster, and host of Jeopardy. @missmayim
