Daily Kavanah – Tuesday, June 20, 2023

My personal Jewish practice includes song and prayer and many different types of ritual. It also includes basic Jewish living, by which I mean both a deep love of reading and also a knack for worrying. Recently, I was reading an article about how chronic noise can cause health problems (giving me a chance to worry and read at the same time!). We all know that we can’t blast our headphones too loudly because it might cause damage to our eardrums, but we now also know that constant, unwelcome noise like traffic, engines, barks, or sirens can cause lasting and even damaging effects to our bodies.

Sound, of course, enters our body through our ears, and unpleasant noise relays stress signals to our brains, causing our systems to break down, to overreact, to inflame. Without causing ourselves too much stress as we consider this, what remains with me is not actually the fear of unwelcome noise, but rather, the great potential that designed and intended sounds can have to create moving experiences and healthy responses in our body. Listening to pleasant, welcome, uplifting sounds can be one of the most wonderful gifts that we can give ourselves for our mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.

Today, I invite you to quiet any of your worries by listening intentionally to the world around you. How might we open ourselves up to sounds that will inspire and heal us, literally increasing meaningful vibrations in our body and the potential for a better day, a healthier and more fulfilling life? Listen to a favorite album; sing a favorite prayer melody; focus deeply on the words of a podcast or audiobook instead of multitasking; tune into the sound of your loved ones’ words, the pitch and timbre of their voices, the heart and meaning inside each inflection. May we, each day, find ways to open ourselves up to sounds that uplift us, remembering that the Sh’ma prayer, the watchword of our faith, teaches us that—first and foremost—we must listen.

—Cantor Emma Lutz