Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education just sent me this photo that they have in their archives asking if I can identify the time or the place this picture was taken. Oh, my—it was 1988, I believe. It showed me teaching a Hebrew class at Neveh Shalom Synagogue. When looking closely I saw four ladies. My mother in law, may she rest in peace, is the first on the left! And 31 years later I’m teaching a class at this very synagogue about my upcoming book, Moments of The Heart.
Who would have thought! One of the aspects that makes my book unique is that I highlight a particular concept and connect it to its Hebrew roots. Here is something that bring this picture to life in so many ways. Take for example the 3 English words compass, conscience, and hidden.
What do you think the connection between these three words are? It may not be as obvious to you in the English language but in the Hebrew language it pops right up.
The word for conscience is Matzpoon, the word for hidden is tzafoon, and the word compass is Matzpen. Now do you see a connection?
Do you find that sometimes your conscience is hiding from you? Are you sometimes searching for your Compass, the direction of where to go?
The adults in my class had the task of creating a sentence that is meaningful to them using these three words. Here is what they come up with:
“Sometimes my conscience leads me to the hidden places but my deep soul is my compass.” – Rosana Berdichevsky
“My conscience guides me like a hidden compass.” Eric Brown
Other students said-
“My conscience is significant in guiding my compass.”
“I can’t always understand my feelings, so I rely on my conscience to guide me, like a compass.”
Maybe we should talk about what is conscience at all…to me it’s that inner voice of telling me that I need to go in a particular direction. And sometimes that voice is so small that I might not hear it clearly when life is so busy and full. When I have my ego in the way.
Have you had a time in your life when you needed to go somewhere but your conscience resisted you? Have you had instances in your life when you felt your spiritual destination, your soul destiny was hidden from you? What happened that eventually shed light onto the situation? What did you do to find clarity?
I think that sometimes our conscience is hidden from us and sometimes where we need to go in our lives is also hidden. I am facing this challenge right now. While my conscience is clear, my compass is hidden from me. Perhaps not completely hidden but I am in the shade, and it’s hard for me to see clearly…And I hope that with time, the compass, hence the direction of where I am going, can be revealed to me and be brought up to the surface with much gusto!
Until then, one leg before the other….one step at a time..
Yours,
Dorice