Meditation on Emet (Truth)

We say in Tefillah: Emet veYatziv. True and stable. Truth is stable. Strong. Grounded. Feel the truth of your body. Feel the truth of your body on the chair, the stability and truth of the ground holding you up. You are strong. You are stable. You are true.

What is your truth?

God wants you to be you. At Mount Sinai, the Torah says that we saw the voices. What does it mean to see voices? The Hasidic Rebbe, Sefat Emet says: “Each one of Israel saw the root of her own life-force. With their very eyes they saw the part of the divine soul above that lives in each of them.”

Take a minute to see the part of the divine soul living inside you. Take a minute to feel how you are a piece of the divine. A precious unique piece of the divine.

The Mishnah in Sanhedrin says: In the normal way of the world, a person stamps out many coins with one die and they all look exactly the same. But the King, the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be God, stamped each person with the seal of Adam, and not one of them is like his or her fellow.

Each one of us has a unique piece of God inside us. Each of us has been sent down here to fix something very particular in this world. We each have a different job to do.

If you look at your friend, a successful lawyer, and think – but I am not doing as much, not as successful, or you look at another acquaintance, a great teacher, and think – but what am I compared to her? Do not do so. You are special. There is something that only you can contribute to this world. If you read someone else’s writing or hear someone else’s Torah and think – why can’t I write or think like her? Do not do so. Be happy for their contributions and remember that you have some other contribution to make. Each person has a place. Each person has a Torah.

In the end of our lives the question will not be – why were you not more like Cheryl or Sarah or Veronica? The question will be and is today – how can you be more like you? How can you honor your truth and play the part that only you can play in this world.

Honor your truth. Do you honor your truth? Or is there some piece of you that is deeply ashamed of what is unique about you? Is there some shame attached to that truth? Do you wish you were someone else? Do you hide from your truth? Do you wish you were more like everyone else?

Honor your truth. Honor your truth because it is God’s truth. God has made you as you are for some reason. To honor your truth, to search for that truth and give it respect and act it out in the world – to honor your truth is to come closer to God. God resides in each of our truths. To be more truly you is also to feel God’s presence, to feel God’s closeness, to become aware of God’s truth. Honor your truth. Be you.