Chapter 07
Dveikus in the World
How the inner life changes the people around you
Everything we have built — the pause, the presence, the cleaving, the breaking open, the daily rhythm, the tears — all of it is interior. But the interior life is not an end in itself. What happens inside you must come out through you — into your marriage, your children, your friendships, your community, the stranger you pass on the street.
וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
“This is a great principle of the Torah.”
Not because kindness is nice — but because the love of Hashem and the love of His people are not two different loves. They are the same love, flowing in two directions. When you truly cleave to Hashem, you begin to see the tzelem Elokim — the image of the Divine — in every face.
“Ahavas Yisrael is the vessel for ahavas Hashem. You cannot claim to love the Infinite while treating the finite person in front of you as invisible.”
It asks you to slow down before you respond in anger. To be present — not on your phone — when someone you love is speaking. To see the people who irritate you and look for the tzelem Elokim anyway. And it asks you to let your own brokenness make you more tender with theirs.
Ritual
Presence with Another Person
- 1Choose one person you will be with today — spouse, child, friend, colleague.
- 2Before you see them, pause. Whisper Shivisi — I set Hashem before me.
- 3When you are with them, practice presence: put the phone down. Look at them. Listen to finish, not to respond.
- 4Afterward, ask yourself: did I see the tzelem Elokim in them today? Even once?
Reflection
Where in my closest relationships does my inner life not yet show up?
Sign in to keep what arises here.
Who in my life needs me to be more present than I have been?
Sign in to keep what arises here.
How has my own experience of struggle made me more — or less — compassionate toward others?
Sign in to keep what arises here.
What would it mean to see every person I encounter today as carrying a spark of the Divine?
Sign in to keep what arises here.
Soul anchors
וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
צֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים
“The image of G-d — in every face.”
Dveikus that stays inside is incomplete. Let it reach the people who need you. Let it make you someone worth being near.