EW 62 Scatterbrained
Welcome to the SIMHA Emotional Wellness Minute. This week we're going to discuss a concept calledפזור הנפש Pizur HaNefesh, which means scattering of the soul, which basically means you're not focused; you’re all over the place. It's not ADHD, but rather an internal turmoil. The earliest source in our Jewish writings for this term Pizur HaNefesh, is in the introduction to Hovot Halevavot’s Shaar Bitachon, where talks about the benefit of bitachon, that it causes a person not to be preoccupied. He says there was once a pious man praying and people heard him say, “God should save me from having Pizur HaNefesh/a scattered soul.”
So they asked him, “What does that mean? We never heard of that term.”
And he explained, “I'm asking from God that I should not have money all over the place. I shouldn't have diversified investments, because that way, I'm always worried. If I have money everywhere, whatever's going on in the world will somehow impact it.”
And that's what it means in Pirkei Avot (2,7) Marbeh Nechasim, Marbeh Da’agah that is Pizur HaNefesh, and as the Hovot Halevavot explains, it's a Pizur HaNefesh that comes from a lack of Bitachon and from having a lot of assets.
But the Elder of Kelm, the head of the Yeshiva in Kelm known for Menuchat HaNefesh suggests an additional source for Pizur HaNefesh.
He says, “There's no bigger cause for confusion than bad Middot.”
He writes in his sefer of Kabalot, (page 162) that this Pizur HaNefesh/ scattered soul “comes from desires and bad character traits. They cause people to be jumping on thorns and jumping over thistles. Sometimes he's chasing desires, sometimes he's doing something else, and therefore he has a scattered mind.” Because he's always jumping after the next thrill, or the next desire, or the next vacation or the next, next, next. This word Pizur/scattered, shows up in Megillat Esther (3,8), when Haman says about the Jewish people עַם־אֶחָ֗ד מְפֻזָּ֤ר וּמְפֹרָד֙that They’re Mefuzar U’Mefurad. The rabbis explain that doesn’t it just mean they're scattered physically, but that they were internally scattered. And it's interesting that their downfall was the fact that they went to the party, the party that introduced all these different desires and pleasures, which were instilled into the Jewish people. So a person becomes scattered or confused or feels a lack of focus when he has too many things to chase after, and he is not focused on one thing.
Just to show that this concept is very real and it's a real problem, the Midrash Rabah in Bereshit (2,4), explains one of the first pesukim in creation:
תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם
Tohu Va’Bohu, V’Hoshech Al Pene Tehom
These four terms, Tohu, Bohu, Hoshech and Al Pene Tehom refer to the four exiles that the Jewish people have to go through. Tohu refers to Babylon, Bohu refers to the Medes, which was the time of Purim. Hoshech is the Greeks (That's why we light the Hanukah candles in the darkest of nights), and Tehom /the depths, refers to the exile that we're in today, the exile of Rome. What is this negative force called Bohu and where do we see this in the story of Purim? The Midrash says, in Megillat Esther, Vayabhilu, which has the same root as Bohu, and means panic. They were panic-stricken. When a person panics, the brain doesn’t work. They’re all flustered. That state of being flustered was the whole era of Haman, and we see it in Haman himself.
Haman had all the children and all the wealth and all of everything. And he just crumbled from one man, Mordechai.
So, this week we will talk a little bit about the challenge that we're living with, the challenge of being all over the place. It’s a common problem, so we'll discuss some practical advice on how to overcome it.
Have a wonderful day.