Chesed-Dayenu-Shalom-Chai

The Tree of Life (Chai)

Thy Steadfast Love is Enough for me, O God;
Thy Lovingkindness, my true Peace.

Usually translated Peace, the word Shalom is so much more than that. This is partially because Hebrew has far fewer words than English, so each word is packed with meaning. But mostly it is because, like Hesed and Dayenu, Shalom is a deeply spiritual word. For us it completes the picture of the spiritual life, the nature of prayer, and the goal of being human in God’s world.

Shalom does mean peace. But it means the Peace that comes from Wholeness, Health, Fullness of Being. Shalom is the Fruit of the spiritual quest.

We can see the relationship of Hesed, Dayenu, and Shalom portrayed in the Tree of Life.

HESED (God’s Lovingkindness, Grace): We are rooted in the Hesed of God as a tree is rooted in the earth. As a tree draws nourishment from the earth, so we draw our spiritual nourishment, our life sustenance, from the Hesed of God. We are planted in that love, rooted in that love, owe our life to that love.

DAYENU (Enough for Us): True prayer is Dayenu. Enough. God’s Hesed is indeed enough for us. As Julian of Norwich wrote in the 14th century, “God, of your goodness, give me yourself, for you are enough to me.” The trunk of the tree is like prayer: it draws the life energy of Hesed up from the roots to enliven the whole tree. The stillness of the trunk of a great tree is like the stillness of contemplative prayer. Words, ideas, doctrine and dogmas are not needful to prayer. Our simple, still presence is the conduit for God’s Hesed. Prayer is the drawing of Hesed from our rootedness in God.

SHALOM (Peace, Wholeness): It is the crown of the tree, among its branches, that bears the fruit. The crown of our being is our life in the world, the spreading out of our life as the branches of the tree spread out in the air. From the nourishment of our rootedness in God, through the prayer conduit of the trunk, our fruit is produced. And the true fruit of the Tree of Life is Shalom, the peace of completeness, of wholeness, of fullness of being.

This can be expressed in the prayer mantra above, so similar in sound to the Psalms, for the Psalms, at their heart, are a quest for Shalom:

Thy Steadfast Love is Enough for me, O God;
Thy Lovingkindness, my true Peace.

Often I use a 100-knot prayer rope for this mantra prayer, as a way into stillness.

Thy Steadfast Love (Hesed) is Enough (Dayenu) for me, O God;
Thy Lovingkindness, (Hesed) my true Peace (Shalom)

God’s steadfast love is enough for us to experience the deep peace of shalom.

 

Why Is This Blog Named “Dayenu”?

Hesed is God’s part of the relationship.  Dayenu is our part, Shalom is the result.
The blog is named for our part – the part we must commit to.

 

Dayenu – Enough for Us – is a wonderful Passover song which affirms that even if God only blesses us with the smallest possible blessing, still, that is Enough for Us.  That is the guiding message of this weblog.  Here is a shortened English version of this wonderful song:

Had He brought us out from Egypt and not given us all their possessions,
It would have been enough! Dayenu!

 

Had He given us their possessions and not divided the sea for us,
It would have been enough! Dayenu!

Had He divided the sea for us and not brought us through it dry-shod,
It would have been enough! Dayenu!

Had He brought us through it dry-shod and not sustained us in the wilderness for forty years,
It would have been enough! Dayenu!

Had He sustained us in the wilderness for forty years and not fed us manna,
It would have been enough Dayenu!

Had He fed us manna and not given us the Sabbath,
It would have been enough! Dayenu!

Had He given us the Sabbath and not brought us to mount Sinai,
It would have been enough! Dayenu!

Had he brought us to Mount Sinai, and not given us the Torah,
It would have been enough! Dayenu!

Had he given us the Torah and not brought us in the land of Israel,
It would have been enough! Dayenu!

Had He brought us into the Land of Israel and not built the temple for us,
It would have been enough! Dayenu!

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Even if God gives us only one small blessing – the smallest blessing possible – it is enough.  Dayenu!

Chai
L’Chaim – To Life

Put all this together and you get the core meaningfulness of Life.  But not Life as a concept; Life as a Verb: Living.  We are truly alive when we experience God’s Hesed, respond with Dayenu, and find Shalom.  Yes, that is Chai.