Chicago Jewish News — October 19, 2007

Torah Portion: Lech Lecha | Genesis 12:1-17:27

In Parashat Lech Lecha, Abraham is portrayed as the first "Ivri," the one who "crosses over." Abraham is the first to cross over from the pagan world to the monotheistic world. Spiritually, Abraham crosses the sea of faith to create a new religion and way of looking at the world just as he crosses over from the familiar (his "land," his "community of birth," and his "ancestral house") to a new life in Canaan.

Rashi feels that "lecha" indicates Abraham's leaving as being for personal benefit and advantage. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch explains that when a community supports the "truly sacred and sublime," an individual should ally him/herself with this community. However, as in the case of Abraham, his pagan community was not a fertile moral ground through which to support his faith. Hirsch translates "lecha" as "go for yourself." Abraham, in questioning the belief system within which he was raised, and subsequently in rejecting it, becomes isolated from his birth community. It can no longer support him spiritually. Abraham leaves to find himself.

The quest for spirituality and "spiritual direction" is becoming part of more and more people's lives, especially in the face of recent natural and manmade traumas. Perhaps you are wondering what spirituality is, or even how spirituality differs from religion.

Religion is the service and worship of G-d or the supernatural; it involves a commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance. Religion is connected to an institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs and behaviors.

Spirituality is a sensitivity or attachment to religious values. Spirituality transforms rote ritual practice into something that deepens our grasp of what we might call a meaningful existence. It transcends specific religious movements or denominations, which lay out expected beliefs, behaviors and observances.

Most of us are familiar with "IQ"-the realm of intellectual, rational, logical, rule-bound thinking that psychologists began to measure in the 20th century. IQ has also been defined as "material capital."

Some of us may even have heard of "EQ" -associative, habit-bound, pattern-recognizing emotive thinking. Emotional Intelligence was documented in the mid-1990s by Daniel Goleman through his research in neuroscience and psychology. EQ makes us aware of our feelings and those of others. It gives empathy, motivation, compassion and an ability to respond skillfully to pleasure and pain. Goleman argued that EQ was a basic requirement for the use of IQ. If the areas of our brain that feel are damaged, our ability to think effectively is diminished. EQ has also been defined as "social capital."

Danah Zohar, a physicist, philosopher and management thought leader, and Dr. Ian Jung Marshall, a Jungian-oriented psychiatrist and psychotherapist, are doing ground-breaking work in the area of "SQ"-spiritual intelligence.

Six years ago, Zohar and Marshall's reach led them to define SQ as the ultimate intelligence, or "spiritual capital." SQ is the intelligence used to solve problems of meaning and value-personally, communally and even in the workplace. For example, we might ask, "Is my job giving me the fulfillment I seek? " "Am I relating to people in my life in a way that contributes to their happiness and mine?" Answers to these questions determine whether we will find happiness or not. IQ and EQ are inadequate in such issues.

In the 1990s research by a neuropsychologist (Michael Persinger) and a neurologist (V.S. Ramachandran) at the University of California led to an identification of a "G-d-spot" in the human brain. This area is located among neural connections in the temporal lobes of the brain. During scans with positive emission topography, these neural areas light up whenever research subjects are exposed to discussions of spiritual topics. While the G-d-spot does not prove the existence of G-d, it does indicate that the brain is programmed to ask ultimate questions.

Spiritual intelligence is used to transform ourselves and others, heal relationships, cope with grief, and move beyond conditioned habits of the past. I believe the development of SQ, within individuals and within a community, is vital. In this way, we can develop deeper access to the joys and responsibilities of our rich Jewish heritage and bring meaning to the day-to-day experience of life.

May your journey fill you with awareness, compassion, forgiveness and empathy, moving you to inner peace, wisdom and liberation from all that holds you back. Helping ourselves and each other along this journey, may we, together, relieve suffering, awaken new perceptions of what life might become, encourage self-realization, enlightenment and a strengthened connection between thought, feeling and action.

Rabbi Nina J. Mizrahi is the director of the JCCs of Chicago's Pritzker Center for Jewish Education.