Shabbat & Mindfulness Shabbat is called a day of מנוחה , “rest.” In the minhah prayer on Shabbat, we speak of this day being a time of מנוחה שלימה – “complete rest.” This includes both physical rest, a break from the hard work we do during the week, but also מנוחת הנפש – a state of emotional ease and serenity. The Saba of Kelm placed great emphasis on the importance of מנוחת הנפש , on living with a calm, serene feeling, rather than living with stress and anxiety. In one passage in his writings, the Saba specifies one particular factor as the most dangerous threat to a person’s עבודת ה' (service of G-d): כאשר ראיתי שכל עיקר המבלבל בעבודה הוא פיזור הנפש...על כן תתיעץ להתלמד על זה, לתת מחשבתך תמיד בדבר אשר אתה עוסק בו ולא לחשוב כלל בדבר אחר, ולא תהיה יושב כאן ומחשב באספמיא... As I have seen that the main disrupter to the service [of Hashem] is the scattering of the mind…you are therefore advised to train yourself to always place your thoughts on what you are currently involved in, without thinking at all of anything else, and to not sit here and think about Aspamia [something unrelated]. The Saba proceeds to urge us to use prayer as the time to train ourselves in this vital skill. While we pray, we should make a special effort to focus our minds exclusively on the words of the tefilah , and not on anything else. Mindfulness has always been a challenge, but never more so than in our day and age. We live in a world of constant distraction and multitasking, when people actually pride themselves on performing numerous tasks simultaneously, and feel more productive and accomplished when they do so. I imagine that for many people living in the 21 st century, the words of the Saba of Kelm sound archaic and outdated. Modern life, it is commonly assumed, necessitates multitasking, juggling phone calls, text messages and emails at all times. Nobody today just drives anymore; people need to make phone calls while driving. Wherever we are, we are constantly checking our phones and other gadgets to stay connected. We eat in front of screens so that we don’t waste time. We feel this desperate need to max ourselves out by doing as many things as we possibly can all at once. However, it is not only the Saba of Kelm who warned about the adverse effects of multitasking and a lack of mindfulness. A number of modern-day researchers have reached the conclusion that multitasking actually makes us less productive and more stressed. In an article published in Harvard Business Review entitled “How (and Why) to Stop Multitasking?” (May 20, 2010), author Peter Bregman writes: A study showed that people distracted by incoming email and phone calls saw a 10-point fall in their IQs . What’s the impact of a 10-point drop? The same as losing a night of sleep… Doing several things at once is a trick we play on ourselves, thinking we’re getting more done. In reality, our productivity goes down by as much as 40% . We don’t actually multitask. We switch-task, rapidly shifting from one thing to another, interrupting ourselves unproductively, and losing time in the process. You might think you’re different, that you’ve done it so much you’ve become good at it. Practice makes perfect and all that. But you’d be wrong. Research shows that heavy multitaskers are less competent at doing several things at once than light multitaskers. In other words, in contrast to almost everything else in your life, the more you multitask, the worse you are at it. Practice, in this case, works against you. In an article in the New York Times (June 6, 2010) entitled, “Attached to Technology and Paying a Price,” Matt Richtel writes: Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information. These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats. The stimulation provokes excitement — an adrenaline squirt — that researchers say can be addictive. In its absence, people feel bored. While many people say multitasking makes them more productive, research shows otherwise. Heavy multitaskers actually have more trouble focusing and shutting out irrelevant information, scientists say, and they experience more stress. “The technology is rewiring our brains,” said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse and one of the world’s leading brain scientists. “We are exposing our brains to an environment and asking them to do things we weren’t necessarily created to do,” It is true that modern life requires a degree of multitasking. I often find myself putting my phone on speaker during a conversation so I can go over my emails at the same time. To one extent or another, this is a reality of contemporary life. We must recognize, however, that this comes with a price, as it makes us less attentive to, and focused on, any given task. As an educator, I can attest that focus and attention has become an especially grave problem in today’s day and age. And so while some multitasking is undoubtedly a necessity of life, we should try to minimize it as much as possible. We might draw a comparison to jogging on concrete. Especially in urban neighborhoods, many joggers jog on paved sidewalks and roads, despite the fact that the human knee was made to run on soft surfaces such as vegetation. In G-d’s great wisdom and compassion, He gave us the miracle of knee replacement surgery to help those whose knees have been damaged by excessive jogging on asphalt. Running on concrete might be a necessity in the modern world for city folks, but they would be wise to try to minimize the adverse effects by jogging on softer surfaces whenever they can or to buy sneakers with special cushioning. The same is true about our multitasking habits. While this might indeed be an inescapable fixture of modern life, we should endeavor to minimize it to whatever extent we can, and endeavor to keep our minds exclusively focused on whatever individual task we are currently involved in. We might add that this point is relevant to both men and women. The following sentence appears on the Wikipedia page on the topic of multitasking: “Although the idea that women are better multitaskers than men has been popular in the media as well in conventional thought, there is very little data available to support claims of a real…difference.” It is true that the wide variety of responsibilities borne by women certainly requires a degree of multitasking, such as helping a child with homework while making a soup and making sure the chicken in the oven does not burn. But even for women, this should be seen as a necessity that ought to be minimized to whatever extent possible. This is one of the reasons why Shabbat, especially in our time, is an especially precious gift and special opportunity. With our computers turned off and all our gadgets put away for a full twenty-five hours, we are able to remain focused. The Shabbat table is the perfect opportunity to retrain our minds each week to give our full and undivided attention to people while speaking to them. We have a chance to talk to our family members and guests without interruptions, without shopping online or writing emails at the same time. Just as the Saba of Kelm spoke about utilizing the time of tefilah as an opportunity for mindfulness training, the 25-hour period of Shabbat is for us an invaluable opportunity. At least one day a week, we are able to focus on and enjoy what we are doing at the moment, without scattering our minds about. Rav Avigdor Miller would make a point of focusing on his food whenever he ate so he can enjoy the taste. Life becomes much richer and more fulfilling when we focus on and try to enjoy everything we do when we do it. A patient in a hospital was once visited at different times by two different Rabbis. He said that both Rabbis spent ten minutes with him, but “one of the two gave me all the time in the world for those ten minutes.” Focusing exclusively on the person we are with can make a world of a difference. Shabbat is the best opportunity we have to hone this precious skill. It is the time for us to work on achieving the מנוחת הנפש that so many of us lack, and which we so vitally need to live a truly productive, meaningful and fulfilling life.