Seeking the Everyday Extraordinary

 

How do we go from the ordeal of the ordinary to the everyday extraordinary? The ordeal of the ordinary is a phrase I learned from Dr. David Pelcovitz a few years back. It refers to the challenge of habituation: how over time what may have once been new and exciting can become rote/ routine and ultimately even a burden. The opposite of the ordeal of the ordinary is a perspective of Everyday Extraordinary. This phrase I saw on an advertisement in an elevator at Memorial Regional Hospital for one of its medical departments. It refers to finding wonder and amazement in our everyday lives.

    Rabbi Ralph Pelcovitz suggested that Parshat Emor cautions us to avoid the ordeal of the ordinary and strive for everyday extraordinary.

    The Parsha is primarily about the Jewish holidays. But smack in the middle of the Torah’s review of the calendar it goes off on an unexpected tangent (23:22):

וּבְקֻצְרְכֶם אֶת קְצִיר אַרְצְכֶם לֹא תְכַלֶּה פְּאַת שָׂדְךָ בְּקֻצְרֶךָ וְלֶקֶט קְצִירְךָ לֹא תְלַקֵּט לֶעָנִי וְלַגֵּר תַּעֲזֹב אֹתָם אֲנִי ה:

When you reap the harvest of your Land, you shall not completely remove the corner of your field during your harvesting, and you shall not gather up the gleanings of your harvest. [Rather,] you shall leave these for the poor person and for the stranger. I am the Lord, your God.

    This is the source for the agricultural gifts to the poor of Leket Shikcha and Peah. Why does the Torah introduce these charitable obligations in the middle of teaching us about the holidays?

    The holidays are an exciting and inspiring time, especially when these holidays meant Aliyah L’regel, gathering together with the entirety of the Jewish People in Jerusalem.. But what happens when we go back to work in the fields? How do we maintain inspiration? How do we sustain excitement even for the mundane, similar to the excitement we have for Jewish holidays, Aliyah L’regel? That’s what the agricultural gifts challenge us to consider and plan for.

    These gifts- Leket Shikcha and Peah- are mentioned by the Gemara in Yevamot (47a) as serving an important role in the conversion process.

    Our Rabbis taught: “If at the present time a man desires to become a proselyte, he is to be addressed as follows: ‘What reason have you for desiring to become a proselyte; do you not know that Israel at the present time are persecuted and oppressed, despised, harassed and overcome by afflictions?’ If he replies, ‘I know and yet am unworthy’, he is accepted forthwith, and is given instruction in some of the minor and some of the major commandments. He is informed of the sin [of the neglect of the commandments of] Gleanings, the Forgotten Sheaf, the Corner and the Poor Man's Tithe.”

    Out of all possible commandments, why is the potential convert told about Leket Shikcha and Peah?

    The Talmud, like the Torah, emphasizes Leket Shikcha and Peah to sensitize the potential convert to the need to strive for the everyday extraordinary. One who is considering conversion to Judaism may have been inspired by family life- Shabbat dinners and communal gatherings. But as part of their exposure to Judaism they need to understand that Jewish living, Halacha- encompasses our daily routine. We are called upon, as Jews by choice and Jews by birth, to seek religious meaning and enthusiasm in even the more mundane aspects of existence- like going to work the field and leaving some of the crop behind for the poor.

    Positive Psychology addresses this challenge and suggests that to avoid the ordeal of the ordinary and foster a perspective of everyday extraordinary we need to bring gratitude and amazement to our lives. We can do this by counting our blessings. We can also do this by being a blessing for others.