Why I hit my ceiling (literally:)

This post was originally a schmoozeletter email from 2022

There's this odd thing I do sometimes when I'm walking down the steps in my house: I smack the ceiling.

Well, not exactly the ceiling- I don't know what you call the soffit that drops down over the stairs, but I can reach it while walking down, and I like to give a tap with my hand on the way down.

Why, you ask? (I have no idea if you asked, actually.)

Well, it started around 15 years ago, when we bought the house.

We'd been looking for a place for a while, and the market felt tough. (Doesn't it always?)

When our house became available, it was an unusual situation- it wasn't technically on the market. It belonged to an older woman, whose son has been friends with my dad since they were in high school. She had really wanted someone in her family to buy the house, because she'd raised two generations in it for 50 years, but none of her grandkids were interested in living in our neighborhood. So she was looking for someone with at least a personal connection to her family, and that's how we heard about it.

The sale went smoothly and warmly, and once we moved in, I felt so incredibly fortunate, after years of cramped living with young kids in not-so-great rentals apartments, to be able to spread out across the space of a full sized house. I savored walking up and down between the levels, and got in the habit of hopping on the stairs on the way down and tapping the ceiling. A small random moment of impulsive, visceral, giddy-gratitude.

I wouldn't say I do it every time- if I'm holding stuff or in a rush or preoccupied, I don't. But I do like to keep up the habit, because it reminds me of the sense of wonder and joy I felt when we first got here. And we all know how easy it is to get used to the good stuff, take it for granted and go back to the negativity-bias grumbling about the day to day irritations (at least it's easy for me; you probably have your own talents). So this helps me reconnect to the joy of having a comfortable space to call home (be it every so messy, there's no place like it:)

Some Jews have a custom to touch or kiss the mezuzah, a covered parchment with holy verses rolled into it, affixed to our doorposts, for a similar reason- as a tangible reminder to connect to the sacred words inside and the sentiments they represent.

In this week's Torah portion, there is a segment that was copied into the daily prayer book, called: Az Yashir, which means: and then he sang. It describes the details of the splitting of the sea and the Jews' salvation from the angry Egyptians who were chasing them.

It makes sense that Moses/ Moshe and the Jews would erupt is joyous song at the time of the miracle. But no one ever split a sea for me (although to be fair, I've never been enslaved or pursued by Egyptians either, so I'll take that deal.) So why do generations of Jews repeat this song daily?

One explanation is similar to why I smack my ceiling. (Only a little similar...) We don't get or enjoy these huge, revelatory open miracles on the daily anymore (or at least we don't perceive them as such.) So a ritual act or prayer song that helps us connect to that collective history and Divine energy allows us to draw inspiration and encouragement from the good stuff that happened in the past, and from which we can still benefit today.

Do you have any of your own quirky gratitude rituals?

Warmly, (actually, it's freezing in NY today, but our home is heated, so yay:)

Elisheva

If you'd like content like this delivered to your inbox, please join us here: elishevaliss.com/newsletter