The Lenten Practice of Shrinking

As Lent begins, I am contemplating the Jewish mystical concept called Tzimtzum, which means “contraction.” As Naomi Levy explains in her book Einstein and the Rabbi, “At the beginning of time the Creator filled every space. In order to bring the world into existence, the Creator had to willfully contract in order to make room for anything else. Creation was an act of love accomplished through the process of shrinking.”

Lent is a time when we, like our divine Creator, consciously choose to perform acts of love by shrinking:

• We choose to shrink the amount of time we spend working and entertaining ourselves by devoting more time to prayer. In this way, we recommit ourselves to the call to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

• We choose to shrink our appetites that lead to overconsumption through fasting. In this way, we demonstrate love for ourselves by becoming more physically and spiritually healthy, and we expand our love for others (“you shall love your neighbor as yourself”) by freeing up resources to meet their needs.

• We choose to shrink our storehouses of time and treasure through almsgiving. In this way, we demonstrate our trust that God’s abundance will continue to sustain us when we share our wealth with others, and we signal that we value others by sharing our time with them.

Many of us tend to “shrink from” Lent because we know it will require self-sacrifice. However, shrinking during Lent is a totally different matter, as Jesus himself showed; by practicing humility in service of God and others, we end up sharing in the abundant and eternal love of our Creator.