Those who tap are reminded, without leaving marks, of the connection between spirituality and physicality. But are we choosing the right body part to make our confession meaningful?<\/p>\n
In the Bible, it is widely accepted that the heart — in Hebrew, lev<\/em> — is the seat of emotion. Maimonides even linked the heart with the intellect.<\/p>\n However, in the brave new science guy world in which we live today, while we’re standing in shul tapping our hearts, our focus could easily turn from confession to hypertension.<\/p>\n So what about lightly tapping the side of our heads instead with a why-did-I-do-that kind of knock? Isn\u2019t the head the place where, working in discord, our mouths and minds create the tsouris we confess?<\/p>\n Beginning with Rosh Hashanah — literally head of the year — our heads are in our rituals. We put tefillin on our bicep, next to the heart — unless you’re left-handed, like me — but we also wear tefillin on our head, before our eyes. On Friday nights when parents bless their kids, their hands are placed on the heads of their children.<\/p>\n Confusing head and heart even more, in Psalm 90, an ideal is held up of obtaining a \u201cheart of wisdom.\u201d<\/p>\n So which to tap, heart or head?<\/p>\n To Rabbi Goldie Milgram — the founder of Reclaiming Judaism, an organization seeking Jewish innovation and \u201cmaximal involvement,\u201d and author and publisher of a number of books on creating a meaningful Jewish life — striking one\u2019s chest on Yom Kippur is an acknowledgment that \u201cI am out of alignment.\u201d Tapping on the chest is a way to realign, Milgram said from the Alliance for Jewish Renewal Aleph Kallah in New Hampshire, where she was teaching.<\/p>\n Milgram, who has master’s degrees in social work and Hebrew letters, says that Judaism can be approached from the point of view of a gestalt psychologist. \u201cPeople want to get things integrated into their bodies,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n When I asked Rabbi Milgram about my idea of tapping on one’s head, she wondered why I would want to do that.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat would you get from it?\u201d asked Milgram, \u201cReb Goldie\u201d to her students.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would remind me of the source,\u201d I responded, seeing yet again that my ideas were getting me in trouble.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Judaism, the heart is the seat,\u201d she reminded me. \u201cYour awareness of ‘ahavat Hashem’ [love of God] starts in the heart,\u201d the rabbi added, explaining that seeing the head as the center is a Western tradition.<\/p>\n Milgram also interprets tapping on the heart as a kind of drumming. \u201cThe body is the instrument,\u201d she said, making a connection between drumbeat and heartbeat, and suggesting that while we are tapping to \u201clisten to both your head and your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n Striking the chest is \u201ca form of dancing one\u2019s prayer,\u201d Milgram said.<\/p>\n Offering perhaps a new dance step, she suggested I try moving my finger in a circular motion slowly over my heart. I tried, it was definitely soothing, and I could see how the continuity of motion might help me through the more personally applicable \u201cwe have sinned against you’s\u201d — but wondered if it would look weird.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are doing it,\u201d she offered, pointing out that in her work, she has encountered a diversity of customs.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat should I think about while I\u2019m doing it?\u201d I asked, recalling that while reading the lines of Ashamnu, instead of focusing on the individual lines, I would sometimes get caught up in the acrostic of shortcomings, wondering what the machzor would use for \u201cX.\u201d<\/p>\n Ask \u201cWhat is my resistance to aligning with the mitzvah of caring for myself?\u201d Milgram said, also suggesting that I make a list, noting aspects of body, family and Judaism where I would like to be more in alignment with the mitzvot. She also advised \u201cto forgive myself,\u201d pointing out that just striking my chest was not enough, \u201cone has to engage afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTapping on your chest, the door of your heart flies open,\u201d she observed. \u201cThat\u2019s the beginning of teshuvah,\u201d she said, mentioning the Jewish concept of returning, or asking forgiveness, that beats through the Yom Kippur liturgy.<\/p>\n The Viddui, she said, is written in the ” ‘we.’ We take responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n For that I would need both heart and head.<\/p>\n (Edmon J. Rodman is a JTA columnist who writes on Jewish life from Los Angeles. Contact him at edmojace@gmail.com<\/span><\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Share](\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\")