Keep It Simple

 Writing about simplicity can be complicated.

But here's an easy angle on it from Rabbi Nachman. (The following is based on Devarim 18:13, for those of you following along at home.)

Jewish spirituality is meant to be simple. As the verse puts it, be simple with God. Or, to add more action, walk simply with God. You can even run, if you want. The main thing is that if you keep it simple, you'll be with God.

The Hebrew word for simple is tam (not to be confused with Tom, a guy I knew in high school), which also means whole, complete, even perfect. When the Torah calls someone "simple", it's high praise, applied, for example, to Noah, Abraham, and Jacob, to name three.

Why the Haggadah gives the Simple Son a bad rap is another conversation. Most chassidic haggadahs, in fact, remove his dunce cap and give him a loftier seat at the table; in some cases even higher than the Wise Son. (Otherwise, what is our verse telling us, that we should be like dumbbells?)

Simplicity, says Rabbi Nachman, specifically simple faith, is the key to wholeness. Intelligence, information, and knowledge are by nature fragmented and incomplete. It's impossible to fully grasp anything in life.

As King Solomon wrote, I explored [life] using wisdom, but the meaning remained far from me. 

Life appears to us in fragments, moving parts, shifting arrangements, and endless flux. We react, correspondingly, with non-stop thoughts and feelings, creating a network of wires and triggers, adding more fragments. It's no wonder people often feel like they're going to pieces. 

Faith is soul knowledge, the knowledge that God is good, that everything that happens is not only for the good, it is the good. Keeping it simple transcends the flux and fragments. It harmonizes with the absolute, and it's the only road to inner calm.

Here's a simple prayer (think of it as a mantra): "Master of the World, I love You, and I love Your divine providence. Thank you."

(Adapted from the Odeser Chumash)