fbpx

Attention as an Expression of Love

It is precisely because it has become so difficult that we must go out of our way to donate our attention.
[additional-authors]
February 19, 2021
Photo by sharply done/Getty Images

In his daily word of inspiration this morning, Rabbi David Wolpe drew from French philosopher Simone Weil who, he said, “got it exactly right: Attention is a form of love.”

Weil, whom Albert Camus described as “the only great spirit of our times,” wrote beautifully about the art of attention, calling it “the rarest and purest form of generosity.”

Is there a better time than today to contemplate the human ideal of paying attention?

We’re living, as Wolpe said, “in an age of distraction, when so many things pull us away from one another and even from seeing the world.”

The simple act of focusing our attention on one thing — a person, an idea, a flower, a sign of pain — now competes with the multitude of distractions that come at us by the minute.

It is precisely because it has become so difficult that we must go out of our way to donate our attention. There is a dark side, of course, to paying attention, as, for example, when it is used in an obsessive way or to judge and attack.

It is precisely because it has become so difficult that we must go out of our way to donate our attention.

But when the act of attention is seen as a generous act of receiving, of empathy, of understanding, it ennobles the moment. It turns it, as Wolpe says, into “an expression of love.”

If today’s ultra-modern world of constant distraction compels us to pay greater attention to the very act of attention, an ancient tradition provides the ideal “app” to practice the art.

It’s called Shabbat, and it starts at sundown tonight.

Shabbat Shalom.

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

Holy Rebellion

Yes, there is a Jewish tradition of questioning God, a holy rebellion that begins with Abraham.

The Academic Intifada Defeats the Association for Jewish Studies

Translating this high falutin’ doublespeak, the AJS proclaimed that while departments and universities should not boycott Israeli universities formally, it’s ok if individual professors informally boycott Israeli, Zionist, or even Jewish professors.

More news and opinions than at a
Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.