North Star Conversations Transcript: Two Slips of Paper Parable—Rabbi Steven Stark Lowenstein
Rabbi Steven Lowenstein shares an ancient teaching about carrying two slips of paper—“the world was created for me” and “I am but dust and ashes.” Dr. Brandon Gimbel connects it to psychological balance and impermanence.
Brandon Gimbel (00:00)
You thousands of years of Jewish text, lessons, wisdom, the arrow in your quiver that you can share in addition to your own individual experience and experience as rabbi.
Rabbi Steven Stark Lowenstein (00:12)
Probably my favorite Jewish teaching involves two slips of paper. The rabbis say that you should carry two slips of paper in your pockets at all times. In one pocket it should say, "the world was created for me." And then the other pocket, it should say, "I am but dust and ashes." And we live between those two worlds. So when we're feeling a little too braggadocious, when we're feeling a little too comfortable, we reach into our pocket and we see that we are but dust and ashes. And when we're feeling down, when we're feeling that the world is just too much for us, it's reassuring to reach into that pocket and to say, this world was created for me, this is my world, I can do something about this. I just have always loved that teaching in Judaism that we keep these two slips of papers in our pockets at all times because we live between those two balances.
Brandon Gimbel (01:11)
Yeah, I was about to use the word ‘balance.’ The answer is like many things, it's not here, it's not here, it's in the space in the middle. And that is a very concrete way of thinking about it in a very helpful way, especially for those of us who are suffering. As the Buddhists say, everything is impermanent. I will at one point be needing this slip and at another point be needing this slip. That's a helpful teaching to keep in mind.