Dvar Torah: On Patience

Written by Rabbi Josh Levy — 19 February 2021

I want to spend just a moment this evening talking about a great Hebrew word.
It’s the word savlanut – which means patience.

It’s not a word that’s used in the bible.  When the idea of patience is found there, for example as a virtue to which we should aspire in the Books of Proverbs, or as a description of God in the thirteen attributes we read on Yom Kippur, the expression used is erech apayim – being long or slow to anger.  In Ecclesiastes we read of erech ruach – a long spirit.

But in modern Hebrew if you want to talk about patience, the word is savlanut.

Like most Hebrew words, it has a three letter root.  In this case, it is Samech Beit Lamed, the core meaning of which is very different to those biblical ideas.  It is not, like aleph reish chaf, about length, about a sense of time.  Nor, as we might imagine from the way we conceptualise patience or the patient, is it about waiting, or being calm.

The root meaning samech beit lamed means to carry a heavy load.  Hence another word with this root is sabal – which is the word for a porter.

To be patient, Hebraicly, is to carry a burden.  In fact, the word seivel means suffering.  This is the meaning of the root that we find in the Tanakh, when Moses goes out of the palace and sees his people va’yar b’sivlotam – and he saw their labours, their suffering.

What is so wonderful about this word is that it recognises that patience is not easy.
That for some of us to be patient might come naturally, but for many, perhaps most, it is not something that just happens.  It requires an effort of spirit.  That to be patient can feel heavy.  Like carrying a weight, carrying a burden.

 

We are, of course, all experiencing this strange period in our lives differently, all facing different challenges, responding in different ways.
Yet a pretty common shared experience is the heaviness.

And this week, while we are going to find out something of the roadmap out of our current lockdown, it is unlikely to be the quick release for which many of us are yearning. Indeed, it might feel especially dissonant for those who have had the privilege of vaccination.

But we have a responsibility to continue to take this seriously, to continue to be compliant, even as we approach a year of limitations to our lives.  We need to continue to be patient – with each other, with our institutions, with community.

Tov erech ruach mi’gva ruach – the Book of Ecclesiastes tells us
Normally translated – Better a patient spirit than a haughty spirit.

The beauty of the word savlanut is that it doesn’t pretend this patience business is easy.
But we are going to have to wait, and carry the weight, just a little bit longer.