After several weeks of heavy summer rains, with destructive flooding south of us in the Hudson Valley and devastating flooding in nearby Vermont to the northeast – there was a top-of-fold front page “Times-Union” article by reporter Rick Karlin on how planned property buybacks near Hoosick Falls waterways kept water flowing & not flooding – even as nearby communities were flooded. The more natural space the excess water had to flow kept it from getting jammed and bottlenecked, and flooding the town.
Similar with Western Ave right here where it it meets Fuller Road. The storm-water pipes there were originally built too small and narrow to handle all the current excess runoff (due to subsequent buildup and development along the corridor) and when the pipes were recently dug up and replaced with larger pipes there’s better flow and much less flooding at that intersection.
Blockages can be a huge issue! We know this from the Jewish “bathroom blessing” called Asher Yotzar that dates back to Abbaye in the Talmud, and here at Shabbos House we know it well from the blocked Great Dane Drive street drain story (see that and its message at this link)
The message of broadening channels and widening the path for water to naturally flow has broader implications for all us in many areas of life:
We’re better off broadening & widening channels instead of crowding & clogging pathways of blessing (rain!), communication & connection. It’s true with our arteries, with our children, even our thinking. Make space! We need more bandwidth. As Chassidic teaching says: Broaden the vessel! Make the channel wider!
Chassidus speaks of the dangers when vessels or conduits are too small or narrow. One of the factors in the collapse of the World of Tohu was that the vessels weren’t wide or complex enough, they were too narrow and too simple to be able to channel the light/flow within them. One of the major upgrades in Tikkun were better, stronger, broader vessels with greater capacities.
It’s not only about flow-through. Absorption is also key. Both in terms of (excess) rainfall & other forms of life-giving flow. The more we take in (in natural, gradual, beneficial, absorbable absorption), the more we internalize & utilize, makes for less runoff. We create vessels/areas for absorption, too.
For a few more thoughts on personal bandwidth see this piece on Necklace, Great Neck & Little Neck, another titled Crimping the Cable. About creating bigger vessels for blessings see The Schach and the Boxtruck.