They say that air has weight

The atmosphere of the Earth

A captive of gravity

Presses down upon us

Just as a concrete weight holds a piece of paper down

‘So why don’t we collapse underneath all that weight’, you ask

‘It’s simple

The same pressure that presses down on us is

Also contained within us

Pushing back out

So they cancel each other out’

‘So if that’s true how do we breathe in and out

In and out?’

‘That’s because we have intercostals

Muscles and bones and tissues that contract and expand

Making the vacuum that draws the breathe in

And then the over pressure that pushes the breath out’

Those intercostals override the crushing

Pressure of gravity and air pressure

They are the will

That makes us a separate breathing apparatus from the Earth

This is good

It allows us to live as much as it cuts us off

The ego is much the same

It cuts us off

Makes us separate

Thus fulfilling some Godly plan

Otherwise we’d be crushed under the weight

Of Bazillions telling us what to do

The Mitzvot are the bitul negation of that egoic willfulness

In the moment of Mitzva

We collapse

We are flattened

We are part again of a universe so much more beautiful

Than all of our pushing and shoving could ever get us

So when I pray

I give up

I let the universe breathe for me

The weight of it all crashes down upon me

Bringing forth song