My thoughts about histapkut, simplicity, are currently posted at madrega.com.
Here’s teaser:
Exercising histapkut helps one gain a level of maturity to approach life by realizing what is really important. This middah is very different than the concept of sameach b’chelko, “being happy with one’s lot”.
When I was in my teens, one of my favorite games to play with my friends was “Desert Island Discs”, based on the BBC Radio program. We were all big music fans and we would each come up with a list every six months of what ten albums we would want if we were on a desert island. Then we would…
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The Hebrew analogues of simplicity are usually p’shitus [when speaking of “simplifying things” in avodah or materially] or temimus [when speaking of innocence or naivete]. Histapkus is more like, “the state of having enough,” or sufficiency. And then the usual accompaniment naturally follows: “Sufficiency…with little.” Histapkus b’muat
Yehudis,
Thank you. I agree 100% with your definition. However, much to my chagrin, I was sort of “stuck” using the translation of “simplicity”, since that was previously decided on by madrega.com.