DEUT525 … in Duties of the Heart, Rabbi Bachya ibn Pakuda provides several contemplations that he says will stimulate humility. One of these is to contemplate the inevitability of death and the ensuing decay of the flesh. If you think about and deeply contemplate the reality of your own mortality, any tendency to arrogance will be deflated. Chanting, visualization, and contemplation imprint notions so deeply within as to be written on our hearts, becoming part of our very flesh. Even things we learn intellectually require this sort of additional process if they are to really become integrally woven into our natures. The Torah alludes to this two-step process when it instructs us, with respect to God's commandments, to "lay up these My words in your heart and in your soul" [this verse]. The Alter of Novarodok reflects on this need for "sensory learning" to bring about real change and says that if a person toils only with his mind, then he will not really have fostered change, as will surely become apparent when he encounters a challenging real life situation…