Don't let them eat cake!

This morning I was dreaming about eating a delicious cake. When I woke up, I missed the cake, so I went back to sleep to have some more. (True story.)

That basically sums up all of Olam HaZeh.(This world) It's a world of lies and illusion, in Tehillim (ch. 126) David HaMelech says that when the final redemption comes and the illusion is lifted, we all will have been like dreamers. Chazal teach that Bnei Yisrael will cry for the Evil Urge when it is destroyed -- Just like I went back to sleep to "eat" more "cake." We will miss the illusion and mourn its loss.

That's what will happen if we don't wake ourselves up now, and attune our senses to the Truth underlying the illusion of this world. The only way to grow closer to Godliness is through Torah and Mitzwoth.

Everything else is just "cake."

return your exiles

Every time you catch yourself somewhere out-of-body, whether you are imagining a beach-side vacation or a hot cup of coffee at starbucks, or just plain wishing you were somewhere else, you are in a mini exile.

You are expressing a lack in the current state of things, denying HaShem's imminence and hand in the state of your immediate world.

Stop, and return from your exile. Recognize that whatever it is you'd rather be doing is, deep down, a placeholder for 'connecting to HaShem.' Realize that you could be, right now at this very instant, fulfilling that deepest desire, wherever you are. Connect. Return.

[for extra credit:] Next, realize that whatever it is you were in the middle of (while prefering to imagine some place else) is exactly what you needed to be doing, and where you needed to be to best serve your purpose of connecting to HaShem. What was boring or frustrating or outright painful is what can now be exciting and timeless.

Now assess and decide, maybe I should be doing something else? The answer might still be 'yes.' If so, go do it.

Don't make the mistake of thinking this kind of exercize will make you a shallow person, just the opposite is true!! Sitting around doing something mindlessly while you are busy dreaming about something else will definitely make you a shallow person.

dreams of fusion

In light of the Baal Shem Tov's explanation of how connecting to HaShem (as the root of all earthly pleasure) in thought allows one to experience the revellation of HaShem in dreams, we can greatly expand our understanding of an important mitzwah.

During the time when a woman is niddah, she is forebidden to her husband. Clearly this is a very strong metaphor of exile, of galut. The same couple who was reunited as one flesh must now be separated and distanced, could this be any closer to a text-book understanding of HaShem's relationship to Israel in exile? It can be a very depressing time for a couple, and it certainly is a very serious time as kalut rosh (behaving lightheartedly (or light headedly more literally)) is forebidden.

It goes without saying that it should not be a depressing time, as maintaining a happy demeanor is at all times one of the greatest mitzwoth. The Ariz"l explained once that all of his accomplishments were due to his great joy in performing HaShem's will. So, at least in theory it shouldn't be a depressing time, but theories only work on the head, they don't hold much sway on the heart.

The Baal HaTanya explains that when one is very distant from HaShem and feels no connection, one of the best ways to open our hearts to prayer is to beg HaShem to have mercy on our pour innocent Neshamah, she, who is so far from her father's house, she who has done nothing wrong, who has been an innocent bystander in all of our wayward journeys.

From this we can stretch our horizons and applications of metaphors just a little, and understand something I believe I've mentioned in the past. That in the time of niddah, the husband has the unique ability to awaken tremendous rachamim on the nation of Israel. For he can connect in the most simple way to HaShem, who is exiled from Israel in her period of niddah. (aka galut)

Now that we have begun to understand the Baal Shem Tov's explanation of getting past the physicality and in touch with the essence via our dreams, we can delve to a new level of understanding niddah.

During niddah the husband and wife are forebidden to one another physically. In such a state, they can begin the avodah described by the Baal Shem Tov in understanding and connecting to the root source of their desires. The root source of their desires being the revellation of godliness in their spouse. This connection, when correctly recognized and acknowledged in thought and understanding, leads to a very deep spiritual unification in their dreams.

This is a closeness of spirit that was never possible in the same way when they were permitted to one another. It is only when they are forebidden uniquely to one another that they can aspire to connect their intimate desires on a purely spiritual level.

In this light it is amazing to understand that physically the most fertile moment in their relationship is the end of the niddah period when they are in such close connection spiritually and they are finally brought together in physical union as well.

Here, we can peek at the depth of the mitzwoth and their underlying structure. HaShem's ways are truly complete.(תורת השם תמימה) The multiple levels of closeness and distance, and the interaction of these forces, play a symphony of unification that allows two parts of a single soul to momentarily reconnect with such fusion as to actually taste HaShem. (טעמו וראו כי טוב השם)

From this level of specificity, (פרט) we can connect back to the whole (כלל) and see how the progression of history is a similar interplay of centrifugal and centripetal forces that in concert forge the union between HaShem and klal Yisrael.

Hopefully we can understand perhaps a little of our minor role in this universal drama through our intramarital dynamics, and find joy and inspiration in fulfilling our part.

maybe later

Normally, when encountering challenges, the best way is to divert your attention to something else. For example, when you are trying to practice Shemirath Eynayim, and you see a beautiful woman, closing your eyes isn't such a good idea. Why? Because you have no new stimulus to distract one's mind from that image, instead you have that image frozen in your mind as your last piece of visual input for an extended time. Instead, pick out something else in your periphery (I've found that the human form works best--as the brain does a lot more work processing other people than it does processing architecture or vegetation--pick out an unsual man or anyone else to hand and focus on them instead) and actively look at that, start to ask yourself about that thing, distract yourself.

I've been pondering a deeper question though. When the thought of a particular transgression enters our mind, the best tactic isn't just to distract, but rather to distract yourself by understanding how the object of your desire is only temporarily beyond your reach. For example, when you want to do anything forebidden on Shabbath, like watching TV or getting work done, you can simply remind yourself that you will be able to do the same action after Shabbath or another time. Then the demand is no longer so urgent. Chametz on Pesach, while something we may yearn for, is within our ability to resist as it is only forebidden for seven days.

Many of Judaism's prohibitions are temporary things, and hence there is a time for them, and a time not to do them. But there are other prohibitions that are more permanent, and I've been thinking long and hard about how it is we can distract ourselves and allay our desires because at least on a spiritual level these desires will eventually be fulfilled as well.

An example would be Ervah, revealing nakedness, to say that most people don't have a basic curiosity in this department is to deny what goes on in almost every advertising campaign. A more abstract version of this same desire is the desire to hear gossip or lashon hara. I have been asking myself for a few weeks, (and been meaning to sit down with my Rav about it) does this desire ever get to be fulfilled? Or does it require a different tactic to overcome because it is always forebidden in this world and in the supernal realms?

Last night, the answer was provided in the Tzava'ath HaRivash from the words of the Baal Shem Tov. He explains that the way to overcome anything desirous in this physical world is to recognize that the source of that object's desirability is not in the physical object itself, but rather in the godly revellation within that object. It then behooves us to look past the object and focus on the true object of our desire, namely HaShem.

When we sleep, the Baal Shem Tov goes on to explain, our souls are relieved of their physical prison (our body) and then we are able to see spiritually what we were only able to understand theoretically while awake, namely the spiritual beauty hidden within the physical objects of our temptation.

In other words, if we seek out the godliness in every object of desire, we will actually merit to see the revealed inner essence of these physical distractions in our dreams. He explains that one can even achieve prophecy through the internalization of this lesson, because HaShem says that He reveals Himself to His prophets in dreams. (Only Mosheh Rabbeinu had the spiritual eyes to see to an objects' essence even while awake) Unfortunately if we don't look with our minds to the spiritual essence of these objects of desire while we are awake, then when we sleep we will see only their physical clothing and (chas' v'shalom) come to sin.

So the answer is that for all objects of desire, even for ervah and lashon hara, we can belay our evil urge knowing that at another time, that which is currently forebidden to us will be permitted.

two becomes one

There is nothing more basic in the world than putting two things together in order to create some new object. This is a fundamental essence of being alive. We consume food, reordering it into flesh and blood. We look at a bunch of stones stacked a certain way and see a house. We see a face, recognise a friend, and wish them well.

Every morning we are plunged into the chaos of existence, and we make order out of so much noise. Every generation we move further along in the task of classifiying and taming that chaos, drawing ordered logical rules out of a seemingly unpredictable environment.

Why is this the basis of life, and why is this possible?

When Yaakov Avinu has a divine revellation in his dream, the only physical proof left is the pile of rocks on which he slept; they were fused into a single rock. Why is this significant enough to warrant mention in the brevity of written Torah?

When we take two things that seem completely unrelated, and we combine them, the fact that this is even possible is miraculous. Look at man-made tools, if you are in the wrong country with the wrong standard voltage, your appliances might not work, or they might get fried. If you try and mix lego and duplo, you're out of luck. If you have the wrong component, your computer won't function. If all you have are AAA batteries and you need a 9-volt battery, what to do?

When we find novel and new ways to overcome apparent limitations and differences between ideas, people, languages, or other more material things, we are connecting to their underlying commonality. We can understand about the health of a human from the health of a flowe or of a mouse because we can get down to the level of DNA and find commonality. When we set off a fusion reaction, we are getting down to the level of the atom, common to all matter. We can go deeper and deeper and as we do, we see that everything is essentially the same, everything shares a common essence.

Everything comes from the same source.

Everything can be related because it all draws its existence from God. It is to remind us of this that God fused a couple of rocks under the head of the tzaddik Yaakov Avinu. Yaakov is called so because his name implies that he reveals Godliness throughout the entire world, even down to the level of the heel, the lowliest level.

This is a lesson especially appropriate to the coming festival of Hannukah, in which it is said (in the Torah Ohr among other sources) that the divine pressence sheds its light even down to the lowest levels, below the ten handbreadths that are normally untouched by such a revellation.

The goal of all of science is nothing more than to unify everything in existence through a common set of rules, a common foundation. In this sense science and religion blend perfectly.