scales that lie

The ultimate lie of this world is that something, anything, is lacking Godliness.

God totally and utterly permeates all that there is. (We say He is the place of everything but everything isn't His place.)

This whole existence as we know it is predicated on the idea that there could be a vacuum of Godliness.

This lie was introduce with the original sin of Adam HaRishon, the insipid lie of the Nachash, the snake. What was the lie exactly? That our eyes would be opened when we ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Until the sin, Adam saw the primordial light and within it he could see from one of the universe to the other, across all time and space. After the sin, this light was secreted away from him. The snake told Havah (Eve) there was more to see, and she believed him.

As long as we look at this world and seek out something more, we validate the lie, we hide ourselves from Godliness. It's only when we look out at the world round about us and realize that it is all a revelation of Godliness, that's when we start to peer beyond this world, Olam HaZeh - Olam HaSheker - the world of lies.

According to a letter of Rebbe Natan's in Alim l'Truphah, Moshiah will be able to reveal this intrinsic Godliness in every element of existence to us. [see A Simple Jew @ http://asimplejew.blogspot.com/2008/10/anticipating-his-arrival-every-single.html] 

encountering torah

There are many statements made in the context of Chazal (Our teachers) that catch one off guard. Often our first reaction is to ascribe these statements or foreign understandings to superstitions or cultural beliefs of their era.

This is a major mistake in Torah learning. In fact it is a major mistake in any and all learning. The first rule in learning must always be to assess the internal consistancy of any teaching. If the teaching agrees with its own understandings and premises then it passes the first and most crucial test. This test is a real challenge in the learning process because it is often easier to assume poor internal consistency than it is to thoroughly explore all the possible ramifications of what is said such that there might be found a consistent underlying framework.

Once we have established the internal veracity of any teaching, then it is our responsibility to find an analog within our own understanding which would render the idea in a contemporary context. If we fail here we must assume it is due to our own limited mental flexibility.

We must of course thoroughly test this modern analog to see that it doesn't add or remove too much from the premise of the teaching. Once we have a modern analog sufficiently close to the original teaching, we can rest assured that the teaching is itself applicable in our day and age just as we originally thought.

Since we have seen the teaching is applicable we can then assume that perhaps it is our grasp of reality that is flawed. And we can approach the teaching with the assumption that it is objective truth. (Or at the very least, it is more objective (or more accurate) than our own reference frame)

[With God's help, in a future post I will explore this learn style with examples.]

thirty years to power

Today, the second of the month of Shvat is the 208th* hilullah/yahrtzeit of Rebbe Zusha of Anapoli, and (on a more personal note) the 30th anniversary of the day of my brith milah. (According to the mekubalim of Bet El, the anniversary of the brith milah is celebrated instead of the day of the birth) My wife went to great efforts to throw a wonderful party and my sister spoke beautifully from the Sfat Emeth about the aliyah upon which I was born. (shlishi parashath va'era)

On this special occassion I wanted to share some Torah that would inspire my friends my family and myself to serve HaShem with renewed vigor. The Torah that came to me is as follows:

We think that serving HaShem and performing the mitzwoth, learning Torah, praying authentic Tefillah and giving Tzedaka are things that are almost impossible to attain. We believe the hardest thing in the world is to overcome our Yetzer Hara, our evil urge, and to do good. It isn't so. Serving HaShem is the most natural, easiest, and most rewarding thing in the world. Going against the Will of HaShem, going against his decrees, that is truly impossible. How do we know? It says in Masechet Sotah 3a: אין אדם עובר עבירה אלא אם כן נכנס בו רוח שטות - a person could not transgress [HaShem's Mitzwoth] except that a spirit of folly enters him. From this we learn that it is literally impossible for a person to go against the Will of the Master of the world. The only way it could possibly happen is if an external (divine) force enters a person and causes him to sin.

From this we can learn that when it seems like we couldn't possibly perform HaShem's Will, keep the mitzwoth and be involved in the Torah, we can take comfort in the certain knowledge that since we have transgressed the mitzwoth in our lives, we have evidence that the impossible is within our grasp.

Instead of our sins being a source of difficulty and discouragement, they can be a fountain of strength, if we know we did them, then we can know with absolute certainty that we can and will succeed in the performance of HaShem's mitzwoth. Certainly we will succeed, HaShem Himself, our father, Abba, wants our success.

* note that the 208th yahrtzeit is special to me as the name yitzhak also has gematria 208

reviving the dead

On a note that is semi-related to the previous post, let's look at a chidush of the MaBiT on the Rambam's hilchoth Teshuvah 6:4. The Rambam states that there are certain great sins for which the punishment is that HaShem refuses to allow the sinner to do Teshuvah. He bases it on the passuk about HaShem hardening Pharo's heart. The MaBiT asks how is it that the Rambam can posit a new class of punishment not listed in the Torah? His answer goes like this: Sometimes someone wanders off the path (sins) and becomes somewhat lost from HaShem. The only way back to walking the path is to retrace one's steps. If someone sins many times, meaning he wandered far into the brambles, the path back may be lost to them. In this way, the Rambam isn't describing a new punishment, and HaShem doesn't bring the punishment upon him, rather the person brings the punishment upon himself.

My question here, is that just because the MaBiT explains the mechanics of the situation, it doesn't truly answer the question of why we never heard of this class of punishment until now, something I believe the MaBiT himself acknowledges in recognizing his isn't a complete answer to the original question.

There's actually another question of interest that I came across this Shabbath: Reb Natan in Likkutei Moharan I:112, brings down Masechet Menahoth 29b in which it is explained that a person cannot return through the same opening which he strayed, rather they must open for him a new opening. If this is the case, then the MaBiT's metaphor for Teshuvah seems to contradict our gemara here in Menahoth?

Since this whole post is sort of a side note, I'm compelled to take you on two more related tangents: In discussion of this idea, that someone cannot return through the portal through which they fell, Rebbe Nachman answers Reb Natan's question explaining something unbelievable: When one falls, one can ascend through an opening through which someone else, your friend, fell, because when someone (named A) falls from on high, he is still higher up than someone else. (named B) In this manner B can actually rise through the portal through which A fell. Meaning that when a person falls it is sometimes for the purpose of the aliyah (yeridah l'tzorech aliyah) of someone else.

The final step in this winding post is the Noam Elimelech's explanation in the end of parashath Naso, in which he explains what it means that someone could perform a sin for the sake of heaven: Sometimes a Tzaddik needs to perform what in his eyes would be a grave sin, so that he can reach down to such a level that he can have a connection with even the lowest of people such that he can bring them blessing and shefa. This, he explains, was the problem with Shaul HaMelech who was without sin, he couldn't relate to and bring blessing to the lowest of Bnei Yisrael, even though it is the King's duty to do just that, bring blessing to all of Bnei Yisrael.

To tie everything back to the previous post I must share two more points: Rebbe Nachman explains (in Likkutei Moharan I:112 mentioned above) that the only way to illuminate the darkness when you have fallen is through speaking words of Truth. Truth being the light of HaShem, nothing can hide from Truth, so even the lowest and darkest places are illuminated in the presence of spoken Truth.

Why spoken Truth? This plays off of the Pri Ha'aretz on parashath VaEra, the weekly parshah just passed. Rebbe Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, the Pri Ha'aretz, reveals that when someone knows and recognizes that all his speech is not really his own but rather emanates from HaShem Himself, then through his speech he can create worlds, just as HaShem's speech did in the creation of the world. From this we can see, taken together with Rebbe Nachman, that when we speak Truth from the deepest places, it becomes clear that we are not speaking at all but instead it is only HaShem who speaks. (Perhaps this is one of the deep secrets of Mechayey HaMeitim, as we know that the Targum of a "living soul" is a "speaking spirit," and a sinner is considered to be dead in his lifetime.)