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] 

shelters within

In the previous post (see: approaching the end) we mentioned the idea of the nefesh (soul) as an inheritance.

First, a moment of background, we need to understand that we are made up of many levels. Just as the universe bears within it many levels of complexity, man was created as a microcosm of the world, with all of its levels of complexity. And just as in the universe, each level effects all the other levels below and above it, so to in each person, each level is affected by, and in turn affects all the other levels of that person.

We know how many different levels there are that make up the body, how many interdependent systems that were one to fail, the body would cease to function. We bless HaShem each morning and many times throughout the day in acknowledgement of the wonder that is the body. Yet we know that just as the skin is the outermost layer of the body, the body is the outermost layer of the person.

The manifold layers of the soul are broken into five major levels, listed here in ascending order: Nefesh, Ruah, Neshamah, Chayah, Yechidah. Any of the first three can generally be translated as 'soul' though each of the five bears a very different nature. Note that we have a more basic 'animal' soul that animates the body, meaning that none of these five levels of soul is in any way directly observable in this world. The Nefesh, or lowest of the five levels of the soul is so refined that there is no perceivable similarity between the nature of the Nefesh and that of the body. (or even the animal soul) The nefesh is likewise coarse and unrefined in comparison to the Ruah, just as the body is to the Nefesh. This relationship is true for each of the various levels of the soul, until the level of Yechidah is so removed that its relationship to a person is tenuous a best.

When we are created/born, our awareness encompasses only the most tangible realities, the immediate report of the senses. As we grow and develop, we learn to refine our awareness to abstract levels beyond the raw information of our sensations. Reading for example requires us to recognize with our eyes the fine print of letters, to divvy up the words and sentences and to process how the words would sound, what they mean, and project into our minds the ideas of the one who wrote the letters. Reading is a very advanced abstraction, a very subtle understanding of the coarse feedback of the physical world.

In the very same way, we are initially only aware of the most basic and coarse spiritual realities. Only through growth and development can we work to understand and make sense out of what are spiritual senses report. This is a major aspect of the system HaShem created, both the physical and the spiritual. When we start to learn something new, we are immediately rewarded. In the physical world this is through natural opiates in the brain that reward new brain growth. In the spiritual realm this involves an initial glimpse of HaShem's Holy light. Once we have tasted the reward, then we can more easily recognize a particular form of stimulus. (be it physcial or spiritual) The initial sweet taste essentially tunes our awareness to know that there is something out there worth seeking. Every stage of growth works like this.

As we progress and develop spiritually, we are given new tools, new vessels to encourage and enable our further development. Each of these new tools is a new level of soul. There are a very great number of levels within each of the five levels we mentioned. Each new accomplishment is another rung on this ladder of spiritual development. Each new level of soul is a step inward, deeper towards the essence of what we are, a figurative fragment of HaShem.

Now we've returned to hopefully a place of understanding where we may try and take another step and gain a new insight. As we said previously, the Zohar speaks of the soul as our inheritance, a place in which to dwell in the world to come. If we think about it, it makes sense, in a way our soul dwells within in our body. Our bodies are the land for our soul. Similarly each level of our soul plays the part of an inheritance to the level of soul above it. As we refine ourselves further, we move deeper. We enter into new undiscovered lands, or heichalot-halls in the palace of the king, each one closer to the throne room than the last.

When we were perfecting a particular level, like learning to read in the physical world for example, we couldn't enjoy the benefit of this new level, this new tool. Instead we worked hard to gain some basic competence, some grasp of this level. Once we've grasped this level, and we have become proficient in it, then we can enjoy all the potential bound up in this new tool. Reading, again as the example, all manner of books and stories, exploring worlds of knowledge previously hidden behind the patience of others to expound them to us. With each level comes profound freedom and benefit.

Once we have mastered the particular level at which we exist, we begin to sense the depths that lie beyond the medium, the 'art form' of wielding the tool that comes only from a greater wisdom, a deeper understanding. In this very same way, we can see how each new spiritual ascension allows the previous level to transition into the home, the background, the proving ground for the next level.

This is how the Tzaddikim travel from level to level, world to world, always striving for the deeper next further level. In this way even one's soul becomes the inheritance, the land, the homestead of one's desire. The desire to push on, closer and ever closer to HaShem's oneness, until the soul is merely a means to an end, the end being the fulfillment of this sole (no pun intended) desire.

For the rest of us, when we hear "The Promised Land" we think of a place, a plot of land bordering on the plots of land of our extended families, where we bodily live, eat, and sleep in the comfort of HaShem's protection. But, for the Tzaddikim, their soul is The Promised Land where their desire can take comfort, can be fulfilled in HaShem's revelation.

teaching our souls to enjoy life

The point of having a physical body that enjoys the world is to teach our souls to enjoy HaShem in the same way. This is the teaching of the Holy Pri Ha'aretz on Parashath Ki Tisa.

If we don't teach our neshama how to enjoy in HaShem, then when the body expires, the soul is left with no source of sustenance, and it expires as well (heaven forbid) this is what being cut off (כרת) is.

adar aleph 5: shacharit: coming and going

The Tefillah is broken into 7 stages, three steps up, the Amidah, and then three steps down. First, from the world of Asiyah to the world of Yetzirah, then to Beriyah, then to Atziluth for the Amidah. After the Amidah we start going back down again, first to Beriyah, then to Yetzirah, then to Asiyah, where we are located.

It is important to put in kavanah in the end of the tefillah as well as the beginning. In the beginning we rise up to the highest world and there we beseech HaShem to shine down His blessings upon the world. Then we return through the worlds, bearing His blessing with us. If we awaken the divine Will to bless us, but we don't bring the blessings down here, the affects of our prayer won't be as visible or as strong. For this reason we must maintain our kavanah even after the Amidah, the Shemonah Esrei, and not just rush quickly through to the end so that we can get on with our day.

We can see this in the final part of the Tefillah, Aleinu, in which we thank HaShem that we bow before Him, King and Master of the universe, and not before powerless invented gods. If we arrive at Aleinu full of the kavanah of our prayer (meaning we brought the blessings back down through all the worlds) then we aren't saying empty words when we acknowledge HaShem's great might, rather we are testifying to the reality before our eyes.

To maintain kavanah for even in a short time during prayer can be very difficult, so I suggest a small kavanah which I believe the Rabbis alluded to: The three steps we take forward before the Amidah, and the three steps we take after the Amidah can be used to focus these ideas. Even if you didn't manage to focus until you reached the Amidah in your prayers, when you take the three steps forward, have in mind to alight through the three upper worlds, Yetzirah first, then Beriyah, then Atziluth. When you take the three steps back at the end of the Amidah, have in mind to bring the fruits of your prayers back down with you first to Beriyah, then Yetzirah, and finally Asiyah.

the fruits of our lips

Last night in honor of Tu B'Shvat I gave the following dvar Torah:
It seems to me that just as man is an olam katan, a miniature world, the same applies to trees.

We can see in fact, that the various stages of creation all find representation in the body of a tree:

The roots, which are the most massive part by far, are entirely hidden from view and so represent the innermost level of creation which is the state of Atziluth.

The trunk comes seemingly out of nothing, shooting up out of the ground, and being the apparent essence of the tree. (If you cut off branches, the tree is still said to remain. Even if you cut off all the branches, you might think of it as a 'dead' tree but still a tree.) In this way the trunk represents the level of Beriyah, creation of something from nothing. This is the level from which all things receive their substantive nature.

The branches are clearly offshoots of the trunk, and represent further development of the tree, mirroring the 'something from something' nature of Yetzirah, formation. Similarly it is the branches that play a very large part in the appearance and shape or form of the overall tree.

Finally, the leaves represent where all the 'action' happens in a tree, the generation of energy and the breathing of carbon dioxide. The leaves parallel the final and lowest step in creation known as Asiyah, action or making.

There is a final step in the tree and that is the most evident one on Tu B'Shvat, the production of fruit. Fruit represent, to my poor understanding, the lowest sephirah, Malchuth. This is paralleled by the attribute of speech in a person. Just as the words that leave a person's mouth seem separate from him, so too the fruit seem more like a product rather than an integral part of the tree. (see today's Tanya)

There is an important lesson that we may learn about speech from the fruit of the tree. Within each fruit is a seed, the seed contains the very essence of the tree and the potential to reproduce the tree in its entirety. [The seed that created the tree to begin with can even be seen to reflect the primordial level of creation known as Adam Kadmon, a state in which everything is still unified in a potential point.] So, what does the seed in the fruit come to teach us? That within each one of our words, at its core, is the word of HaShem, the same speech that created and maintains the world in its entirety is clothed within every single word that leaves our lips.

When we eat fruit, we should raise our awareness to understand that it is HaShem who provides us life through this fruit, and know that the words that we speak share this same ability to provide life to ourselves and to those around us.

fond memories

In the desert, we complained about the סיר הבשר - the pot of meat we had in Egypt. Of course life wasn't as good as we claimed, one of the explanations of this verse says that we didn't get to eat meat, we were slaves, but just being downwind from the cooking of the Egyptians was something we remembered fondly.

On a deeper level we weren't complaining about a pot of meat, but about the experience of being within the womb of Egypt. Surrounded by the heat of our mother's flesh. According to a metaphorical approach, we were a fetus developing within the womb of Egypt. When we were fully developed, we were born out of Egypt, passing through the breaking of the water, and into the world, one whole nation, screaming/singing praises to HaShem. (Shirat HaYam/Az Yashir) This level of metaphor even explains the death of the Egyptian people at the time, the now unnecessary placenta.

Imagine a baby's first few months in the world, some pediatricians explain the first three months of a baby's life as a fourth trimester of pregnancy, the only difference now is that the baby is on the outside. Surely the baby remembers the warmth and comfort of the womb, all its needs met with no effort to suck or swallow, no freezing air with each labored breath, no struggle to evacuate its own waste.

Think about it, one day again soon (may it be very soon) we will cry about the סיר הבשר, the fond memory of the womb of this world. Sure we can look back on the pre-infant that was Israel in Egypt and point out: what's all the commotion about, it wasn't comfortable at all? Yeah we got food but we had to break our backs for it. Sure we lived and grew and multiplied, but they tried to destroy us! We can certainly say the same things about this world, it's not easy, its no comfort, but nonetheless this world is a womb where all our needs are met, preparing us for birth into something bigger, more real, the next step in our development. At the same time it will be disorienting, just as this world is for a newborn, just as the desert was for the fledgling nation which begot us.

veils of kindness

Today is the Hillulah of Rebbe Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl, the Maor Eynayim. To check out my last twenty posts relating to Torahs of the Maor Eynayim click here. Heichal Hanegina has a write up with stories about him as well, here.

As I'm holding in his Likkutim right now, this Torah comes from Parashath VaYakhel:

I've actually been thinking a lot lately about the interaction of the first two berachot of Shemonah Esrei, the Amidah, and how HaShem's Hesed and Din, his kindness--his desire to give, and his judgement--his ability to withhold interrelate.

From the Berachot, the first Berachah (which represents HaShem's Hochmah, His Wisdom and the root of His Kindness, His Hesed) talks about HaShem's constant protection of Avraham and all of his descendants. The second berachah (which represents HaShem's Binah, His Understanding, and the root of His Din, His withholding) is full of all of HaShem's many kindnesses, he raises up the fallen, he heals the sick, brings rain, and generally administers his world with Hesed, even to the point of raising the dead.

My question is, why does the Berachah which relates more closely to HaShem's Din actually discuss more of HaShem's Hesed? In fact, the only mention of Din in the berachah is offhandedly describing the hardships that HaShem is fixing.

The answer is a very simple one when we stop to think about it: HaShem's desire to bestow kindness upon us is unbounded, totally infinite. We as finite beings are unable to receive the full brunt of HaShem's kindnesses and expect to walk away unscathed. The true and deepest reason for HaShem's Din in the world is not to cause us harm but rather to prevent our harm. By moderating and holding back the lion's share of HaShem's Hesed, we are able to receive His kindness unscathed. In this sense the true enabler of HaShem's Hesed is His Din.

Perhaps this is why the first berachah ends with the statement that HaShem protects Avraham. His truest and deepest kindness is that He has a side of Din as well.

The Maor Eynayim explains this idea in a nice simple illustration: He explains that all the created worlds (עולמות) are basically veils that shade us from the full brightness and glory of HaShem, dimming His light to a level that we can perceive and receive without being annihilated. This, he explains, is why the word Olam, (עולם) meaning world, is rooted in the word He'elem (העלם) meaning to hide.

a nerf world approaches potential reality, as does just about anything else you can imagine

New Scientist discusses fab@home:

Bowyer adds that the Fab@Home machine could probably already be used to make many cheap injection-moulded products already on the market: "I can imagine people swapping plans of things to make online, or paying to download them instead of going to the shop."

RepRap.org is working towards a Fab that can print itself:

The RepRap build cost will be less than $400 US for the bought-in materials, all of which have been selected to be as widely available everywhere in the world as possible. Also, the RepRap software will work on all computer platforms for free. Complete open-source instructions and plans are published on this website for zero cost and available to everyone so, if you want to make one yourself, you can.

We hope to announce self-replication in 2008.

To put it succinctly, this is one of the coolest generations to have been born into. Not only is information being made freely available in most cases, but the information online is going to drive the continued development of the physical world within less than one generation.

Injection molded plastics will be replaced by 'printed' materials. When we shop online for something in the near future, we will be able to print out a mini version to see what it actually looks like, then purchase it, and print out the real thing. No going to the store. Of course there will be specialty items that cannot be printed, requiring special materials, but the vast majority of our consumables--food might be a notable exception, but it doesn't have to be--will be printed out of a machine in our homes, after being downloaded off the internet.

This is actually a technology that will help everyone, not just the wealthy countries. RepRap's goal is to make the printers able to print themselves. The network effect of such a point is that they could be printed and distributed exponentially. The raw printer 'ink' will still cost money, but all the time we will be finding cheaper supplements.

Who knows exactly when such a thing will take off? But it will be sooner than we think. I've been dying for technology like this my whole life.. I can hardly wait to get into it. Now I'm just starting to understand why I was born now, in this generation and not another one. I thought I was out of place because of the digital music revolution, I care more about kinesthetics, objects in motion, about creating something by thinking about it, with as few steps in between as possible.

Of course with this great potential, spider man knows, comes great responsibility. When mankind's world is as malleable as his imagination will allow it to be. It is at once easier and more challenging to relate to God. ויאמר אלוקים יהי אור, ויהי אור . God spoke, and the world came into being. His kind of creation (yesh m'ayin - ex nihilo) is not our creation (yesh m'yesh - changing forms) but there is something inexorably compelling about speaking and creating.

Everywhere we go in the world, we are encountering letters, souls, sparks, we can raise them to the heavens or (heaven forebid) grind them further into the grit. We can take all of this and shape it to our will. But our will still needs to be shaped first.

thoughts on telekinesis

I've had the occasional dream about telekinesis in my youth. It always took a lot more effort and was far less effective than it was for characters in all the fiction I've read. Today though, I was examining my prospects for touching something I'd rather not.. and thought, probably like many other people, wow if I were telekinetic, I wouldn't have to be touching this now, I could just be moving it by thinking about it. But that's very misguided.

Here's an alternative way to think about telekinesis in a much more realistic (I probably shouldn't use this word here, it's bound to confuse, I mean illustrative when I say realistic) sense:

To move something with your mind is a more intimate act than to move it with your hand. Just as moving something with your mouth is much more intimate than moving it with your hand. There's a lot of places you would put your hand that you would never put your mouth. We instinctively protect ourselves from external influences. In fact encompassing something or someone itself is highly intimate. (Think hugs) It is also something that we try to avoid when having to deal with something we would rather not. When you have to pick up a large dirty object, even once you're sold on the idea of picking it up, you will still try to pick it up with the least physical contact possible. Unless you sell yourself entirely on getting down and dirty in order to finish the task more quickly--hence avoiding net contact over time with the object.

Now, we've established that you are dealing with something so repugnant that you'd like to rule out both minimal contact, and maximal contact in exchange for minimal time, let's just use our mind and move it from a distance. Now just because telekinesis doesn't require physical limbs doesn't mean interacting with a physical object will be any different. In a way, you would be wrapping your mind around this repulsive object. You'd want to minimize even (I would think especially) your mental contact. The real point here is that who knows what kind of other senses you might have about the object by embracing it with your mind, just like putting it in your mouth would let you taste and smell it in addition to feeling it the way your hand would.

Seeing as how you would kick something you wouldn't touch, I'm guessing you would touch something every time before you would move it through telekinesis.. assuming such was possible.

Now, couple this with what all of the Rabbis in the Talmud, Zohar, and Chassidut say about our thoughts. Simply thinking about something repulsive actually makes our minds more repulsive, the atmosphere around us more repulsive. When we encompass some thought with our minds, we are thoroughly exposing our minds and all the relevant senses therein to whatever that thought entails. When we think holy thoughts, our minds are permeated with holiness. Likewise the reverse.

Officially, telekinesis does exist as far as the truth of Judaism, I believe R' Aryeh Kaplan mentions it in one of his books on meditation; but how many people do you think approach any mental discipline with this kind of discipline, this awareness of your mind as your most sensitive (while at the same time) most effective sense?

It seems scarily shuttering to a scientific mindframe where anything can be examined theoretically, where there's no harm in thinking about something. The great Torah sources all agree however that our thoughts have a profound and direct impact on the world at large, not just our immediate environs.

I still doubt this, still want to be free in my mind to examine anything, simply because that's my background. But, I know it's true.

Maor Eynayim: Parashat Vayigash

Paraphrasing the Maor Eynayim:

The Maor Eynayim asks what we can learn from Yehudah approaching Yosef, is the Torah just a bunch of stories? No. The Torah is fire, and like fire can't be held without the proper protective clothing, so too Torah cannot be held without the proper clothing. God clothes the deepest Torah in the stories. [btw Shlomo Carlebach said that sharing stories is a much richer relationship than sharing information.]

But, the Torah is also likened to water, he continues, and this is part of the deeper meaning of Shamayim, Esh u' Mayim (tans. Fire and Water) -- that God binds both fire and water to make peace and perform His will. The whole of the Torah is infused by the combination of Ahavah w' Yirah (trans. love and awe) , in illustration, we see that the gematria of the word torah is 611 leaving the last two mitzwot, loving God and fearing God, out because all the remaining 611 mitzwot need to be performed with both love and fear of God.

In the final step he goes on to add that Man is created by combining together all of the worlds. Just as, in the heavens God brings water and fire into united service, in the creation of man, He unites all of the worlds. This is important for us to remember because the moment we detach ourselves from this reality, and forget that it is God that binds all our forces together (even the spiritual and material) we are delving into idolatry. This is the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov (on וסרתם ועבדתם אלוהים אחרים in the second perek of shema) that the moment you 'turn away' you are already serving other gods. Even something as simple as moving our hands, who is it that's moving our hand? It is God's force flowing within us, that empowers us to move.

This is the intimate knowledge of the Tzaddik. God says that the Tzaddikim 'rule' him, because they can dissolve his decrees, and he upholds their decrees. Is it the Tzaddik's place to second-guess God? Of course not. Instead, if we understand the phrase more clearly מי מושל בי who rules through me? The Tzaddikim live with an awareness that it is God acting through them, so they are actually enacting God's will when they dissolve a heavenly decree.

This is all he says, he never really gets into why it is that Yehudah approaches Yosef. Yehudah represents Malchut, and Yosef represents the tzaddik. This coming close of Yehudah to Yosef describes a relationship between the Shechinah and the Tzaddik, but I don't know enough to understand it more deeply than that.

The Maor Eynayim might also be suggesting that just like HaShem brings together fire and water in the heavens, and all the worlds in man, that He is the force bringing Yehudah and Yosef together.

One last interesting point is that the same word Vayigash is used regarding Yaakov and the rock he rolls off the mouth of the well. Interesting parallel that Yosef is now the rock on the mouth of all the food of Mizrayim and Yehudah approaches him, to roll him off?

Maor Eynayim: Parashat Vayishlach

The Maor Eynayim on the parshah is rather short.

He explains that just like there are 365 sinews and 248 limbs in the soul (nefesh), there are similarly 365 sinews and 248 limbs in the complete level of both the world (olam) and the year (shanah).

He goes on to explain that the 365 days represent the 365 sinews of the year, and the year analog to the soul's gid hanasheh (sciatic nerve -afaik) is the 9th of Av. The gid haNasheh is the source of the power of the 'other side' in the level of soul. The 9th of the month of Av plays a similar role in the level of the year. The 9th of Av is the day when the 'other side' is at its most influential, hence the destruction of both temples and the sin of the golden calf(?) happened on that day.

When it says that the Angel strove with Yaakov until the rising of the sun, he teaches that the Satan will strive with Bnei Yisrael until the coming of the mashiach at which time, the 'other side' will be annihilated. Until then, he used his expanded influence over the gid haNasheh/Tisha B'av to wound us.