the in-gathering of the filings

There's a great metaphor the Ben Ish Hai (Introduction to Parashath VaEra, Year 2) uses to explain what the final resurrection will be like. He explains first that only the Jewish people will be resurrected, and while this does not differentiate them now at this time, when HaShem drops the dew of life on the ground, it will be absorbed only by the dust that was formerly part of a Jewish body, and it will return life to that body.

How will the dew differentiate between Jewish and non-Jewish dust? Here's his example: Imagine someone spread iron filings all over a dark sandy floor. There's no distinguishable difference between the different kinds of dust.. but pull out a magnet and instantly discerning which dust particles are iron filings becomes trivial.

Similarly, when the final resurrection takes place, only then will the different nature of the Jewish People become apparent. This, R' Hayyim explains, is hinted to in the letter vav of the word פדות (pedut) which is not written in the text, but is nonetheless pronounced.

being the voice of the universe

Imagine every single object in your periphery declaring that HaShem is One all at the same time. Your desk, computer, chair, telephone, wallpaper, floor, door, assorted books, cups, etc. (Anyways, you get the idea.) That is what happened on Har Sinai -- only it wasn't just everything talking to you -- everything was talking to all 600,000+ of you at once, telling you all in no uncertain terms that there is only one God, HaShem. That's how the Tikkunei Zohar describes it. (it's quoted in today's Tanya, the 22nd of Adar) Imagine your own body telling you, your hair, everything. 

It seems to me that the beauty of HaShem's world is this: On Har Sinai, the whole world spoke up and told us that HaShem is One. From that time on, it is our job to give voice to the whole world, to unite HaShem's name in the world and proclaim HaShem's One-ness in the name of all the world.

How is it that we can give voice to the world? The Talmud explains that mankind is called the challah of the world. Challah is a special offering, a small quantity of any dough that is prepared is given to the Kohanim and is attributed Holiness, Kedushah. In a way this is similar to the kedushah of other such tithes, ma'aser or terumah, or even the first fruits and first born. What it means is that mankind represents the microcosm of the macrocosm. 

Another midrash describes a similar idea by saying that in order to create Adam, the first man, HaShem gathered dust from the four corners of the world. Astronomers and science fiction writers take great pleasure in pointing out that most of the heavier elements that make up the world around us, including our bodies are elements that were forged in the hearts of stars in the early universe. I don't think they've ever equated these two ideas from these two vastly different frames of mind. Adam's body [and soul too] was created from a gathering of a little bit of everything created. 

There are other midrashim that hint at the same idea, one example equating different parts of the human body with different animals, etc. Other parshanim explain (as we've mentioned in the past) that the Mishkan was a microcosm of both the world, and the human body, implying that the human body is a microcosm of the world. The Tikkunei Zohar goes into this in depth, explaining the metaphor pertaining to the various major organs.

In short, we here today, each one of us, is a microcosm, gathered from the furthest reaches of space and time, heaven and earth. We are the true testament to HaShem's Oneness. If HaShem wasn't One, how could a little bit of everything created be brought together into a single creation. 

On Har Sinai the whole world proclaimed it for us, just to bring the point home. Today, it is our job every time we say Shema Yisrael, (2 (3^*1) times a day) to embody the whole world, as its representatives.

HaShem Elokeinu HaShem Echad - Hear O Israel, HaShem created and sustains everything in creation, HaShem is One.

The whole world waits every morning and every evening to hear us proclaim this deepest truth, to fulfill its deepest purpose, to bear witness to the oneness of HaShem.^*2

This is also a good kavanah to have when you recite Perek Shirah, that all the animals of the world are waiting to praise HaShem, but they need you to give voice to their prayers.

notes:

*1 We say Shema Yisrael in the morning and evening prayers, and we are meant to repeat it (a third time) on our bed every night before we sleep.

*2 The Ramhal in his Da'ath Tevunoth explains that the whole purpose of creation is to make us aware that HaShem is One.

brand spanking new

When a baby comes into the world, there are two things (and only two things) it needs to work on. Only after it has mastered these two can it really move on to the rest of life. What are the two things? (1) eating its food, and (2) excreting its waste. 

If you watch a newborn, you will see just how much effort they expend performing these two apparently simple tasks.

What I only realized recently is that in a broad sense we can be (and generally are, for most of our lives) spiritual newborns. Spiritually speaking our souls alternate between performing holy deeds like mitzwoth, hesed, prayer or learning, and removing the waste and damage done through less than spiritual endeavors, through teshuvah. 

It's not really such a long jump to relate mitzwot (and everything else we categorized along with them) as 'eating' because we know that in Gan Eden, the souls are clothed in the mitzwoth they performed in their lifetime; just as the food we eat becomes the flesh our souls wear in this world. Along the same lines, the connection between the expulsion of waste from the body and the expulsion of waste from the soul (teshuvah) is apparent.

The really interesting question for all of us to think about is: Newborns grow up, and move beyond eating and excreting to many far more interesting goals; what comes next spiritually?

Yes, just as these two basic functions (eating and excreting) still play a real role in our day to day adult existence, our spiritual lives will forever revolve around mitzwoth and teshuvah, but the spaces in between is where all the real depth takes place, where relationships are built, and life is given meaning.

I believe that HaShem put all the deepest secrets of life (the universe and everything) right in front of us. If we really stop and think about life and living, growth and growing, we'll see just how far our souls can grow.

science of the exile

We've brushed on this topic in the past, but I found an intriguing quote from the Komarna Rebbe in his work Netiv Mitzwotecha which gave me new insight into the matter.

The Rebbe explains (Netiv HaYihud:3rd path:aleph) that there are two major states of existence. There's the outer status and the inner one. The outer is characterized by the initial static state of the universe since creation. In this outer state, all of creation receives exactly in accordance with its needs. The outer state is a meager state of subsistence.

The inner state is entirely the opposite. When the world functions according to the inner, or direct, state then HaShem provides tremendous surplus, astronomically above and beyond the simple needs of creation.

He goes on to explain that this inner state is a function of the work of our hands. We are capable of attracting HaShem's attention so that we receive in great volume, or if we don't live up to the challenge, still creation will continue to subsist, if not so glamorously.

Ok, this seems like a straightforward case of reward and punishment, but to me it highlighted something different.

The Komarna Rebbe explicitly says that while we are in an 'outer' state, then the world operates in accordance with the patterns set out by HaShem since the creation of the world. But, when we reach that inner state, then HaShem directly intervenes and provides abundant new energy that was not part of the original emanation that was creation.

To me this says: the 'outer' state is the ideal closed system that the framework of science so dearly depends on, whereas the 'inner' state breaks the closed system and G-d defies nature.

So, essentially, the development and progression of science had to take place in an exile-style framework. When the system is open, or in an 'inner' state, the ground starts to fall out from under the feet of scientific theory.

Until now I had never been sure whether Judaism held that the system was open or closed. How can that be? Well, the question is half semantics: there's no difference for G-d who is beyond our concept of time, to change something now (supernatural) versus at the time of the universe's creation. (natural) But here the Komarna clarifies it for me: Judaism believes unquestionably that the universe is an open system, yet in times of exile or 'outer' existence, the system functions like a closed system, ie. no new external energy is introduced.

This kind of sort of straightens out the difference of opinion between the Rambam, that there is nature, and the Ramban that nature is a series of repeated miracles, in that the universe is always (at its core) an open system, (read:miraculous) but there are times when it acts like a closed system. (read: nature)

21st century brain

רצון מתחיל מכתר ונקלט במוחין, שם מתחיל הממוש. קודם הנקודה של חכמה, אז הגידול בבינה, ורק אחר כך מגיעה לביטוי במידות. ובסוף הרצון יוצא לפועל דרך מלכות. ככה ניתן לאיש ישראלי ללמד את מידותיו ושכליו ולאמנם לבטות את כל רצונו לשם שמים. כל עוד שלא הצליח לגמרי לשלוט על רצוניו, היצר הרע הינו גלגלי עזר שדועג לדברים הכי בסיסיים כדי לאפשר להתפתחות היצר טוב לטווח הערוך שזה מתרת כל איש ישראלי

There have been a number of psychological studies that look at how we make decisions first, and only afterwards try to rationalize them, sometimes with really pitiful attempts at rationalization.

According to the Kabbalistic view of the world, as seen most readily and easily through Hassidut, this finding is entirely expected.

In the flow of influence through the sefiroth, everything starts with an initial desire. The desire is then clothed in Hochmah, Wisdom, and only after that in Binah, Reason. In other words there are two entire categorical stages that every action goes through before Reason even enters the picture.

(I say categorical stages, because each stage breaks down into infinite substages.)

Basically, years and years ago we knew that it isn't just the uneducated or uncultured who make rash decisions. Rather, it was a false rationalist perspective that has influenced modern society to believe that Man operates from a rational, logical, frame of mind.

The catch is, as the Baal HaTanya explains, that mind was given the ability to rule over our desires, (this is part of why the desire is clothed in Wisdom and then Reason) and so it is within our capabilities to overcome any action, even reflexes. Provided, of course, that we have mastered ourselves.

This is the work of a Jew, to move from an automatic lifestyle to a conscious chosen lifestyle.

In this view it seems to me that the evil urge is not inherently evil, more "automatic" than evil. Basically the evil urge is "training wheels." Until you can control and direct your own life the yetzer hara (evil urge) keeps you moving in a more or less healthy direction. You provide for yourself, reproduce, etc. Once you have begun to master your own life, then you replace your automatic nature, with a new conscious nature.

This isn't new thinking, these are things that are taken for granted in all of the old thinking. We just lost track of them over time.

The difference here and now, as in most modern thought, is that what in reality needs to be earned, is taken for granted as a right, rather than a responsibility to achieve.

Just as children don't have rights, instead we have responsibilities to educate them. They were provided as an example under our nose that we may recognize we have a responsibility to educate ourselves as well, to earn what we would have as rights.

I believe all of this knowledge was lost to us as our teachers became younger and younger. Only the wisdom of people who have lived (and succeeded to live) full lives can really value basic necesities like a work ethic.

Being young myself, I can only quote Pirkei Avoth, (Rav Meir I believe) "you may find a new barrel bearing old wine, and an old barrel without even young wine in it."

fair is fair

One of the basic underpinnings of science is the idea of conservation of energy. This idea basically sets the playing field for scientists to examine the theoretical limits of perceivable reality. What conservation of energy basically means is that reality is a self-contained system. Whatever was part of the universe when the universe was born, that's all there is.

The reason they base all of science on this assumption is that they are trying to frame reality in a set of rules that can completely describe all the natural phenomenon. If energy was arbitrarily entering and leaving the system, it would create a fundamental unknown that science couldn't readily address.

Think about it in simple terms, if objects could 'magically' vanish into thin air, then how could we go about living day to day life? Would we be terrified to walk up a flight of stairs when every step might evaporate from beneath us? I'd hate to be driving a car or riding a bike when it suddenly chose to leave my frame of reference.

In the same way, the scientists basically said, let's assume that what is will continue to be, and let's ignore the possibility that new things might just pop into being or old things pop out. Which is a perfectly reasonable thing to assume, when your goal is to gain the best insight into the world that surrounds you.

We aren't going to delve any further (at this time) into whether or not the world is a closed system, at face value, miracles seem to violate such a system, but that's beyond the scope of our discussion.

Instead, I wanted to think a little about what we think of as 'fair.' If the world has no order and it is a mad chaotic confusion, then to us, it isn't fair. If we are meant to make sense out of the world, and more importantly, function within the world, then HaShem needs to make the world fair.

It is very good news then that Rebbe Natan teaches in Likkutei Halachoth, in the name of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, that every single action that a person does for the sake of heaven is never lost. Every movement, every thought, every word that is performed, uttered, or imagined in holiness, comes to our aid in a moment of weakness.

We can rest comfortably knowing that the world is fair and every ounce of effort we put in stands as an eternal reminder to HaShem of our deeds and our intentions. Even more than that, every drop of sweat comes back to aid us and further us in our cause when we most need it.

HaShem's creation is fair. (Even if it may not be the closed theoretical paradise scientists are betting on.*)

[*note to think about, or not: the point is moot, from within the system, I don't believe we can ever prove whether it's closed for certain, and in either case, when you are talking about a being with infinite perfect foresight and infinite perfect insight, any miraclulous phenomenon could be built into nature, meant only to occur once throughout the entire history of the universe. On the other side of things, don't be mistaken, God doesn't meet the criteria of a closed system. That would limit God. The words system and closed (and all other words) are bounded by God and not the reverse.]

if you can't join em, beat em [1/2]

As we've mentioned previously, we think of food as something physical that we eat in order to give us life. That's one level, but there's a deeper truth in which the food itself is all but extraneous, it is purely a vehicle, a means, a vessel that contains the life force which HaShem gives to us.

We learn that the manna, (מן) was pure spiritual life, it didn't have any physical 'clothing.' This matter greatly troubles the Pri Ha'aretz on parashath Beha'alotecha (Rav Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk) who says that it is our understanding that the evil that one does is a function of the physical part of the food we consume. In the desert, when we were consuming food with no physical nature, how was it possible that people would fall in sin, whether it be a minor rebellious act, or a major infraction of Torah?

He explains that the equation isn't quite so simple. Yes, the physical side of food has the potential to weigh down a person and make them more physical, but the result ultimately rests with the person. Just as in the natural view, the proteins, nutrients, and amino acids all are absorbed and integrated into bodily systems, new bone, new blood, new skin etc. The spiritual life-force within food becomes a part of the person, it is transformed entirely into the nature of that person. When the person is a good person, always striving to perfect themselves, then the life-force makes the person better, more pure, more holy. When the opposite is the case, then the life-force can greatly strengthen one's physical/mundane nature. (heaven forebid)

I'd like to develop this idea a little further, thinking about eating and kashrut as well. The Baal HaTanya explains that when something is forebidden to us it is because we do not have the ability to rectify or raise that thing up to be used in holiness, instead that thing will bring us down and make us impure and more physical. There is a clear analog in the physical world: disease and infections. When we consume something that is infectious, rather than in the normal healthy model where what we consume becomes a part of us, the contagion consumes us and turns part of us into more contagion. (Whether it be bacterial, viral, cancerous, parasitic, symbiotic, etc)

If we look at non-kosher or forebidden food as spiritual contagions, we can at least draw a picture in our minds to understand what affect it has on us.

From all this we learn two things:

1. Don't eat things that can be harmful to you, spiritually, because our soul cannot digest and elevate them.
2. Even when eating the things permitted to us, we must remember that if we aren't careful to integrate and elevate them into our essence, they will bring us down to their level.

to be continued...

bread of humility

Rebbe Natan explains (Likkutei Halachoth - Hilchot Tefillin) that we are nourished not by the food we eat, but rather by the life-force within the food. If our bodies were purified in that they were completely humbled before HaShem, then we would be nourished directly from the life-force and the food itself would pass through us undigested.

It is only because we have not rectified our entire bodies, that we digest and use the corporeality of the food. Whichever part of our bodies have not properly been humbled cannot receive directly from the life-force within the food and so they are forced to consume the food itself in order to derive life.

This humility is an aspect of Mosheh Rabbeinu who was utterly humble. Each of our 248 limbs and 365 sinews must expose their potential humility which is the nature of Mosheh Rabbeinu that is latent within that body part. When our whole body is in a state of awareness of its dependence on and recognition of HaShem's might, then we don't need to eat at all. This is how Mosheh survived for one hundred and twenty days on Sinai without eating or drinking.

The reason, he explains, that our digestive functions produce putrid/disgusting byproducts is to remind us of how lowly and dependent we truly are.

It seems to me that this is good to keep in mind during the time between Purim and Pesah when we are meant to work on perfecting our ability to eat in holiness.

rain that nurtures and rain that kills

We continue with our coincidental two-part series on Rebbe Nachman and science:
For more than a hundred years, anyone who learned Likkutei Moharan I:159 had to take on faith the unusual idea that Rebbe Nachman teaches, that Tal, precipitation, can either be life-giving or hazardous. (Specifically he says that it can sometimes be unhealthy even bring plagues on livestock) After all, what can be harmful in normal healthy precipitation? It's water and it's freshwater at that.

In the past few months, scientists have come forth with the discovery that a large amount of precipitation, both snow and rain, contains live bacteria within it. The explanation works something like this: In order for rain drops or snow flakes to form, they need to gather around a sort of seed. We assumed in the past that they spawned around a dust particle, but it turns out that more often than not, they spawn around a particle of bacteria.

Most bacteria are harmless and some even beneficial, but some bacteria can be extremely harmful to plants, animals, or people. What seemed at first an outlandish statement by Rebbe Nachman has been proven scientifically possible 200 years later.

canons to purify your heart

I always love to find descriptions of technology or technological marvels in sefarim. Rebbe Nachman (Likkutei Moharan I:156) quite accurately describes the functioning of what he refers to as kanei sereifa, perhaps best translated as firing tubes, but clearly referring to canons or rifles.

He explains that fire drives air away, just as the explosion in a canon drives the air out of the barrel propelling whatever was placed in the barrel into the air at high velocity. From this simple principle Rebbe Nachman explains how to remove the ruah tumah, impure spirit, from your heart: When we burn with desire to perform HaShem's mitzwoth, we drive out the ruah tumah, that was drawn there when we burned with desire for physicality. Through burning with fire, it drives out the ruah, the impure spirit/wind.

clothes of water and cloud

In Likkutei Moharan I:88 Rebbe Nachman explains the passuk המכסה שמים בעבים המכין לארץ מטר, he covers the heavens with clouds, prepares dew for the land.

Normally scientifically we have come to understand that the clouds are accumulated dust and water vapor. When the clouds become burdened with all of that moisture, they pour drain down upon the land.

Rebbe Nachman changes our perspective a little: He explains that berachah (blessing) only is revealed from a humble or hidden place. In order that blessings may descend from the heavens, HaShem first covers them with clouds so that the blessing can be revealed from its hidden source. We see from this perspective that the water in the clouds isn't the blessing itself, rather it is merely the means with which HaShem clothes the blessing, the blessing itself falls from the heavens.

shining eyes on science

On Shabbath I once more came across Rebbe Nachman's description of how sight works. In the midst of my trying to explain to my wife how it differs from the modern scientific view, I realized that science is sorely lacking something which was obvious to Rebbe Nachman.

Rebbe Nachman's understanding of our system of site works like this:
1. We direct our gaze to something, light leaves our eye and heads towards that thing.
2. The light reaches the object and returns back to our eye.

The light that travels outwards from our eye is called אור הישר - straight light. The light that travels back to our eye is called אור החוזר - returning light.

Now, Rebbe Nachman's straight light clearly differs from modern scientific light (ie. comprised of photons) otherwise we would expect that Rebbe Nachman believed people's eyes glow in the dark--something trivial to disprove. (Not necesarily trivial actually, but let's say it's observationally trivial to disprove to the modern mindset.)

In modern science, light is always radiated and richocheting all around us, when we open our eyes we gather this ambient light and observe whatever scene is reflected in that light. Essentially, the scientific model only acknowledges the returning light. There's no equivalent to Rebbe Nachman's straight light in modern science.

The modern scientific model began to break down with the discovery of light's wave/particle duality, and further broke down with Quantum Mechanics proving that observation can even retroactively affect the outcome of our observations.

If the scientific model of light included Rebbe Nachman's straight light, although it might create other problems, they would no longer be stymied at why observations affect results. Of course observing something affects the object observed, it's being bombarded by straight light.

[Note that the Quantum Mechanics equivalent of observation doesn't mean a human being looking at something, but Rebbe Nachman didn't say that people are the only source of straight light either.]

the six day diet

I joked over here (at A Simple Jew) that perhaps eating cupcakes, or dealing with my desire for cupcakes might be my tikkun. On a related note I thought it appropriate to point out a couple of things:

1. As we've mentioned in the past, the Noam Elimelech explains how the whole current state of the world exists so that we can, through eating, rectify the sin of Adam which was also performed through eating. So, in a way, every one of us has a tikkun to do through eating.

2. This brings me to dieting. There are a number of reasons to diet, both good and bad, but whatever the reasons, many people diet. Not everyone who diets is aware of one important fact of life:

Dieting is a kind of labor and as such it falls prey to the same logical fallacies that work sometimes can. For example logically it makes sense that if we were to work one day and earn one hundred dollars, then obviously if we were to work for seven days we would earn seven hundred dollars, whereas logically if we worked only six days we would earn less than seven hundred dollars. Sound logic, right? But HaShem promises us that if we work six days, (and rest on the Holy Shabbath) we will earn even more than if we worked seven days.

Ok, I think and hope everyone reading this is saying why are you explaining the obvious nature of Shabbath? Because, many people follow a similar faulty logic when dieting: If I diet only six days a week, I will lose less weight and be less healthy than if I were to diet all seven days of the week. This is completely and utterly false. It couldn't be further from the truth.

Shabbath isn't just about not watching TV, not talking on the phone and not going to work, it is about recognizing that the rules of nature are NOTHING before HaShem. Shabbath is about recognizing that HaShem and ONLY HaShem is in charge of every single little thing that happens in the world.

I'm telling you here, first, that dieting on Shabbath will not accomplish anything. Just like excersizing on Shabbath, just like working on Shabbath.

For a slightly more spiritual explanation it goes something like this: The work that we do over the six days of the week is in order to free the sparks of holiness that have been trapped in the everyday objects of existence. Our work, excersize, diets, every action that we do consciously in order to better serve HaShem serves to raise these sparks out of their corporeal prisons and return them through our mitzwoth and our tefilloth to their supernal homes. On Shabbath, the nature of the world is utterly altered and everything that during the week takes great effort and careful planning, on Shabbath happens automatically without any effort on our part simply because we are enjoying the Shabbath. For this reason, the Baal HaTanya explains in today's Tanya, on Shabbath we eat and drink freely, what might during the week be considered gluttony is openly permitted on Shabbath.

It goes without saying that in order to reap the real benefits of Shabbath we need to truly put our emunah fully and totally in HaShem and ONLY HaShem, and make an effort to appreciate and enjoy the special gift of Shabbath.

[One vitally important caveat here is people who for critical health issues have a special diet. Diabetics for one example of many. Any decisions to do away with diets such as these on Shabbath should always involve a qualified Rav, who will (I imagine) always insist on involving a doctor in such a decision. In such a case where someone's life could possibly be endangered by deviating from said diets, there is no question at all that such a diet should be maintained on Shabbath as we always compromise on the holiness of Shabbath in a life and death situation so that the Jew in question may keep many Shabbatoth instead of chas v'shalom what otherwise might happen.]

critters

The Noam Elimelech (Parashath Shemini) brings down a midrash that the Angels asked HaShem why he created the shratzim, insects and vermin? HaShem explained I created them for the prosecution. The Angels didn't understand so HaShem explained further: When the prosecution comes to claim that Bnei Yisrael doesn't deserve to exist, and that they shouldn't have been created, I will explain that the vermin also were created though they serve no purpose, so that's not a good enough reason why Bnei Yisrael shouldn't exist.

Now, perhaps we'll look at cockroaches, ants, spiders, flies, etc a little bit differently?

Personally, I try to learn something from the insects that invade my life. Ants are so dilligent they continue on with their task no matter whether they are succeeding or failing. Silverfish turn to dust when you kill them, to remind us that we are only dust. Flies can fly wherever they want and still end up deep in the refuse--so too, we Jews (who have the wings of Ahavah and Yirah) have to learn from them to use our wings to fly to the right and not the wrong places. Spiders could teach us a lot about patience. And so on.

Why is it that we have two eyes?

(as you can see, I've been trying to post my back-logged Torah from chutz-la'aretz. Here is a dvar Torah I gave over the first shabbath I was at my parents' house)

Really, there is no need for us to have two eyes, we could have three, we'd see more. Why don't we have compound eyes, like insects, then we could still see in three dimensions and multiple directions with only a single eye. Why two eyes?

It occurred to me that we have two eyes so that we never lose sight of the truth. Our two eyes represent Hesed and Gevurah (Kindness and Might) and with them both we look upon everything. Now, a lie can only play to one particular attribute at a time, making the lie seem more appealing to that attribute than the actual truth. When we look through two eyes, through the opposite attributes of Hesed and Gevurah, we see through all the lies. Whether the lie tries to make us more harsh or more soft, the other attribute is never fooled, and so, if we work hard to always see with both our eyes, we can always find the truth.

This is the Jewish way. We open both eyes and look. But, as any good optometrist will tell you, we each have a dominant eye. We look primarily with one of our two eyes, and the other one mainly plays a supporting role. What is the Jewish way? Do we look with Judgement, Gevurah seeking to divide and set apart, or do we look with kindness seeking to unify, which is the primary or dominant perspective?

Mosheh Rabbeinu hints at the answer when he describes the plans of the two and one half tribes who will be settling the land they captured outside of Israel. They say they will build fences for their sheep and cities for their dependents. They question Mosheh: Is this the Jewish way? First walling things off, dividing them with 'fences', ie. Gevurah? Or is the Jewish way to first build cities which bring people together for their comfort and shelter? Mosheh corrects their thinking: First build cities--look always first with Hesed, and then afterwards build fences--compliment the Hesed with a fresh perspective of Gevurah.

Without both eyes, we can lose sight of the truth, but if we want to get the most out of life, we have to give precedence to our kindly eye. Ayin Tov, as Elazar ben Arach explains in Pirkei Avoth.

black fire on white fire

It occurred to me, while looking at a sefer that newborn babies love the contrast of black and white because they were learning Torah in the womb in it's raw form of black fire on white fire.

teshuva in a moment

ScienceBlog mentions a scientific study bent on discovering how our brain responds to mistakes:

'It's a bit of a cliché to say that we learn more from our mistakes than our successes,' said psychologist Professor Andy Wills of the University of Exeter, 'but for the first time we’ve established just how quickly the brain works to help us avoid repeating errors. By monitoring activity in the brain as it occurs, we were able to identify the moment at which this mechanism kicks in.’

This is an interesting study in that the Talmud says that anyone who sins and repeats the sin a second time, that particular sin becomes permissible in his eyes. In other words, once we do something wrong, and then we willingly repeat it, it ceases to have that feeling of wrongdoing in the back of our minds. It's still wrong, we just don't pick up on it anymore.

The second time seems kind of sudden, what happened to three strikes and you're out?

From this study we can see that there is a rational behind wisdom of the Talmud. The second time we make a mistake, in less than a tenth of a second the brain has already picked up on it to warn us. The same is true for sins. The second time we perform one, if we don't immediately acknowledge our wrongdoing and do vidui (express our acknowledgement of our wrongdoing before HaShem) we knowingly deny that there was anything wrong in what we did.

On the other hand, when we want to do teshuvah, we see how rapidly the brain is willing to play its part and help us along, keeping us on our toes.

consciousness as brakes

Here's an article from Science Blog that describes recent scientific studies in the field of unconscious actions. A quote from the end of the article:

“This research strongly indicates that part of the voluntary control of our actions actually involves overruling automatically activated motor plans.”

In short, they suggest that our conscious actions are very often involved in the inhibiting of unconscious actions. It's still not clear how this whole mechanims works.

I figured it's worth mentioning because based on this description, it seems like making conscious decisions has a lot in common with performing mitzwoth.

In the general view, we have a yetzer hara, that automatically pulls and pushes us in all manner of directions, and the yetzer tov, whose job it is to override and channel those animalistic or 'unconsious' drives.

The whole idea jives really well with our last post [a moment's notice] about berachot as a means of breaking our nature.

backtracking

Science Blog has a great post about a study that shows Liars can't be as convincing when lying in reverse.

In short, if you ask a liar to tell you his story backwards, the extra effort and mental stress of having to reverse the order of events makes it much easier to tell from the usual 'tells' if the person is a liar. (Kind of like getting a drunk to say the alphabet backwards)

I think this is a great tool against the yetzer hara, the trickiest of liars, especially in cases where we feel desires to do very holy things that actually are originating with the yetzer hara and not from a good place. [see Mystical Paths for a recent post on the topic]

Anyways, I bet if we reverse the desire, the situation becomes more straightforward. We can ask "Let's say I wanted to not do this, is it still appropriate to do it?" For example, if I were about to be late to say minha, but I was in the middle of writing a dvar Torah, is it my yetzer hara telling me I can take another couple of minutes to finish this up and then get to minha a little late, or is it my yetzer tov telling me that I'm involved in a mitzwah and should pass by it for another mitzwah? What if I didn't want to write the dvar Torah right then? would it be any question at all? No. Great. Now I know it isn't my yetzer tov.

The caveat: never trust yourself, there's no foolproof way to outwit the yetzer hara. Pray a lot for help in the battle.

tree of unification

Scientific American has an article about Cognitive Ability and Development:

"childhood is characterized by improvement on tasks of cognitive and motor function, this progress levels off at around age 11 or 12, just prior to adolescence."

(You can see the Science Blog coverage of the same study here.)

Our Rabbis teach us something rather interesting. Until the age of 13 (Twelve for girls) a child has only an earthly soul, (sometimes called the 'evil urge') from the age of mitzwoth, thirteen and on, the child receives a Godly soul in addition to the earthly soul. The rest of his or her life is then spent learning to rely on the desires of the Godly soul to elevate the earthly soul.

R' David Zeller of blessed memory, who passed away last thursday (mentioned @ Heichal Negina) wrote in his comments on the Tree of Life:

Judaism and Jewish mysticism in particular tried to warn us about "falling" into seeing everything through duality, by planting the story of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life at the beginning of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). We start out in Paradise (a state of oneness), eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Opposites, the Tree of Duality, and are out of oneness and paradise. Every child goes through this in his or her early development. But there is almost no education for, no maps to, regaining access to this realm of wholeness, soulness and Godliness.

And those systems that do exist, are mainly descriptions and analysis, linear vehicles - themselves from the Tree of Knowledge - that rarely can transport the seeker to the ever-present dimension of the Tree of Life. The Tree of Knowledge is horizontal, linear, rational, hierarchical, sequential, causal, time and space bound, trapped in the past or sucked into the future. The Tree of Knowledge is the vulnerable, temporal world of the mortal ego/personality/body. The Tree of Life is vertical, holistic, multi-dimensional, simultaneous, overlapping, interpenetrating, beyond time and space, ever present in the here and now moment. The Tree of Life is the safe, protected, womblike timeless world of the immortal soul, life force, essence of all.

Taken together, these three different sources illustrate one beautiful unity. With MRIs and studies we can see the direct effects of what it means to be without a Godly soul, exactly what R' Zeller described. And, from our own experience of what it is to be a teenager, we can see the complexity of the development of a child in the conflict of the Godly and earthly souls. A process that R' Zeller tirelessly worked towards easing.