An outline for "Future Couple"

Dear Readers,

For quite a while an essay was perking up inside of me, while a few people where waiting patiently for me to post it. While writing it, I've come up against various obstacles, not the least of which that the direction simply didn't work out. The essay pulled this way and that way into a mush of words and ideas; all tangled up like spaghetti in a pot.

From this experience I finally learned my lesson that Rabbi Marc Angel of Congregation She'arith Israel had advised me several months ago about that I must make an outline first. So for the first time in the history of my blog, I have actually made an outline.

I posted the outline for the sake of those who are patiently waiting so they can see that there really is something in the works and also to provide them with some contact with the ideas in preview form.

It's my intention to keep this outline up for a little while. However, I might remove it once I'm closer to finishing the essay (not sure yet).

Best Wishes,

Choni

Outline

·     Portray scenario of a couple in dating and marriage based on the giver/receiver model.

• The dating scene – man is very in his element giving & woman is very in her element receiving from him, being doted on.
• Marriage – He’s provider & she’s homemaker. His whole happiness is wrapped in her enjoying what he brings home. Her happiness is based on what he brings home.
• Explain that this giver/receiver romantic model is getting rarer because …
• Women aren’t so dependent on men for livelihood.
• People have more time on their hands, allowing for new flexibility in time usage. No longer are people endlessly stuck in the particular roles of bread winner or homemaker.
• The Lubavitcher Rebbe noted that these changes in male/female interaction are harbingers of an upcoming messianic era, when men and woman will share a single crown.
• He quoted the Talmud – share the story
• Note the unique conditions of the messianic era:
• There will be full and easy access to all physical resources necessary for a comfortable life.
• Quote Maimonides about the general utopian picture of the future and Nechamat Tzion of Ben Ish Chai about Jerusalem’s eventual self sufficiency.
• The curses on Adam and Eve will be lifted: Men will no longer need to work hard to bring home a livelihood and women will no longer need to experience pain in childbirth.
• Explain how we are already seeing some of this beginning.
• People have more options to join professions they like, which make that they’re really doing something special, instead of being strapped with a burden.
• Women have easier ways of giving birth like epidural and Lamaze. Menstrual cycles are also easier.
• Share of futuristic ideas, like pregnancy happening in an artificial womb in a lab of sorts.
• The moon will be getting as bright as the sun:
• This might also include street lighting (stretching the definition of moon a bit) and night vision optics, but, even possibly even astronomical activity that we just wouldn’t expect.
• Quote the prayer from “Blessing the Moon”.
• It will be the norm for people to be married to their true soul mates.
• Quote the “soul mate Zohar” – to show that marrying one’s soul mate is not automatic today.
• People’s aspirations will change and they will devote their whole lives to seeking spiritual knowledge and prophecy.
• Earth will become like paradise, a place of pleasurable spiritual growth.
• Quote the Maimonides & several verses to support this from scripture.
• Soul mates will have a new role. They will become each other’s study partners – partners in the spiritual growth of their shared soul.  
• This will be the “shared crown”.
• So at the core, what will define men as male and women as female in this special era?
• Possibly it might have to do with slightly different mental skills, allowing each to more easily pick up different features on a particular topic under study.
• What do men notice and women differently in a topic?
• The short version of the answer is that men seem to be more easily lured into the “abstract” and women seem to be more drawn by notions of “connection”.
• Abstraction is the exploration of the mental vastness of a topic, without emphasis on the personal. It’s an impersonal regard for the intellectual dynamics of a topic.
• Connection means bonding and intimacy. It has to with how details relate to each other. Its relational focused – a very personal regard for the ability of a topic to make a difference in actual life.
• The potential for abstraction flows from the Creator’s Infinity. Since there’s nothing outside of Him, all is continuous with Him. So all topics eventually run into His Infinity, endlessly stretching their vastness. As they approach closer to Infinity the topics expand, as one who moves closer to the sun experiences brighter light.
• The potential for connection flows from the Creator’s Oneness. Since there’s nothing outside of Him, all is continuous with Him. So all topics eventually run into His Oneness, where they are intimately bound with everything else.
• Though both His Oneness and Infinity are the same thing, both are two approaches of the same Being. Yet, to some extent creatures with fragmented perspectives can experience them in isolation from each other. This is why a man can get lost in detached cerebral abstraction and a woman can be so easily exclude from her focus details which at first glance don’t lend themselves to the goal of intimately connecting the pieces of the picture she sees around herself.
• Since both focuses come from One Being, they can ultimately be brought back together and they do.
• Oneness & Infinity:
• Rabbainu Bachya’s explanations (from “The Gate of Oneness”).
• Logically trace what the Creator’s Oneness is and how Infinity logically follows.
• Logically trace what the Creator’s Infinity is and how Oneness logically follows.
• Provide an example of how the same topic can be seen from both perspectives: abstraction and connection.
• Possibly use examining a flower through the notion of “as below, so above” for the example. Men might see how a flower trails off into higher levels, becoming an angel on the way to approaching the infinity. Women might be interested in exploring how to have access to that angel, in order to generate more connection with parts of reality previously outside the range of human perception.
• Use this example to show how husbands and wives can help each other’s growth.
• Both perspectives are necessary for a more complete understanding of what a flower (or anything else) is and how to make proper use of one as part of living more spiritual and divinely informed life.
• Thus, they will share a single crown of growth and awareness in their shared single meta-soul.

• Infinite light, withdrawal, afterglow, ray of light:
• Begin by explaining that the main teaching of the essay has already been laid out – which was to provide a glimpse into the lives of couples in the messianic future. This portion is for those who want to follow the cosmics of these concepts into Lurianic Kabbalah.
• Review the basics of the Infinite light, withdrawal, afterglow, ray of light.
• Kabbalah never discusses the Creator Himself. Accordingly, the Infinite Light is to be regarded as a spiritual expression of His Infinity – not as His actual Being.
• Explain the withdrawal of the Infinite Light and why it’s not literal.
• Explain the remaining afterglow.
• The withdrawn infinite light and the afterglow are cosmic male and female.
• Explain why he expresses infinity and she expresses oneness.
• He’s infinitely vast and made a move in the direction of further vastness.
• She was not persuaded by the lure of vastness to move. If all’s oneness then what’s there is already here. There’s no reason to move.
• The withdrawal repeats itself ten times. Each time the afterglow grows, as a new layer is added.
• When she reaches ten layers, she matures.
• Her growth seems like a process designed to acquire new material for an inner differentiation. This will allow her to isolate in her core a feminine of feminine – a pure female essence.
• When she matures, her cosmic male, the infinite light, will find her attractive and extend into her his ray of light.
• Presently the ray of light doesn’t yet fully extend down into our realm. However, our realm feels the influence of this ray from the higher realms.
• This might be an indication that our realm has not finished acquiring her ten layers.
• Higher realms have a faster notion of time. So what already happened up there, takes longer to happen here.
• This is the principal which futuristic prophetic predictions work on.
• This explains why physicists see our universe growing and why every unit of space is on the move. A unit of space just occupied has already moved on.
• Physical space/time (as physicists call it) is the portion of the portion of the afterglow which is tangible to us. Truthfully, according to Kabbalah life is also a part of the space/time continuum (see Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s commentary to “Sefer Yetzirah”). So it should really be called, “space/time/life”. One day they’re stumble on this connection, unifying physics, chemistry, biology and spirituality.
• When the universe completes her growth, the ray of light will enter her. This will be a time of true spiritual growth for the universe and her inhabitants; Maybe, a messianic era or a post messianic development; a meta-messianic era.
• Reaching each other, cosmic male and female will share “one crown”. This will inspire an increased awareness that the infinite light and the afterglow are the same. The withdrawal is not literal. Oneness and Infinity are the same.
• In a deep sleep, the dreamer has finally kissed his dream lover and awoke just a bit upon the discovery that he kissed himself. Yet, to keep the beauty of the dream alive, he only partially awoke.