Sunday, October 30, 2016

R U @ Home?


Are you at home ...

... On planet earth,
... On your continent,
... In your country,
... In your neighborhood,
... In your community,
... In your living space,
... In your friendship circle,
... In your family,
... In your faith n' beliefs,
... In your skin,
... In your heart?

Home is multi-layered,
Zones where you feel safe.

It's where you ...

... Can let down your hair,
... N' let out your identity.

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Saturday, October 29, 2016

Home


I thought I hired a domestic help professional. But when I entered my front door the other evening, I discovered that I actually hired a domestic artist.  She reimagined my living space and that inspires me to do so as well.  In small ways, I find myself almost automatically tidying up along the pattern she set, taking it baby steps to advance her vision for my living space even further.  

In the beginning of Genesis we read about how the Creator spent six days building a home for humanity. He imagined and implemented a beautiful living space for us called the Garden of Eden. He simply requested that Adam and Eve tidy up a small remaining corner of their home along the pattern He already set by not eating of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge; thereby, making their home into even more of a home. Of course the first couple did not obey and their home suddenly turned very messy - into even less of a home, which is the world we see around us.

Since the dawn of humanity, we have been charged with the mission of making the world into our home along the patterns already set by our Creator. Paradise is already such a home. It has no untidy patches. However, being earthlings means that our work is to turn planet earth into such a home.

The conclusion of a certain significant phase of our work will usher in the beginning of the messianic era. Since the messianic era itself is multi-phased, as we will travel further along its timeline, earth will turn more and more into home. Quite possibly, it will one day turn into a home for its animal population as well; as seems indicated by the Prophet Isaiah.    

There is a mystical teaching that our real efforts entail transforming the earth into a home for the Creator. However, what better way is there to make the earth into His home than to make it into our home? The Creator is beyond the need for a home. He rejoices in giving! His happiness is the happiness He gives His creations. When His creations are at home in His world, so is He. Yes, He rejoices in how we feel.

Shabbat is a small taste of this upcoming era. Shabbat is all about settling into a zone we call, "Home". We work six days to prepare our homes, becoming domestic artists, so that one day a week we can experience our home in a more ideal state; enjoying home life as it is meant to be. In this sacred space, people focus on each other and easily bond without outside distractions - yes, heart to heart. Each can make a home in his/her own heart for the other. It’s safe space and sacred space for relationships to form and grow. Here people love and feel loved.

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Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Simchat Torah


Earlier today in a Borough Park Chabad Synagogue, Rabbi Yitzchak Reitport delivered an address which reached to the core of what the festival of Simchat Torah is all about.

Since Simchat Torah is about rejoicing and dancing with the Torah scrolls, he began with a question, "Why don't we celebrate this festival in late Spring on the anniversary of the day when God's revelation descended on Mount Sinai and He uttered the Ten Commandments?"

Rabbi Reitport continued by quoting well established Jewish tradition that after the Ten Commandments were uttered, Moses stayed up on the mountain another 40 days to receive the Tablets. He descended to the unfortunate incident of the golden calf and shattered the Tablets. Then he spent the next 40 days in prayer to reconcile God and the Jewish people. Next, he ascended for another 40 days to receive the second set of Tablets and descended with them on Yom Kippur (yes, that was our very first Yom Kippur).

Since Yom Kippur is a day of tremendous awe, lighthearted celebration is out of character. Our lighthearted celebration begins soon after Yom Kippur, with the festival of Succot, which culminates in Simchat Torah. So essentially, on Simchat Torah we celebrate the completion of the whole process of receiving the Ten Commandments.

There was a fundamental difference between the first and second set of Tablets. Had the golden calf not been built, reality would have been fundamentally different and we would have only needed the written Torah scroll for guidance, without the aid of an oral explanatory tradition. Hence, the first Tablets only came with the written part of our tradition.

The second Tablets came with both written Torah and an accompanying oral explanatory tradition. The nature of the oral explanatory tradition is that it requires a lot of mental effort; ponderous study, discussion and interpretation. Here the mind of flesh and soul meets the Divine Mind in sublime union.

Had we just had the first Tablets, we would have been missing out on the part of the Torah which lends itself to this special union with the Creator's Mind; as everything would have simply been clear procedure without any need to resort to ponderous efforts. So what we truly celebrate on Simchat Torah is that special union with the Divine Mind which only an oral explanatory tradition allows for.

Rabbi Reitport added that the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe stated that the reason for why we recite the "Shecheyanu" blessing on Simchat Torah (a blessing normally reserved for new joyous events) is because of this special union with the Divine Mind which is renewed at this time of the year.

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Passion!


I see that I have ...
...Needs,
...Wants,
...Goals,
...Curiosities,
...Interests.

But do I have a ...
...Passions?

I used to!
...Hiding?

You whoooo!
...It's safe to come out.

You are sorely missed.
...Where have we lost touch?

Your fleeting absence ...
 ...Is much, much too long...

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Saturday, October 15, 2016

The Secret


We connect not by the power of coercion, but by the power of attraction.

He and His Attributes



The Tanya often mentions the following quote from the Zohar which literally reads, “He and His bones are One.” Reformulated idiomatically the quote means, "He and His attributes are One.”; i.e. that the Creator is One with His attributes.
As I explained in previous writings, the Creator's Oneness and Infinity are really the same thing. Saying the Creator is One is the same as saying that He’s Infinite. Vice versa, saying that He’s Infinite is the same as saying that He’s One.
Briefly reviewed: His Oneness is so pure that it's seamless, meaning no parts. The logical underpinning of this concept is that since He’s the ultimate of perfection His Oneness too must be perfect. A Oneness is only perfect if devoid of its opposite, namely multiplicity.

Moving on to demonstrate His Infinity, a partless Being has no beginning, middle or end; as these too are parts. The result is that His Oneness equals His Infinity.

Though there's no difference between His Oneness and Infinity, it is my understanding that inside of the created realms, spiritual and earthly, His Oneness becomes the origin for what is cosmically female and His Infinity becomes the origin for what is cosmically male. This is a lot like the phenomenon of thunder and lightening. Both are the same event, an electric disturbance in storm clouds. Yet, it this one event have two separate experiential manifestations; one for the eyes and the other for the ears, i.e. lightening and thunder. So too, what’s identical in the Ultimate Source, the Creator, can manifest separately - as the cohesive tendencies of cosmic female and the expansive tendencies of cosmic male.   
So how are His attributes One with Him? Here I am discussing an answer which is on a different level than the Tanya’s answer. The Tanya's answer mostly addresses the dynamics of O'lam Atzilus (the World of Emanations). I am working with how the concept is also true in the Oneness/Infinity of His Being as well.
The nature of children is that their traits fall somewhere on the spectrum between their parents’ genes. In fact, in a sense, one can say that this is what it means to be a child of two parents - i.e. a human being who’s genetically in between two parents.
All the Creator's attributes are caused by some interplay between cosmic male and female. So quite literally all these attributes have "parents". Differences in the influence between cosmic female and male will make one attribute different from the next. For example, there's more cosmic male influence in the attribute of divine supervision and more cosmic female influence in the attribute of hearing prayer. This is not surprising, as human children who share the same set of parents also tend to have a variety of tendencies; some tending more towards one parent than to the other.
Just as cosmic male and female have their origin in His Infinity/Oneness, so too the origins everything which will emerge from the union of cosmic female and male also have their origins there too, as existing between Infinity and Oneness. Since in this kind of pure existence Oneness and Infinity are identical, therefore, everything between Oneness and Infinity are identical too. Hence, in that ultimate core state of origin, He and His attributes are indeed One!

In Kabbalah’s famous “Tree of Life” diagram, the right column is cosmically male. The left column is cosmically female. Then there’s a middle column which is the “child” of the right and left columns. It’s between the polarized extremes of cosmic male and female; a middle path between them. Clearly, all three columns of the Tree are manifestations of what’s seamlessly identical the coreness of Ultimate Being; Oneness, Infinity and all in between.


Wednesday, October 5, 2016

From "A" to "The"


As You fill every drop of space,
 So You fill every moment in time.
You're the ultimate of goodness.
 Where You are, there's goodness,
Only goodness!
 A gleaming core of goodness.
In every moment we are in,
 Right here is Your goodness.
If here, how can we find it?
 Maybe it's too beyond for us.
Yet, we can have some access.
 It's small, but yet so important.
It may seem like a tiny drop,
 Inhabiting an immense ocean.
Yet it isn't as tiny as it appears,
 As it touches the very goal of life.
Even if we can't find "the" good,
 In any moment we can do "a" good.
While it may not be "the" good,
 It certainly is validly "a" part of it;
More than simply being part of it,
 The "a" good might be our only role.
So even if we find not "the" good,
 By doing "a" good, "the" good finds us;
As "like finds like",
 In sweet cosmic alignment.
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