Self Realization

I used to think that attaining self-realization was about “what” I do in life. I thought it was about being employed in a profession which seemed to mirror the calling of my soul.

Upon reflecting on Rebbe Nachman’s story,“The Sophisticate & The Simpleton”, it dawned upon me that attaining self realization might work very differently from what I had expected.

Self realization might have less to do with “what” I do than with “how” I do. It might be a matter of “how” much happiness I can manifest in whatever I am doing. An overjoyed street sweeper might be more self-realized than a famous artist. He might be flowing with more authentic soul and making scores of people happy in the wake.

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To Express n’ Suppress!

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To Elevate or Transform?

Mystically and practically there's a difference between elevating sparks trapped in darkness and exposing the light which comprises the darkness itself.

One's an escape. The other is a transformation.

One merely ends a phase of exile. The other brings on new stages of enlightenment within a messianic era.

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Our deeper selves yearn for divine manifestation! Call it the messianic era or universal enlightenment, the basic underlying idea is the same.

Whether “down to up” or “up to down”, there’s yearning for Source. We are sourced in both the Light and in its disguised form, the darkness. We are sourced in both the divine masculine and in the divine feminine.

When the pre-Genesis Light and darkness polarized, separating out in the story of the vacated space, the darkness took the best and the brightest of the Light. It was thereby endowed with the capacity of suppression, the capacity to remain silent, the capacity to hide its identity, the capacity to become dark!

Since there’s only Light there was nothing else to make darkness from, other than from Light itself. Darkness is nothing other than suppressed Light. What’s suppressed tends to evoke a sense of mystery. Hence, it’s the norm to find darkness mysterious. But, that’s not its fullness of attraction, only its antechamber.

Deeper in, the attraction is because darkness holds some of the Light, some of the Source of everything else. However, it’s not just any level of the Source. However, in some sense, its highest quality; as it takes more capacity to suppress the Light than to express it.

This is why to escape into a life of meditation and slip exclusively into the transcendent Light, is to miss the point. Yes, we need some of that, perhaps even a lot of it. However, not all the spiritual lights we need to access can be accessed that way. Not all the spiritual lights dwell in heaven. Much of it is suppressed down here. To dwell in “father sky” is to miss “mother earth”. It’s to fly with only one wing and not with the other.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe teaches that the reason that in our days miracles usually do not override nature is because such miracles are missing the main male and female union. When miracles occur within the boundaries of nature then the female side of reality gets her equal share of participation. There’s a real union ~ as the male teases out her suppressed lights, stimulating them into manifestation.

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Two Returnees

In Rabbi Nathan Nemirov's days there was a Jew in Breslov nicknamed “the German” because he was distant from Judaism, and conducted himself in the manner of the Jewish followers the German Enlightenment; who practiced almost no Judaism.

He held a position in the city of Breslov as a government official. One Sabbath morning he stumbled into the Rabbi Nathan’s Synagogue during the Kedusha service of the Musaf prayer. As is the Breslov Hassidic way, everyone was passionately immersed in the prayer with hands uplifted and clapping. Overwhelmed with the wave of passion, he too lifted his hands and clapped.

At that moment, many around him noticed that his hands were ink stained from the work he did earlier on the Sabbath day. They were barely able to control themselves from casting him out for his chutzpah; for daring to attend Sabbath prayers after such a blatant violation of the holy day!

Rabbi Nathan became aware of the situation and held them back from casting him out. He declared, “Leave him alone! Leave him alone! Don't bother him! He will yet continue to raise his hands and clap until he desists from writing on the Sabbath.”

“Aren't we aware that because of his behavior he's not accepted in any other Synagogue? So if he stumbled into ours, it's a sign that he had some thought of returning to Judaism. Indeed, this is the reason he attended and we must accept him.”

It so happened. He became attached to the Breslov Hassidim. Rabbi Nathan conversed with him at length about Emunah and the path of Judaism, until he fully returned to Judaism.

He was one of two returnees about whom Rabbi Nathan remarked, “[In the next world] when I will present God with these two returnees, they will yet be my source of pride before His throne of glory.”

The second returnee was a member of the Enlightenment who wanted to study and complete his education in Berlin under the guidance of leading intellectuals. He visited the post office of Tulchin to arrange passage to Berlin via postal transport. The postmaster of Tulchin was Rabbi Yitzhak, Rabbi Nathan’s son. Rabbi Nathan was visiting his son and sitting in the post office.  

The man gazed upon Rabbi Nathan and was moved by his radiant charm. He asked Rabbi Yitzhak, “Who is the elder sitting here?”

Rabbi Yitzhak responded, “He is my father, my teacher.”

“Can I speak with him?” he inquired.

“Of course”, offered Rabbi Yitzhak. “You may speak with him as you desire.”

He approached Rabbi Nathan and spoke with him at length. In the midst of their conversation, he immediately changed his mind and cancelled his ride to Berlin. Then he attached himself to Rabbi Nathan with all of his heart and completely returned to Judaism.

~ Otzer Nachmani, Volume I, pages 33 - 35.


(This translation was done as part of a project for the BRI. Please note that it's only a preliminary version and not the actual submitted version.)

A Time to Elevate, A Time to Transform

Mystically and practically there's a difference between elevating sparks trapped in darkness and exposing the light which comprises the darkness itself.

One's an escape. The other is a transformation.

One merely ends a phase of exile. The other brings on new stages of enlightenment within a messianic era.

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The Messiah of Levi

I think what made the Jewish journey through the Hellenistic period particularly challenging was that the Greeks cherished a notion of the perfected human being. They developed it into a wide ranging package which included philosophy, art, drama, poetry and athletics. They claimed to offer perfection to every detail of the human being.

Their notions of human perfection very often either outright contradicted the Torah’s notion on the topic or were similar, but proportioned differently.

No other exile that the Jewish people journeyed through ever centered almost entirely on this particular issue. The Egyptians didn't particularly care whether humans reached a perfected ideal or not. The Babylonians, while intellectually driven, mostly diverted their ideas to enhance the occult arts. The Persians seemed to be mostly pleasure seekers. And the Romans were into the craft of government and were obsessed with power. They were happy to import their ideas about the various arts and wisdoms from those whom they conquered. Strangely, even their religion wasn't their own.

So, really it was only Greece which tried to challenge the Torah's notion of the perfected human. Though we clearly met their challenge, I wonder whether in the process we really excavated the fullness of the Torah's notion of the perfected human. I think the fact that the allure of Hellenism continued among Jews even after the Hasmonean victory and even among the Hasmoneans themselves, indicates that there were still lingering gaps which Hellenism purported to fill.  

I believe some years ago that I saw the following question in Bnei Yissachar, “Generally, Jewish royalty comes from either the tribe of Joseph or Judah. Indeed, with the exception of Saul, this was the case for all the Jewish monarchs in the Bible. Consistent with this pattern, we also have a tradition that there will be a Messiah hailing from the tribe of Joseph, who will be  immediately followed by one hailing from Judah, a descendant of King David. On the other hand, Levi is not a tribe reputed to be gifted with royalty. So how did the Hasmoneans, tribesmen of Levi, rise to monarchy?”

If I remember correctly, the answer was that following the periods of the Messiahs from Joseph and then David (Judah) their will be a third Messiah. He will be from Levi! It will likely be a period when we will be led by the priestly class.

The self sacrifice of the Hasmoneans brought them to a spiritual level where they ascended time, as we know it, allowing them to draw spiritual power from the distant future into their immediate present. In this beyond time state, they drew power from the third Messiah, the Messiah from Levi. His spiritual light of gave them the power to overthrow the Hellenist and enthrone themselves as monarchs. It wouldn't surprise me if, when lighting our menorahs, in a small way we too access lights from the Messiah of Levi.

According to Jewish mystical thought, what makes up darkness is light which is in a deep state of suppression. Since everything begins with the Infinite Light, darkness itself has to somehow be crafted from light, as there’s no other ingredient to work with. Since suppression takes a lot more energy than expression, it’s the suppressed states which contain the deepest and most powerful lights.  Essentially, suppressed light is “exiled light”!

Each exile the Jewish people underwent was created by the suppression of a unique light. There are two ways out of an exile. One way is simply a successful escape and the other way is an exposure of the suppressed light. The latter is more transformative and hence, a lot more powerful.

What I am about to express is a broad generality. Obviously, there are level upon levels and levels included in levels. So, it’s not intended to be taken in a “black and white” way. It seems to me that broadly speaking the three Messiahs will accomplish the following.

In most cases our exodus from exiles in the past, to the extent they were successful, were “great escapes”. They weren’t really weighted on the side of being transformations of darkness to light.  

The Messiahs of Joseph and David (of Judah) will introduce the approach of leaving exile by transforming it. Each Messiah will have his own set of aspects of the Roman exile he will work on transforming. These aspects are traditionally encoded by the terms “Esau” and “Ishmael”. The Messiahs will establish and solidify a Jewish government in accordance with the Torah. In doing so, they will excavate their unique aspects of the suppressed light which made the Roman exile, unleashing them to build an amazing government dedicated to God.  

Next the Messiah of Levi will revisit the Hellenic exile, transforming it to bring forth a gushing fountain of wisdom from that exile itself to develop perfected human beings.

In my mind it’s possible that these three Messiahs will reign one after another. It’s also possible that, to one extent or another, their reigns will overlap and be concurrent in cooperation and harmony. It’s even possible that they are somehow different levels within the same person. Time will tell.

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