Different Kinds of Succahs

My Uncle just shared with me his thoughts on the argument in Tractate Succah 11b -12a (including Tosafos) between Rabbi Yochanan and Raish Lakish. They argue about the nature of the clouds of glory. Did these clouds ascend from the ground or descend from heaven? 

My Uncle suggested that from a Kabbalistic view the argument can be restated as whether these clouds were a result of an "arousal from below" or an "arousal from above". He suggested that both are true. When human behavior was appropriate, there was an "arousal from below" and no need for one from above. When behavior was inappropriate, then the clouds needed to continue functioning on the basis of an "arousal from above" only.

Then he ended the lesson with that it's good to consider what kind of Succah we're sitting in. Is it one which is from an "arousal from below" or one which is from an "arousal from above" or perhaps some kind of mixture?

Chag Same'ach!

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Holy Music

Holy music is a soothing communication from an highly illuminated future to an aching and yearning present.

~ Based on Breslov teachings

The Kindness of the Saintly

In "Likutei Halachos", Reb Noson teaches that Purim and Hanukkah were instituted by our ancient sages as a means to extend the lights of the Holy Temple into our diaspora homes. (1) (2) It was a great kindness which they extended to all the future generations. This is why when aligning these holidays on the sefirotic structure of man, they relate to the legs (netzach and hod). The legs are the part of the body which reaches downward. So too, these lights reach downward, descending from their high perch in holiness down to our lowly diaspora dwellings.  

Furthermore, he notes that Purim and Hanukkah can occur on weekdays. The Hebrew word for weekdays is "chol", חוֹל. He relates this to the word for someone who's ill "cholah", חולה. These “weekday holidays” are the equivalent of God performing the kindness of visiting the ill, as the diaspora is a kind of spiritual illness. Since we are too spiritually ill to visit the Holy Temple, during these two holidays the lights of the Temple come to visit us. 

I found this Torah teaching very inspiring and truly moving. However, I was left wondering whether there’s an Elul connection here as well. It couldn’t be coincidental that I came across this teaching on the first day of the Hebrew month of Elul. 

On the first of Elul, Moses ascended to receive the second tablets. This second set was a spiritual descent from the first set; meaning, it was intended to bring down the lights to a much lower level. The first tablets were evidently too high for everyone. Its lights needed to be garbed in more layers to give it the insulation to reach further down. Accordingly, Moses did in his own era what our saintly sages who instituted Purim and Hanukkah did in their era. 

The common denominator in all these cases is that for the lights to extend further downward, it helps if the Jewish people show that they want it; whether through returning to God and/or standing up to opposing forces. The Lubavitcher Rebbe taught that in our generation this effort is accomplished by truly wanting the Messiah to arrive. Expressions of such yearnings include studying and speaking about the messianic era.  It’s truly our next level of spiritual growth.

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1. See "Likutei Halachos", “The Laws of Arising in the Morning”, Section 4: 11-16.

2. Diaspora is not only in geography. It’s also in time. As long as the Temple is absent even dwellers of the Holy Land are in some sense still in diaspora.

Maimonides and Philosophy

One may wonder why after the Talmud remarks harshly about Greek philosophy, the Maimonides felt comfortable making a career out of it and also allowed it to influence his world perspective. I certainly wondered about this for years. 

I recently read in a history book that though Islam had inherited the wisdoms of the ancient world, Islamic scholars gave these teachings their own cultural flavor. These wisdoms now resonated with an Islamic cadence, which is purely monotheistic. 

Long before the Maimonides came along, Islamic intellectuals like Al Farabi had already worked out issues of faith versus reason and similar problems; thereby,  aligning Aristotle with religious thought. Therefore,  the "Greek Philosophy" which the Maimonides was exposed to had already been processed and was more faith friendly then it had been in ancient times. Also, when the Abbasid dynasty had the Greek classics translated into Arabic, they directed their efforts only to the topics of science, medicine, mathematics and philosophy. They did not translate literature, poetry and drama. Accordingly, these wisdoms entered Islamic intellectual society in utter absence of much of their original cultural trappings.  

This reminds me of an interesting phenomenon. Shrimp is not kosher for Jews. Yet, salmon whose primary diet (in the wild) is shrimp is kosher. A Jew is forbidden by the Torah from obtaining the energy of a shrimp directly from a shrimp. However, when further processed in the body of a salmon it's alright for a Jew to eat. Similarly, once Islamic intellectual culture had ingested "Greek Philosophy", it really transformed into an Islamic cultural philosophy. 

One may wonder whether what I mentioned above would apply to studying Greek Philosophy in the contemporary setting of a secular university. I would say, "No". In this case the Philosophy is not being processed with a sensitivity to issues of faith in general and monotheism in particular. Possibly it's presented with an even more secular flavor than it had in the Greek original. 

However, it does have another thing going for it. Unlike medieval times, very few people, if any, believe in it. Without underlying belief, it has little or no real influence. Even people serious about it, are usually just studying it as an intellectual exercise and/or to gain historic perspective.

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Currency of Love

Love has a currency. 

 It's called,"Kindness". 

  Spend it generously, 

    but wisely.

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Reflecting Back, Thinking Forward

I have spent years writing on the subject of God’s Oneness/Infinity and our world’s relationship with the spiritual. Much of what I wrote is designed to provide a Jewish mystical answer to some of the difficult questions of existence, the kind of questions people typically call “existential”. My blog is laden with at least ten years worth of such writings: essays, stories and poems. It’s a collection of literary output designed to prompt and possibly guide.

In a soul searching moment, I have decided to begin adding a practical dimension to my writings going forward. However, in response to those who are apt to value the practical at the expense of the intellectual or the artistic, I proclaim that I fully value what I wrote until this point. I am not repenting nor recanting. I am simply layering value upon the already valuable.

Exploring existential and spiritual questions has inherent value for a variety of reasons. Among them includes that such study itself ...

1. bridges at least some small part of the soul/body divide.

2. extends positive vibes out into the universes; introducing positive changes to the course of human destiny.

3. shapes our “life perspective”, to improve our overall approach to life.

I credit Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, whose writings and recorded lectures have evoked in me a consciousness that it’s time to take my writings to a new level. It’s time to write about how these spiritual teachings awaken us to develop a more compassionate society. 

Like Rabbi Sacks, I do not think such teachings can directly affect the arena of politics. Besides, most of us are much more influential in our social sphere than we are in politics. In any event, our society is primarily built upon social units. At best, politics follows behind the advances of society like the trailing edge of a bridal gown. Each of us, in our own ways, participate as builders of society. Our individual stories blend together into everyone else’s to finally become the building blocks of a single sweeping grand story, the story of the society we all share.

So, here starts my new direction:

Nothing in our world, nor even in the highest of spiritual worlds, can be truly One as God is. Nothing emanated or created can retain its individual existence in the naked revelation of God’s Oneness. However, we can openly manifest blessings which flow from His Oneness. True, they are not literally His Oneness. (How can they be?) But, they are "of His Oneness". 

These blessings can reach us individually and collectively. They can improve our spiritual, mental, emotional, biological and financial well being. The way to elicit such blessings is to come close to God. Since physical space does not apply to our relationship with God, this “closeness” is accomplished by becoming as “similar” as possible; meaning, by “imitation” or “alignment”.

We “imitate” God’s Oneness on our level by unifying society to the point where people truly care for and help each other. Since we are composite beings, the state of Oneness is reflected in us as a force which binds us. When we’re “one” we’re bound together. When we’re “multiple” we’re just a jumbled mass, tripping over ourselves and each other. 

The story of the society we build as a reflection of God’s Oneness depends on our attitudes. Our attitudes are arrows which aim our behavior either towards manifesting a society of oneness or separation. A selfless attitude aims us in the direction of binding people together. A selfish one aims us to set people apart. These attitudes are contagious. They influence. Love inspires hearts to love. Self interest weaves sticky webs of self interest.

God encourages us to imitate His Oneness on our level by forming loving bonds of unity within our families, social groups, communities and across society at large. Love’s currency is kindness. Extending kindnesses, extends the “soul glue” which binds. With so much need out there, everyone can do a favor. Everyone can use a favor. 

Selfless acts of kindness can take on several forms. Among them are random acts of kindness, volunteer work or donations to the needy. Helping those in need can travel miles towards one’s own spiritual growth and healing a broken world. It matters not whether it’s with an organization or as an individual. What counts is to re-glue and new-glue the frayed fabric of humanity.

Society typically offers accepted modes of spiritual connection, such as: attending places of worship, engaging in devotional studies and settling into meditation. All of these practices are designed as engines of spiritual growth and healing. However, in tandem with these practices, likely the most powerful engine of spiritual growth across humanity at large is simply to engage in selfless acts of kindness. Such behavior glues us together as a oneness on earth. So, we’re aligned with God’s own Oneness and can manifest abundant flows of blessings in all areas of life.

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Fascinating Paradoxes !

The Infinite One exists beyond distinctions;

  Uniform, undifferentiated and seamless. 

He faces creation and presents Himself,

  As a vastly illuminating Infinite Light;

Which is as Infinite, as vastly Alive,

  As Light/Life could ever possibly be.

Thus, Infinite Light presents similarly as,

  Uniform, undifferentiated and seamless. 

There, surface and depth merge in sameness,

  Effect becomes cause, cause becomes effect.

And as life source of all that's created,

  No creation is or can be more highly Alive!

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The Teaching

The other day, I reflected back on a Torah teaching of the Lubavitcher Rebbe I learned about 1998 or 1999 on a Shabbat morning with Rabbi Yossi Marlow (see Sefer Hama’amarim MeLukat, vol. v, p. 281). The teaching is designed to provide an answer to one of the most enduring questions of Lurianic Kabbalah, “The Infinite Light is seamlessly undifferentiated. Accordingly, it has no gradations or distinctions. If so, how do the Ten Sefirot stored within the Infinite Light exist?”

The gist of the teaching is as follows:

Largely, it comments on the verse, “As waters reflect face to face, so does the heart of one man to another”. (Proverbs 27:19)

The Rebbe explains that the reason why a body of water can reflect images like a mirror is because its surface has an undifferentiated quality of uniform simplicity. In Hebrew, this quality is called פְּשִׁיטוּת . Just like a body of water, the Infinite Light has this quality too. That’s why it reflects images back to us. Our earthly deeds set off spiritual vibes which ascend up the spiritual levels into the higher realms. There, the vibes of all human deeds coalesce to become part of the configuration of the “Supreme Man” (which is a Sefirotic template of humanity, existing in the highest reaches of the spiritual realms). Then, like a beam of light the image of “Supreme Man”, it’s Ten Sefirot, projects upward upon the Infinite Light. And then the image reflects back down infusing all the realms with light and blessing, until reaching our earthly realm. It’s like a person’s image cast upon a smoothly still body of water, which instantly reflects it back. What’s reflected back from the Infinite Light, is called, the Ten Sefirot stored within the Infinite Light. In the original Hebrew that’s, עשר ספירות הגנוזות באור אין סוף.

Like a surface which mirrors, what’s reflected back is ultimately a result of our own behavior.

In the days following this teaching, I strolled along various trails hugging the gladed banks of the Oleta River in Greynolds Park in North Miami Beach, Florida. There, I contemplated this teaching while entranced by the reflection of the sky, trees and birds upon the slow moving, nearly still, water. Part of the Rebbe’s teaching is that though the Infinite Light has these Ten Sefirot, the Infinite Light remains unchanged; just like the water is unchanged by the reflection it bears. Gazing upon the water, I tried to identify with how the water simultaneously bears all these picturesque images and yet remains utterly unchanged.

A Paradox of Space - עולם

However, I had a problem. It’s true that the reflected images did not change the Oleta River. However, that’s because the particles/waves of light bounced off the surface of the water. That’s what a reflection is. Thus, the reflected light could hardly be said to be part of the water. Yet, the Ten Sefirot are part of the Infinite Light. Then I thought to myself, “Yes, but something of the light definitely penetrates further in. After all, with this light aquatic creatures see and water plants carry on photosynthesis.”

Then my inner truth seeker came back, “Fine. Light mixes into the water. However, the Rabbe’s parable is only referring to the light which is reflected back; as that is what’s image producing.”

Truthfully, I lived with this question for years. No amount of further meditation along the banks of the Oleta River seemed to provoke a satisfying answer.

One day, it dawned on me that the term the Ten Sefirot stored within the Infinite Light includes the words "stored within", which connotes a "depth". Storage usually occurs in the depth of a structure; particularly, if what's stored is at least, a bit valuable.  

Taken together in the literal sense, the terms "reflection" and "stored" would seem to indicate that the Infinite Light has both a "surface" and a "depth". However, both of these are terms which relate to space. In space, to say that something is at once “on the surface” and “in the depth” of the same structure is a blatant contradiction. Yet, that is what’s communicated when the Rebbe’s reflection parable is applied to the Ten Sefirot stored within the Infinite Light. These Ten Sefirot are portrayed as having equal presence on the surface and depth of the Infinite Light.

However, to apply terms appropriate for space to the Infinite Light is laughable. Space is something which the Infinite Light is clearly beyond. Accordingly, the Infinite Light's total grasp of everything, spiritual and physical, exists neither in a state of "surface" nor of "depth". If so, how can there be Ten Sefirot which are referred to as either stored in or reflected from the Infinite Light?

Perhaps, that's exactly the point. The Infinite Light is beyond space. Accordingly, any depth (of storage) is simultaneously a surface (of reflection) and vice versa. Where there's no space, surface is depth and depth is surface. Such distinctions do not even begin to take form.

  

A Paradox of Time - שנה

While gazing at the banks of the Oleta River, I was mystified by the fact that the standard texts of the Lurianic schools of Kabbalah discuss the Ten Sefirot latent within the Infinite Light as the very first cause of all creations and not as an effect later produced by the creations themselves. The only way I was able to think myself out of this problem was to say that since the Infinite Light is beyond time, sequence does not yet exist and an “effect” can be “cause”. In that reality, the “effect” is already present prior to being activated by its earthly “cause”. Thus, it’s available to serve as a “cause” of its own “cause”. What a fascinating paradox! It’s really a loop. Our original cause of being is the cumulative effect of our own deeds. Every positive deed we do is retroactively part of the very cause of our existence; thus, blurring the distinction between cause and effect.

I’ve read in Tal Orot that Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezeritch (1704 - 1772) advanced the following reason for why God created the world: God saw the deeds of the saintly and was aroused with desire to create the world. In other words, the deeds of the saintly already existed beyond time. This inspired their creation, as well as the creation of the world to serve as their home. Years earlier, in his own style of expression, Rabbi Dov Ber encapsulated the above teaching of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; which is that the pre-existing deeds caused the creation.

If this logic seems circular, that’s fine. In Kabbalah, the circular came before the linear. Plus, even in physical nature we observe many processes which are circularly logical.

A Paradox of Life - נפש

Unless the reflection parable is thought through it can be confusing. Why? In our world a reflection is never more alive than what it reflects. This is because both reside in the same realm. However, going up and down realms also means changes in levels of life; drastic ones. The higher the realm's level, the more alive. The lower the level, the less alive. 

To explain, for the sake of simplicity, the Infinite Light can be seen as a Being of Infinite Life - Infinitely alive! He then shares a mere droplet of His life with a vertical chain of lower realms or worlds. Those closer to Him (to the top) get more of this droplet of life, both in quality and quantity. Those further away (lower down), get less of it. 

Since the image of the "Supreme Man" is beamed upward, his reflection resides on a vastly higher level of life than he does. Hence, it's more alive than he is. Residing higher up, the reflection can now serve as a template source for all lower reality; including the "Supreme Man" himself. Paradoxically, the reflection is more alive than the reflected.

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