Sharing the Crown

Part I

On the fourth day of creation, the two great luminaries (sun and moon) were created. The moon complained to the Creator that it's inappropriate for two rulers to share a single crown, i.e. for the two main luminaries to be equally large and bright. The Creator then asked the moon to remedy the situation by shrinking her size and luminosity. The moon balked, feeling that it’s unfair for her to suffer just for having raised a valid issue.  

To pacify her, the Creator offered several concessions: allowing her to inhabit the daytime sky, referencing her orbit to guide the Jewish calendar and having saintly people named for her. She rejected these offers. The first two, she claimed lacked exclusivity. During the day the sun will render her light irrelevant and the Jewish calendar also references the sun’s orbit. To the third offer, she silently expressed her displeasure. The Creator felt for her pain and instituted that on every new moon, a goat sacrifice be brought on His behalf in the Jerusalem Temple as atonement for having diminished her. Once diminished, the moon's light has been reduced to a mere reflection of the sun's radiance. 

However, in the future messianic age the moon will regain her original stature and once again function as a full luminary in her own right. Then, the solar male and lunar female will unify as equals, face to face; as they will finally share the same crown - rendering both equally givers and receivers.

~ Adapted from Babylonian Talmud, Chullin 60b and commentaries.

The sun and moon is our sky’s romantic couple. The sun is the male and the moon is the female. In a sense, the above story is about all couples on all levels.  All of creation works on the principle of “couples” - male/female polarity. This is true both for the earthly realm and for all the spiritual realms above. In Jewish mysticism the traditional definition of male and female is giver and receiver. The entire vast span of creation works on a system of magnetism between male giving and female receiving forces.

From this perspective, gender is a role and not a fixed identity. It’s a verb, not a noun. Any entity can be female in one setting and male in another. It all depends on whether the entity at that moment is primarily receiving or giving. In the fluidity of this model, every entity incorporates both male and female aspects. Beings who are entirely male or female can’t exist, as such a state is too unbalanced to coalesce. Yet, all beings are predominantly one or the other for the purposes of their main predestined roles. Otherwise, the polarity of attraction would be too dull to endure.

For quite a while I have noticed that Jewish mystical thought seems to point in a different direction, other than “receiving”, as its future vision of the feminine side of reality. This future version of femininity is very different from what one would expect based on observations culled from either historical or contemporary experiences. Yet, foreshadowing hints are already apparent. Not surprisingly, some of these hints have always been present at the edges of the human experience.

In a public address, November 1991, the Lubavitcher Rebbe taught that just to "receive" is a sign of weakness, as it demonstrates deficiency and dependency. In the future the moon will be a giver just like the sun.

It seems to me what the Rebbe meant was that to have one’s role defined as a “receiver” is like saying that the lights have been shut off on one’s core identity and potentially higher life role. It’s like a black out (or at least a brown out) has occurred. Accordingly, this trait was not the original feminine identity and cannot endure as its core identifying feature when the spiritually illumined future arrives. Truthfully, its validity is in question even now, as the rays of the messianic era begin to peek out over the horizon. There must be some other, more to the core, meaning which defines the feminine aspect of life.

After much prayer and contemplation, it eventually dawned on me that in life the masculine aspects seem to be work oriented and the feminine aspects seem to be pleasure oriented. Ideally, the two are designed to work together. Each enhances the other in a kind of soul and body relationship, where pleasure gives soul to work and work gives earthly meaning to pleasure. In this scenario, both male and female primarily engage in giving. Even their receiving is just another mode of their giving. What this all means deserves elaboration. However, it begins with a personal journey in thought.

I did not come to the above understanding for quite a while. Instead, taking what the Rebbe taught to heart, led me to consider God's Oneness as the source of femininity and His Infinity as the source of masculinity. There’s no difference between His Oneness and Infinity. Indeed, they’re identical, seamlessly so. Oneness is Infinity and Infinity is Oneness. Yet, Oneness refracts into the various realms of created reality as the feminine forces and Infinity as the masculine forces. Consequently, I thought of feminine forces as contractive/quality driven and masculine forces as expansive/quantity driven. Of course this is a vast oversimplification. I’m just mentioning the idea in passing. It’s not my intention to actually teach it here. There are a collection of poems and essays online (soullite.blogspot.com) from that period of my journey which elaborate on this concept.  

I was so overwhelmed by the beauty and depth of this concept that it rarely dawned on me how I would use such an abstraction for practical day to day direction to solve real life problems; where would “the rubber meet the road”. My considerations were mostly focused on theory. The concept and its abstract implications were so dazzling that my mental gaze was satiated. As if in a home formed by bricks and mortar of thought, my philosophical self just wanted to move in for a while.

With the passage of time, my gaze on the concept softened and I was ready to explore this subject from other mystical/philosophical angles. Plus, I needed an answer for the incessant questions of my 16 year old daughter, mostly around issues of feminism. When I tried the Oneness/Infinity approach, it didn't seem to resonate well with her. So, I prayed for a different kind of answer; one which is at once continuous with my original approach, but also can be understood independently on its own.

Part II

On a recent stroll along the bank of a creek, an answer dawned on me. The answer harks back to the very reason why God created the world.

Judaism offers various reasons. Mostly, they are all interrelated. The one favored by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto is what seems to work best for explaining what dawned on me. Paraphrased, it explains that as humans, we seem to have been created with huge appetites to receive. Our desires to receive spans a very wide range along the "spectrum of pleasure"; everything from satisfying lowly physical cravings, all the way up to the pleasures of basking in heightened states of spiritual bliss. 

In contrast, God manifests the very opposite polarity, a near-infinite craving to give. It’s an insatiable appetite which demands fitting recipients, preferably ones who can receive the most perfect gift God can offer, "Himself"; meaning to be associated with Him as closely as possible.

Why?

Since God is perfect, He wants His gifts to be perfect too. Otherwise, His giving is not entirely satisfying to the recipients; rendering His bestowals imperfect.

Now, one who receives a huge free gift from a benefactor is ashamed to look him in the face. Perhaps it's alright if the recipient will rarely see the benefactor again. However, because what God offers is the bliss of experiencing His very presence, the recipient will constantly "see" the Benefactor; a scenario that leaves no route to escape the shame.

The only known way out of this quandary is for the recipient to somehow earn God's beneficence. Once earned, it’s no longer a gift. The recipient becomes its owner. There's no shame in receiving earned wages, even if paid in divine currency. 

To this end, like a boss who assigns projects, God gives human beings Torah commandments. To the extent that they're performed, we as workers earn our future reward - the bliss of becoming attached to His light. Of course, there are levels and levels to such states of attachment. 

In order to accomplish this, the timeline of human existence is divided into two periods: a time for work and a time for pleasure. During the period of work the main focus of human existence revolves around the efforts to earn the future reward. Afterwards comes the second period, a time of spiritual bliss, pleasuring in varying degrees of attachment to God's light.

With the above paraphrase of Rabbi Luzzatto's words, it becomes clear that each period has a very different character. To form these differences in character, each period must be animated and directed by its own unique flow of divine light which serves as its life giving soul. There must be one unique flow for the period of work and another one for the period of pleasure.

Of course, since anything sustainable contains a bit of its opposite, even during the period of work, there's some experience of pleasure. It’s just that such pleasures are usually confined to areas of life which are secondary to the main strivings of humanity; consequently, bearing little, if any, earthly meaning. For example, one’s culinary appetites or musical tastes are largely irrelevant to the greater strivings of one’s work to forge true life improvements in meaningful ways. Even the pleasures of a love are only truly imbued with greater earthly meaning when man and woman marry, becoming responsible for each other. Otherwise, in terms of true meaning, they’re mere marginal gropings. 

The unique sources of divine light which animates and directs each of the two periods, of pleasure and work, come from two different spiritual worlds. The divine light gives the period of work its animating soul is generated by the world of emanations (in Hebrew “Olam Atzilut”). From there, the light flows down the various spiritual realms until reaching our earthly realm at the very bottom of the chain. Yes, in terms of the spiritual worlds, our’s is the “bottom feeder”. All other spiritual worlds are stacked/layered above us and our’s is the “last stop of the line”.  

The next world up is the world of primordial man (in Hebrew “Adam Kadmon”). It’s one world higher, more spiritual, than the world of emanations. It’s intuitive that a more pleasurable flow of divine light would come from a higher world. Thus, from this higher world will flow down divine light to animate and direct the period of divine pleasure. The light will flow down the chain of spiritual realms until reaching our earthly realm.

The light streaming down from primordial man will continue and grow in degrees of intensity and luminescence as humanity moves further and further into the future. The messianic era is not simply a single period, as many may imagine. It’s not some grand finale of human history. Rather it’s a chain of periods stretching from (hopefully) near future to distant future, with each succeeding one being more life and light filled than its predecessor. Over the course of these periods humanity will see the fulfillment of  the messianic promises conveyed by the Torah. Some of these prophecies will apply more explicitly some periods and some to others. 

On the border between the two worlds of emanations and primordial man, lay an area called “the crown”. It’s called crown because it’s the pinnacle spiritual level of the world of emanations. In common language, pinnacle levels are often referred to as “crowns”. For example, the uppermost point of one’s skull is referred to as, “The crown of the head.”

Though paradoxically the bridge level linking the two worlds also happens to be the lowest spiritual level of the world of primordial man, still it’s considered “the crown” from the perspective of the world of emanations. The choice of name flows our perspective. We’re on the lowest level of all the worlds. So looking upwards, the highest level of the world of emanations is above us like a “crown”.   

When the moon complained before God that two rulers cannot share the same crown, she was referring to this pinnacle level of the world of emanations which is also located at the lower edge of the world of primordial man. Obviously, it was not literally the physical moon which complained, but rather the angel which serves as her soul; her spiritual counterpart. The visible moon is merely her physical body. 

Just as the sun was created to bring humanity a light by which work can be done, the moon was created to radiate another kind of light, one by which pleasures can be felt. The sun extends down light from the world of emanations and the moon from primordial man. The sun’s light is already active in pre-messianic times, while the moon’s light is mainly post-messianic.

It’s at the “crown” level, which bridges these two worlds, where the reservoir of light channeled down by the sun and the moon originate and reside. From there, each draws down its respective flows of lights, just from its own side of the border. The sun draws from the aspect of the “crown” which is on the side of the world of emanations and the moon draws from the aspect which is on the side of primordial man.

[The following is an enhanced summary for those already familiar with Jewish mystical thought:

During the Tikkun (rectification) process, we mainly draw our spiritual lights which turn into our blessings from the world of Atzilut (the world of emanations). When the messianic age arrives the world of Atzilut will be restored and we will draw our spiritual lights from the next world up, namely Adam Kadmon (the world of primordial man).

What bridges these two worlds is God's Sefirah of Keter of Atzilut (the divine crown). The lower part of this Sefirah exists at the highest peak of Atzilut. The higher part of this Sefira exists at the lowest edge of Adam Kadmon. 

Correspondingly, the lights of divine pleasure emerge from the higher part of the Sefirah of Keter and divine will from the lower part. Respectively, these two levels are known in Lurianic Kabbalah as “Atik Yomin” (Ancient of Days) and “Arich Anpin” (Face of Patience).

Pleasure is the source of the feminine role. Will is the source of the masculine role.]

Part III

Why did the moon complain?

Truthfully, she would have preferred to “share the crown” with the sun and is looking forward to doing so in the future. As an angel, she’s not selfish or egoistic. She simply behaved as a nurturing mother who didn’t want her children, humanity, overwhelmed by an equal exposure to two different spiritual programs before they were ready to integrate both of them. She felt that for now, until humanity attains a certain level of spiritual maturity, one program or the other had to be the primary focus. Either humans are going to primarily bask in spiritual bliss or primarily task in divine service. Until maturity is attained, both programs cannot coalesce on equal footing without causing utter chaos.

As with every nurturing mother, she wanted her children primarily to bask in pleasures, to enjoy themselves. The work can be introduced later on, as an adjunct to the pleasures, to give them feet to walk meaningfully on planet earth. Accordingly, she was roundly shocked when she was the one asked to step down, to diminish her stature. No substitute offer of restitution, short of her restoration, could even partially console her. Hence, until the onset of the messianic era she remains inconsolable. 

As a result of her diminishment, the higher level of the divine crown, which edges into the messianic light, became barely perceptible. Its radiance of divine pleasure was reduced to a faintly distant glow, difficult to reach. In contrast, the light radiating the divine will to motivate work, the sun's domain, remained fully luminescent.

In the times approaching of the messianic era, we encounter more and more of the light of divine pleasure, cast via the moon. We're like trekkers through a dark forest approaching a well lit home. The closer we approach, the more we are treated to the lights which stream out from the windows and doors. Our hopes rise as our path brightens. Yes, we're tethered in a twilight between the ages of exile and redemption.  The lights of future divine pleasures already exert influence on the way we view our surrounding situations.

However, it’s a mixed blessing. We're still trekking along in the forest. Though we already enjoy its light, we have not yet entered the home. Our surrounding situations are still pre-messianic. As a result, the illumination cast from the near future into the present invariably gets interpreted through present day lenses. This can be confusing.

To clarify why, think about efforts to interpret past history in terms of present day perspectives which did not yet exist; almost as if dwellers of the past were expected to magically "mind-bend" to our times. Such expectations are unfair to impose on them. Our current perspectives have been shaped by what they have not yet experienced.

Similarly, interpreting the spiritual lights cast by the future into our present can lead to unrealistic conclusions; only in the opposite direction. Many can feel the foreshadowing vibes emanating from the future, indicating that the feminine aspect of humanity will be uniquely elevated. However, they’re interpreting these future vibes with present day lenses. Until humanity emerges from its present socio-economic constraints and walks into the enlightened future, it’s very difficult to decipher the true meaning of these vibes and invariably they undergo an exile of their own by getting misapplied to the present.

Since for most of humanity the "only real game in town" for the past millennia was "bread winning", many are drawn to apply their newly found inner awakenings in this direction. And for now, that may be all that can be done. However, it never seems to dawn on them that these awakenings might signal that (hopefully) soon there's "a new game coming to town", one uniquely crafted to enhance and address the feminine aspect of humanity.

It does not seem that anyone today can describe the coming era too accurately. However, based on the traditional teachings passed through the generations by our Torah sages, some aspects of it are known. With these teachings in mind a basic outline begins to form.

Imagine a time when people are supplied with plenty. Basic or even enhanced livelihood will no longer need to be worked for. Humanity will be relieved from such pressures and the intense, time-consuming labor which goes with it. People will finally have real time on their hands. What would human life look like under these circumstances?

Some readers are likely imagining an endless vacation. Yippee!!!! Sorry to burst your bubble (if I had). Truthfully, people only imagine an endless vacation because they feel so weighed down by obligations that they desperately crave a respite. Consequently, their imaginations play games with them, exaggerating their real needs. However, if they won the lottery and lived an ideal vacation for a year or two, they'd likely feel soul starved for meaning and ask themselves, "Now what?"

Those who imagine an endless vacation remind me of a hungry person waiting in line at a buffet decked out with a luscious display of gourmet food. In the throes of hunger s/he imagines eating it all, the plate included. Then after one or two dishes, all that "unconquerable appetite" seems to have vanished in thin air, as if it never was. Surprisingly, that's all it took.

The human condition is such that we actually experience deeper pleasure giving than we do when receiving. It's only because to one extent or another we're driven by fear of scarcity, whether real or imagined, that for many a preference for receiving has become their main default mode.

When the age of plenty arrives, many people will first come in touch with the sensitivity and beauty of their underlying drives to give. Powerful yearnings to give will wash over the masses of humanity like wild torrents unleashed by newly opened floodgates. In the midst of this all, human priorities will experience a massive shift and the role of being a breadwinner will become as obsolete as the ancient hand plow.

Of course, working itself won't become obsolete. It will just be redirected towards other attainments; such as the pleasures of giving to others and bonding with God in states of spiritual bliss.

Receiving itself will likely be employed as a form of reverse giving. The yearning to give will be so powerful that people will become practiced in the art of receiving just to pleasure a giver.  

Part IV

Until that age of change arrives how can humans align their feminine selves with the vibes flowing in from the messianic future? 

Ideally, divine pleasure and work are meant to exist in symbiosis with each other. They're supposed to be in a kind of soul and body relationship, with pleasure being the soul and work the body. This means that even today there's a deeper layer of divine pleasure driving every act of work, even if barely perceptible.

What happened in the Garden of Eden was the human reenactment of the moon's diminishment. A close examination of the verses indicates that eating the fruit had temporarily diminished Eve's status. The result was, the highly unpleasant "...and he will rule over you." (Genesis 3:16) Thus, the feminine aspect of humanity sunk into a more passive, receiving role. With the light of the future peeking over the horizon and beginning to illuminate backwards in time, a new consciousness began to dawn and incremental changes have already occurred and will continue to occur, cumulatively so.

Back in the Garden of Eden, Adam's destiny was severely affected as well; perhaps even more painfully, as eating the fruit caused a misalignment between divine pleasure and work. And so Adam was told, "By the sweat of your face, you will eat bread..." (ibid 3:19). This too was not intended for all time. In the messianic era, the masculine aspect of humanity will be released from these shackles, as work and divine pleasure realign and reunite. 

With Eve's now reduced capacity to draw down divine pleasure, Adam’s work lost access to most of its underlying soul. What could have felt joyful and exciting, was now to be shouldered by the masculine aspect of humanity as a lifeless burden.

The solution would be for a realignment and reunion to occur so work can be carried away on the wings of pleasure.

People seem to spare no effort dancing at a celebration. Despite the physical exertion, the music and ambiance just seems to carry the dancers' feet and arms as if animated by an outside force. That’s how tasks properly illuminated by divine pleasure should feel. 

While breadwinning is still a massively time consuming human endeavor, a key technique for becoming a better worker is to access the spark of pleasure underlying the work.  Those who manage to, typically perform at higher energy levels, develop a better instinct for the workflow and usually end up doing a better job.

Accordingly, accessing this spark is a great recipe for advancement in one's career. Our inner females are uniquely attuned to this and are capable of harnessing it to our advantage; transforming the sweat of work into pleasure of spiritual connection. The goal is not to obviate work, but to reunite it with its corresponding state of pleasure; to make it more soulful.

Such an approach can be adopted even before the messianic era has arrived; almost as a preparation for that special era. Obviously, the closer we move in towards that era, the easier it should be to reunite work with pleasure. 

One can reflect, “Since God arranged that I find myself working at a certain occupation, it must give Him pleasure. What is it about my work which I think gives Him pleasure? How can I deeply identify with that pleasure, share in it and possibly give Him back a better version of it?”

My first accounting professor was a wonderful example of someone who lived and breathed the union between work and pleasure. She expressed such pleasure and excitement over what many would consider to be tedious and boring procedures that she literally inspired some students taking her class as an elective to become accounting majors. She magically held students spellbound with fascination as she related the history and relevance of each accounting procedure she taught. They saw stories alive with human strivings instead of just dry, perfunctory procedures. Like her, I have encountered others who serve as ambassadors of inspiration which underlies the perspiration in their respective fields. They magically turn their fields alive with soul. 

Once the messianic era obviates the need to work for a living, work will be repurposed towards other kinds of growth and development. 

• People will strive to attain a greater manifestation of their selfless sides, which will lead to greater kindness and virtue. 

• They will seek out deeper immersion in devotional studies. By then such studies will reveal a wider body of knowledge than they do today, to the point of incorporating and integrating much of what falls into the category of contemporary academic disciplines such as science, medicine, technology, history, literature, music, etc.

• People will self discipline in meditation as a means to interact with what’s beyond the physical realm and maybe even take the efforts to the heights of attaining holy states of consciousness known as prophecy.

• There will be an increase in devotional activity, as part of forging a greater and deeper connection with God’s light.  

In that era, humanity will abound with new heights, as our inner females transform from their old roles of receiving towards their new roles of accessing and selflessly imparting ever deeper states of pleasure. Then will be fulfilled, “a woman of valor is the crown of her husband” (Proverbs 12:4). 

Part V

There’s a lot more to this topic. It’s far from exhausted in my own mind, let alone in the minds of those whose understanding of Jewish mystical thought surpasses my own. I do not want the reader to come away with the impression that I wrote everything there is to write. I just intended to introduce the topic with hopes to benefit those who can be helped and also, so that those greater than me will be inspired to take what I have written further.

I once read a quote from a famous author that a work of writing is never completed. It’s only abandoned. Almost every piece of writing could be taken further and improved upon, but at some point the author felt that it finally needed to be released for the benefit of the readers.

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