Tuesday, November 27, 2007
King David cried out,"You do not desire burnt offerings, the sacrifices of ELOHI"M is a broken heart, because a broken and humble heart you do not despise."
The Mysterious Granfather of the Zohar (Parshat Mishpatim) explains these verses. Offerings may only be offered to the Eternal One YHV"H, but to ELOHI"M which is the name of Divine judgement. One may not offer to ELOHI"M because there are many powers in the world calledd elohim and some of the are from the evil side. So how does one relate to this aspect of the Divine? It is only with the broken heart, that is the offering to ELOHI"M.
In our mixed up world not all criticism is constructive. there is so much criticism out there that is just smallmindedness or fear or jealousy. So one can't offer an offering judgment, that is to totally melt one's soul in worship and bond with that face of the Divine. By doing that one may accidentally get caught up in negative constrictions that stunt the blooming of the soul and distance the person from give in the deepest way he can. But the way that we can relate to this aspect of God is with a broken heart. We must be able to hear the voices that challenge us, some of them might loving at their source truly coming from the Divine judgment. We must be humble enough to able to examine them earnestly by feeling out the truthfulness of the voices, while at the same time not allowing the negativity to wash us away and negate our joyful spirit.
In Pirkei Avot it is taught that if we really desire to hear God's voice through the Torah we must learn to be a "lover of criticism." The Zohar would add to that a warning not to go too far in this love. We can't totally worship criticism, and we must remember that there is an inner core in us that can never be criticised.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Intentional Jubilation
The Three Festivals, teaches Reb Nachman, are the heart of the year. During the year we serve God in all sorts of ways, do all sorts of Mitzvot with our bodies but don't necessarily feel their spiritual ramification. At times it might even feel that all our efforts fall into an unknown abyss. The Festivals are a time when we start feeling how our mitzvot profoundly transformed our insides. It is a time of celebration, when some of the Divine joy comes down to us.
what do we need to do in order to connect with this Joy?
One of the Halachot of Yom Tov is that you may only use or eat things that you intended to use already before the coming of the Yom Tov. For example if you put grapes up on the roof in order that they turn into raisins and the when Yom Tov came you changed your mind and decided to eat the grapes, you may not do so. This is because you put these grapes away not to be used.
Now, what if you intended to use it for one use and then (on Yom Tov)you would like to use it for a different use. Is that allowed?
The Gemara makes the following distinction; if originally food was intended to be used as dog food and afterwards the owner changed his mind and decided to eat it himself this is permitted. But if the opposite happened, namely, food was set aside for human consumption and it subsequently became in edible for people but okay for the dog, in this case it is forbidden to be fed to the dog because it is considered that it was not prepared before Yom Tov for the dog.
What is the spiritual idea behind this law?
The law that all food that we eat on Yom Tov must have been set aside for that before teaches us that the key to receiving the Divine joy is intention and preparation. But this does not only mean that I must settle down and focus and say to myself, "I want to connect the sanctity of the Festival." It is a lot more than that. This intention and focus needs to extend to all my possessions and activities. If I want to gather together all the sparks of Godliness from my entire year then I must be able to at least gather together my whole day into the consciousness of celebration. My food didn't just happen to be here it is here intentionally to participate in God's party.
For this reason, if you had in mind to use this food for yourself it does not suffice if you to give it to the dog. Because the dog represents all that that is more earthly and naturally more distanced from human consciousness. It is particularly those things, the more peripheral parts of the person that need the most focus on Yom Tov. We open our selves to receiving total joy when we celebrate with total all-encompassing intentionality.
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