All the factors

It’s rare to see things clearly – I always had a feeling that one day God would give me the big picture

All the factors is simply speaking, all the factors!

There is obviously factors that controls humanity – we like to think of ourselves as independent – that itself, a factor – namely a person is by nature free – and if you don’t believe me, just look at what he’ll do if you try to take away his freedom.

So all the factors, are simply, namely, what are the motives – some subconscious – that motivate people to do what they do?

Ironically, it’s actually a few very powerful motivators in which all human behavior falls into.

As Chassidus teaches quite emphatically, we are good!

And this is clearly seen in our core desire – certainly present in children – for the alleviation of human suffering, and neuro-surgeons write how children are exceptionally compassionate but seem to lose it.

And that is due to another factor, namely, we fear pain and shame.

Hence if things are secure, people are loving.

But when people get into fear, anxiety, panic, as Rabbeinu Bechaya says, the heart cannot hold fear and love simultaneously, hence, unless we eliminate our fear, we get stuck with them.

And then – all hell breaks lose – for the simple reason that we are jealous, that while we are in the state of fear – messed up to put it bluntly – others are not.

This is the cause of bullying, anti-Semitism, and all hatred which doesn’t necessitate a single act of aggression towards the hater.

Now, as another instinct is love, hence the person who hates justifies, rationalizes, subconsciously his hatred; so what comes to his mind, is not seen as anger, rather as a justified cause; hence as the Rebbe Rashab writes, though the hatred caused the perception of injustice in the other; in fact it is seen to the hater, the other way around.

Yet behind all these powerful psychological factors, is another reality, which ultimately drives every other factor and that is simply, that beneath all these emotional dispositions is the curiosity of the mind searching for the truth – and as the drama of life plays out – anyone interested in truth, is all the while discerning – and it is precisely this discernment that God knows will/has led humanity to the realization that there is an all-powerful creator, to whom through submitting our desires, will and pleasure to his, that we become the moral, compassionate people we wish to be in the first place!