Big time eureka

One of the unique things about Chassidus, is, it starts off as a fuzzy light, but as it states about Abraham, he discovered God when he was three and many other times 30, 40 etc. so when did he discover God? But as God is essentially beyond human comprehension, hence human comprehension can always comprehend more, for there is infinite to comprehend in any event!

The great principle of Kabbalah is of course, the structure of the human soul.

Without going into all the details, but there are three divisions.

There is Abraham, Chessed, kindness, unconditional love; Isaac, strictness, unconditional justice; and Jacob, the balance, the center, which effectively is mind over matter, God’s wisdom over human emotions.

Here is the simple explanation of what this means.

We of course are unique – unlike animals, we have a mind, so an animal can only think what its instincts tell it to do, for food, procreation etc.

No animal to date has written a book; even a simple one-liner blog (unless of course you don’t consider me much of a human, which may be the case : )

However, we humans too, are primarily (unless we change it) run by our emotions.

Now there are (just as in animals) two primary emotions, love and fear:

The state of Abraham, is the state of love; this is the state of a healthy child, unconditionally loving everyone, which is why children can easily God-forbid be taken advantage of, for they trust unconditionally!

Now this is not an intellectual, rather emotional state, for it feels good to love, to trust; it’s called in Kabbalah the open state.

Just as when we love ourselves, we are not particularly bothered by the stupidity in ourselves; similarly, in societies e.g. American where there is healthy self-esteem, lack of fear and judgmentalism, people overlook another’s bad points, for their desire to love them supersedes fear or quite simply the desire to hate them.

Now what happens to someone in the state of fear; so most people in harsh judgmental societies, Germany being a prime example, don’t live in an open loving state, they in fact, are actually afraid of being criticized (which their experiences has shown, that it’s a distinct and very hurtful possibility!) hence they are closed.

They live like a person walking through a minefield, in every trepidation.

Now someone who fears something, cannot also love it.

If you fear for example a mosquito, you cannot love it either!

So when people get into the state of fear, they also become intolerant.

Now they think they are intolerant to injustice; they think they are standing up for justice; rather they are jealous that there are people who are in the open loving state, while they are in the strait-jacket of fear and closed off from the most wonderful sensation of open-love – in fact, there is a word for this judgmental state, it’s called jealousy!

However there is a third state, for truth be told, unconditional love, though it feels good for the lover, is not necessarily good for the receiver; a father who is in the open state may spoil his child, and hence instead of the child developing a sense of right and wrong, the child feels entitled and cannot handle not receiving his desires, which is the spoiled child syndrome.

In fact, Abraham gave birth to such a child, called Yishmoel; his progeny are the prime terrorists and slave traders etc. etc. barbarians and antisemites today; for their notion of entitlement, allows them no respite from their jealousy of those who actually have it better than them.

Likewise Isaac’s disciplinarian touch, though well intended, gave birth to Eisav, the progenitor of Rome, the civilization which brought the notion of brutal force, based on its own faith, as we see Christianity, mainly dependents of Rome, had in fact less tolerance than even the Arabs toward Jews, and others faith, so this is the flipside of intolerance “standing “for” a cause while brutalizing any other position!

Thank-God, today, we live in messianic times, where Eisav, the west, realizing the horrors of world-wars etc. and thankfully having the spark of a Jewish mother, Rebbekah, has come to their senses and extols love and tolerance, over harshness and intolerance!

But the path of Jacob, the Jewish people, is ideal.

For it is the notion, that we must overcome our emotions – shall we the singular creation of God with the ability to be rational instead of irrational, to choose how to behave, instead of it being hoisted upon us; not do so?!

We must choose, as the Baal Shem Tov teaches, “Fear no one, nor anything (hence not be in the intolerant fearful closed state) but G-d (hence have a moral responsibility) and Love Your Fellow Man As Yourself (hence do the ultimate good deeds of LOVING KINDNESS!
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