Sunday, June 29, 2014

Current Events - 1

Apostasy is certainly a terrible thing. There is nothing worse than demeaning the Torah and abandoning Mitzvot, which form the foundation of Judaism. But if your perspective is that apostasy comes from people and serves no Divine purpose then you are not understanding its deeper significance. A fundamental concept of Kabbalistic thought is that hidden deep within everything is a great light. This is true even in the darkness of apostasy. This is a light that shines only in the darkest moments and is, consequently, the greatest light. The wave that has overcome the Nation as a whole is not in the minds and hearts of individuals, but is something that moves within the entire nation. Surely, anything that affects the entire people is destined to bring about a great tikkun (improvement). Therefore even though when faced with acts of disbelief we must reject them out of hand as they are terrible, they are darkness, they are ignorant, they are distant from purity, and there is nothing more upsetting, we should not refrain from viewing it with an outlook informed by holiness to see the light that can only sprout forth from this darkness. This is the necessary perspective for our times, to see the light of Moshiach that will sort out the light from the darkness, the sweet from the bitter.
To understand this light we will point out a few things. You can then figure out on your own how to apply these concepts further. First of all, it is a well known principle that before the arrival of a new mindset (מוחין) it is necessary to completely remove the previous one. The Ariza"l teaches that each night the mindset of the previous day is removed, in order to allow for a fresh new day. This occurs primarily at the end of the night when it is darkest. This occurs on a daily as well as yearly basis. One example of this occurred in times of Mordechai and Esther. This was a time of needing to recreate the relationship between God and the Jewish Nation (נסירה). The first step to doing that was creating a state of slumber (דורמיטא), which is why our Sages teach us that the Jews were asleep from Mitzva performance and therefore enjoyed the Feast of Achasverosh. The basis of all the apostasy of these times is the removal of the (מוחין) mindset of Exile in order to prepare for a new mindset of life in the Land of Israel.

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