Childish Adults

Every person has countless dreams and aspirations, but in order to succeed it is necessary to limit oneself at any given time to one thing and to focus on it. If the person is constantly overwhelmed with many desires he will be unable to fulfill any of them completely. The middah of gevurah directs a person to choose a defined objective, to focus upon it, to begin it and to make the effort to completely finish it and not to jump from project to project. Chesed cannot impact the world without gevurah to constrain it. Chesed can spread its wings in the spiritual realm where there is no need for limitation, and one can spread his wings to fly to limitless worlds, however, this world requires gevurah. In a dream one can desire many things, but practically there is a need to choose, to focus, to prioritize, i.e. to limit oneself.
The bottom line is that gevurah actualizes the greatest dreams. Without it and all that it entails, sticking to a schedule, following a program, focus, giving up on distracting temptations, stubbornness, one cannot rise in holiness. Chesed is the dreams, the great lights, but without vessels, without gevurah they cannot come to fruition.
But even with all of the focus of gevurah it is vital not to lose the freedom of chesed, the sweetness of dreams and broad ambition. In a certain respect childhood is the age of simple chesed, full of love and sweetness, before the person enters the complications and limitations of this world. This is why children are so full of sweetness, joy, and laughter because the bitterness of life has not touched and soiled them.
Adulthood, bagrut in Hebrew, carries the same root as gevurah, and is the age in which a person adds gevurah to his repertoire as he recognizes the limitations of life and acquires the tools to progress in life. Adulthood needs to serve the light of childhood and not to exchange childhood for adulthood. A person needs to remain a child in spirit and to never age. It is important to take heed to not be so impressed with his relationship with vessels and the complications of this world, to think that the simplicity of childhood is naivete and weakness. A person should not feel that adulthood is the time to awaken from the slumber of childhood.
The fact is that childhood is the wellspring of life and sweetness of the dreams, the simple chesed and love and adulthood clothes that in vessels that enables it to come to the world. But be careful not to exchange the light with the vessel, childhood for adulthood and optimism for pessimism.

Well Praying

Praying is like digging a well in that you need to dig into the depths of your soul where there is flowing water, thirst and pining, deep desires that are befitting like clear, clean water.
Initially, all you find is clumps of dry dirt, then the ground begins to become moist from the waters of the depths, subsequently water begins to trickle out, mixed with mud and dirt. Finally, there is pure, clear, flowing water. The same is true with the gates of the heart which are initially stopped up by lots of dirt, but they are always full of clear water deep within. Prayer consists of peeling away the dried and dirty layers to seek out and reveal what is flowing within, which is totally clear and pure, full of will and desire, connection and great pleasure.
בראשית שס"ז

Daas

Unlike Chochma or Bina (wisdom and understanding) which are acquired through logical analysis of general principles and details, Daas (knowledge) is achieved through finding that  the life force within oneself is in synchronicity with that which is being comprehended. Dass is not superficial contemplation of the matter being comprehended in the manner in which the intellect works, rather it is one's essence connecting with it. It is not expressed in knowledge about, but is united with. It is a life's experience which cannot be expressed verbally and is not delineated by thoughts. Daas is connection, a living meeting between the knower and the known. It creates an essential unity between them. Daas means to blend, to dissolve the external walls which separate and to touch the life force within which is the unity and identification of the knower with the known. Daas neutralizes multiplicity and reveals unity.
תפלה שנ"ז

Resurrection - Where is it to be Found?

I saw something very fascinating in a lengthy piece that HaChalban quotes from the Baal Haleshem (ספר הדעה ב ב ג). This does not sound like the typical kind of idea that you will see in Torah sources. While it may not surprise you the the source is a significant Kabbalistic work, its author was not from the Chassidic movement, on the contrary, he was the leading Lithuanian Mitnagdic Kabbalist of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. Despite that, what I share from him here may sound a bit New-Agey. You'd be surprised what you find if you are not too scared to delve deeply into the sources of truth.
As I often do, I will not be translating his ideas word for word, but restating them in my own way, and in this case adding a bit of my own. That said, feel free to consult the original source and you will see that I am true to his message.
The Talmud teaches us that there are three people who are considered to be dead: one who has tzorass, one who is destitute, and one who has no children. Why is this? It would seem because in each of these cases people often wonder what is the value of their life given the situation they are in. A life that is lacking in meaning is essentially death.
Resurrection happens around us all the time. Every person, every object, every idea, every moment that seems to have no meaning and no purpose, and then we discover its value is an act of resurrection. People mistakenly think that the resurrection of the dead is something that will occur in some futuristic Messianic time. They think it only entails dead bodies rising from the earth and coming back to life.  The truth is that it is a process which is ongoing on a moment by moment basis throughout existence.

Every time a scientist discovers a new power of nature that was unknown beforehand, he is resurrecting the dead. He is giving meaning to something that was not yet understood. If an inventor taps the forces of nature to create something new, he is resurrecting latent abilities within Creation that had been dead until now. If a person feels that his life is meaningless, whether for the reasons mentioned above or some other reason, and then finds meaning in her life, she has now been resurrected. If a person spent time pursuing a project that ultimately failed and feels that all the time expended was wasted, that time is dead to him. When he later uncovers the value of that experience another resurrection has occurred.
The only difference between our times and the Messianic Era is that at by that time the meaning of everything will be revealed, all the dead will have been resurrected. But resurrection itself, is always with us.

I

Occasionally a person will go to an extreme and think that his "I" is just something that is evil and must be erased. He chooses to live a life of asceticism and despises his God-given abilities. He thinks that more he crushes himself the better person and servant of God he is.
This is a great mistake. God did not give us great abilities so that we should waste them, but that we should use them in His service. We cannot destroy the abilities and aptitudes which God instilled within us, on the contrary, they should be used in divine service. If God gave someone strength or intelligence or other skills it is a sign that God wants the person to serve Him with those abilities and not to push them aside or erase them.
Occasionally a person must push aside his abilities if they are leading him on an evil path, but that is no reason to completely destroy them. He should push them aside for a short period of time until he can cleanse them of the evil which has grabbed onto them. Subsequently, he should return to them and use them to serve God for which purpose they were created.
The "I" is the entry point to "you." If there is no "I" to stand before Hashem, then there can be no "you" directed towards Hashem.
תפלה ק"ע

The Esrog - Alone

It takes a conscious effort to connect the Esrog to the other three species because oftentimes the Tzaddikim -righteous (who are symbolized by the Esrog) have a tendency to look upon the wicked with a superficial glance and distance and separate from them. They must make sure that they do not separate from the other three species and to join the Esrog with the Lulav and Aravah (which represent those less righteous) so they are literally one.
It is the righteous who are most likely to err when it comes to unity. The forces of evil make every effort to cause them to err as they know that if the righteous would make peace with everyone else and feel unified with the rest of the Jewish Nation, as symbolized by the Lulav, then the Redemption would come immediately. The Yetzer Hora makes every effort to separate the Esrog from the other species and to instill within them thoughts of separation, filled with hubris. G-d forbid that people should fall into this trap because within lies the secret of our Redemption.
א"ת קמ"א

The Breaking

HaChalban quotes Rav Kook:
Why was it necessary for their to be a breaking of the vessels at the time of Creation?
Godliness gives according to its ability, whereas the recipient is limited which results in its receiving a finite amount of goodness. So the good is given in infinite measure, as is its nature, and is unlimited Godliness, despite the fact that the receiving Creation is incapable of receiving such goodness. Creation will completely shatter and then rebuild itself it its desire to return to the unbound source, to unite with God.
In this manner the Creation creates itself to be on a level of completeness akin to its Creator. It rises above the limitations of a Creation which would not have been possible without being exposed to goodness that was beyond its ability to receive. It would have remained on the level of a Creation and never approached that of the Creator...
The World of Tohu, its shattering and rebuilding, teach us that the urge to rectify, improve and exist operates very powerfully. Existence cannot receive the powerful goodness of the Higher Existence, the unlimited power. The limited existence melts before the goodness, the power of life; it shatters because of its great ambition. But that does not prevent the good from continuing on its path. It rebuilds after breakage and the new building is beautiful with immeasurable value. The measure of good is so much greater than that of suffering that it is worth suffering all the pain of shattering, all the ruination of destruction, so that such improved worlds can emerge that carry a richness of life which, left to their own devices, would have been beyond their ability.The Creator does not choose a path that is measured and constricted commensurate with the ability of existence. Were He to do so the good would be limited and not according to the the powerful life-force of the Creator of All, but based on the conditions of the weak Creation.
אלול תשרי ק"ל