written by David Devor
Dear Mochin Subscribers, PM Associates, Rabbis and Friends,
The fast day called Tisha B'Av commemorates the destruction of both First and Second Temples and many other tragic events that took place on this date. On this day of mourning, we fast and abstain from various comforts and pleasures. It is considered the saddest and most sinister
of days and we are advised to lay low and avoid risks while it passes over. Yet perhaps the time has come for us to come out of hiding and shake our fists in defiance.
The Temples destroyed on this date housed the revealed presence of the Creator. The Creator, of course, is everywhere but, for the most part, well hidden from us. We are metaphysically blind and, according to Kabbalah, suffer from two levels of blindness collectively known as
HesterKaful - double concealment. Yet, miraculously, between the Cherubs on the Ark of the Covenant, the revealed presence of G-d shone forth for all to see and the Temple provided a spectacular experience of sacred presence that was famous throughout the ancient world and provided us with our social, psychological and spiritual focus.
Its loss, understandably, threw the Chosen People into confusion and despair that persists to this day causing us to be dispersed throughout the world and, for the most part, to be alienated from
our roots and traditions. On the 9th of Av, we take pause to become aware of our state of estrangement and the shortcomings that delay the coming of the messiah whose birthday, ironically, is designated as the 9th of Av consistent with the cosmic law that the highest lights
are revealed from the lowest place.
Aside from the destruction of both Temples, the most tragic event that fell on the 9th of Av was the betrayal by the spies. Of the twelve spies, one prince from each of the tribes, ten, through distorted reporting (much of the kind we see in the press these days), demoralized the
people, sabotaging the plan to enter the land and resulting in a divine punishment of 40 more years in the desert.
Perhaps the most common explanation for the failure to confront the challenge of occupying the land pertains to our attachment to the miraculous and effortless nature of our sojourn in the desert. Manna fell from heaven, water followed us as Miriam's well, health was guaranteed and even our clothing didn't wear out. This reluctance to confront the natural world can be likened to our present reluctance to confront the challenge of physical matter.
When mapped against the human body, the 9th of Av corresponds to "Gid HaNasheh," the vulnerable left thigh sinew (thought to be the sciatic nerve) where the angel was able to injure Jacob during the struggle that transformed him into Israel. Corresponding to the physical dimension, this sinew is considered the to be coarsest (and greediest) and the corresponding part in animals is forbidden as food. One more, not-so-subtle hint as to the essential need for
us to confront the physical. The challenge is clear.
If there ever was a promised land, it lies in the infinite good that is implicit in physical matter. Faith in an infinitely compassionate Creator implies a faith in the infinite nature of His gift to us - the physical domain that, paradoxically, in its coarseness, is the furthest from Him and thus His most remarkable Creation giving the ultimate expression of Yesh MeAyin -- Creatio Ex Nihilo.
Yes, to some extent, science does engage this challenge and even routinely rewards us with astounding discoveries and technological capacities. But these are but a miniscule taste of the miraculous gifts awaiting us once science addresses the challenge of physical matter in a manner worthy of that challenge, in a manner consistent with the sacred. Remember, to reveal the full extent of the Creator's blessings is tantamount to revealing the Creator, Himself, in our world. Not only are the unlimited blessings implicit in matter a G-dly gift ending all suffering, illness and death but the concomitant elimination of vulnerability will make it psychologically and spiritually impossible for us to cleave to anything physical.
Just as it is impossible for us to covet sand or seawater, once matter is mastered, it will be impossible to covet anything physical since all things will be interchangeable, being made of the same subatomic elements. Gold, medicines and all physical products will be worthless. Unable to
cleave to the physical crust of existence, we will have no choice but to cleave to what remains, the metaphysical to which, you will recall, we are presently blind. The sacred presence will be everywhere revealed as the whole world, illuminated by spiritual awareness, takes on the
nature of the 3rd Temple. As the existential carpet is pulled out from under us, the mastery of matter will, paradoxically, be shown to be the key to the universal awakening, a state of illumination biblically referred to as "a light unto the nations."
The principal shortcoming of modern science, depriving us of this paradise to which, in principle, we have every right, is analogical to the failure of ten of the twelve princes chosen to spy out the land. Like the ten spies, it eschews the effort that the Torah requires of us - to love G-d with all our heart, soul and means. To give ourselves completely to something requires courage but, even more than courage, the faith that makes courage possible. Only if we believe that the light will go on, will we find the will to throw the switch. If the scientist believes that an infinite good can come of his creative contemplation, his whole body, made in the image of the Creator,
can become an instrument of creative vision. But first he must believe.
As it stands, the best that scientists offer us are occasional sparks of creative insight. Sparks are captive, restricted light that occur as Klippot (husks of impurity). Furthermore, these sparks are bracketed by a lifetime of pedestrian legwork for their elaboration. We are often told that discovery is 99% perspiration and only 1% inspiration. Sadly, this is quite true because, as a rule, the effort that generates creative vision is correspondingly meager. Imagine running your appliances on sparks of static electricity. This will give you an idea of how impossibly inefficient the scientific enterprise now is.
Effort, consistent with the Torah's principal requirement of us - total effort - should be nothing less than life threatening as entering the PaRDeS normally is. We are willing to risk our lives in endless trivial pursuits, including extreme sports, but never in an all encompassing effort of creative contemplation that would activate the image of G-d in us and release its unlimited, creative potential.
The spies were similarly intimidated by the challenge of embracing the Land, the challenge of confronting the natural world. The Land of Israel was destined to be a paradise conditioned by Torah law. The natural world was G-d's gift to us, analogical in its bountiful potential (symbolized by the sumptuous load of grapes the spies brought back), to the infinite potential of the physical domain. The failure to believe in the value of a gift is a sure sign of our doubts concerning the giver. Amalek, the arch enemy of Israel (destined for total annihilation) is the equivalent of doubt.
The doubt, that plagued the spies, then, plagues the scientists, along with the rest of us, today. Appropriately, the antithesis of Amalek is the messiah. Hypocritically, we hope and pray for the messiah without the faith that would engender the total effort necessary for revealing him. It is high time for us to eradicate doubt - Amalek.
The spies delayed our occupation of the land by 40 years and, in the process, compromised the divine nature of that occupation. The abundance of life in the land, when we finally did occupy it, was real but far from divine and our compliance with Torah, less than perfect. As happened every time we failed a test (e.g., eating from the tree of knowledge, the flood, the Tower of Babel, the golden calf, the spies, etc.), the Creator upped the ante and increased the difficulty of the challenge. We now face the ultimate test, that of physical matter itself.
Yet the supposed spiritual leaders of our time, our rabbis, have done nothing to address this challenge or even advise us of it. Has the challenge of matter and the blessings to be gained from science not been obvious for decades? Or is faith in the Creator, who provided us with this challenge and potential, simply dead? Aside from the default of the scientists, are we not witnessing a repeat of the sin of the spies and their failure of faith on the part of the rabbis as well?
It is said that the spies were needlessly concerned with losing their princely prerogatives in the new, natural framework of agricultural life in the Land. How much status would our rabbis risk losing if they admitted that the role of scientists, that of revealing the highest lights from the lowest place, is, potentially, the most spiritual and sacred of all roles? Must universal doubt
triumph once again? And, if it does, will the punishment, this time, be bearable?
How can our rabbis justify ignoring the mission that defines our chosenness and destiny? Only if we grasp the magnitude of the blessings we are delaying can we appreciate the magnitude of this betrayal. How many of us remain puzzled as concerns the punishments suffered so far by modern Jewry including the Holocaust, global anti-Semitism, assimilation and today's threat to the very existence of Israel? Well, look no further. The nature of the failure should now be plain as day.
Our future boils down to the exercise of conscience, the conscience of the individual. We must insist that the emperor is naked. If there was ever a time in history when, like Nachshon and Caleb, the solitary individual can make a difference, it is now. This 9th of Av, make your dissatisfaction known. Demand decisive leadership of your rabbi. Face the forces of darkness head on and shake your fists in anger and defiance.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Friday, October 26, 2007
Jean Marie Cardinal Lustiger
A fascinating, but true, story of the Cardinal of Paris who was born to Jewish parents.
The following commentary was given by Scott Simon on NPR radio, Saturday morning August 11, 2007:
"There used to be a joke in Paris: "What is the difference between the chief rabbi in France and the Cardinal of Paris? The Cardinal speaks Yiddish!"
Jean Marie Cardinal Lustiger was buried yesterday; he died this week of cancer. He was born almost 81 years ago to Polish parents who ran a dress shop in Paris. When the German army marched in his parents sent him and his sister into hiding with a Catholic family in Orleans. Their mother was captured and sent to Auschwitz.
In 1999 as Cardinal of Paris, Jean Marie Lustiger took part in reading of the names of France's day of remembrance of Jews who had been deported and murdered. He came to the name Gesele Lustiger, paused, teared and said, "my mama." The effect in France during a time of revived anti-Semitism was electric.
He was just 13 and in hiding when he converted to Catholicism, not to escape the Nazis, he always said, because no Jew could escape by conversion, and not of trauma, he said. Among his most controversial observations, "I was born Jewish and so I remain, even if that is unacceptable for many. For me the vocation of Israel is bringing light to the goyem. That is my hope and I believe that Christianity is the means for achieving it."
There were a great number of rabbi's who consider his conversion a betrayal. Especially after so many European Jews had so narrowly escaped extinction. Cardinal Lustiger replied, "to say that I am no longer a Jew is like denying my father and mother, my grandfathers and grandmothers. I am as Jewish as all other members of my family that were butchered in Auschwitz and other camps."
He confessed to a biographer that he had a spiritual crisis in the 1970's provoked by persistent anti-Semitism in France. He studied Hebrew, and considered emigrating. He said, "I thought that I had finished what I had to do here," he explained, "and I might find new meaning in Israel. But just at that time the Pope appointed him bishop of Orleans. He found purpose he said in the plight of immigrant workers. Then he was elevated to Cardinal, the Archbishop of Paris.
Jean Marie Lustiger was close to the Pope. They shared a doctrinal conservatism. He also battled bigotry and totalitarianism. For years Cardinal Lustiger's name was among those who was considered to succeed John Paul. Without putting himself forth, the Cardinal joked that few things would bedevil bigots more than a Jewish Pope. "They don't like to admit it." he said, "but what Christians believe, they got - through Jews."
The funeral for Cardinal Lustiger began at Notre Dame Cathedral yesterday, with the chanting of Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead."
Sometimes there are profound inconsistencies in our world.
The following commentary was given by Scott Simon on NPR radio, Saturday morning August 11, 2007:
"There used to be a joke in Paris: "What is the difference between the chief rabbi in France and the Cardinal of Paris? The Cardinal speaks Yiddish!"
Jean Marie Cardinal Lustiger was buried yesterday; he died this week of cancer. He was born almost 81 years ago to Polish parents who ran a dress shop in Paris. When the German army marched in his parents sent him and his sister into hiding with a Catholic family in Orleans. Their mother was captured and sent to Auschwitz.
In 1999 as Cardinal of Paris, Jean Marie Lustiger took part in reading of the names of France's day of remembrance of Jews who had been deported and murdered. He came to the name Gesele Lustiger, paused, teared and said, "my mama." The effect in France during a time of revived anti-Semitism was electric.
He was just 13 and in hiding when he converted to Catholicism, not to escape the Nazis, he always said, because no Jew could escape by conversion, and not of trauma, he said. Among his most controversial observations, "I was born Jewish and so I remain, even if that is unacceptable for many. For me the vocation of Israel is bringing light to the goyem. That is my hope and I believe that Christianity is the means for achieving it."
There were a great number of rabbi's who consider his conversion a betrayal. Especially after so many European Jews had so narrowly escaped extinction. Cardinal Lustiger replied, "to say that I am no longer a Jew is like denying my father and mother, my grandfathers and grandmothers. I am as Jewish as all other members of my family that were butchered in Auschwitz and other camps."
He confessed to a biographer that he had a spiritual crisis in the 1970's provoked by persistent anti-Semitism in France. He studied Hebrew, and considered emigrating. He said, "I thought that I had finished what I had to do here," he explained, "and I might find new meaning in Israel. But just at that time the Pope appointed him bishop of Orleans. He found purpose he said in the plight of immigrant workers. Then he was elevated to Cardinal, the Archbishop of Paris.
Jean Marie Lustiger was close to the Pope. They shared a doctrinal conservatism. He also battled bigotry and totalitarianism. For years Cardinal Lustiger's name was among those who was considered to succeed John Paul. Without putting himself forth, the Cardinal joked that few things would bedevil bigots more than a Jewish Pope. "They don't like to admit it." he said, "but what Christians believe, they got - through Jews."
The funeral for Cardinal Lustiger began at Notre Dame Cathedral yesterday, with the chanting of Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead."
Sometimes there are profound inconsistencies in our world.
Monday, July 23, 2007
THE CHALLENGE OF TISHA B'AV - THE 9TH OF AV
Dear Mochin Subscribers, PM Associates, Rabbis and Friends,
The fast day called "Tisha B'Av," that begins with sundown tonight and ends with nightfall, tomorrow, commemorates the destruction of both First and Second Temples and many other tragic events that took place on this date. On this day of mourning, we fast and abstain from various comforts and pleasures. It is considered the saddest and most sinister of days and we are advised to lay low and avoid risks while it passes over. Yet perhaps the time has come for us to come out of hiding and shake our fists in defiance!
The Temples destroyed on this date housed the revealed presenceof the Creator. The Creator, of course, is everywhere but, for the most part, well hidden from us. We are metaphysically blind and, according to Kabbalah, suffer from two levels of blindness collectively known as "Hester Kaful" - double concealment. Yet, miraculously, between the Cherubs on the Ark of the Covenant, the revealed presence of G-d shone forth. The Temple provided a spectacular experience of sacred presence that was famous throughout the ancient world and provided us with our social, psychological and spiritual focus.
Its loss, understandably, threw the Chosen People into confusion and despair that persists to this day causing us to be dispersed throughout the world and, for the most part, to be alienated from our roots and traditions. On the 9th of Av, we take pause to become aware of our state of estrangement and the shortcomings that delay the coming of the messiah whose birthday, ironically, is designated as the 9th of Av consistent with the cosmic law that the highest lights are revealed from the lowest place.
Aside from the destruction of both Temples, the most tragic event that fell on the 9th of Av was the betrayal by the spies. Of the twelve spies, one prince from each of the tribes, ten, through distorted reporting (much of the kind we see in the press these days), demoralized the people, sabotaging the plan to enter the land and resulting in a divine punishment of 40 more years in the desert.
Perhaps the most common explanation for the failure to confront the challenge of occupying the land pertains to our attachment to the miraculous and effortless nature of our sojourn in the desert. Manna fell from heaven, water followed us as Miriam's well, health was guaranteed and even our clothing didn't wear out. This reluctance to confront the natural world can be likened to our present reluctance to confront the challenge of physical matter.
When mapped against the human body, the 9th of Av corresponds to "Gid HaNasheh," the vulnerable left thigh sinew (thought to be the sciatic nerve) where the angel was able to injure Jacob during the struggle that transformed him into Israel. Corresponding to the physical dimension, this sinew is considered the to be coarsest (and greediest) and the corresponding part in animals is forbidden as food. This prohibition is one more not-so-subtle hint as to what we should be concerned with. The challenge is clear.
If there ever was a promised land, it lies in the infinite good that is implicit in physical matter. Faith in an infinitely compassionate Creator implies a faith in the infinite nature of His gift to us - the physical domain that, paradoxically, in its coarseness, is the furthest from Him and thus His most remarkable Creation giving the ultimate expression of YeshMeAyin -- Creatio Ex Nihilo.
Yes, to some extent, science does engage this challenge and even routinely rewards us with astounding discoveries and technological capacities. But these are but a miniscule taste of the miraculous gifts awaiting us once science addresses the challenge of physical matter in a manner worthy of that challenge, i,e., in a manner consistent with the sacred. Remember, to reveal the full extent of the Creator's blessings is tantamount to revealing the Creator, Himself, in our world. Not only are the unlimited blessings implicit in matter a G-dly gift ending all suffering, illness and death but the concomitant elimination of vulnerability will make it psychologically and spiritually impossible for us to cleave to anything physical.
Just as it is impossible for us, now, to covet sand or seawater, once matter is mastered, it will be impossible to covet anything physical since all things will be interchangeable with sand or seawater, being made of the same subatomic elements. Gold, medicines and all physical products, however complex and sophisticated, will be worthless. Unable to cleave to the physical crust of existence, we will have no choice but to cleave to what remains, the metaphysical to which, you will recall, we are presently blind. The sacred presence will be everywhere revealed as the whole world, illuminated by spiritual awareness, takes on the nature of the 3rd Temple. As the existential carpet is pulled out from under us, the mastery of matter will, paradoxically, be shown to be the key to the universal awakening, a state of illumination biblically referred to as "a light unto the nations."
The principal shortcoming of modern science, depriving us of this paradise to which, in principle, we have every right, is analogical to the failure of ten of the twelve princes chosen to spy out the land. Like the ten spies, it eschews the effort that the Torah requires of us - to love G-d with all our heart, soul and means. To give ourselves completely to something requires courage but, even more than courage, the faith that makes courage possible. Only if we believe that the light will go on, will we find the will to throw the switch. If the scientist believes that an infinite good can come of his creative contemplation, his whole body, made in the image of the Creator, can become an instrument of creative vision. But first he must believe.
As it stands, the best that scientists offer us are occasional sparks of creative insight. Sparks are captive, restricted light that occur as Klippot (husks of impurity). Furthermore, these sparks are bracketed by a lifetime of pedestrian legwork for their elaboration. We are often told that discovery is 99% perspiration and only 1% inspiration. Sadly, this is quite true because, as a rule, the effort that generates creative vision is correspondingly meager.
Effort, consistent with the Torah's principal requirement of us - total effort - should be nothing less than life threatening as entering the PaRDeS normally is. We are willing to risk our lives in endless trivial pursuits, including extreme sports, but never in an all encompassing effort of creative contemplation that would activate the image of G-d in us and release its unlimited, creative potential.
The spies were similarly intimidated by the challenge of embracing the Land, the challenge of confronting the natural world. The Land of Israel was destined to be a paradise conditioned by Torah law. The natural world was G-d's gift to us, analogical in its bountiful potential (symbolized by the sumptuous load of grapes the spies brought back), to the infinite potential of the physical domain. The failure to believe in the value of a gift is a sure sign of our doubts concerning the giver. Amalek, the arch enemy of Israel (destined for total annihilation) is the equivalent of doubt.
The doubt, that plagued the spies, then, plagues the scientists, along with the rest of us, today. Appropriately, the antithesis of Amalek is the messiah. Hypocritically, we hope and pray for the revelation of the messiah without the faith that would engender the total effort necessary for revealing him. It is high time for us to eradicate doubt - Amalek.
The spies delayed our occupation of the land by 40 years and, in the process, compromised the divine nature of that occupation. The abundance of life in the land, when we finally did occupyit, was real but far from divine and our compliance with Torah, less than perfect. As happened every time we failed a test (e.g., eating from the tree of knowledge, the flood, the Tower of Babel, the golden calf, the spies, etc.), the Creator upped the ante and increased the difficulty of the challenge. We now face the ultimate test, that of physical matter itself.
Yet the supposed spiritual leaders of our time, our rabbis, have done nothing to address this challenge or even advise us of it. Has the challenge of matter and the blessings to be gained from science not been obvious for decades? Or is faith in the Creator, who provided us with this challenge and potential, simply dead? Aside from the default of the scientists, are we not witnessing a repeat of the sin of the spies and their failure of faith on the part of the rabbis as well?
It is said that the spies were needlessly concerned with losing their princely prerogatives in the new, natural framework of agricultural life in the Land. How much status would our rabbis risk losing if they admitted that the role of scientists, that of revealing the highest lights from the lowest place, is, potentially, the most spiritual and sacred of all roles? The conquest of matter, the densest aspect of existence, axiomatically, requires the greatest effort possible. It's a simple equation. And the greatest effort is described in the most fundamental prayer and precept of Judaism - the love of G-d with all one's heart, soul and might. Given that the ultimate effort, necessarily, must be addressed to the ultimate difficulty - matter - it must be obvious that it is for the scientist to accomplish and for the rest of us to support. Must universal doubt triumph once again? And, if it does, will the punishment, this time, be bearable?
How can our rabbis justify ignoring the mission that defines our chosenness and destiny? Only if we grasp the magnitude of the blessings we are delaying can we appreciate the magnitude of this betrayal. How many of us remain puzzled as concerns the punishments suffered so far by modern Jewry including the Holocaust, global anti-Semitism, assimilation and today's threat to the very existence of Israel? Well, look no further. The nature of the failure should now be plain as day.
Our future boils down to the exercise of conscience, the conscience of each individual. We must insist that the emperor is naked. If there was ever a time in history when, like Nachshon and Caleb, the solitary individual can make a difference, it is now. This 9th of Av, make your dissatisfaction known. Demand decisive leadership of your rabbi. Face the forces of darkness head on and shake your fists in anger and defiance.
David S. Devor
Exec. DirectorProject Mind Foundation
email: devor@projectmind.org
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Passover (5767) - seeds of transformation
This is a not so short but well worth read written by David Devor who is a close friend of the family :-)
B'S"D
13 Nissan, 5767Many of you are aware that tomorrow night, Mon., begins the festival of Passover commemorating the Exodus from Egypt, 3320 years ago. This pilgrimage (to Jerusalem) festival, one of three (including Shavuot and Succoth), is all about transformation and the resulting freedom. Each Jew is expected to see himself as having, personally, come out of Egypt.
The Hebrew word for Egypt, "Mitzrayim," indicates limitation and restriction. Pharaoh, in Hebrew, is a derivative of the word "Haphra'a" meaning "disturbance" or "distraction." Each suggests aspects of our habitual, limited, chaotic, unmobilized state of spiritual energy defined as impurity (Tuma) or "Chametz" (l'Hachmitz means to "forfeit," "lose out" or "sour").
In this state, we have the cloying, sweet illusion of completeness because we are so full of ourselves. Chametz ("leaven" or, literally, "sour") represents the fallen and spiritually isolated state from which we are expected to awaken on the path to personal and world transformation (Tikkun Olam) and, ultimately, total communion with the Creator (Dvekut, Panim el Panim).
We yearn for spiritual purity and the experience of freedom it affords because it prepares us for a form of communion (Yichud) with others that is motivated by cooperation towards the higher purpose and mission for which we were created. In preparing for Pessach, we obsessively and lovingly remove every trace of leaven (fermented or "sour" food) from our homes and vehicles as part of the process of purifying ourselves of personal leavening - the ego inflation that issues from non-rectified and short-circuited expressions of our essence and separates us from one another and from our Creator.
This state of spiritual sleep and metaphysical blindness is symbolized in the ritual of seeking the last crumbs of Chametz in the dark. This ritual will be performed tonight, Sunday, and the Chametz will be burned thoroughly tomorrow morning, Monday, in a bonfire bestowing a sense of finality to our corresponding, personal eradication of ego-inflation and impurity.
B'S"D
13 Nissan, 5767Many of you are aware that tomorrow night, Mon., begins the festival of Passover commemorating the Exodus from Egypt, 3320 years ago. This pilgrimage (to Jerusalem) festival, one of three (including Shavuot and Succoth), is all about transformation and the resulting freedom. Each Jew is expected to see himself as having, personally, come out of Egypt.
The Hebrew word for Egypt, "Mitzrayim," indicates limitation and restriction. Pharaoh, in Hebrew, is a derivative of the word "Haphra'a" meaning "disturbance" or "distraction." Each suggests aspects of our habitual, limited, chaotic, unmobilized state of spiritual energy defined as impurity (Tuma) or "Chametz" (l'Hachmitz means to "forfeit," "lose out" or "sour").
In this state, we have the cloying, sweet illusion of completeness because we are so full of ourselves. Chametz ("leaven" or, literally, "sour") represents the fallen and spiritually isolated state from which we are expected to awaken on the path to personal and world transformation (Tikkun Olam) and, ultimately, total communion with the Creator (Dvekut, Panim el Panim).
We yearn for spiritual purity and the experience of freedom it affords because it prepares us for a form of communion (Yichud) with others that is motivated by cooperation towards the higher purpose and mission for which we were created. In preparing for Pessach, we obsessively and lovingly remove every trace of leaven (fermented or "sour" food) from our homes and vehicles as part of the process of purifying ourselves of personal leavening - the ego inflation that issues from non-rectified and short-circuited expressions of our essence and separates us from one another and from our Creator.
This state of spiritual sleep and metaphysical blindness is symbolized in the ritual of seeking the last crumbs of Chametz in the dark. This ritual will be performed tonight, Sunday, and the Chametz will be burned thoroughly tomorrow morning, Monday, in a bonfire bestowing a sense of finality to our corresponding, personal eradication of ego-inflation and impurity.
The eating of Matza (unleavened bread) and the scrupulous avoidance of Chametz helps us maintain contact with the spirit of freedom, purity and transcendence proper to this festival. Interestingly, although pronounced differently, "Chametz" and "Matza," words each consisting of 3 Hebrew letters, are spelt almost identically. Both have a "Mem" and a "Tzadi" (common to the word "Mitzva" - commandment and "Mivtza" - project), while Matza termnates with a "Heh" and Chametz begins with a "Chet." Interestingly again, these letters, themselves, are almost identical although the "Heh" is open and the "Chet" is closed. Also, the "Heh," in Matza, is a representation of the Creator while the "Chet" in Chametz means sin!
Reams of information on Pessach and all that surrounds it can be found on the Net. So I'll now concentrate on what, in relation to Passover, most particularly concerns Project Mind and its commitment to material world transformation. I am referring, in particular, to the miracles leading up to the Exodus and those that follow it. But first a word about miracles.
From the 2nd Temple period on, it is said that there were no further "revealed miracles." By "revealed" is undoubtedly meant "consensually evident to all" since, as individuals, we still have the possibility of perceiving miracles concealed to others. We can do this on condition that we mobilize the necessary spiritual resources within ourselves. After all, everything in existence is a miracle, constantly renewed.
The implication of the cessation of revealed miracles is clear. As co-creators - partners of the Creator and made in His image - we have an unlimited creative capacity that constitutes our greatest spiritual potential and means of emulating the Creator. It is this potential that makes our national mission of total world transformation (Tikun Olam B'Malchut Shaddai) possible. Thus we are called upon to learn from those miracles, be weaned from our dependence upon them and, eventually, reproduce them, ourselves, in the course of fulfilling our mission.
The implication of the cessation of revealed miracles is clear. As co-creators - partners of the Creator and made in His image - we have an unlimited creative capacity that constitutes our greatest spiritual potential and means of emulating the Creator. It is this potential that makes our national mission of total world transformation (Tikun Olam B'Malchut Shaddai) possible. Thus we are called upon to learn from those miracles, be weaned from our dependence upon them and, eventually, reproduce them, ourselves, in the course of fulfilling our mission.
There is a progression. First comes Moses' recruitment at the Burning Bush. This bush, the lowliest of vegetation, burns "but is not consumed." This teaches us that the divine state we are destined to attain, in communion with the Creator, is eternal and above time, space and nature. This level of influence, that we were created to channel into this world, is meant to govern nature and transform it from an existence that is "red in tooth and claw" to one in which "the wolf and the lamb peacefully cohabit" (Isaiah 11:16) and "feed together" (Isaiah 65:25).
Such metaphysical processes, at their source, are eternal and never extinguished. Thus the Burning Bush [artwork donated by Michael Aigen] was chosen as the logo of the Project Mind Foundation. Those involved in prolonged and intense spiritual work, under a competent guide, will likely have experienced moments of self-sustaining awareness. Anything experienced as self-sustaining, of course, is, in reality, sustained from above. An enduring connection with the transcendent is the key to transformation.
Material world transformation, specifically, requires a connection with the very highest level of the transcendent based on the principle that "the highest will be revealed from within the lowest." Visions of higher realities are embedded in lowly matter as technology. Visions thus crystallized in our world are, essentially, miraculous manifestations and would be reacted to as such if our ancestors could, magically, be brought into the present to witness them.
Such metaphysical processes, at their source, are eternal and never extinguished. Thus the Burning Bush [artwork donated by Michael Aigen] was chosen as the logo of the Project Mind Foundation. Those involved in prolonged and intense spiritual work, under a competent guide, will likely have experienced moments of self-sustaining awareness. Anything experienced as self-sustaining, of course, is, in reality, sustained from above. An enduring connection with the transcendent is the key to transformation.
Material world transformation, specifically, requires a connection with the very highest level of the transcendent based on the principle that "the highest will be revealed from within the lowest." Visions of higher realities are embedded in lowly matter as technology. Visions thus crystallized in our world are, essentially, miraculous manifestations and would be reacted to as such if our ancestors could, magically, be brought into the present to witness them.
Then come the signs of authority that Moses is given (some of which the magicians of Egypt were able to approximate) hinting to us that nature is amenable to control by human will. After that, come the Ten Plagues, nine of which operate through nature suggesting 9 modalities through which the forces of nature can be used by higher mind (Mochin). The Tenth Plague, we are explicitly told, acted not through nature or angels but, directly, through the agency of the Creator or, in other words, through the divine Mind with which we are destined to commune, eternally. This ultimate communion will come with the universal unification of Creation at the end of the Sabbatical Millennium and the beginning of the Eighth millennium. (The figure 8, on its side, symbolizes infinity). It is little known that this work of unification is the task of the Seventh Millennium.
The almost universal ignorance of this fact (to the shame of our spiritual leaders) is a result of a similar ignorance concerning the Jewish mission leading up to the great Sabbath - i.e., the total mastery of matter. Only such mastery will render all physical things, without exception, free and interchangeable. Once all material objects are interchangeable with things to which we are now indifferent, we will be rendered similarly indifferent to all possessions. Psychologically and spiritually unable to covet anything material, we will be able to desire only the metaphysical. This forced materialistic indifference will spell the end to free choice (that is based on our metaphysical blindness) and will give way to Free Will (the exercise of our essential desires as they align with universal truth).
Many people find the Tenth Plague particularly puzzling. After all, why would the Creator reserve, for Himself, a mission of death, of all things?! What is often overlooked in this act of killing the Egyptian first born is that the lives of the first born of all Egyptian creatures including animals, insects etc. also died. That the first born of all levels of life were terminated, demonstrated, dramatically, the Creator's total dominion over all of nature thus underlining, in the most final and unambiguous way, His indisputable supremacy. It is said that the Egyptian first born, having learned in advance of this plague, in the hope of finding salvation, created dissent in their insistence that the Israelites been freed.
Paradoxically, this massive phenomenon of death revealed a great light in the world since, for a time, all doubt concerning HaShem's all-embracing role in Creation was eradicated. And if this were not enough, the Hebrews, who followed HaShem's instructions, were exempted from this decree. This showed that we Jews were then (and still are) above nature and the laws that govern nature. All we need to do, is to follow certain, well-known indications in the Torah to awaken our unlimited creative vision and accomplish total, physical, world transformation on behalf of all of humanity.
It is for us to grasp the full meaning of our supremacy over nature and our obligation to master it totally and absolutely on all levels. To make things more difficult still, this attitude is considered sacrilegious and even arrogant in the pagan, nature worshipping, conservationist, environmentalist, "modern" world in which we live. Today's nature worshippers would have us believe that we are an integral part of nature and that even death is a "good and "natural" aspect of life. For this reason, more than any other, the Jewish People have been repeatedly warned, from above, to distance themselves from other peoples and avoid assimilation at all costs. Several Jewish festivals (especially Chanukah and Purim) emphasize the issue of assimilation. Even Passover affirms that throughout our 210 years of slavery in which we reached the very pits of impurity, we managed to retain our distinctive names and dress.
But Judaism is, sine qua non, a religion of life and is oriented towards eternal life, a vision that permeates our prayers and customs. We Jews are the People of the Infinite and we should wear that credo with pride. Passover is the festival of freedom in which we begin our cosmic adventure through the cultural desert of paganism to rid the world of restriction and death and reveal HaShem's infinitely compassionate light throughout all of existence.
The almost universal ignorance of this fact (to the shame of our spiritual leaders) is a result of a similar ignorance concerning the Jewish mission leading up to the great Sabbath - i.e., the total mastery of matter. Only such mastery will render all physical things, without exception, free and interchangeable. Once all material objects are interchangeable with things to which we are now indifferent, we will be rendered similarly indifferent to all possessions. Psychologically and spiritually unable to covet anything material, we will be able to desire only the metaphysical. This forced materialistic indifference will spell the end to free choice (that is based on our metaphysical blindness) and will give way to Free Will (the exercise of our essential desires as they align with universal truth).
Many people find the Tenth Plague particularly puzzling. After all, why would the Creator reserve, for Himself, a mission of death, of all things?! What is often overlooked in this act of killing the Egyptian first born is that the lives of the first born of all Egyptian creatures including animals, insects etc. also died. That the first born of all levels of life were terminated, demonstrated, dramatically, the Creator's total dominion over all of nature thus underlining, in the most final and unambiguous way, His indisputable supremacy. It is said that the Egyptian first born, having learned in advance of this plague, in the hope of finding salvation, created dissent in their insistence that the Israelites been freed.
Paradoxically, this massive phenomenon of death revealed a great light in the world since, for a time, all doubt concerning HaShem's all-embracing role in Creation was eradicated. And if this were not enough, the Hebrews, who followed HaShem's instructions, were exempted from this decree. This showed that we Jews were then (and still are) above nature and the laws that govern nature. All we need to do, is to follow certain, well-known indications in the Torah to awaken our unlimited creative vision and accomplish total, physical, world transformation on behalf of all of humanity.
It is for us to grasp the full meaning of our supremacy over nature and our obligation to master it totally and absolutely on all levels. To make things more difficult still, this attitude is considered sacrilegious and even arrogant in the pagan, nature worshipping, conservationist, environmentalist, "modern" world in which we live. Today's nature worshippers would have us believe that we are an integral part of nature and that even death is a "good and "natural" aspect of life. For this reason, more than any other, the Jewish People have been repeatedly warned, from above, to distance themselves from other peoples and avoid assimilation at all costs. Several Jewish festivals (especially Chanukah and Purim) emphasize the issue of assimilation. Even Passover affirms that throughout our 210 years of slavery in which we reached the very pits of impurity, we managed to retain our distinctive names and dress.
But Judaism is, sine qua non, a religion of life and is oriented towards eternal life, a vision that permeates our prayers and customs. We Jews are the People of the Infinite and we should wear that credo with pride. Passover is the festival of freedom in which we begin our cosmic adventure through the cultural desert of paganism to rid the world of restriction and death and reveal HaShem's infinitely compassionate light throughout all of existence.
The Sabbatical Millennium, under the aegis of the messiah, is one in which our psyches will be free of the millstone of lack, vulnerability, illusion and materialism. Our minds, eventually, will expand to exercise influence over the physical world, directly through thought, without the need for intermediate, physical agencies or technology. But it is for us to create the conditions enabling the Great Shabbat to begin before its time (Achishena).
As already indicated, this will require the total conquest of matter and the elimination of our vulnerability that keeps us cleaving to the thin, physical crust of reality making us materialists, if not ideologically, then at least psychologically and spiritually. No one is totally free from such attachment. Just as we are indifferent to sand and seawater, once we have conquered matter and all things become interchangeable with sand and seawater, we will be as indifferent to all things, material, as we now are to sand and seawater. Then and only then, will all of humanity be free of material attachment (Or LaGoyim). Our only remaining attachment will be to the metaphysical leaving us free for one thousand years of Torah study and spiritual work under the direction of the messiah. This work, unifying all of existence into one coherent, sacred vessel worthy of face-to-face communion with the Creator, will bring eternal ecstasy that goes with the final realization of HaShem's plan for Creation.
At the Red Sea, we experienced a miracle known to all mankind. The emphasis this time was on the immense power of the Creator. The mind boggles at the force required to split the sea yet boggles even further when we grasp that we, ourselves, as partners of the Creator, are destined to wield such forces. Our present ability to convert mass into energy is clumsy, indeed, but is nevertheless measured in megatons of TNT. Once we learn efficient conversion, every individual will have access to such forces in routine, material transformations as all material things become interchangeable at will.
On our way across the Sinai desert, many miracles were performed. But the striking of the rock by Moses stands out because of the default of faith it witnesses and for which Moses was severely punished. Striking the rock implied that there was water, within, to be released while, in actuality, the rock was transformed into water. Scientifically, this is conceivable since all substances are composed of the same, interchangeable subatomic components. Pundits of Nanotechnology already take such transformations for granted.
For the transformation of rock to water to transpire, given the intervention of Higher Mind, a whisper to the rock would have more than sufficed. Water (or rain), in sacred texts, is the principal symbol for higher abundance and thus we are given a clue that transformation is the process whereby unlimited, messianic abundance will be revealed from within restricted matter represented, in this case, by the rock.
For the transformation of rock to water to transpire, given the intervention of Higher Mind, a whisper to the rock would have more than sufficed. Water (or rain), in sacred texts, is the principal symbol for higher abundance and thus we are given a clue that transformation is the process whereby unlimited, messianic abundance will be revealed from within restricted matter represented, in this case, by the rock.
Mount Sinai, however, gave us the most powerful experience of all. A moment of all-encompassing harmony, induced from above by the Creator, allowed Israel to experience, directly and within the unified presence of its collective mind-body, a taste of the infinite that comes with the awakening of the "image of G-d" within us. This corresponds to the festival of Shavuot at which time we celebrate the giving of the Torah. To reach Shavuot, we count 50 days (7 weeks plus one day) called the "Counting of the Omer" after the first day of Passover. The watchword of this festival is "May death be eradicated forever" ("Bil'a HaMavet LaNetzach").
This G-d-given, collective epiphany was, undoubtedly, the all-time, spiritual, high-water mark for Israel freshly liberated from Egypt on behalf of all of humanity. Each of the 600,000 souls present at Sinai (where Moses first encountered the Burning Bush) had a direct experience of higher abundance in which there was no place for any doubt. Each of the 600,000 felt only pure love for the other 599,999, except for the parallel certainty that they were equally loved by the same 599,999. For a brief moment, self-concern was erased by a simulation of the face-to-face communion of a unified Creation (including all souls) with the Creator scheduled for the end of the Sabbatical Millennium. For an instant, we knew our cosmic mission, the illusory nature of separateness and the impure nature of our ego-based personality.
But, first, we must take responsibility for the Exodus that we, ourselves, will produce when, through the exercise of divine creative vision with which we are endowed, we reveal the infinite within apparently finite physical matter and release all of humanity from the slavery of vulnerability that produces attachment, illusion and metaphysical blindness.
We must come to learn that the key to our salvation is the divine, creative capacity within us. It is the exercise of this highest of all spiritual functions that corresponds to the image of G-d in which we are fashioned and is the ideal inherent in the transformation of Jacob to Israel. It is the awakening of this higher faculty that will lead to the universal awakening and freedom from restriction represented by the Exodus. Jews will continue to recount the Exodus story each year at Pessach until this ideal and destiny is finally realized on behalf of humanity as a whole.
But, first, we must take responsibility for the Exodus that we, ourselves, will produce when, through the exercise of divine creative vision with which we are endowed, we reveal the infinite within apparently finite physical matter and release all of humanity from the slavery of vulnerability that produces attachment, illusion and metaphysical blindness.
We must come to learn that the key to our salvation is the divine, creative capacity within us. It is the exercise of this highest of all spiritual functions that corresponds to the image of G-d in which we are fashioned and is the ideal inherent in the transformation of Jacob to Israel. It is the awakening of this higher faculty that will lead to the universal awakening and freedom from restriction represented by the Exodus. Jews will continue to recount the Exodus story each year at Pessach until this ideal and destiny is finally realized on behalf of humanity as a whole.
On behalf of all the PM Associates, I offer you blessings for a Pessach Sameach V'Kasher,
David S. Devor
devor@usa.net
http://www.projectmind.org/
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