| Kabbalah
and Education A Kabbalistic Approach to Spiritual Growth |
|||||||
| Kabbalah and Jewish Meditation |
Part
16 What
is the source of Abraham's
inner strength? How does it actually influence the collective personality of
his descendants, the Jewish people? Abraham's
inner strength operates through the vehicle of faith (emunah). In
Kabbalah, faith is defined differently than in the popular usage. Faith is
the deepest state of contact--a super-rational, and yet potentially
experiential awareness, rooted beyond the limits of logical explanation. Its
truth is experienced with greater forcefulness and certainty than knowledge
of the physical world, even though it is not provable with the outer
physical senses, nor can the tools of science probe its more transcendent
realms. In the merit of Abraham and Sarah, every Jewish soul has, at the
very least, a subconscious link to the absolute unity of God, a memory, so
to speak, of having experienced this truth. This deep-rooted faith in God
manifests as an inner strength and integrity. The Jewish people persist
through seemingly insurmountable trials, both by fire (pogrom) and by ice
(assimilation) because of their knowledge and innate faith in God as their
Master, Creator and Protector. Still
there remains the question of why should there be tests, trials,
tribulations, pain, and suffering? Why would God create a world in which
hardship is a necessity? The
Tanya, basing itself on the Book of Deuteronomy, explains that the
hardships of the physical world show God what is in the human heart. But
what does this mean? Doesn’t God already have this knowledge?
In fact, one of the Thirteen Principles of Faith states: "I
believe in perfect faith that God knows all of man's deeds and
thoughts." And the Psalms
further bear out this point: "He [God] has molded every heart together.
He understands what each one does." Therefore,
it must be that through trial and tribulation we educate ourselves.
Forced to draw upon the deep inner reservoirs of strength, we learn what we
are made of. It is especially at times of challenge that we realize the
extent to which we love and trust God. A test of faith reveals two
things--the depth of our innate and previously unconscious love of God, and
the limitations of our current level of trust. (This same dynamic is also
apparent in marital relationships where an occasional state of adversity
often brings about both a deeper affirmation of love, as well as an
illumination of those weaker areas that need work.) It
is also helpful to remember that God brings trials only in accordance with
our ability to endure and prevail. The sages see a parable for this in the
processing of linen, where high quality flax must be vigorously beaten in
order to draw forth its exceptional character, while a lower quality flax
would be destroyed by such harsh processing. The
Hebrew word aitan meaning "strength of being"--the
characteristic internalized by Abraham--itself reveals the secret of its
power. It is comprised of the four prefix letters used grammatically to
construct the future tense (alef, yud, tav, and nun). This
hints at a very important idea in the education process. Prior to initiation
and the awakening of a will towards spiritual development, students are
bound to the past. Their horizons limit them to an explanation of reality
based on the laws of physical causality. They see only that something
previous to this moment has caused an effect in this moment. This is true
but is only a partial picture. All actions do carry consequences and
generate effects for good or bad, as the case may be. Nevertheless, such a
worldview is incomplete. It cannot cope with spiritual realities that defy
time. Initiation introduces one to the "eternal present" where all these things are possible because of the continual renewal and recreation of each moment, where consciousness is stretched to include dimensions beyond linear time, and where will can override or manipulate the physical laws of causality. But
whereas initiation/inspiration excites one to an idealism that ultimately
transcends any real encounter with adversity, integration trains the student
to cope with reality and approach each difficulty with strength of spirit
and faith in God. But integration does not stop there. It goes still further
and actually draws down a revelation of the future. This works as follows: When
we learn to persist through trial and tribulation, and to use such
experiences as a vehicle for deepening our relationship with God, we reveal
to God and to ourselves our point of "strength of being" (aitan).
That is, we make actual that which had existed previously only as a
potentiality. In this way we grow into the future, as we come closer to
expressing our true and perfected selves, which is the inevitable endpoint
of our soul's journey. This is called revealing the future, for in Kabbalah,
future (atid) means "that which is prepared but not yet
disclosed," as opposed to its more common definition as something which
has no existence at all in the present. This is the rectification required
by education--to discover that even our future is a present reality.
|
A new chapter of Kabbalah and Education is both: uploaded to the web every week and also sent out via the Inner Dimension (free) weekly Torah message email list.
|
