22 Aug Re’eh; A Blessing A Curse and Rock Bottom
Inspired by the teachings of Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh and Rabbbi Moshe Genuth
We ascend or descend according to the merits of our thoughts and actions… our choices.
In Parshas Re’eh 11:26 ‘Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse’ ….
refers to the experience of Choice and Free Will. The Torah speaks of Mt. Gerizam the mountain of abundance and Mt. Eivel as the barren mountain .
Mt. Gerizam is the ‘ lush Mt . of abundance’ and can be understood as possessing an amount of balance and stability. However in contrast, ‘the barrenness of Mt Eival’ represents darkness and chaos.
The important lesson here is the powerful concept that Mt Eivel as the barren mountain has concealed within its darkness contains the most powerful sparks of Holiness waiting to be ignited, transformed and have its potential revealed. Mt Gerizam however already appears lush and beautiful and has already revealed its potential.
There are things in our world that have already realized blessings, and things that have not. Those things that have not yet received blessing yet to be elevated remain cloaked in ‘the darkness awaiting our blessing to reveal the powerful spiritual sparks concealed within the darkness. The revealing of these concealed sparks of Holiness relies on Free Will and Choice to do so.
The Journey of the Soul
The creation of the infinite soul of every Jew is created with the desire to be elevated. It can only do this when it is in the vessel of a body. The soul then animates the body, the mind and the soul. To do this in the most effective and harmonious way are given the mechanism or guidelines of Torah and Mitzvot which contain within them the ability to reveal the concealed to elevated and connect to the Infinite Creator Himself.
The Mitzvot and Torah as a Conduit of the Infinite
When we recognize that everything that we experience in our world began in a higher realm, we can then better understand that what we may perceive as deficient may contain exactly we need to rectify to bring about balance and harmony .
Especially with the coming of Elul and the Yom Tovem we can understand the reason we do a cheshbon hanefesh (personal inventory) is to reveal to ourselves concealed issues that may be causing us disharmony . One of the great tragedies of personal growth is that we may have become trapped in the comfort of living in a deficient state like the 4/5ths of Jews even having directly witnessed the plagues of the Hand of G-d upon the Egyptians yet chose to remain pin Egypt as slaves.
The key to balance and harmony is through acquiring a G-d consciousness in all our affairs. This achieved through the Torah and Mitzvot allowing us to connect to G-d in every situation. A powerful mitzvot to acquire and observe is Kashruth and blessings as it effects many aspects of our daily personal life, family life and communal life.
Mazel Tov; The Jewish soul has the ability to go beyond the deterministic flow…
When the flow of G-ds Divine Light descends through the stars of the constellations…’The Mazel’ ie the flow of G-d’s Light becomes deterministic (set).
When we say ‘Mazel Tov’, we are asking for the deterministic flow from the constellations to be for the good.
However, it is the power of the Jew and the Jewish soul at any time to able to rise above and transcend the determinism by changing the flow of goodness up-on high in the spiritual realm before it reaches the Mazel. This is a mechanism of the process of tshuvah to tikun (rectificaton).
Our soul yearns to expand and elevate. Our choices of thought and action throught the Mitzvot bring us closer or further from Hashem , His Light. He has given us the tools to succeed. We Choose a path of our own Free Will.
In the daily prayer (Nusach-Sefard) in the Ashamnu prayer, there are listed 22 transgressions followed by the final phrase ‘… we have gone astray, You have let us go astray.’ This highlights the idea or our gratitude that Hashem gives us the free will to choose our own path as ‘You have let us go…’ .
Rock Bottom, A Blessing and a Curse
We may often hear people talk about, or tell us ‘they hit rock bottom’. But that may mean different things to different people.
To me as an Addictions Counselor rock bottom is the point at which a person may come to recognize that he is not in control of his life. He is unable to make meaningfully change to his circumstance until he reaches as state of humility and nullification that there is ‘something greater than himself’… G-d. This is often referred to as the critical state of surrender or submission.
For many the experience of being in the ‘depths of darkness’ has allowed them to have a perspective of ‘the light’. There may exist another way to live.
A person experiencing rock bottom may be feeling physically, spiritually and emotionally bankrupt. At this point, in order to ascend from the depths of darkness, a person must subjugate (surrender, submit) his will in order to receive the healing light. He may come to learn that he is subjugating his will to his Higher Power and the healing light he may call G-d. His ego must continually be set aside to continue to receive Higher Power, G-ds’ Light in order to ascend.
A person who appropriately rectifies his rock bottom will not return to do tshuvah on the same issue. That may be referred to as complete tshuvah which is rare however ‘good’ tshuvah may and often does take time.
We should note that it’s not necessarily for a person to hit rock bottom to make changes, ie to do tshuvah .Many have had success in the 12 Step Program (AA), however for those with a Jewish soul, the Torah has a holistic program for wellness.
A person who returns to rock bottom for the same issue repeatedly, has not done a thorough tshuvah.
Rock bottom is a powerful wake up call to understanding the need to avail oneself and come closer to Hashem.
Although we have been given Free Will, a blessing and a curse reminds us of our choices and consequences.
Leib Getzel (Lawrence) Lax
Addictions and Counceling