Here’s the second installment of the last exciting article:<\/p>\n
The secret is this:
\nThe true nature of ho\u2019da\u2019ah<\/i> and the connection between admission and gratitude, is the recognition of personal chisaron<\/i>, deficiency and imperfection. It is taking ownership of what one is missing. Both thanks and admission of guilt flow from this concept.
\nBut why is this so central to our personal growth, and the rectification of the whole universe?<\/p>\n
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To answer that we need to ask another question: What was Hashem\u2019s goal in creating the world? One of the main ways we were given to understand this in simple terms is: Hashem created the world in order to give us pleasure, to grant us good. He wanted to do good, and to express Himself by being good and giving good.[1]<\/a> Lacking, missing, imperfection is so key to what we are doing here. On a deeper level it can also be said that we are on a mission from God. Hashem has an ultimate perfection, a static perfect that is totally infinite beyond infinitude and that was, is, and always will be. \u201cI am Hashem I do not change.\u201d He cannot change or grow, as it were. But of course the Eyn sof<\/i>, the infinite One, can do whatever It wants, in any manner\u2026 Hashem adjures us to be His messenger, to have chisaronos<\/i> and fix them, so that we become more and more perfect.
\nBut in order to really experience pleasure in receiving a gift you must need it and want it. What if you gave me the gift of a six foot statue of Elvis, for example? I have no need for it. It doesn\u2019t do anything for me. The truth is, I don\u2019t want it in my house at all! To a lesser extreme, What if I gave you a fillet mignon steak after you just finished your Shabbos<\/i> meal? Certainly you would not enjoy it as much as if you were hungry, and I hope you wouldn\u2019t be able to eat it at all.
\nHashem therefore needed to create a lack so you can enjoy what you receive from Him. He created a desire to receive. And He wants to give Himself and create relationship, to fill this lack.
\nHowever, this creates a problem, because now you are the receiver. God is the giver and you are the receiver and you are diametrically opposed. In the spiritual realm this causes distance, it\u2019s like you are \u201cfrom another planet.\u201d You are the exact opposite \u2013 as East from West far and white from black. And what are you lacking? You\u2019re lacking Him. It seems like total distance.
\nTo rectify this Hashem created a system. He gave us Himself in the Torah, and through performing Hashem\u2019s mitzvahs<\/i> for His sake, performing kind deeds and studying Torah our desire to fill our lack becomes spiritual, not self-centered and self-directed. Then we want to the mitzvahs to receive His reward, but we want to do that for His sake, because it\u2019s what He wants for us.
\nIt\u2019s a beautiful amazing trick\u2026 it\u2019s for your sake, but you take for Him because He wants to give \u2013 and it becomes godly.<\/p>\nA Choice of Needs<\/h2>\n
\nIf a person is forced to receive a gift it is no gift. A forced relationship is not relationship – it\u2019s a form of slavery. When we choose we make the relationship we make ourselves. Free choice is necessary so that we won\u2019t be like the passion ruled animal or the robotic angel.
\nAn animal gets its physical needs to make it happy, to get what it\u2019s missing, whereas a malach<\/i> receives its spiritual needs \u2013 and they have to fulfill their drives. As human beings we are composed of both the physical and the spiritual \u2013 the soul and the body \u2013 and as such we have the ability to choose which desires we want, which needs we want to fulfill, physical or spiritual needs. This is where our free choice lies.[2]<\/a>
\nOur lack is so important, it\u2019s so pivotal. How will we relate to it, what will we do with it? Everyone is born with an ego, and the inherent desire to shield ourselves from blame and knowledge of our own imperfections. \u201cI didn\u2019t do it,\u201d we say. \u201cIt\u2019s not my fault it was him, it was you, it was society, it was my circumstances \u2013 it was nature, my brain, it was nurture, my parents etc…\u201d What are we really doing when we shift the blame?
\nUltimately Hashem is the true master, but what are we putting in between Him and I? We know that all the excuses we may have were created and orchestrated by Hashem. So essentially, I am putting my imperfections underneath Him, but between Him and I, above me. When I do this I am a slave to my nature and nurture, I am serving Pharaoh, my nefesh ha\u2019behamis<\/i>, my animal soul.
\nBut when I acknowledge that my chisaron<\/i> is a part of me, I take ownership of it. Now the chisaron<\/i> is an aspect of myself that I can choose to get rid of. It needed to be a part of me because if I was perfect I would be Hashem, without lack, or defect I can\u2019t receive\u2026 there\u2019s no gain.
\nI have to have the chisaron<\/i> and own it, transform it. To be human is to be imperfect.<\/p>\nGodly Imperfection<\/h2>\n
\nSo with creation there is always relative imperfection \u2013 even though where I am now is perfect just as it is. The later concept must be true because Hashem made me, and we know all is works are perfect \u2013 \u201cHa\u2019tzur tamim pa\u2019alo<\/i>.\u201d
\nBut be careful, if we go along that road to long without coming back we go the road of Achar, formerly Elisha Ben Avuya, and his predecessor Eisav. The Midrash says Eisav was called such as it is from the same root as the word \u201casui<\/i>, finished.\u201d He said he was finished, completed \u2013 \u201cThis is how I am, God made me this way!\u201d We believe that\u2019s true. If you want to stay an animal. But a person, an Adam, is a constantly perfected being \u201cadame l\u2019lohim<\/i> \u2013 I make myself like God.\u201d Infinitely more and more like Hashem with higher and perfection\u2026
\nThere is no rest for the tzaddikim<\/i>\u2026 but that is part of their reward, constantly growing and becoming more perfect.
\nTune in next time...Paradox and more!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n
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