We are not the image of G-d. We lost it!
Aminadav /Lonie Hinton
28 yrs exp in Human Services, Alzheimer's and Dementia.
We are not the image of G-d. We lost it!
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Ya no somos la imagen de Di-s. Lo perdimos!
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By Rabino Aminadav Hinton
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The Holy one, blessed be He, said: “ I and My Shchinah are partners (Shutfim) in [the Creation of] the soul, and his father and mothers are partners in the body [Temunah or Tzelem- we are images of our parents not G-d anymore!]. For his Father emits the seed [for the fashioning] of the white of the eyes and of the bones and the sinews and the brain, and the women [mother] gives the black of the eyes and the hair, and the flesh and the skin. And likewise, the heaven and the earth and all their hosts participate (Lahistataf) in his Creation [within the soul and then the body]. The angels from them [forms or deposits] Ha’Yetzer Tov (The good inclination) and Ha’Yetzer Ra (The evil inclination), so that man be fashioned from both [within his nature]. The sun and the moon to give him light by day and by night [Prior man didn’t need the light of the sun or the moon, the radiance from Ha’Shchinah was his light in His soul place, he needed the light of the sun and the moon when He entered a body]. Beasts, animals and birds and fishes, to nourish himself from them [Bereshith 1.29]. All the trees and seeds of the earth, to nourish himself from them [nuts, fruits, legumes, beans etc]. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? “ He uprooted ” his father (Adam) and mother (Chavah) [The initial image of G-d, formless soul] from Gan Ha’Eden, and took them with Him to be with Him in the joy of their children [That is they were led out of Ha’Gan Eden by the hand of Hashem outward, for the Tora states Hashem did this, Bereshith 3. 24. So He drove out Ha’Adam, (they were both named Adam) and He placed MiKedem (At the east) of Ha’Gan Eden Ha’Keruvim, and a flaming Cherev which was ever turning (rotating and circling)][ Out of Ha’Gan Eden, the shattering and lost of formlessness, the image was lost].
And there is no joy like the joy of Redemption [Geulah B’Rachamim, Ha’Olam Ha’Bah- it is indicating that man will regain that which has been lost, a time will come for mans redemption], as it is written, Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, Hashem reigns (Divrey Hayamim Alef 16.31).
Ra’aya Mehemna, Zohar 3:119b-120a.
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Adam and Chavah were created in Ha’Temunah-Tzelem [image-????? ] of Hashem, the violation in Ha’Gan Eden caused mankind to lose that image and man took on finality, finiteness, for that original Temunah was formless, we are the forms of our parents Temunah, not Hashem’s! When the world is rectified and man regains his Kadmon, the life of the soul and body opposite of Rishon then man will regain that image, at present, we are the images of our parents as the before mentioned Pasuk indicates…..
We have wrongfully been taught that the verse of Bereshith 1.27 applies to all of Creation! It does not, those verses applied to the first state of Adam and Chavah which is our starting point within this lesson, you will have to pay close attention…….
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We have three Hebrew words that apply within this lesson and text.
???????? Temunah means: fashioning, form, shape, image, to mirror, mold, external appearance, configuration, material, dimension, arranging, frame, an outline, hollow form or matrix, prototype, precursor and casting.
Temunah comes from the root word: TMUNATECHA- A silhouette! A silhouette is a two dimensional representation and outline of a form, a cut out or configuration, uniformly filled in.
From the word Temunah we obtain a word that is the direct opposite TEMUTAH- Which means: Death and dying.
????? Tzelem as indicated within Bereshith means: resemblance, twin, representative, likeness.
And ??????? Demut means similitude, pattern, comparison, twin, double, sketch, outline.
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Bereshith 1.27 states: VA’YIVRA ELOHIM ET HA’ADAM B’ZALMO B’TZELEM BARA OTO ZACHAR U’NEKEVAH BARA OTAM- So Hashem created mankind (Adam and Chavah alone) in His own Tzelem (Resemblance), in Ha’Tzelem Elohim (The images of Hashem) created He him; Zachar (male) and Nekevah (female) created He them.
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Thus the initial formlessness, soul casting indicates Adam and Chavah alone were created in the soul silhouette of Hashems Shchinah but we read just a few chapters later that after Adam and Chavah that soul silhouette of Hashem changed, was lost, man became the form or molding of His parents, we are no longer formless, we each have the features pasted down to us from our parents as Tora and Zohar indicates and thus we see that Adam’s children had the form of Adam and no longer Hashem! That form has been lost since 2166 BCE.
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Bereshith 5. 1-3 states: ZEH SEFER TOLDOT ADAM B’YOM BARA ELOHIM. ADAM BI’DEMUT ELOHIM ASAH OTO: 2. ZACHER U’’NEKEVAH BRA’AM VAI’BARECH OTAM VAYIKRA ET SH’MAM ADAM B’YOM HE’BARAM: 3. VAICHI ADAM SHLOSHIM UMAT SHANAH VAI’OLED BIDEMUTO KZALMO VAIKARA ET SHAMO SHET-
This is Ha’Sefer Toldot (The book of the records of the first humans). In Ha’Yom (The day) that Barah Elohim Adam (Hashem created Adam), in Ha’Demut (sketch, outline) Elohim (The formless soul resemblance of G-d), He made Him; 2. Zachar and Nekevah (Male and Female) He created them; and blessed them, and called Ha’Shem (The name) of them ‘Adam (They were both known and named as Adam)’ in Ha’Yom (The day) when they were created. 3. And Adam lived a hundred and thirty Shanah (years) and FATHERED IN HIS OWN IMAGE AND AFTER HIS TZELEM AND CALLED SHMO (The name of his son) SHET (Seth).
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Thus we see that after Adam, mankind resembled their parents, we were not created in the image of G-d! And we are not in the image of G-d today, we are in the image of our parents as was Seth in the image of his father Adam! When Adam left Ha’Gan Eden his image, disposition, form changed and He became finite, he lost the formlessness of a soul that was without a face like a man, but as a silhouette of Hashem and his presence-his Shchinah, his radiance, thus Adam initially was a living soul, a casting that resembled the way that Hashem is a living soul, a living form that’s formless, that surpasses finality, that looks like light, like a circle! Thus when Adam transgressed he became or rather took on human traits, the resemblance of temporeality, the soul had a form that resembled G-d’s form, thou formless as far as being finite as man now has features and skin, a intelligent speaking aura of light was Adam with the ability to think, reason, react and decide. Yes Adam and Chavah are categorized as male and female ‘adams- atoms’ thus this forming called male and female was once characteristics of the type of radiance which became gendered with human trait changes, that is male and female were originally the characteristic aspect that is within Hashem, since Hashem is characterized as masculine, while his Shchinah characterized as female. Thus man was initially a formless aura of radiance that was a living soul, the Zohar further explains this….
“And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all wherewith the ground teemeth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered “ from now on [after the flood] and in all time to come, your form shall be that of man [the formlessness became formidable]. But in the beginning they had not the form of man. Come, and see! From the very outset it is written: “ In the image of G-d made He man [Adam]” And it is written: “ In the day that G-d created man, in the likeness of G-d made He him.” BUT AFTER THEY HAD SINNED, THEIR FORM WAS CHANGED, AWAY FROM THAT SUPERNAL FORM, and was so altered that they were afraid of the wild creatures of earth. In the beginning, all the creatures in the world lifted their eyes and beheld the holy form above, and trembled and feared it. BUT WHEN THEY HAD SINNED, THEIR FORM WAS CHANGED INTO ANOTHER FORM, CHANGED SO THAT MEN TREMBLE AND FEAR THE OTHER CREATURES OF EARTH. Come and see! When man does not sin before his L-rd, does not transgress the percepts of Tora, the radiance of his form [the kadmon soul which rectifies the body] does not change and grow different from the image of that supernal form, and all the creatures in the world tremble and fear him. But at the hour than men transgress the words of the Tora, their form is changed and they all tremble and fear the other creatures, just because THE HEAVENLY FORM WAS CHANGED AND TAKEN FROM THEM! And so the wild creature on earth has power over them, because it does not behold the supernal form, as it once beheld it. But now [after the Flood] that the world became new, as in the beginning, He blessed them with His blessing and gave them power over everything, as it says: “And all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered even the fishes of the sea! Zohar, Spain 13th century. The face of man.
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R. Hizqiya began: When the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world, he fashioned man in His image, and formed him in His form so that he should persevere in the Tora and walk in His ways. Therefore man [Adam] was created from the dust of the lower Temple and was fashioned, and the four sides of the world were joined together in that place which is called the Holy House. And those four sides of the world joined together with the four sides which are the elements of the Lower World: Fire, Wind, Water, and Dust. And once those four sides were joined together with the four elements of the world, the Holy One, blessed be He, fashioned from them one body in the supernal image [Adam and Chavah, not us]! And that [original-Kadmon] body is composed of two worlds: The Lower World, and the Supernal World. Zohar 2.23b.
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What was Adam’s garment [before his sin]: A fragrant mist of oncycha (three parts combined- stacte-the sap that drips from the balsam tree, galbanum- the gum resin of a persian tree, frankincense- comes from Yemen from the boswellia tree) and a divine aura of glory [Shchinah] covered him. After he ate[ After his sin] he ate the fruit of the tree, the onycha’s mist was divested from him, the aura of [Hashem’s] glory departed from him, and he saw himself naked. Pre 14, B. Sanh 38b.
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Adam was once a formless sphere of light and radiance and his features was the glory of Hashem, the Shchinah in that he did not need human features and human traits, as a living soul, he could hover and speak, reason, react, think, decide, he could choose. He is best described as the shadows that we have when light and darkness come together, our shadows look like outlines of ourselves, it looks like a form of us that is dark that moves when we move, that seems like an outline of ourselves, thus that same outline and shadow reveals that Adam was Hashem’s shadow, his outline, and that light, that aura caused that shadow to functionally be able to respond, react and to perform the deeds of Hashem. Thus this sphere, this formlessness did not need a form until it took on human skin and human features, when it took on human features and human traits that aura was lost, thus Adam shifted from being a aura of light and became a body, a human whose human features we are uncertain of, but he then began looking like man looks, thus Seth his son looked or took on his fathers traits that was gained when the aura was lost, that human trait and features thus passed downward to humanity, we are the imprints of our parents. As imprints of our parents with a lost aura we age, become sick, we are faced with conflicts within this body, for it was never meant to be anything permanent, it was created to be a temporal housing for our souls thus we die because we can not dwell in a temporal shell that is imperfect beyond that which is intended.
We can not be the image of Hashem in an imperfect state, we can not resemble Hashem in a state of being that is fragmented, broken, a shell, pieces! We all look different, none of us look the same and even if we meet someone that resembles us, as we have all been told that we each have a twin in this world, someone that looks like us, even at this, it is not the image of Hashem it is the image of human traits and this is why of the billions of people that exist within this world we all look like the imprints of our parents genes, the biological DNA of our parents and grandparents chromosomal changes and not the image of that original Adam Kadmon. Thus if some one taught you that you were created in the image of G-d, you were not, you were created in the image of your parents, you and I are awaiting the recreation of our temporeality into the aura of that image which we shall become, with a losing of our skin and human traits and features, we shall at the time of our complete redemption take on Hashem’s image but this can not even take place or even be within our skin, within our bodies to this you have been taught incorrectly. I am not the image of Hashem, I resemble my mother and you resemble your father and mother.
Thus we are taught….
R. Berekhiah said in the name of R. Samuel Bar Nahman: Though all living things [such as white figs] came into being in the fullness of their growth, they shriveled up as soon as Adam sinned and will not return to their perfection until a scion of Perez [Ha’Mashiach] comes. [To summarize]: After Adam sinned, the Holy One deprived Adam of six things; splendor of visage, lofty stature, life without death, perfection of the earth’s fruit, the Garden of Eden, and brilliance of the luminaries in heaven. In the time to come [Ha’Olam Ha’Bah], The Holy One will restore them. Gen. R. 12.6; Tanhuma, Bereshith, 6.
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Beloved is man [Adam] for he was created in the image of G-d. Still greater was G-d’s love in that G-d gave to man [Adam] the knowledge of his having been so created. Pirkei Avot 3.14.
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We are waiting on the rectification of ourselves that will draw us to a place of completion, the regaining of that which Adam had and lost. For those who believe that we are in the image of G-d are thus stating that Adam did not transgress Hashem, that he was not banned from Ha’Gan Eden as well as Chavah and that nothing changed from his/ her disposition and that in saying so the world is in a complete state of being and that Adam is still within the garden and He is not… This belief is hopeful, but incorrect, we are shattered fragments, we are not complete, we are temporal while spurnal, a soul that is the Kadmon with a body that is Rishon. We are incomplete striving after completion, we are destined to the aura that Adam had but at present we do not have it as long as this shell we are dressed in has anything to do with who we are, we however will gain all that has been lost to us because of Avera Chattaim or even more so because of the break and shattering within the self.. The human soul was the aura of the image of Hashem’s splendor, you are the image and imprint of your parents. Nachmanides indicates that point as does Rashi. Teachers are teaching as if you and I are already within our perfected state of being, that an incompletion and rectification per our irregularities is not in place, but our bodies tell a different story as does our temporeality thus they are incorrect and that is why we have this continuous effort and work taking place, this rectification that we keep having to do in working on our condition, in trying to better ourselves and our conditions, in working with the soul in fixing ourselves! We wouldn’t need to work at improving ourselves if we were already within our perfected state or image of Hashem.
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A Rabbinic Exegetical Hermeneutical Look at
Bereshith 1.26-27. Whose right and whose wrong?
The Etz Hayim Torah and Commentary from The Rabbinical Assembly, The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Produced by the Jewish Publication Society states:
BASED ON VERSE 26. Commentators in every generation have puzzled over the pluralize language in this verse. The Midrash envisions G-d consulting with the angels, perhaps hinting at a measure of divine ambivalence. Truth and Peace oppose creating humans on the grounds that such creatures would surely be deceitful and contentious. Love and Righteousness favor their creation, for without humanity, how can there be love and righteousness in the world! G-d sides with those favoring creation [Gen. R. 8.5.] Or perhaps God was speaking to the animals: Together let us fashion a unique creature in our image.
INCORRECT, WRONG!
When Hashem said let us, he was talking with souls not angels and not animals. And G-d’s utopia, his plans, his arcadia did not need Humans to express love and righteousness, he expressed love and righteousness before humans were ever created, conceived or put into plan, the Tora was in existence before man was decided and created, Hashem Himself is love and righteousness, man can only give or reveal love and righteousness because it was placed inside him, inside his emotions, inside his soul at creation. Thus man was not needed to relay love and righteousness within the worlds.
The opening section we already indicated from Zohar stated: The Holy one, blessed be He, said: “ I and My Shchinah are partners in [the Creation of] the soul, and his father and mothers are partners in the body. Thus the initial partners in Creator was Hashem and His Shchinah alone, not the angels in the creation of the soul. All that the angels had anything to do with deals with the nature of man after the creative process was already concluded. We oft equate the angels as being supernatural superior beings with some sort of G-d like qualities instead of as living souls themselves who never transitioned from their supernal placement into bodies. But they are living souls as we were living souls! The souls who were participatory at creation were the souls destined for body placements and not the angels, who have never left their souls for bodies… So to those who have commented stating that with the “ Let us” as indicating that Hashem was conversing with angels, they have only errored in not differentiating between the souls present, that being those that were going to be placed within bodies verses those which remained with Hashem and have never taken on temporeality, finiteness, that remained in their placement with Hashem thus called angels.
BASED ON VERSE 27. Every Human has irreducible worth and dignity, because every human is fashioned in the image of G-d. The second Commandment (Sh’mot 20) forbids fashioning an image of Hashem. We do not need one because every person represents the divine. A human king strikes coins in his image, and every one them is identical. Hashem created every person with the die of the first human being [i.e., in the divine image], and each one is unique [BT Samh 38a]. Male and Female. The Midrash [Gen.R. 8.1] alludes to a legend, also found in Plato’s Symposium and in other ancient traditions, that the first human being was actually a pair of twins attached to each other, one male and one female. Hashem divided them and commanded them to reunite, to find the other person who will make each of them complete again, in order to reproduce and attain wholeness. The Midrash takes the words “and G-d blessed them” to mean “G-d presided over their wedding ceremony” (Gen. R. 8.13). This would imply that Chavah was not fashioned out of Adam’s rib as an afterthought but was created at the same time as Adam, as half of the first human creature. The word translated “ rib” Tzela, in 2.21 means “ side” in Sh’mot 26.20 and elsewhere in biblical Hebrew. According to the Tora, humans were meant to be vegetarians. Eating meat would be a later concession.
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PARTIALLY TRUE, PARTIALLY INCORRECT!
We were not created in the image of G-d, Adam and Chavah were, after the shattering dispersed and Adam lost his placement and his aura left him, as Bereshith chapter 5 indicates His son Seth was fashioned in the imprint of his father. We no longer carry that image, it is lost until the rectification of the world takes place, until our completion and the removal of our irregularities take place. This commenter makes a contradiction: He indicates that the second commandment forbids fashioning an image to Hashem, thus if Sh’mot 20 forbids the fabrication of something into the image of Hashem that would rest well that man can not be the image of G-d either as that would fashion an image of G-d! The text indicates not to fashion anything in Heaven as well as the Earth, thus excluding mans image as well thus proving man is not the image of G-d and man can not be called the image of G-d for in doing so man has become idolized (Arizah) and thus idolatrous (Elili)! We are not the image of G-d, we are the image and imprint of our parents…
I have given you all the evidence to prove that!
Hashem did not create the world to bear his image, he created Adam and Chavah with that initial image,we don’t share that image as no one can share his glory (Yeshayah 42.8) No one in an imperfect state can bare his image. We are all unique because we all look like our parents, this does not remove Hashem from being in the creative process, this indicates as long as man is incomplete, he can not be formless or have the aura of Hashem. He has the work of continuously perfecting himself until He does gain completion! So these commentators are incorrect as they have not received the full wisdom to understand these text.
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Rashi’s Pentateuch, Rashi’s Commentary on this has it correct! Rashi is one of the only one’s who has it right! I recommend you get Rashis Commentary on Tora! Most other commentators are far from the truth. My Rashi Commentary on Bereshith is Copyright 1929.
Even the JPS Tora Commentary doesn’t have it correct, Rashi does! The Artscroll Chumash Commentary component is incorrect also.
The Soncino Chumash. Edited by A. Cohen has it correct also!
All commentary is not the same and all commentators are not correct, they relay their opinions based on what they perceive something to mean. That is not having a real assurance to what it means causes one to indicate opinions based on how they perceive and view what they are reading, without wisdom and insight from Hashem one can not understand the Tora or anything else pertaining to Hashem! And with wisdom it has to match that which is in Tora and then according to that which has been handed down to us from Chazal Ha’Rabbonim…
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Further reasons we are not the image of Hashem is because His image never changed, it never shattered, his form never transitioned, his form never declassified into a different image or disposition, ours did! To be the image of Hashem is then to only be Holy without irregularities, sin and aging which is slow deceleration and deterioration, the fact that we age and die show and reveal that we are not the image of Hashem. The imprints of our parents from the day of our birth is a slow deterioration from birth we die and when we die we are born. The birth of man is the death of man for in his birth he loses perfection, he gains Rishon verses Kadmon, he becomes a gradual losing force against the natural reactions of time.
Thus man is born and his soul placed inside a shell that is shattered, that is casting, that is broken, that is born to deteriorate, but when he is soul he is new, in the form of that first form which Adam lost per his decision to violate Hashem. When we in soul were formless and had the aura of Hashem we were then placed inside a body took on the imprint of our parents and are all who yet remain in this body awaiting our Geulah B’Rachamim, Ha’Olam Ha’Bah, Ha’Gan Eden. Why is that so important to the Jew? Because we all know that we are incomplete as we are awaiting Mashiach, but for what? Because we seek rectification and our original Adam to retake hold of that which we once were but have lost in this world.
Why is this difficult to grasp or understand by some? Because we don’t want to see ourselves as broken, blistered, fragmented, we want to believe within ourselves that as we are, we are the image of Hashem because the thought of us not being causes one to face their own mortality and reality. We have given more than enough evidence to prove that we are not the image of G-d, but along with this, we have the promise that we shall be, which should encourage every Jew to work at rectifying themselves before their Creator!
So the question stands before us why did G-d allow, choose, to cause us to be placed within incompletion, within irregularities, within imperfection when He could have easily rectified man for man Himself as G-d? Man will tell you free will (Rzon Chufshi) is the answer but I will tell you it is not free will, to this for two and a half years the Yeshiva of Shammai and Hillel wrestled!
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Our Masters taught: For two and a half years the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel were divided. The first school said: It would have been better for man not to have been created than to have been created. The other said: It is better for man that he was created than it would have been had he not been created. They finally voted and decided: It would have been better for man not to have been created than to have been created. But now that he has been created, let him search his past deeds. Some say: Let us examine what he is about to do [Past mistakes can not be undone; one can only repent and repair any harm caused by them. Further misdeeds can be foreseen and left undone] B. Er 13b.
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What is free will? The power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate, the ability to act at one’s own discretion, voluntary choice or decision.
Thus it has nothing to do with free will at all, you may have been taught incorrectly in this regard also…
Why did the argument last two years? Because they were divided as it states and could not come to a resolution to the query of man’s purpose within this world, however free will teaches that man can just about do anything and decide to do anything he wants, thou he decide for himself what he will or will not do is the will to receive or the will to negate. That is whatever He decides to do has within that decision an enactment per the choosing, rather he does or does not is really not the point! The point isn’t to decide or not to decide, the point is what He becomes or what he is not! “The recognition of the Creator” or His denial of the Creator which is then real sin, real transgression, not his willingness to do a thing or his denial to do a thing is irrelevant. Does He recognize the Creator is the purpose of the body?
We say free will as a way of delegitimatizing responsibility, because it is easier to perceive that we are in the condition that we are in because we can decide of ourselves what we will and won’t do, when this has nothing to do with it at all! It has to do with the recognition of the Creator in everything done, not just the will to do or negate! And if man does decide against the Creator he then is against the Creator! So from this we gain back from the initial question why didn’t G-d rectify man for man? It wasn’t to gain free will, but to gain the quest for the Creator of the will to receive verses the will to negate. That is man searches out the Creator from a need within, from the place of incompletion, longing until He becomes one with His Creator! And if G-d rectified man for man, then man would within himself not need to do a work that has already been done for him. That is there would be no need to search out Tora, to seek out Hashem the Creator, there would be no need to feel a voidance, to have incompletion within the self, to be empty as vessels, as pitchers and cups which were created only to be filled with substance. This isn’t a matter of testing your ability to decide or negate as is free will, it is a matter beyond free will, it is a matter of fulfillment to that which is empty and incomplete, the substance is the attraction to that which lacks verses giving you that which could have been given to you as are the angels complete without an experience of incompletion as is man. Thus man is higher than angels thou not lofty as them in that we have to strive after G-d! To strive after G-d is not a matter of making choices only as is free will to do, to receive or to negate, it is far more than that, it is the recognition of the Creator above one’s own will, free will leaves it at mans will to do, when this has everything to do with that which is beyond man! Above man and his needs or wants. Do you understand?
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Even as men’s faces are not alike, so their understanding is not alike. Each man has an understanding that is his very own. Tanhuma, Pinhas 10.
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That is every man has wisdom regarding that which he can attain, when you become less you receive more, when you direct the attention to yourselves or perceive yourselves as having the answers you become haughty and receive less… When you become empty and rely upon Hashem and his Tora removing the self you receive more… When you remove perceptions and opinions, to have no opinion but to only seek the truth you receive Hashem’s truth…. When you make it about yourself then it becomes about you and then you are no longer invested in the Creator or the will of the Creator and that is why man gets stuck in study….
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Judah Ben Tema used to say: At the age of five, one is fit for Scripture; at ten, for Mishnah; at thirteen, for [fulfilling the] precepts of fifteen, for Gemara; at eighteen, for the bridal chamber; at twenty, to pursue [a calling as Rabbi or Cantor]; at thirty, for the peak of strength; at forty for understanding; at fifty, for counsel; at sixty, for mature age; at seventy, for a hoary head; at eighty a sign of exceptional strength; at ninety bent [beneath the weight of years]; at a hundred as one that is already dead, who has passed away and ceased to be in this world.
Avot 5.21.
To an old man, even a tiny mound is like the highest of mountains. Ibid.
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So free will seeks its own will, but the will of searching out Hashem is against man’s will, free will has no effort, seeking out Hashem comes with a cost, with a strive, with struggle against the self, the wrestling as did Yaakov, we wrestle against G-d with the nature of our own desires verses the will of the Creator. If it were dully and notably a matter of our own will we would all choose it, because it is easier and effortless to do without effort verses struggling and fighting against your own selves for the will of the Creator over your own will requires work, continuation of changes and transitioning, repentance, remittance, recanting and redoing… Thus this is beyond free will, for a man with a soul has within the need to seek the Creator, and that explains why we have 4,200 religions within our world! Because man was given within him the need to seek out the Creator! He may reclassify that search into various categories as Monotheistic which is a Christian dogma tenet of two classifications called Monothelitism and Monophysitism I taught you about in prior lessons, rather He is pantheistic or polytheistic or an atheist or agnostic, he quest for the classification of himself into such placement is the need for the Creator even if He goes about incorrectly, that place of voidance, incompletion causes the categorical nature of him to label himself in like manner. Rather He is religiously devote or questions everything or disbelieves everything, it all stems from his incompletion that He knows and realizes is there and his search for significance causes him to wonder about into all directions of search, research, wonder, bewilderment because He lacks within himself, he seeks rectification, he wants his voidance to be filled. He knows even if He can’t ideally state what it is, he feels within himself an incompletion and thus man seeks religion as a means to eradicate that emptiness, that voidance, that irregularity, that space. He will search out and often be from one religion to the next searching for that which He can not find. He will search about or denounce and accept variable facts as he strive, crawl after completion causing him to need G-d even if He has gone after the wrong one, in time he will be drawn as was Avraham to the right one, to the truth of Tora and Hashem. But He can not exist in his state of incompletion and feel complete or live complete without a search for the Creator! This can not be of any human being on the planet! Every single soul that is within a fragmented body is searching out the Creator! Even those who are wicked, evil, who do all kinds of wickedness within the world, they can not remove from themselves even if they are evil, the need or recognition of this incompletion, they have chosen to act upon their own will and in this fight against G-d they perceive him last after they do what there desires draw them to do… In that case they are after their free will, the will to receive for themselves and are fighting against the will of the Creator which they can not remove from themselves no matter what they do within this world. To be able to do so would be removing one’s soul from themselves and living within a body without a soul, that can not happen…. The body without a soul would then be animated, a thing like an object, like a table, chair, something incapable of reasoning, responding, reacting, thinking, rationality, deciding. “Mankind has need for G-d, regarding the incompletion which only G-d can fill”
We work at rectifying ourselves before our Creator because we want what we know we shall receive, its a matter of living this life out, trying to find fulfillment in this placement, by doing as much as possible to please the Creator who then gives us joy, peace amidst our similitude and fragility, he gives us a sense of full vessels, cups and pitchers filled, that gives us a sense of worth and purpose and tranquility in search and meaning… Then we can share joy, smile, be filled with laughter, gleam and excitement and such trivialities that oft trouble us become less constrictive. To this we have been taught in my conclusion thou I have so much more I could share….
“ Then I commanded joy” (Kohelet 8.15)- the joy in obeying a precept. “ But of [another kind] of joy, I said, ‘ What does it do? (Kohelet 2.2)- joy not associated with performing a precept. This should prove to you that the Presence rests neither in the midst of sadness, nor in the midst of idleness, nor in the midst of frivolity, nor in the midst of levity, nor in the midst of chitchat, nor in the midst of inane talk, but only in the midst of joy in obeying a precept, as is shown by Elisha. [After Elisha became angry at the king of Yisrael (Melachim Beit 3.13-14), his power of Prophecy left him. But then, when he overcame his anger, he found such joy that he said, “ Now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the instrument played, that the hand of the L-rd [the power of prophecy] came back to him.” (Melachim Beit 3.15)
Shab, Soncino, p. 136, B. Shab 30b.
What do you learn from this?
When Elisha focused on anger, his own will to receive, his ability to please Hashem subsided, but when He removed his will to receive and was only invested in the will to please the Creator then his ability, or the will to receive from Hashem was given back to him, placed back within himself. Joy in fulfilling the precept, a Mitzvah is for the sake of the Mitzvah not what one can gain from the Mitzvah, we should not be after the reward, we should be after the Creator! What did Shlomo ask for and what was given to him?
(Divrey Hayamim Beit 1.7-11)
Thank You for studying with us…..