1:3
All the efforts that a person expends
towards change and improvement that are focused on this-worldly
changes, are not truly going to effect change. True change only comes
about when a person raises himself out of the mundane world and gets
in touch with his spiritual self and effects change there.
1:5
A superficial glance at the world,
indeed at the Universe from the perspective of a person would seen to
show that things never change. There are cycles, day-night,
winter-summer, the cycle of the constellations, but they all follow a
predictable pattern that seems to never change. It takes a broader
perspective to learn how to discover the changes that take place
within the orbits and travels of planets and stars.
So, too, it is very easy to go through
life borne along by the tides of the times, reacting to
circumstances, confused about why things are as they are, and not
seeing the opportunities and subtle changes. It takes a broader
perspective to sense them, to take advantage of them, and even more
so to see them coming and to facilitate them.
1:8
ולא
תמלא אזן
משמוע
As long as a person's primary pursuits
are focused on satisfying himself on in the realm of the physical
there will be no satisfaction. This is because the physical is not
what is real and therefore it cannot bring about true satisfaction.
That is why the first letters spell out the word אמת,
truth. There is no fill of what is true there is, consequently, no
satisfaction.
1:9-10
Our sages refer in a Midrash to
Moshiach crying over the suffering of the Jewish Nation. How can
Moshiach be crying if he has not yet been born and does not yet
exist?
The answer is the Moshiach (the ability
to transcend the physical world) as well as all that which is
good and beneficial has been implanted in the world from the time of
Creation. All good is awaiting the right person to come along and
discover it and actualize the good.
[Take as an example all of the
scientific discoveries that have changed the world over the past two
centuries. There was nothing new to be found. It was all there
from the time of Creation and waiting someone to come along and find
it and harness it. It is no different when it comes to spiritual
realities. There are many truths out there that are still waiting to
be discovered, examined and implemented for the good of mankind. CL]
1:14
רעות
רוח
This
is conventionally translated as a broken spirit. However we can
understand the word רעות
as sharing a
root with the word רועה,
shepherd. Things go wrong in life when we allow ourselves to be
shepherded by something else. Sometimes it is other people, in this
case it is our involvement in the physical world which is taking
control of the person and leading him to places which are not
beneficial to him. Rather than getting in touch with his essential
self to discern what is best for him, he is following the masses or
what seems to bring the most immediate payoff, rather than connecting
to his spiritual side and finding what is best for himself.
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