Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Perek 1


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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