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Is Rav encouraging us to start practicing tefillin? This is new to me. What is the spiritual root or Kabbalistic perspective of tefillin?
Hi AspiringAltruist,
I don’t think you need to start buying and wrapping Tefillin. There exists such a Kabbalistic practice called Tefillin (which also became a Jewish religious custom) – but it’s important to distinguish customs from intentions – the inner work with the desire – which are the focus of Kabbalah. Baal HaSulam writes that even in the Gmar Tikkun (end of correction) everyone can keep their own customs. And there we’re already talking about a state of “all shall know me [The Creator] from smallest to greatest.” So, it’s not the case that everyone who wants to study Kabbalah and reach the Creator needs to adopt these physical customs.
If you’d like to know the basis for this custom though, Rav discusses it in this excerpt from a talk he gave on the subject of Tefillin:
The physical act of putting on Tefillin is only a symbol of spiritual communication with the upper force of love and bestowal. The Tefillin symbolize the correction that we undergo in our desires and thoughts in order to enter into equivalence of form with the upper force.
According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, our matter is a desire to receive that divides into 613 desires, which we need to correct. “Correcting a desire” means changing the intention upon the desire from self-benefit to benefiting others.
The contents of the Tefillin are four Parshiot (sections) that correspond to the name of the upper force (HaVaYaH [י-ה-ו-ה]), through which we ask the upper force to help us love others.
Putting on Tefillin in the morning expresses a desire to receive the force to correct ourselves throughout the day. It is important to note that the physical action of putting on Tefillin makes no corrections in and of itself. The correction depends on how we work with our intentions and actions. This is also the case with all of the Mitzvot (commandments); in a physical sense, they serve only as reminders of the need to carry out inner acts of correction.
About the corrections that the Tefillin symbolize, it is written, “And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand” (Deuteronomy 6:8), i.e., the left hand symbolizes the ego that needs to undergo correction. Also, “And they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes” (Deuteronomy 6:8) means that when we correct our desires and thoughts, we attain equivalence of form with the upper force.
In short, the Tefillin symbolize the correction of our desires and thoughts through which we come to the revelation of the Creator, the upper force of love and bestowal that dwells in reality.
If you have any additional questions I’m happy to answer!
Hello, since there is none else besides Him, and every thought and emotion I have is planted in me by Him, what is then “my reason” that I need to go above? How can I distinguish “my reason”? Thanks in advance!
My reason is what is determined by me, rather than by the ten and the Creator, where I take them together as one.
Dear Team,
How do I ever come to it, I mean, the arrival at a prayer for the friends imbued with power sufficient to cross the barrier and extend beyond my ego and reach the goal?
Simply wishing, earnestly wanting, thinking of your friends powerfully so, continual striving all seems so futile.
I’m concerned that all such endeavors, which I undertake daily, simply fall foul and become nullified and worthless. Worship, superstition, knowing things by rote, simply repeating things, carrying out worthless actions, making offerings and so on, all lead to a stagnant way with no progress.
How do we ensure that we do not fall into this modis operandi while thinking of the friends and yearn so strongly that we are actually progressing for them, when in actual fact, such thoughts and wants and wishes are invalid as offering a bowl of rice to a deity or any other worthless action in truth?
Thanks, Lyndon S.
I can’t determine in advance if a recipient I don’t perceive receives it or not. If I determine in advance that He doesn’t – ok – so I’m like everyone. They’re sure that no one receives their prayers, because they always have prayers in their hearts, and they don’t get answered. Or, I decide I’m going by Faith in the Sages who tell me that “many pennies accumulate to a great account.”
Can I come to the environment every day and only want to absorb as much as possible because of its greatness? Is this somehow harmful? Is it lacking an effort to bestow? For example reading the sages I want the text to work on me I want to connect with the heart of the Kabbalist. Can I apply this more broadly?
In addition to our corporeal names, such as Salvatore or Todd, do we also have a unique spiritual name? Does our soul possess a unique name, or are we nameless or akin to Adam in the spiritual realm? Alternatively, could we be like a 600,000-sided die, a single entity with numerous unique facets?
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