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We spend the first nine months of our existence enclosed in our mother’s womb. For the next twenty-odd years we are under the dominion of parents, teachers, and possibly the military. The remainder of our adult years we become slaves to our jobs, parental duties, civic responsibilities, and fatigue. Then in our Golden Years of retirement, we are under the control of doctors. Sure, we’re free.
The reality is we are more like mice in a maze, searching for that ever-elusive scent of cheese. At some point some of us begin realizing like Bob Seger in his song, ” I Feel Like a Number,” and yell out, “Damn it I’m a man!”
My guess is the only “free” move we can make is to look up out of the maze toward God, and pray for an “out.”
Isaiah 45:5 I am the Lord and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me.
When I close my eyes, shutting off all the distractions from the corporeal world, and quieting my inner voice, I can begin to feel the fact that in reality, there is just me and the Creator. There is just the “thought of creation,” and my response.
What most inspired me in the course?
The concept that I can attain adhesion with the Creator by changing my intentions to mimic His.
What have I learned about myself in the process?
I am a hopeless egoist and even my most noble intentions are only to gratify myself.
What do I wish for my fellow students in their spiritual development?
That we all grow together spiritually into a cohesive soul.
By realizing that we can bring nothing to the table other than a desire to be one with the Creator, and when you think about it, why not!
I was watching the video with RavLaitman about the four states in the Related section of Week 4, and the question was raised, “why four states and not two?” This is because we are looking at a binary system. If the will to bestow = 1 and the will to receive = 0, then mathematically you will have four separate combinations or permutations: 1 1, 1 0, 0 1, and 0 0.
I was contemplating the other day about how Adam was the first Kabbalist and discovered the laws of nature as the Creator being the will to bestow and the creature the will to receive. How did he come to this understanding? Then I realized all he needed to do was look at a tree. The tree receives light from the sun, mixes it with air, water,and nutrients from the earth, and thrives. The sun, like the Creator, shines it’s light on the whole world, and whosoever wants to receive it does. The sun is self contained and needs nothing from outside itself to radiate light, just as the Creator has need of nothing. The tree receives the light shed on it and can give nothing back to the sun that it would need or want other than praise. Isaiah 55:12 ..and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
