Forum Replies Created
- Replies
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!
I can always check if now I can be closer to the Creator. But in regular life, I need my reason for my daily interactions.
My reason is what is determined by me, rather than by the ten and the Creator, where I take them together as one.
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.”
From all directions the Creator is moving us forward. The only question is if we’re asking to go even faster to the goal.
