No Bad Talk
When you value human beings, you avoid speaking about their faults at all costs. As G‑d did with Esau.
As Isaac aged, his eyesight weakened. (Genesis 27:1)
This was in order that Jacob would be able to take the blessings of Esau. (Rashi)
This is puzzling. If G‑d wanted Jacob to receive Isaac’s blessings, He could have simply revealed to Isaac that Esau was wicked.
Especially since Isaac already had reason to believe something was up with Esau. He knew that Esau had wives who offered incense to idols. He knew that mention of G‑d was not part of Esau’s mode of speech.
So all G‑d needed to do was to fill Isaac in on the whole story.
But G‑d didn’t want to speak badly about Esau.
We call this lashon hara—speaking badly of another person even when what you say is true.
Now consider this: For the sake of wicked Esau, G‑d declined to speak unkind words—although that meant Isaac would have to be confined to his home and barely alive for 57 years.
For a fellow human being who may have slipped up a few times in life, isn’t it worthwhile to suffer the silence of our mouths for a moment or two?
The Story of Esau
“And these are the offspring of Isaac…” Genesis 30:3
“Who are his offspring? Esau and his children.”—Midrash Rabbah
Although the hero of the story is Jacob, Jacob’s ultimate goal is the rescue of Esau.
Isaac wished to rescue Esau with a blessing, lifting him from the dirt and overwhelming him with a downpour of intense light.
Rebecca, however, saw this would only further feed Esau’s wickedness. The one to rescue Esau was not his father, but his twin brother, Jacob.
Only Jacob could dress in the clothes of Esau, experience the world of Esau from within, and then heal himself from there.
And in healing himself from within Esau’s world, the precious good within Esau would be rescued and reconnected to its true place.
That is the entire history of Jacob and Esau, the offspring of Isaac. It is also the entire story of Israel and the rest of humanity.
So that within this story is the secret of healing:
When you want to heal another, get inside their skin, identify with them, and heal together with them.
Heal a Brother
How do you heal a brother?
By entering inside him and experiencing what it is like to be him. And then you can heal together.
How do you heal any problem in this world?
By investing yourself within that chunk of the world, so that the problem becomes your problem. And then you can heal your world.
Because, in truth, you can only heal yourself, and that to which your destiny is tied.
Choose Your Strategy
How do you fix a place, a problem, a person—anything at all?
By rejecting the bad and embracing the good.
If so, you have two possible strategies:
You could focus on all that is bad, ugly and diseased, scraping it away and chasing it out, so that eventually all that’s left is pure and healthy.
Or you could focus on whatever is still healthy and functional, embracing it, fortifying it and using it for its true purpose, so that eventually the dark crust in which it was imprisoned simply falls away.
Certainly, both strategies are necessary, and both have their time and place. But where do you begin?
It depends. When the human soul shines bright and strong, with just a few details out of place—then you can focus on what is wrong, discarding whatever bad remains.
But when everything is a mess, when the soul lies in a deep coma, when darkness rules in every cell—then to focus on the negative and attack the disease head-on could prove fatal.
Then you have no choice but to seek out the precious sparks of life that have survived.
In truth, those are the most potent cells, like precious stones hidden at the bottom of a dark mine.
Rescue those sparks of life, and with their power everything can be healed.
Inside Job
Fixing up the world is always an inside job.
What do we fix? That which we need.
When do we fix anything? When we are in need.
Why do we fix anything? Because our destiny is tied to the destiny of that which we repair and improve.
So it is with the food we eat, the bodies in which we live, the business in which we work, and the community in which we live.
So it is with every fellow traveler through life to whom we wish to lend a helping hand.
Nobody can come from the outside, stay outside, and make real, lasting, beneficial change.
Two Paths
The Baal Shem Tov taught there are two paths:
G‑dliness is everything.
Everything is G‑dliness.
Where the two paths converge, there is G‑d Himself.
Paths of Abraham and Isaac
“G‑dliness is everything” is the path of Abraham. Abraham understood that there is a Truth beyond all truths, an absolute reality, before which no other reality is true. Therefore, he smashed the idols and declared to all people and in all places that there is only One.
Abraham spread light.
“Everything is G‑dliness” is the path of Isaac. Isaac saw that the world is in truth G‑dly. Therefore, Isaac dug wells, in the earth and in the people. He dug away the darkness and found the spark of G‑dliness within each thing.
Isaac uncovered light.
Jacob's Path
"G‑dliness is everything. Everything is G‑dliness."
-Baal Shem Tov.
Each of these paths contains what the other is missing:
Follow the path of "G‑dliness is everything" and you arrive at a place where even the darkness shines, for it too has divine meaning. And so it ceases to be darkness; the world is filled with light.
But you have not changed the world; you have left the world behind you. In this place, there is no world. There is only G‑dliness. Come back to the world and you will find the darkness stubbornly in its place.
That is the story of Abraham and Ishmael. Ishmael reformed himself during his father's lifetime. But as soon as his father died, he once again fell away.
So you take the path of "Everything is G‑dliness." You search within the dark earth and the mud, knowing that you will find sparks of G‑dliness hidden there. But the darkness itself, the thick clay and coarse sand in which you could find no glimmer of light awaiting you, that remains darkness.
That is the story of Isaac and Esau. Esau's head, we are told, rests on Isaac's lap in the cave. But his body remains out in the field.
The path of Jacob is to not follow any single path, but to travel in two opposite directions at once. To know a G‑d who is at once both beyond and within.
To Jacob, darkness and light are one. Eventually, Jacob will redeem Esau.
Purpose to Darkness
At the outset of Creation, He removed all light. And that is the source of all that ever goes wrong.
Why did He remove the light? Why did He choose that things could go wrong?
Sometimes we say He wanted darkness as a black velvet setting, an empty space in which to shine a new light and make a world of light. The darkness, we say, is there for the sake of light, as pain exists for the sake of healing.
But this could not be the entire answer.
Why? Because darkness for the purpose of light is not complete darkness. In our world, we find evil that defies explanation, shirks all answers, offers no place for light to shine.
The entire answer must be that in Light alone, G‑d cannot be found. For He is beyond dark and light, presence and absence, being and not being.
And so, just as darkness exists for the sake of light, so light exists for the sake of darkness—to reveal its true purpose, to allow knowledge of a wholly transcendent G‑d to enter His world.
What we accomplish when we withstand the challenge of darkness. When we choose light.
The Harder Closer Path
There are two paths you could take:
An easier, further path or a harder, closer path.
Knowing that G‑d is everything, you may wish to reject all the world stands for. Since everything is emptiness, you may deny yourself even necessities, living far and removed from the banalities of mankind, engaging only in the truths of the spirit, running from the confines of physical, mundane life.
This is the easier path.
On the other hand, knowing that within each thing G‑d can be found, you may be inspired to refine and elevate our world, struggling with all its facets to find their true purpose, grabbing every opportunity to squeeze out a little more of the world’s inherent good, living a spiritual life by using physical things in an enlightened way.
Both paths are true paths upon which many tzadikim have tread. But it is from the second, more difficult path that we will benefit the most. For this way, heaven will be discovered on earth.
Interface
All that exists
is Him
and you.
Everything else is interface.
Three Possibilities
Everything that exists in your world is about communion with the Infinite. Everything is one of three:
A means to connect.
A path to fall away.
Or neutral ground
awaiting you to transform it into a connection.
Which tells you that if something had no role in your purpose of being,
it would not exist in your world.
The Other's World
In your world, all that exists is the Infinite and you. Everything else is but a medium by which the two of you connect.
Yet, in the world of the other guy, all that exists is the Infinite and them. You are but one of those means of connection.
And this other guy's world is just as true as yours.
Knowing this is also part of your world.
So that now, with trepidation, humility, and awe, you will enter this holy world of the other guy.
Multiverse Travel
There are multiple universes, and you can travel to any one of them on any day.
There is one universe in which you stand at the center while all else orbits about you.
There’s another universe where someone else stands at the center and everything orbits around him or her.
And both are true, real universes, because each of us truly is responsible for the destiny of our world, as the Mishnah says, “Every human being must say, ‘The universe was created for me to repair.’”
The equipment you need for your journey is already yours. Because if you can understand that you are the center of your world, you can understand how the other guy is the center of his.
Just adjust your mind, open your heart, and envision the universes of these other beings.
Then go treat them accordingly.
Yes, you can become a multiverse trekker without even walking out your front door. You don’t even have to leave yourself behind.
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