Question:
1) This is a clarifying question regarding how we “unify Hashem’s Name”.
Avraham figured out that we are not complete without Hashem. I gave up all internet use over a year ago and I gave up even email use before last Rosh Hashana because I was addicted, constantly checking for messages. What I learned about this is that when I felt lacking, I turned to the internet or to communicating with others to relieve this feeling of lack, and there was plenty of relief – a whole world of chats, shopping, Torah sites and more to alleviate the feeling of lack, or at least cover it over to the body’s gratification. Having been off the internet now, and turning in prayer to Hashem Who completes us, I believe that what He is asking of us for which He completes us is within my reach – to cry out. When I struggle and I turn in prayer to Him, I do not know how it will be resolved but because I have the intention of unifying His Name with everything stirring within me with His Compassion, and I declare that I do not want to fall into the body’s urges, there often is movement and release and calm that follows. I have the sense that Hashem is doing it all, through me, that my only role is to know this and to keep crying out, that the story itself is not what matters but rather the opening I make in my heart so that the unification can take place.
If the light of our soul which is the Shechina is our inner penimius, and we become confused with a sense of independent identity based on the world completing us, seeking completion from the world, is the pathway out of that confession of our urges in this direction?
Answer:
That is one of the ways.
Question:
2) If our recognition that what is within us IS the shechina – our life force – that is in its essence Hashem’s compassion only placed in a limited being, and we have genuine love for Hashem to cry out and describe it declaring our loyalty to Him that we do not want to fall into the bodily interpretations that cause us to seek being completed by taking actions in the world, is this an act of bitul?
Answer:
Yes, that is one kind of bittul.
Question:
3) Is this bitul the run to Hashem that makes us ayin?
Answer:
It is not the complete level of bittul, though it is a connection to Hashem, it is a way of “running” towards Hashem, but it is not total ayin/bittul.
Question:
4) And if so, does Hashem do everything else?
Answer:
One needs to complete his actions according to what he can do.
Question:
5) When Hashem told Moshe to throw down the staff, it turned into a fiery snake and Moshe became scared because he could not see Hashem. Picking a snake up by the tail is the most dangerous way to pick up a snake because it increases its length for striking. Hashem told him to pick up the snake by its tale and the staff returned to being a staff. Is this the model for us, that when we are rattled, triggered, that we cry out describing the feelings that are rattling us? By going to this deep place of describing how our bodies feel, ready to strike, and turning to Hashem – is this the bitul that then opens our hearts so that the light of our soul that is the shechina within our inner penimi reunites with the concealed light within nature, the makif?
Answer:
One needs to have clear recognition of his soul [to know himself well] and from there he should turn to Hashem amidst that clarity.
Question:
6) Does Hashem make that union when we confess?
Answer:
Yes, but it is only partial bittul, as mentioned in a previous answer.
Question:
Is our effort the confession, and He makes the unification?
Answer:
Besides for that, we also need to do actual avodah to uproot any evil parts within us [as mentioned in answer to question #4].
Question:
7) And then when we do mitzvahs are we making the sanctification of His Name with all of that unified light?
Answer:
Yes, but the degree and quality of that light will change relative to the person’s level.
Question:
8) And is this why the internet that seems to complete us by gratifying the body through the world is avoda zara, because it does not unify His Name and keeps us from being one with Him?
Answer:
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Categories
