We Do Not Learn from Mistakes
Comment: You said that in reality children never learn from their parents’ mistakes.
My Response: Of course. How could that be? You cannot convey your life experience to another even in our world, much less in the spiritual world.
I remember my teacher sat in front of me on long winter evenings in Tiberias, and I pestered him with the same questions. He looked at me with compassion, eyes full of pity. He had very expressive eyes.
I saw that he sympathized with me, but could not help in any way more than what he was trying to explain, guide, and suggest. Usually, after my questions, he would sigh and say: “Let us read something.” And that was it, nothing else.
I remember I felt very bad. We went with him for a walk in the Beit Shemen forest. This was at the very beginning of my study. I studied with him for about a year, and a year is nothing to study Kabbalah. He saw that I was completely torn to pieces. I prayed: “Help me with at least something!” Such requests are generally not typical for me, but I blurted out: “Help!”
He looked at me with such pain, like a father who is ready to give everything to his hopelessly ill child, but can do nothing to help. We sat on a bench; I can show this place even today. He took from his pocket the article “Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before” (“Achor Ve Kedem Tzartani”) and began to read to me. This is an article from the book A Sage’s Fruit, which we were just preparing for publication at that time.
In principle, the title of this article can be translated as “I control you from all sides.” I cannot say that I understood anything in it. But what else can you give a beginner?
In this case, we are talking about those people who strive to penetrate the spiritual system; they feel bad because they do not know it and do not attain it, and this pain speaks inside of them! After all, nothing corporeal was pressing on me at that time. I was perfectly settled, healthy, and young. It was spirituality that I lacked!
Question: Can you now evaluate how he perceived you at that moment? You, in fact, were part of him.
Answer: Of course, I was incorporated in him. He perceived me as a small system that needed to be adjusted, and he sympathized with it and really wanted to help it, and it reacted naturally. What else can you do? You just have to keep working with it and wait for the results.
Of course, he was worried about me, but he was worried as a father for a child who was not in a hopeless state. The father has a medicine that he gives to the child every day and sees that in the end the child will recover and do what is needed.
One day I could not overcome myself and did not follow him to take him to the sea. Then he was taken there by another student, who on the way asked: “Why is it always only Michael who accompanies you?” Rabash replied: “I cannot do anything about it. He has a special soul.”
I learned this 20 years later from that friend during a chance meeting. I did not even think about it and, moreover, I was surprised that Rabash said that about me to another student.
Therefore, when you look at a student, you take into account his entire future, and it sets you up to treat him accordingly. You tolerate his antics and lead him forward, or you “hit” him more often, or maybe, on the contrary, you pull him out “by the forelock.”
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. You do not Learn from Past Mistakes” 1/15/12
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