The Bridge Over The Abyss Of Ego
Question: How do I detach from everything I know and receive the Light from the lesson as if I am a white screen and learn as a child does?
Answer: Sages say that teaching a child is similar to writing on a clean sheet of paper. That is how we begin our journey. A person must always imagine that his desire faces some “field” of other desires that seem alien to him. He has to assemble all these desires into one.
It doesn’t mean that they all will melt into unified oneness. No, each of them will exist independently, but the relationships between them will create wholeness and harmony similar to that between the parts of a healthy body.
In the initial state, in Infinity before the breaking, all of us were as one body. Then, it fell apart because the ego emerged in it. We must preserve our individual ego, but correct it. What does that mean?
Each part feels separated from the others and is distanced from the rest. Now, on one hand, we have to preserve our individuality and character, but on the other, above it, we need to discover such a connection as if the ego doesn’t exist. Yet, I don’t nullify it; rather, I work with it in order to overcome the gap.
As a result, the abyss remains below. Above it, I erect a bridge to all the other parts. Thereby, we receive the complete Light of NRNHY (Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida) instead of the minimal Light of Nefesh de Nefesh that we had in the initial state.
The Creator created us as a drop of semen. Later, getting corrected and returning to Him, we use all the “matter” of our ego to grow in order to become similar to the Creator. After all, egoism totally matches Him in power. This is the “help equal to Him,” the reverse side of the Creator. We, however, turn it into the face side by correcting the egoism that separates us.
Everyone feels as one, singular, and unique, and everybody uses his individuality to serve the others, directs it toward our mutual connection, bestowal. Thanks to that, I receive a bond 620 times stronger than my egoism and experience the Light of NRNHY.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/10, The Zohar, Introduction, Article “The Night of the Bride”
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Rav,
I understand what you say here (and even felt it a bit during and shortly after the congress) but how can we absolve or ’empty’ ourselves of previous inclinations/knowledge and arrive ready for the Light as “clean sheet of paper” at each lesson?
So the endless desire to receive that my ego intially used in a selfish way seemed like an endless pit of desires. The more I feed them the stronger and deeper I went into dispair and feeling empty. If I direct this will to receive the ego towards the creator and a desire to connect with him all that raw desire becomes a driving force to connect with him. As the light reforms this desire it become a pleasure to do this because you know that it is giving pleasure to the creator.