Mind or Heart?
Comment: Many people find it very difficult to accept the external form of Kabbalah that we express in songs and dances. Why do we adhere to it? Why don’t we try some other form? You say that Kabbalah is a science, and if you gave lectures as is customary in universities, how much more could that help spread Kabbalah?
My Response: I do not think that this would help its dissemination. Ninety-nine percent of the people on earth do not need our science at all. They need to feel good and safe, and this is expressed in pleasant communication with each other, in pleasant unity.
By nature, I am a completely unsociable person. Moreover, I am ready to sit within four walls all my life and would not feel it as a prison at all. I have my computer, my books, and what is inside me. That is enough for me! What can the world add to me?
But in order to advance spiritually, we need this earthly world. Therefore, I go out into the outer circles; otherwise, I would not teach.
I understand that positioning ourselves as an open university would be much more respectful than this kind of blurred picture of a kindergarten for overgrown kids where they dance in circles and sing. It is not clear at all what it even looks like.
But joint meals, songs, and dances were accepted among the ancient Kabbalists since the times of Baal Shem Tov. I think that it was so both with The ARI and with Rabbi Shimon. This is a natural expression of people’s inner feelings, their longings, and their desire to be together.
We understand that when people sit in a circle around a fire and sing together, it unites them. We see nothing strange in this. These can be indigenous peoples in South America, Africans with spears around a fire, Europeans who sit at their tables, Japanese or Chinese squatting; it does not matter who and how. This is accepted everywhere because this is a method of unification, an expression of feelings.
Naturally, in Europe, such an external expression as in Israel is considered very strange and, I would say, repulsive. But since we must first of all correct Israel and then the rest of the world, we are forced to act in this way. I see that this is being accepted in the rest of the world as well. I myself am not a fan of large circle dances, but people begin to behave this way spontaneously.
I prefer to sit by a fire, sing, and talk. From this I receive greater excitement than from dances, when people jump around and embrace their sweaty companions.
There are people who are drawn to this, and there are those who are inspired more from an inner sensation that comes from attainment, from understanding.
Either through the heart or through the mind are two completely different methods of correction that have come to us. One came from the ARI (through the mind), and the other from the Baal Shem Tov (through the heart). And they are both equal.
In our time, it is still difficult to say which way we are going. Although I thought and Baal HaSulam wrote that our time is the time of The ARI when one must prove, demonstrate, and explain with the mind; nevertheless, I see that what influences people more is precisely “let us drink and dance.” Because this goes from heart to heart through a common desire.
That is, songs and dances are needed, but they require greater inner deepening.
Question: How did Rabash relate to this? After all, he had some principles of his own. Since he lived in an Orthodox environment, he must have had both an external and an internal form.
Answer: His external form was very simple; he looked similar to everyone else. But inwardly, he was completely different from others but did not show it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Mind or Heart” 10/1/10
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