Nugget #58 - First Triad: Keter

Keter is the very First Sefirot within the Tree of Life.  Keter is Hebrew and means “Crown”.   It represents the very beginning of creation at the highest soul level.  In fact we can say it is even before creation.  Think of it as the point between the Creator and beginning of creation.  It can be called “the thought of creation”.  Liken it to the thought before the formulation and execution of a plan – the implementation of creation.

This acts as an anchor point for the rest of creation.  It is the source and sustainment point of creation from the soul to physical creation.  In terms of the Tree of Life it is the source and sustainer of the rest of the Sefirot.  So for the first Triad this Sefirah is the source and sustainer, but is not contained within that triad. 

Imagine picking up a string with a weight at the end.  As we pick up the string end, with the weight on the other end, we will see that the weight will find its balance directly centered under the hand, like a plumb line.  It simply automatically happens.  Keter does the same for the Tree of Life.  As Keter is suspended, the rest of the Tree will find its correct balance.  Thus all triads as well will be correctly suspended and balanced.

Keter is critical and essential for the existence of the Tree of Life in a properly balanced state.  Keep in mind the Tree of Life is multidimensional and as such requires a point of reference to balance from.  Keter is the point of reference of all.

Ask yourself, what role does Keter mean to me at a human level?

Nugget #57 – Siferot: The First Triad

Within the Tree of Life, the Sefirot form 3 triads or 3 groupings of 3 Sefirot that form a triangular shape.  The 10^th Sefirah is the resultant of the interaction of the 3 triads and the 9 Sefirot.  Thus the interaction of the Sefirot within the Triads along with the Triads interacting with each other produces the net result that is the 10th and last Sefirot.  There is a slight twist to this.  There is an 11^th sefirah that is a pseudo sefirah.  I will explain that when we get to it.

When discussing the Triads it is important to understand that all of the Sefirot do in fact interact with each other as well.  The Triads are meant to break the picture down into pieces that can be better understood but by no means do they present a complete picture of the Sefirot interactions with each other.  It is merely a perspective.

Each one of the Sefirah represents a core attribute that we have in common without Creator.  Thus through these attributes we are created in the image of G-d.  We have common channels to relate to and communicate with the Creator.  They give us access to understanding the nature of G-d and become that image of G-d.

Nugget #56

Continuing on from the last Nugget; within our culture we have also nurtured an unhealthy concept of perfection.  This programming has lead to many ills within our society.  Many compulsive disorders are based upon a person’s unwillingness to accept anything but perfection (perceived or real).  This concept has become a religious doctrine for many, that being anything less than perfect is unacceptable before G-d.  So we look to performing the Commands with defeatism before, during, and after them not to mention the depressive sting of “rejection” by our Creator just because we exist in an imperfect state.

These doctrines and ancillary philosophies have created a society without hope and lives without meaning since we are hopeless to attempt living out our created purpose with perfection.  So why try!  No wonder suicide is such an epidemic.

We end up looking for reasons and opportunity to dismiss and even nullify the Commands.  This is a very unfortunate false reality we have created.  It destroys the very tool we need to identify and domesticate an out of control ego.  This has also lead to destructive excuses versus constructive forgiveness and positive opportunities for change.

Through this we have learned to ignore the intensions behind our actions or downright hide them for no one to find.  As a result many feel intentions have very little if any relevance to an action.  As such no one pursues the essence behind the action, and correction of or encourage the proper intent.  Action has become everything – particular perfected actions.  And yet it is the least important.

Please reread the Nugget #55, last Nugget so the role of the Commands is kept in a proper context.

Ask yourself, Is focusing on intension behind the action more important than perfection?

Nugget #55 – Torah Observance

In Nuggets 3, 4, and 5, we learned about the Commandments being attached to our desires and intensions.  Please feel free read or re-read them.

The Commandments are not meant to be obeyed in a mechanical manner.  They are not meant to describe a proper or appropriate behavior that one performs to confirm membership or association to a particular observant group.  They are meant to define the limits of the ego.  Each of the 613 Commands is meant to point out a proper desire and intension behind such encouraged or prohibited actions.  By correcting such desires and intensions the ego will be restrained and replaced with an altruistic soul.

In today’s culture the commandments are overemphasized as being a ruler or measure of moral conduct only.  Unfortunately this creates a lot of ancillary rules and laws that teach and correct conduct only.  It does not focus on correcting or encouraging the real substance of the Commands - that being the intension that produces the action.  Intension is the key behind all actions and inactions.  With the proper intension the proper corrected higher-soul (Nugget #30 and 35) is engaged in the action or lack of action for prohibited activities.

Ask yourself, now that the Torah is not a listing of rules, is there a freedom?  It is a freedom of self-discovery of the ego and its bridling?  Does it now empower you to take positive steps in correcting the self?  Is the yoke now lighter?

Nugget #54 – Searching for a core group

Look at finding what your purpose is in Creation and as a created being.  This is an ongoing process.  Take what information you have up to this point and start looking to connect with others, those of kindred mind in particular.

This will form a core group that you can function within and with others towards the goal of your purpose.  Through this core group the sum of effort and desires is greater than the sum of the pieces.  Keyword here is desire.  Desire is the driving force that each person in the group needs to be tapping into the same desire.  It will develop loyalty to that purpose, strength in order to keep going in the face of disappointment, and drive to further refinement and discovery of that purpose you and the others are created for.

Our intention and desire has to be a reflection of our love for our neighbor (Leviticus 19:18).  It has to promote mutual assurance.  It cannot be for the group or the individual’s gain at the expense of others.  Only by doing this can we earn the right to be lovers of G-d (Deuteronomy 6:5).

Ask yourself, what are your intentions behind your actions?  Is it for the self or others?  (See Nuggets 6, 7, 8).

Nugget #53

Once we start the process of changing ourselves on an individual level, the world around us will respond automatically.  Not because of some magical powers being tapped into, rather because we will automatically set in motion reform external to us.  The environment we are part of will respond to the change within us.  This is induced through the change in our priorities, recognition of opportunities that were once invisible to us, and our actions will be more focused on the goal of loving our neighbor equally as ourselves that will produce a reaction from others.  With this our resources and talents will be properly aligned with the Creator’s will rather than placed in wasted efforts based upon self-centeredness.

However, this does not mean we cannot plan and strategize once the ball starts rolling.  So where do we start and how do we start?  To effect change from the bottom up (local to world level) requires unification or even a better word is solidarity with others.  We need to reach out to others and connect with them, identify with them.  The group, with proper unity is greater than the sum of its parts.  Look for those that have similar aspirations as you.   Most social decisions are made through lack of participation not by a strong unified front.  This is how, we as a society, can be ruled over by the few and why the few feel no need to be accountable.

This is not meant to be an anti institutional nugget but rather an enabling nugget focused on helping us all to understand how unity, altruism, and egoism work to create the world we are a part of.

Ask yourself:  How can you make a difference in this world?  What were you created to change or to preserve?

Nugget #52 – Practicality of unity

It should be obvious, at our lower-level (physical world), unity is a major issue facing mankind.  We find “unity” being a product of coercion or rather engineered by propaganda (by way of mainstream media), military presents, economic hijacking, laws established by governments that have stopped representing the people, and religious establishment pushing their agendas via the pulpits.   There is so much push from so many angles that typically unity is bread out of lack of interest.  This is a very fragile, fickle, pretend unity that can and will easily dissolve.

It is easy for us to think of the perpetrators of this coercion as being “them” and “us” as the victims.  But in reality “they” are people like “us”.   We have to ask, “Would we do any different in their position?”  Would we want our neighbor running the country?  More than likely not.  So we have to start at home with ourselves first if we want real change.  Not the “Vote for Change” recent politicians sold us on.  We need to act to effect change in our world by first changing ourselves proactively then the world will automatically change.

The Baal Shem Tov told a story about how a man wanted to change the world.  To paraphrase:  He realized that he first had to change his country.  Then realized that was not going to work and need to change his town.  Without success he concluded he needed to change his home.  Without any success up to that point he realized he need to start with himself.

We have to start with, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).  Once we have an appropriate love for our neighbor then we can “Love HaShem our G-d with all of our Heart, with all of our Soul, and with all our might”.  We cannot love our G-d without first loving our neighbor.

Ask yourself Without the Torah can we know how to love our neighbor?  Sorry this is a loaded question but it is important to explore.

Nugget #51 – Israel and its gift of unity

In the past we touched on unity by way of discussion on altruism, egoism, and community.  Here we will discuss unity directly.

Our strength, as Israel, is found in unity of the collective.  Leviticus 26:8 “And 5 of you shall chase a 100, and a 100 shall chase 10,000.”  Also a minion (10 righteous inhabitants) was required to spare Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18).  The Ten Commandments were given to the people of Israel, not to an individual (Exodus 20).  Salvation cannot come by an individual.  Salvation is by a collective, Israel.

Through this unity we represent the true and final form that we are to reach.  Israel is meant to exemplify to the world through example.  Deuteronomy 4:6-7 tells us that the nations will call us a “wise and understanding nation” because of the unity that Israel exemplifies with each other and with G-d.  That is our example for the rest of the world and it is our specialty and responsibility.

The Torah is not about individualism.  It is about the community and the individual responsibility of facilitating and upholding the structure.  It is not about a system of laws.  It is about learning where the individual responsibility begins and ends.  It is also about the community’s responsibility to the individual.  This is typically missed in discussions and teachings of Torah outside the Jewish Community and sometimes within the Jewish Community as well.

Nugget #50 – 613 Commandments and its perfection

There is a teaching that all Israelite souls are born to fulfill, perfectly (with proper intension), one commandment.  The Creator takes one of the 613 commandments and makes that the purpose in an individual to carry out.  So the Creator would take the 613 and divvy them out so that in effect the entire Torah is always carried out through the lower soul collective.  Yes as individuals we are far from perfect, but again, collectively we do reach perfection in Torah Observance.

The fulfillment of the commandments, in their entirety, are currently carried out via the collective not at the individual level yet.  Israel is the apple of G-d’s eye as a whole.  When reading the history of Israel in the TNK we find that Israel is favored yet punished as well.  This requires some explanation to clarify what is going on.  Israel is favored as a collective because it is carrying out the Torah.  Thus the Torah is not impossible to keep, as a collective.

At an individual level we fail and at this level punishment takes place, such as exile from the land.  This punishment is not destructive, it is a constructive type.  It is meant to pull Israel, at the lower level, in line with the upper-level Israel.  It is not a lockup and forget scenario – it’s all about reform of the heart.

Dwell on this.  We have theology that contradicts this thought by detaching the upper soul’s purpose from the lower soul reality.  This makes the case that the Torah cannot be possibly kept and as such needs to be usurped.

Nugget #49 – Israel and the heart

Israel is not just a birthright but is also a heart right.  Having a physical lineage is nice but this does not assure a proper intension behind the observance of the Commandments.  A heart with the proper intension is more important than any physical lineage.  Having a heart right assures that a person is pursuing the Creator via the sliver of the corrected heart for the betterment of the collective soul versus a physical heritage.

Before the Exodus, Pharaoh was asked to let Israel go for G-d’s sake.  We find in Exodus 4:22 that Israel is G-d’s first born, in effect the only born (the only begotten).  This was in reference to the entire Israeli population as a collective unit – including those that were not physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Israel is that collective heart, the collective man, that new man that will eventually play out.  Eventually our hearts will be corrected at an individual level as well.  That is forthcoming.

In the mean time we are to develop the “point of the heart” so that we can uplift the collective heart of Israel to the upper soul corrected heart.  Collectively we are perfected however, on an individual level we are still work in progress.

Ask yourself: Jeremiah 31:31 speaks about rejoining Israel and Judah, in light of the last few Nuggets is there another understanding of this passage or a better one then you may have been originally taught?

Nugget #48 – “Point of the Heart“ and the collective soul

The “point of the heart” is a single sliver of that collective soul’s heart that is placed within each of our hearts to facilitate correction of the lower soul’s heart.  Thus, we collectively work at the correction of the lower soul by way of that unique sliver called the “point of the heart” that we each receive.   This corrects the heart of the lower soul collectively.  Let me restate that.  Our individual hearts, though not wholly corrected, has a unique slice of the corrected heart of the higher soul within it.  Thus collectively (at the lower level) we represent the corrected heart at the higher level.  Individually we are not corrected but collectively we are corrected because all of the slices are distributed to the lower level hearts.

Collectively we are the new man called Israel.  Thus collectively we, Israel, represent the corrected heart at the lower soul level.  Israel represents the desired state that we are striving to transform into. 

We as a people are meant to awaken hearts of others so correction can take place.  This is irrespective of religion and philosophies. 

Contemplate the “point of the heart” and its relationship to the collective heart of the higher soul, lower soul, and for the individual.

Nugget #47 – “Point of the Heart“, the collective soul, and freewill

In the previous Nugget we spoke about the “point of the heart” for the individual.  What is interesting is how this applies to the collective soul. 

The Creator provides everyone with a “point of the heart” which in reality defines our purpose as individuals to be performed during our lifetime.  That purpose is of course for the betterment of the collective soul not for the individual soul.  However, by performing that purpose we are in effect benefiting the individual’s soul by way of the collective soul.  It is up to us how our “point of the heart” plays out.  That is our freewill.    The higher level collective soul has a corrected heart already.  This is a heart that is in the final state that we will have at our level (lower soul) in the future when our individual heart is finally corrected.

This higher level heart is meant to guide and encourage us towards a full correction at the lower level.  Thus there is an overarching tendency to eventually become corrected.  Freewill is relative to the carrying out of the final correction.

Ask yourself: What are the boundaries of freewill?  What is the nature of our freedom?

Nugget #46 – “Point of the Heart”

We know that the heart is the collective/sum of desires.  However, we know the heart cannot change all at once.  So where do we start?

Kabbalah speaks of the “point of the heart”.  This is the part of the heart where a single desire strives for correction.  All we need to do is start at that point.  Don’t worry about the rest of the heart.  Start with that one desire.  Over time that desire will become infectious and start transforming other parts of the heart.

As an individual, look at your desires and intensions behind your actions.  Is the intention behind the action out of love for your fellow human?  Start with the simple things.  Do your “hellos” and “good mornings” come from a heartfelt love for another?  Or do you harbor a private negative thought about that person you are greeting, or do you simply hate that person when saying it.  There is power behind words when coupled with intensions.

Ask yourself:  What actions can I start putting a proper intension behind?