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Jewish World Review Dec 9, 1998 / 20 Kislev, 5759
DENVER --- Talk about a searing personal revelation. I found Los Angeles' Rabbi Abner
Weiss' openness courageous.
When he was four, his parents divorced. The stigma of divorce in his
circles (in South Africa) was so great that a monumental ruse was devised.
He was told that his father had died! He grew up thinking he was an orphan.
Not until he was 45 did he learn this truth, and even then only from
documents.
He was shattered at four. He decided, "I'll show them." He became a fanatic
perfectionist and achiever. For example, he couldn't play soccer and was
never allowed on the team. To compensate, he went so far as to found an
entire soccer league on one condition: he be allowed to play in it!
Eventually he succeeded and even became a soccer coach.
Obviously, he lacked balance.
"Balance" might be a one-word summary of his admirably clear and intriguing
talks recently here. He spoke on the "map of the
kabbalistic cosmos." He believes in it. But what is it? What is Jewish
mysticism?
The rabbi offers this parable: Imagine a nuclear reactor. If you get too
close, it pulverizes you. At Hiroshima, the atomic bomb turned people to
dust. I remember a picture of an imprint of a human being on the side of a
Hiroshima building. It looked like a shadow. That's what the atomic bomb
reduced a living person to.
Imagine further: Nuclear stations that contain the energy of the entire
earth, then of the entire world. Obviously, one could not approach such
energy without "step down" stations --- without devices for reducing the
energy to doses that humanity could cope with.
In this parable, G-d is the energy source. G-d cannot possibly be
apprehended as He is. Should He make Himself available to humans, they
would be reduced to less than the shadow on the Hiroshima building. G-d,
therefore, invents step-down stations. He pours His ineffable "light" or
energy into 10 "vessels."
Each vessel not only subdues the Divine light or energy but represents a
different facet of the Divine. In Jewish mysticism, these vessels are
termed Sefiros. They contain the Divine energy; they mediate between G-d
and the cosmos; they are the building blocks of the universe.
Here's where the theology turns to psychology: These building blocks of the
universe are also the building blocks of the soul. Each of the Sefiros
which is a macrocosm, has a corresponding microcosm in the human soul.
Now, even the Sefiros, which are supposed to contain the Divine energy,
cannot do so. It's too powerful. The Divine energy "shatters" the Sefiros.
This shattering of the vessels is a "cosmic cataclysm." The Divine energy
now resides in the broken pieces, which, by definition, represent
separation from G-d.
Such separation is the definition of evil. The purpose of the human being
in the cosmos is to eradicate evil, which is to "repair the vessels,"
which is to mend the cosmos.
"What we do here on earth changes the cosmos," says the rabbi by way of
summary.
Here is his own twist on all this: If each person is a microcosm of the
universe, and if the purpose of each person is to mend the cosmos, then one
chief area of cosmic potential is the psychic life. As each person achieves
a higher level of "repair" or personal harmony, so does the universe. The
two are directly linked.
Still more: Kabbalah describes both the original, harmonious relation
between each of the Sefiros and their relation after they are shattered.
The way these Sefiros are supposed to be mended -- put back into harmonious
relation -- becomes a key to personal psychological repair. The proper
relation between the Sefiro is also the proper relation between their
corresponding traits in the human being.
To wit: The 10 Sefiros. include three subgroups of three. In one subgroup,
Hod ("Majesty") is counterbalanced by Netzach ("Eternity"), both of which
come to resolution in Yesod ("Foundation").
Now, Hod is withdrawal, acknowledgment of the other person, letting
another person have his space, giving to the other person. All this is good,
but in its shattered state the vessel of Hod is a distortion. A person is
only empathetic, only giving, and therefore subject to abuse and failure. A
person only acknowledges someone else and therefore becomes a doormat.
Opposite Hod is Netzach, which is focused love of a particular person or
institution. Netzach is giving, building, doing, achieving. In its
shattered state, Netzach is its own distortion. A person is controlling and
exploitive.
Both Hod (withdrawal) and Netzach (focused love) must be repaired and put
back into balance. In their proper state they find balance in Yesod or
"Foundation." As Hod and Netzach come into balance, not only is the person
redeemed in a perfect relation of giving and receiving, of being empathetic
and being assertive, but the Divine energy in the Sefiros - in the cosmos -
is repaired.
Take the concept one level further. Classic psychology speaks of ego
strengthening, while the model of the Sefiros speaks of ego collapse, says
Rabbi Weiss. Classic psychology speaks of collecting the shattered vessels,
while Kabbalah speaks of dismantling them one by one, then repairing the
whole - understanding each false "I" one has devised through defenses
against rejection, then reaching deeper to discover one's true "I."
"I don't want to be the plastic person whom I've become," said a
participant at one of the Kabbalah- Psychology seminars Rabbi Weiss has run
in the past.
"You're asking me to strip away the only 'me' I know. That's terrifying.
Because if I don't see that beautiful face in the mirror, then who am I?"
It's terrifying, because to let the true "I" emerge is not only to admit to
the distortions of one's defense mechanisms, but to take responsibility for
them. And that task is as big - literally - as mending the
Mending the cosmos
Making sense of Jewish mysticism: an overview for the layman
By Hillel Goldberg
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg is managing editor of
The Intermountain Jewish News.
11/02/98: Peace for rent?
