Simcha on the level of Earth
Kotzair / Uprooting / Earth
7-20-20 Rabbi Yaakov Zalman Labinsky, Part of the 39 Melachos series: www.kavconnect.com/39melachos
It is not that people were born happy. Or miserable. It is not genetics or how we are raised. Hashem is saying simcha is an existential state of joy on the level of afar, earth, having internalized the other elements flowing into it.When fire goes into wind into water and water pours into earth, the joy is an expression of internalized Elokus, of our own divine identity, where we see ourselves as having a soul rooted in Hashem and that creates a natural sense of joy.
Kotzair, Uprooting to use.
We have been looking at fire wind and water and now earth on the practical level. We are seeing how to use a melacha positively to transform our physical structure into something divine, to change the physical substance of a person, the fire water wind and earth.
Hear the connections.
Fire wind water and earth parallel Sheim Havaya.
Fire is the root of the other three. On the middos level, it is in the negative side arrogance and on the positive, the humility of a person.
As the fire works on breaking down, on wind, the nefesh behama, the negative side is speech, lashon ra. It emanates from gaiva. On the positive side, the anava will create lashon tov, all the forms of lifting up the world, hakaras hatov.
Then water, when the wind goes there, we have taivas of the body. It creates a desire for taanug for spiritual delight on the good side. Not to animate the self but to see the physical wovenness of bringing everything back to Hashem and that brings taanug on Shabbos.
Then afar, earth, and the negative is sadness, atzmus. Laziness and complaciness come from there and edginess goes after pursuing the needs of the world. On the positive side, it says simcha, a constant place of joy in an existential way.
Afar is keneged the final hei, a hand that receives all the influence
The main conceptual point is that afar is keneged the final hei of shem havaya, a hand that receives all the influence, all the emanation from above and revealing it here. Malchus has no light of its own, only what it receives. It cannot grow on its own. All that animates earth which can then give it structure and physical manifestation,
We feel our own nothingness in a positive way but be careful to not in a negative way. But if we do, we feel Hashem as everything of which we are a part. That is how we fix up the element of earth.
Let’s learn through sadness, the final midda to crack. How do we go into it practically.
There is sadness on 4 levels.
There is sadness for a moment, a little despondency.
Or you can have sadness for a situation and contextual, grief, despondency.
Then there is a type of sadness tied to a time period of one’s life, a stage of development, not seasonal. The sadness is tied to a period of life, life cycle.
On the highest level the sadness is rooted in the systemic framework, chemical, deeply entrenched in the personality, systemic in the self.
Rabbi Chaim Vital tells us these are blemishes in earth. How do we orient and fix and elevate it.
There are many reasons we naturally feel sad. Things change.
Grief, seasonal, life cycle – what does Hashem want from us?
We are being asked to do something heroic, to upgrade the very quality of our lives from the moment to a context level, to a developmental and constitutional level to bring out the earth element. Internally can you feel and experience and perceive and existentially relate to the self and others and the world in a joyful way.
Fundamentally as a Yid, it is the summation of fire wind and water coming into earth, the final hei, the realm of malchus where it animates the growth to reveal it and bring it out and simcha is a part of that.
It is not that people were born happy. Or miserable. It is not genetics or how we are raised. Hashem is saying simcha is an existential state of joy on the level of afar, earth, having internalized the other elements flowing into it.
When fire goes into wind into water and water pours into earth, the joy is an expression of internalized Elokus, of our own divine identity, where we see ourselves as having a soul rooted in Hashem and that creates a natural sense of joy.
It can be a flicker of having gotten out of the filter of the body and feel an awakening of the soul.
Or at a situation, a real simcha and we were bsimcha in the simcha and it was contagious.
We felt the inner joy, the tingliness.
Then we upgrade the simcha. It is a consciousness of feeling and being divine, rooted in Hashem and His Presence is manifest in you and coming through you and the simcha is on the afar level, a byproduct of Hashem dwelling in us and we are rooted in Him.
When we go to the highest level of building simcha into the innermost makeup, the divine identity, bringing it down from the fire, to wind, to water , to the practicality of everyday life, we feel being a soul, rooted in Hashem, then constitutionally we can experience the simcha.
This is what the Arizal is telling us and is the tikkun of Malchus, of Afar / Earth
From a moment, to the situational, to contextual, to constitutional to our very being. Simcha.
Can a person live like that? It is not just when things are going well. We want to get to the existential part of our very being, that is identity.
We defined sadness on 4 levels, so the same thing can go with the realm of simcha.
A song of thanksgiving. Praiseworthy is Hashem, serve Hashem in joy. Come before You in joy and in song, you should know that Hashem is our G-d and we are made for Him, we are His Nation, His Sheep. We are His herd.Dovid HaMelech, Tehillim 100.
Dovid HaMelech is telling us that if we want to get to existential joy, where we get what is in the mind to the heart, we have to be in a state of thankfulness for everything – not that things are going well or going our way.
It is an ultimate thanksgiving.
The ten sefirot are embedded in the other 10, interinclusion.
We are fully committed to thanking Hashem in whole and part, regardless of the outcome. We thank from the highest to lowest in whole and in part, thank regardless. We are nullifying the anochius, the nefesh behamis part.
The whole world exalts You Hashem. Halacha means may the world of Torah permeate the whole world, the world driven by Torah and mitzvahs, by the process sof pure thanksgiving to You for everything everywhere all the time. We are nothing and we have nothing and there is nothing but you. If we can internalize the 10 /10s and give thanks in every moment, the whole world is a declaration of His Divine presence. Then Hashem says Ivdu es Hashem bsimcha now you can serve Me with joy.
We have to be thankful and appreciative. It is more than that. From fire – humility – our existence is Hashem. Speak truth and praises and bring out the wonderful qualities of every Jew. Bring it into taanug and direct it to Hashem, energize you and bring it into the earthly grounded doing part that needs structure. All of that is earth based. When we can draw that all in, we go from feeling a flicker of simcha and our whole being is exhuding shem havaya, in an integrated way, and the heart goes into earth. We can serve Hashem joyfully because we are rooted in Him and our physicality is a manifestation of Him.
Internalized Rachamim or Din, that it is all One
Serve Hashem in simcha. Hashem Hu Elokim. Middos Harachamim and din. Dovid Hamelech is saying appreciate existence to serve Hashem and see that halacha is the pathway to dynamic service, and then we have true knowledge internalized, rachamim or din, that it is all One, all Hashem. bringing it to afar is simcha.
Bring the wisdom into these places. Who is the wealthy person? The happy person is happy with his portion, with what he has. A higher level, the simcha, is seeing that everything he has is necessary to serve Hashem correctly. It is developmental. It does not just mean that it happens from Hashem, that everything we have is a vehicle to serve Hashem, it means the portion of our inner Elokus, our divine identity tailored to each one, in all of creation in this moment right now, if we hold that space that our divine identity coming from afar and going back to aish lets us hold it to malchus, the earthly level and feel our nothingness and then we feel Hashem’s everythingness to serve Him.
We can redefine our innermost constitution. When we get it to simcha, our own individual identity, and give it to Hashem in a healthy sense of nothingness, we have existential simcha. Whether things are going well or not, we praise and thank Him, know He is with us, we are always connected and we have a constant state of joy.
Mindset: in the moment or context or developmentally or constitutionally, we need awareness intent and purpose. It is not enough to do the mitzvah. Bring it to action, that which is grounded, manifest and revealed. Have the mindset to turn it into avoda, divine service, a practical mitzvah or a six constant mitzvah, be joyful with existence itself rooted in Hashem, with Him manifesting Himself through me in this moment. I want to fulfill the mitzvah within the framework of avoda and build it into momentum of my life, get more to the level where I can start to shift my inner constitution.
That is my intent and I want to shift my heart to be earth based and shift myself to simcha.
We then see why Hashem gifted us, to turn it into service and bring Him out.
Action: conventional direct and efficient. What is the correct way to do something aligned with my nefesh elokis. What is the direct way? Be efficient. To feel joy is going to simple existence, don’t complicate things or make it bigger than it has to be. When you give to the essential place, we are fulfilling our avoda. Be divinely awake and let the joy be felt.
Outcome: am I creating something positive, for myself others and more kavod Hashem, for His Emanation. Is it going to be permanent?
Dovid HaMelech says have shelamos by bringing it to the level of earth, to the realm of this world but not as mundane. Lift up the actions to a context so high that we feel momentary joy in being rooted in Hashem. we don’t have anything separate from You, You are pipelining everything through me.
The mindset action and outcome with ourselves and others and Hashem bring integrated understanding and simcha where we can reflect Hashem’s light.
We finished Bamidbaar. The Arizal says that we have five books of Moshe corresponding to shem havaya. Bereshis is the tip of the Yud, shemos is the yud, Vayikra is the hei, bamidbar is the vav and devarim is the lower hei. The yud is aish, Vayikra is wind, bamidbar is water and devarim is earth. Mishna Torah is a review, encapsulated from what came before with nothing of its own. It is a recapitulation, the culmination, the quintessential expression of the other four. It has physical form from what is poured into it from before.
The root letters of Simcha are Chumash
The root letters of simcha are chumash, the Torah is the manifestation of the simcha. The five books represent the stillness of Hashem above nature and coming into the Torah it is chameish. We bring out the elements in ourselves and the world and we bring it out. We take the Torah through your ratzon, from your inner will, thoughts speech and emotion. Then we see the wholeness and completion, the integration of the whole.
Devarim and Aharon: Gematria 256.
Arizal says in Shema two letters are accentuated, the ayin in Shema and the daled in Echad. One reason is that the daled represents the four elements of creation. The enlargement is the full completion of the foundations within themselves. This declares hashem’s complete sovereignty in creation. Four to the fourth power is 256.
When you have the interinclusion of all the elements within the others, when that comes to the lowest that is 256, the daled enlarged to unify creation, Devarim.
From Bereshis to Bamidbar and to Devarim, afar, to reflect on Devarim where everything is revealed in the physical world, the realm of earth is the fullest revelation of Hashem.
Joy is gifted to us to use correctly to serve Him in the moment.
The gematria of devarim tells this to us. Aharon is also 256. Echad. Bring it to earth and get the fire wind water and earth and spiritualize the physical things, that it is all from Hashem, we feel joy. It is gifted to us to use correctly to serve Him in the moment. We can then do this developmentally, and then bring to our inner constitution of earth our own being, is nothing of its own. There is only Hashem . then Torah can go to the level of earth and we can create ultimate peace and wholeness in ourselves because we are nothing and we have nothing because all there is is Hashem and we can reflect Him into the world.
May we bring the real kobon todos.
Hashem wants to gift us the most incredible things going forward. How much do we really want to change in a permanent and eternal way. May we use the gift of life in the fullest way possible. It is all given letova to reveal Him.
May we push out all the moments of sadness and say there is a world that is Hashem directed and we are part of it and we have the purpose to reveal His Glory and to be joyful and rework our identity.