A State of Judgment in a Sea of Mercy
Posted: Saturday, October 01, 2011
by Christofer French
Rain Dancer Associates, LLC
We just passed the time of Rosh Hashanah. The Hebrew calendar begins with the month of Nisan, but Rosh Hashanah occurs at the start of Tishrei, (Libra) when God is said to have created the world. For this reason, Rosh Hashanah can be seen as the birthday of the world rather than New Year’s in the secular sense; still, it is on Rosh Hashanah that the number of the civil year increases.
10 Days of Awe - Kabbalistic Mercy and Judgment
According to tradition, God judges all creatures during the 10 Days of Awe between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Jewish law teaches that God inscribes the names of the righteous in the “book of life”, condemns the wicked; people who fall between the two categories have until Yom Kippur to perform “teshuvah,” or repentance. As a result, observant Jews consider Rosh Hashanah and the days surrounding it a time for prayer, good deeds, reflecting on past mistakes and making amends with others (Judgment and Mercy).
As the Kabbalah, a mystical subset of ancient Jewish tradition teaches, we are in need of correction as we pass through our lifetimes. Mercy and Judgment act together to enable us to evolve into God’s Maturing Children. The conscious act of redemption instinctively and naturally involves the love we share helping each other.
Be a Second Set of Eyes. Have a Second Set of Eyes
When we are alone, it’s all we see, and it is difficult to lift the manifold curtains of darkness. We need a second set of eyes to show us a way out. Be that person helping someone remove their curtains, and ask for help lifting and making our way through our own.
We are alone down here. Yeah, we are a crowded people, but next to the sweating person on the street, covered in perfumed cover up to fight the mutual stress, is another human being.
Unless that human being knows how to reach out. He or she is alone.
A Goal
OK, here is our goal: To have met a friend; one in whom you have trust and one who you trust.
We are in this vast semi-dark room working our way toward the light. These dark curtains shut off our path ways. If we are alone, we get exhausted running into new curtains that keep modifying the evanescent beams. If we are alone, we get dizzy. We turn around quickly hoping for a warm ray to shine its warmth on our eye lids. But when we whirl and grab and hope with shaky fingers looking for a way, we stop. Wishing we felt stronger we stop and hope for a hand. Making no noise, the light keeps getting cut off from us. And yet we struggle on.
What most of us do is thrash around with our own talents and inclinations, our own charms and whimsical smiles wishing we could see a clear way for our self development.
You have spent many lifetimes adorning yourself with levels of darkness and elements of life. It is your subconscious design. You are proud of it. But after continual and nagging suffering, we start to think. We wish we were not so proud. We wish there was a better plan. So we need someone else’s help.
The Value of Another Caring Friend
Another person doesn’t have your curtains of darkness and confusion. They have their own. Another caring friend is what each of us needs. More is better, but let’s stay with the one on one.
The two of you can stop at a bar and discuss our darknesses, and our illuminations. If one is not as careful with their mate, the other can point a new way. If one is less caring of conscientiousness at work, then the other can shine a light there. If one has a hard case of a relative or in law, we can share, cry together, laugh together, and not feel quite so embroiled in the intensity of our own dislikes and venomous inclinations. Just when you are about to call yourself an SOB, you think. My friend is a bit like this. I won’t say this. Do we need more curtains? No. Let’s look for more creative ways through our thick darkened curtains.
If you have never gotten this kind of advice, you can start to pull that curtain a bit and see how warm the light is, when you accept that you need a lot of work.
When your friend asks you to pull that curtain for him or her, you can sensitively pull, let the light shine, and weep a tiny tear and say: “This is hard, but it’s basic. I need this kind of help. I am happy to give this kind of help.”
FAST FORWARD
More light, more light. The beams are toasting us. The curtains are illumined. We can see breaks. We can see shafts blazing through where there used to be frightening darkness.
We give credit to our friend. We give praise to the ones who helped you with your dark curtains. People turn to you and do the same.
How many lifetimes were 5772 years ago?
Who knows? But if you hold any affection for the growing and evolving human soul; and if you hold affection for yourself as a partner, and others who are partners for you, then maybe you can see that if it took many dramas to make you a little bit too eccentric and self protective, maybe some more time, some more partners, and some more light will have its way on your lovely self and give you lots of warm light, as you bend over the sculpture that you are. And in the struggle with your hardnesses and weaknesses, the healing light lets you stand up straight and smile at the sunny sky. You look over at a partner who helped you to this spot and say: “Thanks for being what you are to me.”
A Spiritual Quandry
Below is a Kabbalistic way of summing up the spiritual quandaries we are in:
We are in a State of Judgment in a Sea of Mercy. It would help us if we stopped thinking we are in a State of Mercy in a Sea of Judgment.
In the former you are admitting you need work and are happily washing yourself in the Flowing Forgiveness all around. In the latter you are thinking you are pretty darned cool, and the rest of the poor lot are awash in Condemning Damnable Judgment.
BIG DIFFERENCE. This is where the darkening curtains come from, our many lifetimes of negative acts being turned into hard proud remembrances of how worthy we think we are -- when we don’t have a Second Set of Eyes helping us through, illuminating us about the hard work of the day, and the merciful balm of eventide. The Act of Spiritual Evolvement then becomes a Subtle Group Exercise.
Go find those partners who can be a Second Set of Eyes, and be a Second Set of Eyes to them. And truly appreciate what Judgment and Mercy do for us on this planet for the last 5772 years. Happy 5773!
This Article has been viewed 183 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.