“the more conscious your commitment to being here,  

the deeper your soul will manifest in your being”

r’ Nachman of Breslov points out what should be obvious, but often isn’t:

“you are here by default. yet it would be a good idea to make a conscious commitment to being here.”

the more conscious your commitment to being here, the more sovereignty you bring to being here. you make your life your own and not simply a product of random procreative copulatory happenstance. perhaps you are content to be consider yourself as an accident, but i always wonder what one does with “love your neighbor as yourself” in that circumstance.

r’ Nachman would also believe that the uncommitted life leads to less soul attachment and stickiness, which leaves the body more vulnerable to those things that prey upon bodies….organic disease amongst the most persistent of those things.

to establish yourself in your life is to do malchut in yesod…to make both Divine Presence and nobility real in yourself. to make the Presence foundational in yourself is to open yourself to the way of the tzadik (‘righteous one’), and the tzadik is the foundation of the universe itself, so far from being here by default, you can come to be here with full mission of being that righteousness that establishes the Presence and the way of the Presence of G’d in the world.  else it smells a lot like, well, teen spirit:

“with the lights out, its less dangerous…here we are now, entertain us

i feel stupid and contagious…here we are now, entertain us”

a denial of the Divine Presence strips foundational down to mere habitual. yeah, a denial conceals the light of holiness that many of us are hard at work to release from the husks already covering it too often and in too many places. if life is merely a time to fill with entertainment, then maybe r’ Nachman is right that we simply make ourselves subject to organic disease…and make ourselves, well, more simply stupid and contagious.

it is, of course, your life to live. and it is in this spirit that the Holy One, blessed be, lays down the spirit gauntlet (Deuteronomy 30:19, 11:26):

” ….I call heaven and earth as witnesses…that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. now choose life, so that you and your offspring may live…” 

the heaven and earth that G’d established, of course, are called as witness to the fact that nothing is simply happenstance  here, choose life by choosing to commit to living the Way of G’d. else your choice, ie, being here by default, is death in existence….not life.

the Shekhinah is exiled from the Holy One, blessed be, for our sake. we rectify that sadness by our humble walk in the Way. malchut in yesod everyday.

mussar for malchut she b’yesod

with another….bein adam l’chaveiro   there is the doing of tzedakah directly, helping the needy by your own personal action. then there is the organizing of a larger tzedakah effort by leading others to join in and expand what any of us can do alone. malchut in yesod would call us to do the second, so get out and organize an effort to do tikkun olam. establish something good.

with yourself….bein adam l’atzmo   accept the tenet of “this too is for the good”. to make it malchut in yesod, though, you will have to go farther. you will have to understand that the Hand of G’d is behind even the most inexplicable occurrences…perhaps not directly in the occurrence…but in the larger scheme in which the particular is but a minute piece. when you model the behavior of acceptance in such cases, you are extending the nobility of your actions, and establishing the sovereignty of One mightier than you could ever be.

kabbalah for malchut she b’yesod

in assiyah….the world of doing/completion   humble does not mean bent. after all, you are walking the walk alongside G’d. your stride will, of necessity, have to be long and fast just to keep up. meditate on this.

in yetzirah….the world of feeling/formation    we spoke yesterday of trust but verify being the way of establishing truth in yesod. add to this the Presence of Divine Spark within. meditate on the how the ambition to walk with G’d is different from other worldly ambition, and how to lead by way of that walk is potentially even greater than the model of the POTUS.

in b’riyah….the world of thought/creation    necessity is the mother of invention, they say.  it is necessary that the Divine Presence be amongst us if we are to do tikkun olam. how do you use the Presence to spark insight for tikkun?

in atzilut….the world of nearness to G’d/intuition    Psalm 2:11 teaches us to “rejoice with trembling” in the service of G’d. r’ Heschel calls for us to hold in our hearts and minds a “radical amazement” in particular moments:

“of awareness of grandeur, of perceptions we can grasp but are unable to convey…that we attain the certainty that life has meaning, that time is more than evanescent, that beyond all being there is someone who cares”

it is in experience that we choose life and make it foundational. meditate on radical freedom and radical amazement that brings the majesty of the Presence to us daily.

kinyan 42 of 48 ways to acquire Torah

Sho’ayl (u’Mayshiv)….Asking (and Answering). the 7 characteristics of asking/answering of the wise:

1. wise folk don’t speak in the presence of those wiser than they, they simply listen

2. they do not interrupt their study partner’s words

3. they do not reply in haste

4. they ask what is relevant and answer to the point

5. they reply to complex questions in an orderly sequence

6. of what they don’t know, they answer that they don’t know

7. they admit to the truth

what is opposite these are the characteristics of a “clod”.