Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The Way to Achieve Yichud: The Heart and not the Mind: 6

It is very rare for someone who is a "ben Yosef" to comprehend the idea of "ben Dovid." The ben Yosef is generally a person who is smart and successful - even if they understand the ben Dovid it is generally being understood in an intellectual manner, not in the heart. Perhaps in old age or desperation he will want to achieve what a ben Dovid can, but he only understands this with his mind, and it is not truly instilled in his soul.

This is found also amongst those who study Kaballah, delicate matters which are rooted in the heart "each person understands what his heart comprehends," yet they understand and discuss them as if they were studying the more conventional portions of the Torah. The reality is that the person has not touched or met or even stood on the doorstep of these topics whatsoever. This is in contrast to a person who is humble and lowly, who may not have a lot of clarity in book knowledge and discussion, but he absorbs the root of things in the depths of his soul and lives the words in their most basic way, and with their deeper meaning.

A ben Yosef is not himself, there's no "him" there. He has things that he has achieved, but he doesn't have himself. He lives his success, and not his essential self. A ben Dovid lives his highest self, an inner life. When the ben Yosef speaks in the language of a ben Dovid he speaks of appearances and not essential truths, the essence of something can not be revealed. Emunah (faith) is a feeling in the heart, it is not given over to the mind. The faint light of Moshiach is not given to those who only know of intellectual success.

It is from the point of view of ben Dovid that יום נקם בלבי ושנת גאולי באה, "The day of vengeance is in my heart and the year of my redemption is coming." The point of redemption is an essential point that is hidden in the heart - it cannot be grasped or explained. When he comes to speak to Hashem he comes without any statements from Chazal, with no ideas and no explanations. He has nothing other than the Monarchy of Hashem. He is speaking to Hashem and has nothing else. צמאה לך נפשי כמה לך בשרי "My soul thirsts for you; my flesh pines for you." On the word כמה Rashi comments "There is nothing similar," meaning that there is no way in the world to explain the pining in words. (unlike other places where Rashi, commenting on an uncommon word says "There is nothing similar in Scripture," here is leaves out "In Scripture.") He is explaining that this pining cannot be explained in words in order to compare it to other things. It is only the secret of light.

Who can penetrate the secret of the Neshama of Ben Dovid, about whom Rebbe Nachman writes "He hears his humiliation, and is quiet and silent," his entire life is divorced from the existence of this world. How much humility is in him, how much light of cleaving to Hashem results from this attitude. As Dovid says in Tehillim (69):
For I have borne humiliation because of You; disgrace has covered my face.
I was strange to my brothers, and alien to the sons of my mother.
For the envy of Your house has consumed me..I became a lesson to them, those who sit at the gates chat about me... And my prayer to you Hashem... You know my humiliation, shame and disgrace... my humiliation has broken my heart... I am poor and in pain, your Salvation, Elokim, will protect me.             To grasp this delicately fine point is not the ability of the mind of ben Yosef, only the center of a heart that is clean to Hashem.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                     


 

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