Sunday, September 10, 2017

Hashem And Spirituality Are Real

Many of us lead very material lives because we sense the physical world as real and the spiritual world as abstract. It helps many people to know that there were people and are people who experience the spiritual world as much more real than the physical world. 

Let us quote a passage from Rav Kook who lived but 83 years ago:


מה אני רואה בחזון, אנו רואים את המחשבה העליונה, המחשבה הכוללת כל, המחשבה שכל העצמה וכל המילוי של כל בה הוא. רואים אנו, שכל הפלגים הגדולים ממנה משתפכים, ומהפלגים יוצאים נהרים, מהנהרים נחלים, מהנחלים שטפים, מהשטפים זרמים, והזרמים מתחלקים גם הם לצנורות קטנים, והצנורות מתחלקים להמון אלפי רבבות לאין קץ של קנוקנות, מריקים שפעות, רצון חיים ומחשבה. לפעמים צר מאד המקום לשוט בין הקנוקנות, נאחזת אז הנשמה בשרשיהם של הקנוקנות הדקים, בצנורות, ואם הצנור גם הוא צר, נאחזת היא בזרם, ואם הזרם צר הוא לפניה, הרי היא נאחזת בשטף, ואם השטף הוא צר, הרי היא נאחזת בנחל, ואם צר הנחל, נאחזת היא בנהר, ואם גם הנהר יצר לה, נאחזת היא בפלג אלהים מלא מים, המחובר למחשבה של בלי מצרים, ששם הוא מקום יאורים רחבי ידים. והשפע האחרון הנוזל מהקנוקנות נובע בדרך זה מהמקור הראשי של המחשבה העליונה, שלמעלה מזה תלא כל עין לצפות, וד' אמר לשכן בערפל.
[קובץ א' שטו]

I can't translate because I haven't the foggiest idea what he is talking about. But he was describing a profound mystical vision that he SAW and EXPERIENCED. "מה אני רואה בחזון".

So one is left with four options after reading this passage. 

Option one is to say that he was taking some really heavy drugs such as LSD or crack. He was clearly high.

Option two is to say that he SHOULD have been on meds but wasn't. 

Option three is to say that he was lying. He made it up. 

Option four is to say that the spiritual worlds he describes in such minute detail really exist and we simple people are not privy to them because we are attached to our bodies. But people such as the Rav who never looked at a woman from the time he realized that a woman was a woman, who slept 2 hourse or so a night, who wasn't interested in food, who spent every free moment davening and learning both the hidden and revealed Torahs,  are able to tap into their neshamos and see celestial visions.   

Option four is the most viable because we know him to be an extremely rational and normal person whose regular behavior and intellectual and emotional worlds were completely normative. He was anything but a lunatic. He was a kind, sensitive, caring, thoughtful person who was constantly, day and night, helping people with their very down to earth personal problems. He was also unfailingly honest. 

Or how about his talmid Rav Charlap who related that neshomos came to him for a tikkun which he knew how to do.  

But let us put Rav Kook and Rav Charlap aside for a moment. Throughout world history we have millions of records of people who had supernatural experiences. They were ALL CRAZY???

All of the prophets of Israel were ALSO CRAZY??? Or they ALL MADE IT ALL UP? [Even though they believed in a religion which forbids lying.]

The ONLY WAY one could believe in a materialistic, non-spiritual universe is to claim that everyone was nuts [or lying].    

To take it another step forward. Those who deny Torah Mi-sinai MUST BELIVE that there was a great conspiracy sometime in history where a few Jews got together and decided [for whatever odd reason] to convince the Jews that G-d revealed Himself to their ancestors - over 3 million of them - gave them the Torah and they never heard about it but bought the story. The stiff necked Jews naively believed this story that imposed on them a trillion laws constricting their lives [including - most severely - their sex lives]??!! Hard to swallow.

We also have to assume that these conspirators were also murderers because they mandated capital punishment in the name of G-d for certain infractions when G-d never said such a thing. So they were instigators to murder. Even harder to swallow. 

So if you ever meet a kofer - ask him all of these questions and then ask if he any doubts about his atheism. If he does then the BEST ADVICE is for him to learn. We have LOTS of great sefarim explaining our faith that give life meaning and joy. 

Tzadikim don't merely believe in G-d - they KNOW G-d. וידעת היום והשבות אל לבבך כי ה' הוא הא-להים בשמים ממעל ועל הארץ מתחת אין עוד. 

Imbibe in Torah today and find Hashem. There is nothing better. דרשו השם ועוזו בקשו פניו תמיד!!!