לע"נ מרת אסתר בת ר' שמואל
If you think about it - what do we really know?
When we dream - we are CONVINCED that this is really happening. Then we wake up and understand that it was all a figment of our imagination. So why do we assume that our experiences when we are awake are real?? In the same way that the reality seems clear when we are sleeping and when we wake up we understand that everything just occurred in our mind but nowhere else - then why can't it be like that when we are awake?
We hear words. All we know is how WE receive these words. It is completely subjective. Every experience we have is completely subjective. We connect to the phenomenon [תופעה] but not the thing itself.
A person gets married. He is so happy. He doesn't know but this will be the first night a 20 years of absolute misery resulting in divorce. So why on earth is he so happy?? B/c his subjective experience is positive as false as it may be. He is telling himself that life with this women will be complete bliss [didn't we all... For some - closer, for others further].
He holds a pen. All he knows is how the pen looks and feels to him and his senses with knowing a THING about the pen itself.
So how foolish it is to make statements about the nature of objective reality, about right and wrong, about good and evil etc. etc. We are so small and limited w/o realizing just how small and just how limited.
FORTUNATELY [😊😊] we have Hashem. He told us both directly and through his נביאים and חכמים what we have to know. He told us that this world is a MIRAGE, an optical illusion, an עלמא דשיקרא if you will.
It SEEMS that one one gives money to Tzdaka he is losing money. The reality is much much different. He is only gaining - in this world and the next. He just doesn't see it. His subjective reality is that he is giving something for nothing. That is why it is so hard to get people to give. So if you are raising money for an investment that might [or might not] yield a big return you might be able to raise tens of millions of dollars in no time but try raising that for a Yeshiva or for poor Avreichim.
It SEEMS that when someone watches זנות that nothing is happening. Just a 'pleasant diversion' and then back to life. He doesn't see the absolute destruction that he is wreaking on his soul and on our world that will have eternal ramifications.
A person doesn't SEE what happens when he learns a Mishna or a Gemara. So he learns [we hope] and thinks - OK no big deal. Check the box. Now I can check the box scores. NOOOOO. What eternal Light, what pleasure, what ecstasy he has created for himself.
We see a body. There are ENDLESS articles, books and discussions about the body. Every day, BILLIONS AND BILLIONS of words are spoken and written about the body. Yet the soul which actually lasts faaaaar beyond the very close-by expiration date of the body gets barely a mention. That is because people see and experience their bodies and are not conscious of their souls despite their souls being their true selves and the body just a container [the word "גוף" comes from "מגופה" which is a container!]. When someone asks "how are you feeling" they almost always refer to the body. When you tell someone that you have the flu they will feel bad. But if you tell them you are doing TERRIBLE b/c you forgot to say אשר יצר yesterday and your soul is aching they will think you just landed from the moon or are on "some stuff".
So remember - we can never see things as they are. We don't even see the physical world as it truly is. Have you ever seen protons, neutrons or electrons? OK - but try existing w/o them. How about sound waves? We CERTAINLY can't see the spiritual world. But we KNOW [in our albeit subjective minds] what we need to know. That it exists and that we connect to what is real when we do what is good [as has been defined to us] and we connect to desolation and non-existence when we do, say or think badly.
So all these DUDES who make statements about "objective" reality, right and wrong, good and evil, about history [memory is a VERY untrustworthy property], about almost anything, are really missing out on the basic fact of their ignorance. All we have is our subjective experience and what we received from Above about what is objective and real.
Think about it.
A Copernican revolution. Or maybe better - a Kantian one.
Should make one humble and eager to tap into to the teachings of those who connected to what is objective, true and beyond.
