How will you repair a lost soul?
Blind yourself to its muddy shell.
Dig deeply and deeper yet. Sift through the darkened embers. Search for a spark that still shines.
Fan that spark until a flame appears.
Fall in love with the flame and despise the evil that encrusts it. Until all is consumed in the warmth of that flame.
For empathy is the redeemer of love. And love is the liberator of deeds that shine.
The inner work to repair the soul is our assignment in corporeal life.
Our efforts will merit us the ability to sense the feelings, needs and even the thoughts of others. We will ignite our soul senses into action. We will achieve the ability to empathize.
Empathy enables me to love my friend as myself so that every thought and action carries the intention to benefit my friend.
Now my deeds can shine with the same light as G_d. We have realized our soul potential.
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It doesn’t work on everyone unfortunately. I have melted so many hearts, broken so many barriers and there is one I have never managed to break through. I considered it a mission with my wisdom and empathy to help this person break through, but it got to a point when she became dangerous to me, accusing me of things I didn’t ever do. She is beyond help. And I am very, extremely empathetic and patient. There is always an exception to the rules. Reply
soul repair absolutly wonderful insight to a real truth- its hard to walk through- but a real fine journey- that changes 'the heart' step by step-day by day.. Reply
Wisdom well shared. A great article that enlightened my heart thus gratifying my soul. Reply
What we think of as our soul is actually connected to our ego’s. That is why we have feelings of pride. But the opposite of pride is often considered to be humility. So all that about repairing, lost, found, etc., stems from the ego.
Before the “fall” we (Adam) were perfect, G-d talked to us, guided us, made us perfect as we grew into His Soul, the only one there is. It was when G-d let us “fall” to a point from which we could individually grow to perfection. Perfection turns out to be the Divine Ego, Divine Soul, in Us.
That is how we are Created for perfection, when we are able to let go, and let G-d.
Adam did not "fall" - he disobeyed an order. He and Chava ere sent out of the Gan Eden to fend for themselves. Given that circumstance they need an ego to defend themselves in an unnknown world. There os not a chance that we human beings acheive perfection by erasing the ego which is a defense mechanism. Yes, there are limits: if it is only yourself- then you are a narcisist but if there is equilibrium and behave like a mensch this is what Hashem wants no perfection . Progress for sure , but .to rpeat, not letting the ego be erased since it is a tool of suvival.
G_d created us with an egoistic desire. His aim is to fulfill us with His light of wisdom, love and abundance in the correct way.
G_d requires us to know good from evil, to understand how to use our ego in a way that resembles His goodness.
We will acquire the wisdom how to use our ego to receive His light in a way that we can distribute it throughout the interdependent and interconnected network between us through cooperation and love.
G_d planned this education scenario for His creatures in order for us to consciously learn how to use the power of reception to benefit others and live in a harmonious soul system.
This differs from our initial state in the Garden of Eden where we were nutured like babies without knowledge of our blissful state.
Now we are required to step up on our learning curve to love between us and G_d.
Feifuge: Ego is internal and not external. It must be clear to yourself, which seems to be clear to you. That would mean that you will be separated from the Creator forever.
Avishai: Skalom. Be careful my name is Feigue In Yiddish= bird. so please , write it correctly. That is to me remote that the ego is a hindrance to be near to H' if I am following the Mitvot as best as I can, if I ma respectiful to mo fellow man, give tzedaka, and care for my fellow Jews and neigvors. As a psychologist, I will insist that we need an ego to fend in this world, Other people must know where you start and they finish, it is a tool of protection to survive in this imperfect world. H' never asked us to be perfect and I would personally say that my conduct allows as mucy as nearnness as H' desires. NO, I don't want to unite with H. That sounds to me sacrilegous. . There is nothing in Torah that asked you that. In Hassidism this became a central point, but that was due to the socio- historical circulstamces: Poorer Jews coul d not stay stiting learning Torah all day like those who of wealthier homes. So the Baal Shem Tov found, correctly, that we can honor H' otherwise !
Sorry, Feigue.
This is all wrapped around this: that there is but One Self, One Creator not subject to time.
For the Creator, outside of “time”, it is always “Now”. And also that for humans, there is no time, once we get out of our imaginations. A quiet mind is an observant mind.
Shalom Uvracha Avishai: I am grateful that you responded, and corrected my name too ! I apologize for the typos, my sight is failing, and this is the reason for them- sorry !
I have many reservations regarding Hasidism as a whole given the fact that we are talking on the level of esoterics many not based on Torah but the thinking of the rebbes, and there are no ways to prove these issues. Hasidism opened my mind to be less literal but I can't let it go. A good example is your explanation of time out of corporeal essence, How? Please explain. That corporeal essence is what makes us human, the Ego that we have helps us defend ourselves from dangers, the mitzvot help us to be b'derech as best as we can. For me it is dificult to even imagine H' since we are forbidden to even envision such an image. Judaism is a beautiful sustaining religion,and so is Jewish identity, and I would not be anything else; yet convince how to accepe these esoteric arguments. Thank you..
Good afternoon Feigue.
The body is actually insentient. You can see that when a person passes away, the body instantly stops everything. That’s why I say don’t identify with the body. For example, if you have a marionette you can pull the strings, make it dance around, but if you drop them, the whole thing just plops down and never moves again.
We live in a world of restriction and misidentify our sensory report as reality. Our bodies can perceive only a very limited picture using our senses of touch, sight, smell, taste and hearing. Our brains then take the input from the sensors provided us and send the data to the brain, which then transforms the data to sight pictures, sounds, smells, tastes and touches. All this is organized into what we sense as our environment, including our bodies themselves. From the soul level above we feel the sensory report as if it is the actual reality and identify with it. As if to say “I am this body.”