The sages describe the Torah as the wisdom by which the world was made. But that does not capture its essence. It is far beyond that. Torah is the wisdom by which the world is healed.
To heal a world, you must stand entirely beyond it. You must enter into the very essence of its Creator and sense what He wanted from this world to begin with. In the story of creation, you will find whispers of an unfathomable Author. In its healing, you will discover the Author Himself.
That is why Torah was initially given to survivors, to people who had suffered lives marked by trauma, yanked out of the darkest pits of human existence at the last possible moment. To people who had to be told not to steal, not to murder, not to covet that which belongs to someone else.
Because it is when Torah reaches you at your lowest point and pulls you out of there that you see its very essence and deepest power.
And it is when you have been to the rock bottom of human experience and back that you have the power to grasp the Torah at its essential core. To sense the Author within the command.
Control of our animal soul and all the paths that it can take us down if we relent, to the bottom we find ourselves. Torah is the path out of the pit. Utilize the divine power of the godly soul to restore and heal the injury of the fall and unveil the formula to heal the world and us that are in it. We all have the capacity to love.
Hi Lamont : a) I must defend animals, who are also creatures of H'. They have their own nature, and we have ours. Humans are not animals in any way- despite their sometimes gross behavior. HUMAN is a group by itself.! Therefore, I would not use the word animal for the wrong impulses that humans have. In agreement that, Torah and the Ten Words( Aseret Hadibrot) are the path to get out together with a continuous effort to not act wild. b) Just disobedience. none of us are "fallen," but being humans we do make mistakes , and those can be repaired.
Despair is part of being human since life is, indeed difficult! the fragment is telling us to trust H first and respect yourself second. Love is only only as the resulting ingredient of living a satisfactory human life respecting H.