Have you ever had a fight with someone where you felt strong negative feelings for that person?  Were you able to put it past you?  Unless the matter produced a total turn around in facts so that the cause of the matter was proved untrue, chances are, you were able to make up with the person to a certain degree but the relationship never regained the footing it had. A remnant, a scar, remains on our hearts that is a blemish.  And this can be true even if it was due to our own misperceptions, based on a grain of truth and a negative reaction.  Things can get very blown out of proportion and distorted, and leave terrible scars.

“A person who feels strongly about something will pursue it relentlessly” says Rabbi Yitzchak Berkowitz in his sefer on the Six Constant Mitzvahs (p. 236).  He continues:

“But are emotions always rational? Can we control them?  Take a look at people reading a novel.  When they sit down on the sofa and begin to read, they know that they are about to enter the world of imagination. They know that it is fiction. Before long, however, they reader begins to feel an emotional attachment to the characters. A moving novel will cause a reader to live through the trials and tribulations together with the characters. Try to stop someone in the middle of a novel and point out that the fear he is feeling for the hero or heroine in danger is all for naught, because he or she never existed.  Will it make a difference?  Hardly.  Their emotions have taken control of them…

“Since the heart responds so readily to petty or false cues, can we trust it to make our decisions in life? Much as the heart is crucial, we must remember that it is no more than a muscle. Like the heart of every other member of the animal kingdom the human  heart instinctively produces emotions that protect us or help us survive. But as humans, we must strive for more.  We must place our heart in the service of our superior intellect.” (p.237)

Our emotions affect our decision-making process and often may cause us to make improper choices. In this world, everything appears separate and we sometimes have doubt about the ultimate unity of Creation. The example of Shaul HaMelech shows this – that his compassion led to failure.  By listening to emotions that were a product of his misguided heart twice – when his heart told him to be compassionate toward the Amalekite King as well as when his heart later told him to protect his kingdom and his family’s future (whereby he followed it in an act that totally lacked compassion.) he shows us why the Torah warns us not to follow our hearts alone – our values become distorted when we accept emotions that should not exist.  We must learn to control and redirect them when they are inappropriate. (paraphrased from Rav Berkowitz’s sefer, pages 240-242).

“The primary objective in combating the natural feelings generated by our heart is to circumvent them by developing more powerful ones for the truth that we have come to know from the first five constant mitzvahs”[Hashem is One, There is no other power, love Hashem, fear Hashem, Know there is Hashem] (p.244)   We must not react to our feelings, we must act in response to Hashem’s Will .How do we do this?  Hashem says “My child, give your heart to Me”(Mishlei 23:26)

“Take your heart and submit it to your intellect. Emotions can be combated only with more intense emotions, which, in turn, can be created only by the mind.  As we develop clarity in our understanding of these mitzvos, we should become emotionally involved with them  We should walk around feeling “Ashreinu mah tov chelkeinu,” feeling fortunate that we have the opportunity to take part in the purpose of this world, and that we will eventually reap the most pleasurable reward possible in the World to Come. The clearer we are in our purpose, the more emotion we will generate for it.  These emotions can become so strong that they will make us impervious to the threat of the heart’s challenging emotions.”  (p. 244-245)  To know there is Hashem and that Hashem is One, to  Love and Fear Hashem and to strengthen ourselves in knowing that there is no other power are daily, hourly, minute by minute choices in the milieu of opportunities presented in our day.  The choices we make are what bring down shefa from above.

“We learn from King David that the first step is to avert the danger by avoiding situations in which we may be tempted to indulge in cravings or senseless passion. We must face the difficult reality that we are human and that we have a yetzer hara inside us that tries constantly to lead us toward sin. Yes we realize that he is part of the great purpose of the world but we must still admit to ourselves that we are often too weak to resist his constant badgering.  If we are honest about how much of a presence he is in our system, we will train ourselves to run away from potential temptation….the good news is that cravings are not in the sole possession of the yetzer hara. We can develop cravings for spirituality as well.” (p. 245)

A person who is mevater, who chooses to see only good in others  or to do chesed with someone who wronged them, who gives the benefit of the doubt – this person is not a doormat although it may look like that. This person understands that doing the Will of Hashem, Who is the Only Power, Who is so big and omnipotent as to be able to provide all of the person’s life, needs and more (for all eternity), is a sensible approach and a real alternative to taking a stand that might cause himself to offend or create machlokes or any type of destruction in the spiritual realms. And when we rise above our limited selves to serve Hashem, Rebbetzin Heller, in her shiur on Yechezkeil on www.naaleh.com tells us that Hashem has an outstreched arm that lifts us above the circumstances from harm, and that this turning toward Hashem, this teshuva, unfolds tremendous healing from Hashem.

If it is good, then Hashem wants us to have it, provided our sins do not create a barrier to it.  Giving our heart to Hashem protects us from scarring ourselves and blocking the good He wants to give us through ill-advised actions stemming from our own this-world only perceptions.

May Hashem help us to develop the emotions we need to be able to rise above our every day challenges and limitations to respond with actions that serve Him.

On what merits will we be redeemed from this golus?  It is said that we will be redeemed becauseof the merits of our forefathers, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov but also on our desire for kedusha. 

For the purposes of this essay, kedusha means rising above our physical, earthly limitations in order to bring into this world the DivineWill, both in mitzvahs and in emulating His Yud Gimel middos.  A desire for kedusha means that the desire for the resulting relationship with Hashem becomes our primary motivation inorder that we may throughout our day experience this source of great joy (an actual experiential joy).

We have free will – do we, with our free will, choose kedusha? Or are we flooded by the demands of every day life to a point where the flood has or has almost extinguished the flame inside our own private mizbeach?

What “floats your boat? Is it succeeding and feeling mastery in achievement oriented daily pursuits? If so, are we expending more of our holy energy on what, in the end,is a sophisticated game of life than on what Chazal tell us is our purpose here?  Are we concerned that our wisdom and our judgments be seen as right and true or are we concerned that with our wisdom we are capable of bringing in the wisdom and middos of the Highest Consciousness?  Do we feel strength in connection to a group of like-minded powerful people (and fear of being rejected) or do we feel strength from connection to Hashem and being small and beloved in His eyes?

The goal of this essay is to suggest that we all take up pursuing a desire for kedusha as a daily involvement, believing that we can develop a joyful relationship with Hashem through mitzvahs and emulating His middos, a relationship for its own sake, but knowing that thereby we will also be acquiring merits and eternity.  This is ongoing work on an infinite path.

Many people have a favorite game.  When I was young, my dad loved baseball.  I remember sitting on his lap and watching Yankee games – I knew the names of the players, the number on their uniform,all the rules of the game.  It was one of the main ways to be a part of my father’s life.  I did it for the relationship and I still like baseball.

Those early memories are the reason that I am still interested in the World Series playoffs. I can picture the baseball diamond, follow the radio announcer’s descriptions of the game, and feel the excitement.  Wow.  A nice distraction. Yet I hesitate to listen to the game because I fear it will strengthen the part of my soul that craves satisfaction from this world activities rather than the part of my soul that craves closeness to Hashem and holiness.  Ultimately, I want to feel excitement and interest in activities that deepen my relationship to Hashem –mitzvahs and emulating His middos.

As a Baalas Teshuva, it has taken me many years to acquire a taste for closeness to Hashem.  But I believe I have an inkling of it at times. And, even when I don’t have the joy of feeling close to Hashem, I have the memory of the smattering moments when I felt connected – a sense of shelamos, of joy, of being small and beloved in Hashem’s arms.  At those rare moments, I have a perspective on my physicality that I believe is healthy – a temporal existence that allows me time and gives me opportunity to attach to what is eternal.

What is so amazing though is how easily a moment of fear or anger can cloud the pathway to that immense pleasure.  Human nature. We all have a yetzer hara, an evil inclination.  One day, when the Moshiach comes, the yetzer hara will be no more and we will no longer have the opportunity to press against it and grow.  But now we do. And every moment we are aware of its interference, we can say I want to rise above it, to overcome it and ask Hashem to help us. And He will.  Doing so is, in my opinion, the pre-eminent pursuit of happiness, something that I want to occupy my time at every moment.

The key is that we have to want to overcome (and not want)what the yetzer hara tells us is the greatest pleasure – power, control, revenge,desire, etc.  If I have any doubt that the greatest pleasure is the sense of closeness to Hashem, if I can’t remember that, what will keep me from pursuing the seemingly logical steps that the yetzer hara lures us with?  After all the yetzer hara sounds more like our best friend than our mortal enemy, especially when we see that “everyone is doing it,” and that, in a culture where externalities are defining who we are more and more, the inner self is quite diminished in our own eyes. Our subsequent sins, heaven forfend, may even look like mitzvahs to us! But they cover up our holiness and we are, in reality, cutoff from the most pleasurable experience of life, closeness to Hashem and the sense of blessing that comes from bringing in shefa and from doing actions that are pleasing to Hashem.

How can we choose to pursue kadosh?  Each person is an individual and has an individual answer.  There were twelve tribes because no one tribe could adequately represent all the many facets of Hashem and His attributes.  Together, we are Klal Yisrael.  There is no one way that is right.  There is merely a Torah-dic way to process through our free willed choices.

Here are a few questions:

1.                 Do I de-humanize people and objectify them for my own purposes? 

2.                 Am I considering my eternal self when I make choices? Am I taking into primary consideration the part of me that will experience the consequences for eternity rather than the part of me that ishere to help me accomplish my mission?

3.                 Am I playing games with people for my own gain or do I truly see them as made in the image of Hashem and treat them as such – giving to them, treating them with Hashem’s Yud Gimel middos?

4.                 Do I feel a connection to people and toall things in this world as having the same root source, the one and only Hashem? (Ahavas Yisrael)

We all have a yetzer hara. We will until the Moshiach comes.  Yet we all have a tzelem elokimas well.  When we look at each other and see only the yetzer hara, we are missing the most precious thing about every person – Hashem loves every single one of us and we are connected, one body with many limbs and organs. Our yetzer hara would have us think that we can do something to one person that we are not doing to ourselves and all of us.  That is simply not true.  We can choose to see what we have in common and how that is truly everything.  We love each other even though we all have yetzer haras and are struggling with this work. That is Ahavas Yisrael.

So, the next time we are frustrated, angry, feeling powerless, upset, or any other negative feeling driving us to “take action”, if we remember that everything is happening for our ultimate growth and development (to rectify us, to bring us closer to Hashem), we will no longer feel the need to be upset with the messengers Hashem used to bring the matter to our attention. Suffering strips away all the externalities that can cover over our neshamas.

Instead, let’s remember the joy of closeness and ask Hashem to help us rise above our initial reactions and rise upward in our soul, soothing us as we re-gain a sense of being small and beloved in His Arms.  What mitzvah can I do?  Which of Hashem’s Yud Gimel Middos might I emulate here?  Which message of the yetzer hara will I be turning away from (indignation, jealousy, desire, insult)by turning toward Hashem?  What action can I take that will concretize my choice to rise above my natural inclinations in pursuit of kedusha?

May Hashem help me to keep the fire on my mizbeach burning.

Hoshana Rabba is a serious day of reflection, the final opening to avert a severe decree.  Have we or have we not lived up to our teshuva from Elul through Yom Kippur?  Have we taken steps to implement it?

In a nutshell, teshuva is drawing closer – in whatever areas we may have grown more distant from the Creator, teshuva means to draw closer.  Drawing closer means to emulate the Creator’s middos, to properly keep the mitzvahs which are His Will, and to recognize that Hashem Echad – that He Alone is the only power in this world and nothing except His Will is done, and that all that He does is for our spiritual growth and development.

On Rosh Hashana we crown Hashem King.  Most of the time, we are involved with our needs, our work, our families, our projects, our feelings, and more.  That is the nature of this world.  When we reflect and remember the basic truth that Hashem is the King, we are reaching for absolute truth – no matter what our efforts, we need siyata d’shmaya and only if it is good in Hashem’s eyes from Hashem’s perspective will we be granted success.

As adults, we have come to a point of independence where we want to make sure that we are self-determining as much as possible – we take total responsibility for our actions, our speech and our thoughts, the venues over which we have control.  The additional adult responsibility that Jewish people take, in order to live the ethics and chochma given in Torah, includes remembering that Hashem is King and that Hashem Echad.

What does that look like?

Two different people shared some examples:

Love Hashem and give Love Like Hashem - Ahavas Yisrael

“We had visitors for Chol HaMoed – relatives who live out of town who are not observant (Conservative).  We were able to withstand in a friendly manner their probing and challenging (isn’t this a bit antiquated?  Are you living in the Dark Ages – it is 2009) to our practices because we understood that they are b’tzelem elokim (souls created by Hashem) and we were focusing on ahavas yisrael (Loving your fellow Jew – respecting every Jew, acknowledging belief in Hashem.)  While we tried to give some explanation without being defensive, we were successful in changing the subject simply by letting them know we respect their wisdom but are not able to convey to them in a discussion format all that would be needed for us to have a meeting of the minds.  We invited them to learn more about it with us at another time if they would like to, but for now, to change the subject.  This worked, we felt, because we conveyed our love and respect for them without accidentally insulting them. “

Emes - Hashem is the Only Power

“I often have to fight off fearful thoughts.  I made a resolution to remember that Hashem only sends good but here I was, falling again into the clutches of worrying about what action someone might take or how something might be misinterpreted and what kind of a lashing I would be subjected to – what would happen to ME?  It was Hoshana Rabba,  and I wanted to have only unity in mind, beseeching Hashem to cancel all negative decrees against our people and bring the Moshiach.  Instead, or maybe as a test to see if I truly have incorporated into my being the concept that Hashem is the only power, something stirred up my toughest set of negative fears and there I was, headed into the mire of condemning, hating, resenting and worse.

I spoke out to Hashem and said I want the Moshiach more than anything and this is all in Your hands..I trust that whatever happens is for my ultimate good and please on that basis reduce my suffering from these fearful thoughts – and before I could even finish pleading with Hashem to remove the suffering I felt at peace.

Hashem is the only power there is. By recognizing that my indulging the negative thinking was because I was hurt and angry, I was able to stop and remember Hashem is the only power and only does tov.  Now that I see how easily my feelings shifted, I realize that the suffering from the negative thinking is self-inflicted and unnecessary, I immediately davened to Hashem to ask that He count my being able to shift my mood as a merit for Klal Yisroel and that He cancel all negative decrees against the Jewish people and bring Moshiach. Upon reflection, my concern for what would happen to me seemed so real and worth worrying about.  I wonder why I don’t have the same sense of importance to what I was successful in doing – in shifting my mood – because we learn that these things DO have a huge impact on the spiritual realms.  I like the idea of ascribing the same type of satisfaction that previously was invested in indulging the negative thinking to the simple shift to a positive mood and will bui neder try to bring full heart into feeling satisfaction with “Hashem is the only power.”  To do so, I must remember that my soul will continue after my body leaves this world and to include as a primary factor in my decision what will generate connection and growth for my eternal soul whenever considering action.”

Unfortunately,what 9/11 and terrorism has brought upward in our consciousness is that intimidation is effective, yielding power, and that there are ways to intimidate and use sympathy to successfully affect public opinion. What is even more confusing is that murderous crimes are being declared fora higher consciousness! And what is still more confusing is that the success of these murderous crimes means that they are permitted by the Creator, which in turn means that they are, in fact in accordance with His Will and Divine Justice. Are the people who inflict the suffering choosing the best way of serving the Creator? If the roles of man and the Creator are not properly understood, one might make a huge mistake and ask - Is the most pleasurable existence for a person while alive(relating to the greatest consciousness there is) the dedicated use oft he lowest sociopathological character traits found in mankind - hate,intimidation, unrepentant destruction - in the name of Divine justice? What is the relationship between the Creator and a person who chooses with his free will to commit murder?

What nags at civilized consciousness is the role of intimidation and terror - we are all brought into its psychological grip, suffering with how it affects our sense of value. Our holy energy that is intended to do good in this world and intended to emulate the Creator's qualities is drawn down into exploring how to survive and how we can protect and defend ourselves physically from those determined to utilize their spark of Divinity to destroy - and it is a short walk before we are, heaven forfend, drawn so far downward into the erroneous belief that we question if there is a higher consciousness in the picture at all, or worse, that if there is, we don't want anything to do with it! If we are unable to recognize that within mankind is the potential to choose acts that bring evil into full reign in the world, we are too easily drawn deeper into the erroneous belief that there is no higher consciousness in the world and we fall into the clutches of the darkest levels of human nature, never realizing that we are in the grips of something that cannot be solved by human intelligence without the help of Heaven. In such a scenario, we will draw down all our resources until there are none left and chaos reigns worldwide.

The realityis that the Creator has given people free will to go as far astray as we choose from the ethical dictates of the Ten Commandments, seeking tyrannic power, discriminatory and hateful control, effecting destruction, chasing illicit desires and more. With our free will we can push the Creator out! He gave us this choice. We have free will,the G-d-given right to choose or reject the moral precepts of the Creator; however, we do not exist in a free, un-judged spiritual environment. The longer we turn away from the knowledge that there is a Creator and a higher consciousness operating, the more vulnerable we are to succumbing to erroneous beliefs that add our holy energy to the wrong side of the equation, becoming part of the problem instead of part of the solution. Our choices affect us as individuals, as a society, and as mankind. The solution is to recognize and return to the rules of the Creator, not to submit like an abused woman to the dictates of the sticks He uses to wake us up. We were given a set of ethical rules and the choice to use our energy to observe the rules or not for a purpose. The purpose is for us to choose a relationship with the Creator based on love and fear that will benefit us now and for eternity. It is time to turn upwards and comprehend that we live in a spiritual ecosystem with Divine Justice and that we play the starring role and our actions matter.

If there were a murderer on trial and he said that he committed the crime because a god told him to, he would be considered insane.

All the monotheistic religions accept that the Ten Commandments were given on Mount Sinai by the Creator.Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky on Tisha B'Av said that the Creator could have given the Ten Commandments on one long tablet. Instead, the Ten Commandments were given on two tablets, with the five on the left which deal with our relationship to the Creator paralleling the five on the right dealing with our relationships with other people.

The sixth commandment is "Do not murder" and this is parallel to "I am the Lord Your G-d" - Rabbi Orlofsky tells us plainly that when we see another person, we respect that other person as having a bit of G-d within, and that if we know there is a Creator, out of respect and awareness, we do not murder. This commandment is from the Creator, clear and unambiguous.

The overall goal is perhaps what every person on earth might agree to -peace. No matter what religion we are, people want peace. Peace starts with each person. It is a choice, to have a close relationship with the Creator and to emulate Him through acts of kindness and love. Not only that, it is a free choice…there is no cost to it, no army needed, no bombs, no tanks, no guns. Choose peace through acts of kindness and brotherly love. Any ideology claiming that the Creator is happy when one person acts out of hate, terrorism, rejection, murder or other crimes is in direct conflict with the simple reality of the sixth commandment.

Today is November 27, 2008, the national holiday of Thanksgiving.  At this time, the fate and whereabouts of hostages remains uncertain after the terrorists killed and kept hostage those in the Chabad House in Bombay India. I am anguished regarding the fate of Rabbi and Rebbetzin Holtzberg and still hope to hear besoros tovos.  And there are many dead and injured.  Quite a few victims were Israelis and Jewish people. Korbons on erev Kislev.

The only clear message we are to derive from all sufferings and tragedies is teshuva.  Hashem desires for us to come closer, to do mitzvohs to enhance our connection to Him, to improve our middos so that we emulate His Attributes, to offer kindness to others in the form of good deeds and charity, to cry out in prayer to Hashem for rachamim and to speak to Hashem and include Him in every moment of our day.

The message of teshuva on erev Kislev is, to me, significant because I am remembering the messages from Tisha B’Av from Rabbi Mattesyahu Salomon and Rabbi Brevda.  In brief, Rabbi Salomon spoke to us through the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation Tisha B’Av event about jealousy and how we suffer from it.  His was a call to us to realize this as the cause of all sinas.  His overall message was that in order to be worthy to receive the third Bais HaMikdosh, the third temple, all we need to do is eradicate the reason we lost the second Bais HaMikdosh in the first place, which was because of sinas chinum.  What teshuva have we to claim toward eradicating sinas chinum amongst us so that we are unified?  His message was to comprehend and overcome within us the midda of jealousy, kinna by telling ourselves when we suffer from it, we don’t want suffering Hashem, we only want YOU.

Rabbi Brevda spoke also about Tisha B’Av.  What moved me was his humble admission of the shame he feels year after year, reading the story of Kamsa and Bar Kamsa.  He tells over the story in elaborate detail about how the disagreement began, and how the story unfolded.  A person needs to listen to Rabbi Brevda’s shiur on this subject to see that this was something that is understandable now and happens every single day, and is not relegated to “the past” by any stretch of the imagination.  Without going into the details, the bottom line was that Bar Kamsa could not get over the shame and humiliation that was unjustly thrust upon him, and that none of the guests attempted to protect him from.  And, since all of the guests were prominent religious people, he did not subdue his anger, nor accept as a kaparah the total humiliation.  And, calling Bar Kamsa an apikoras, Rabbi Brevda retells how Bar Kamsa sabotaged the temple with a damaged offering and the results of his revenge were the loss of the second temple and exile. All because Bar Kamsa could not rise above the affront to his ego and the pain the entire matter had been causing his family for many years.  Not an easy test, but he surely did not rise to the occasion.

Not that Kamsa did…could he have tolerated the presence of this man at his simcha?  Could he have not spared his feelings, even when asked?  Again, the pain that he felt was handled in an openly embarrassing way.  He did not quietly seek the advice of any of the wise, learned guests who might have been able to gently escort Bar Kamsa home, with a respectful word of shalom.  Whatever the issues were, the lines were drawn in the sand, and the dispute and issues of kina last to this very day.

Are we closer or farther from overcoming the causes of sina (e.G., kina, ego) ?  Are we in touch with the ways these aspects of our makeup affect us enough to subdue them when need be?  And what would be a good enough reason to subdue them, when would that need actually be to choose to subdue our natural selves?

In our area, a drama unfolded regarding a 12 year old boy who was on life support.  His doctors declared him brain dead, including his brain stem.  The hospital wanted to turn off the life support and allow the boy to pass on.  Being ultra-Orthodox, the family asked for the life support to remain until the child pass on his own.  The hospital petitioned the courts to remove the support, wanting to give these life-saving resources to patients who could, in fact, recover.  Before the courts could decide, the boy did pass away, as soon as Shabbos came in on the Friday night after being declared brain dead. He was niftar on Shabbat, like a tzaddik.

In those few days, the matter was on the front pages of the Washington Post.  In there, the reporters went around to get all the varying Jewish opinions. And there it was, in one article, for all the whole world to see.  Who thinks he should stay on, why so-and-so says it is okay to take him off life support, how brain dead qualifies people as organ donors, and all the various justifications with halachic proofs.  All the world who was following this story saw this variety of opinions, diversity. Not that there is anything wrong with diversity or at fault with sharing an opinion and view.  But I ask, how did we look to the world?  Does the non-Jewish world understand all these distinctions?  Of course not.  To the outside world, what must it look like?  It certainly did not look like unity.  And to Hashem, how did it look?

Focus now on the matter at hand in Israel regarding the Road Map and all the diverse opinions there.  Are we going to undergo a much larger scale microscopic examination by the world?  Do we realize that all these varying opinions, one Jewish view arguing with another Jewish group, weaken us and make us look foolish?

Our holy Torah is the blueprint for the world.  It is the path of peace and of life. It is an absolute.  It conveys the morals and laws by which the HaKodosh Baruch Hu wants us to live so that we can rise above ourselves and remain connected to Him.  He knows what we are.  Is it within our ability to make an attempt to reclaim our Torah as an absolute?  Within the discussion of differences within the Torah, is there a stream of thought that we can all recognize as absolute and thereby grab onto in order to unify? With all the varying opinions about how to accomplish peace, giving the land, not giving the land, the IDF, etc, what can we do within our control to find an absolute Torah value that can unify every Jew?  It may have nothing to do with Israel – it may simply be respect and love for every Jew as King Shlomo offers in Shiur HaShirum, that no matter how covered over we are, our essence and our ability to connect are beloved to Hashem.  This is what comes to my mind.  That we see every Jew for his neshama alongside his opinions and practices, and thereby, when we see another Jew, we see behind him a someone that Hashem loves. If we can restore Ahavas Yisroel in some way, perhaps that might be the teshuva to evoke the rachamim  of Hashem to bring the redemption, may we be zocheh to see Moshiach Tzidkeinu speedily and dedicate the Third Bais HaMikdosh as Chanukah approaches!

Reflections on Politics AKA the nature of mankind

This is NOT a political statement in support or opposition to ANY candidate.  Far be it.  The purpose of this article is an urgent call to every thinking person to show them that inherent in a person is a good inclination and a bad inclination, and that without this knowledge, the emotions of the heart can sometimes bring the body into a direction it does not really desire to go.

In Cheshbon HaNefesh, the author describes the connection between the heart, mind and body as follows – the emotions, the heart, are likened to horses that pull a carriage.  The carriage of course is the body.  In order to control the direction that the horses take the body, seichel sits in the driver’s seat.  Our intelligence must be the driver.

Taking intelligence one step further, we know that man, of himself, receives chochma only from the Torah.  By himself, mankind cannot derive chochma from his own efforts.  Chochma comes from Torah as a beginning idea.  When related ideas accumulate, we call this Bina. It becomes Daas, which is what we would call intelligence, after the ideas formulate with the emotions and have shape.  From here, we act.

Thus, it is very important that the beginning of the ideas be trustworthy. 

We have a commandment not to lie.  Why is lying such an averah?  Because when someone trusts us and we lie, we are changing their reality.  We take them out of the world of truth and bring them into a world of falsehood, where they develop Daas and subsequent actions that reflect unreality.  However, they do not know it.  If a person were to look at the definition of psychosis, it would be actions based on unfounded ideas, on thoughts that have no basis in reality.  Hmmm.  When we lie, we render the trusting soul who believes us to a stature of psychotic.  At some point, the original lie will be known and the person will have done things that they will have regretted.  The cumulative impact of the lie is very severe.  And, the greatest burden is on the one who committed the wrong deeds, even though it seems that the bigger averah should go to the one who lied. We are responsible for our actions and for determining for ourselves what is true.  - we should not be able to blame others for our not taking proper adult responsibility for our actions. G-d-forbid

Trusting our government is crucial.  Therefore, it is, for me, a great litmus test to see how government officials speak and refer to events, for me to understand their character and how they will be affecting our reality on a day to day basis.

I am thinking back to President Nixon who resigned because of his Watergate lies.  And I am thinking back to President Clinton who reinforced the belief that lying in office is okay to do.  I am remembering the O.J. Simpson trial where the defense accused the police of racial prejudice and lying to frame O.J. Simpson, and playing on the emotions of the jury, prevailed with that defense in placing reasonable doubt in their minds.

How can we really know the truth?  We really can’t know ultimate truth. However, we can be aware of one basic point that can help us a great deal.

That basic point is the stark realization that we have an evil inclination and a good inclination.  What we learn from Rebbetzin Heller’s class on Netivos Yetzer Hara by the Maharal is that the ONLY enemy we have is the evil inclination.  Why?

Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden.  When Adom was formed, the snake, the evil inclination, was external to mankind.  Adom was not confused.  He saw the snake and with the way the world was set up at that time, Adom, who was incapable of doing anything he did not believe was the will of Hashem, believed that by eating of the tree of good and evil that he, Adom, would come into this lower world and resist the yetzer hara, the evil inclination, making such a wonderful Kiddush Hashem as to be pleasing to Hashem.  That was his purpose, to serve Hashem in this world by resisting the external yetzer hara.  However, when he did this, Hashem saw that man would become on a level that He did not create man for.  Hashem at that point cut the shefa to the yetzer hara and attached it to the shefa of man, placing mankind in a life and death battle with the yetzer hara.  Now, with the evil inclination internalized, the feelings and ideas that come to man are mixed up…man does not have the clarity tha Adom had in the Garden of Eden, the clarity that led him to believe he could come into this world and overcome the yetzer hara’s seductions.

The purpose of the yetzer hara is to spiritually destroy us.  As we know, the yetzer hara, the Accuser and the Angel of Death are one and the same, the Soton.  The role of this supernatural being is to test mankind and eventually to kill him and prosecute him. The yetzer hara is an expert on how to deceive and mislead us. The evil inclination often sounds very logical, like our best friend. The only antidote we know to the yetzer hara is Torah, for the Torah shows us the ways of the yetzer hara, reinforces for us our ability to choose the yetzer tov and to choose to involve ourselves in activities that we know straight from the Torah are ways to connect to Hashem and to grow spiritually in a positive direction.  We rely on Torah for our chochma, for helping us choose amongst the often confusing emotions and choices that face us each day.  We choose to listen to the yetzer tov so that we grow spiritually and receive Eternal reward.

The Maharal sets forth a detailed description of the basic machinations of the yetzer hara, our mortal enemy.  The evil inclination is the ONLY true enemy that mankind has.  The good news is that, with Hashem’s help, we actually can overcome it.  We cannot overcome it by our own efforts alone, for the Soton is an angel of Hashem and is far stronger than any man.  However, if a person asks Hashem to help him overcome his yetzer hara, Hashem helps.  Why?  Because the person has done the simple task of recognizing that he HAS a yetzer hara, that it is wrong to act on it, and that he chooses to act in a manner pleasing to Hashem.

And this is the point of this article.  I beseech every person to accept that he or she has a good inclination and an evil inclination, and not to consider this a benign ordinary fact of life but rather a crucial realization through which every person can defeat evil.

So, how does this translate? 

In math, we know that if A=B   and B= C, then A=C.  This is straight logic and is true.

Emotionally however, this does not hold.  If I live in a brick house and the Queen of England lives in a brick house, it does not make me the Queen of England.  Yet this is what happens emotionally with moral equivalents where there are grains of truth.

ANYONE using this kind of emotional manipulation, in my opinion, is hoping the horses will run the carriage of those who trust them into a direction that they may not really wish to go but that the speaker would LIKE them to go.  Therefore, it is incumbent on us to THINK!  Is what we are being told true?  It may sound good and trigger our emotional responses, but, is it true?  If it is not true, it says a great deal about the person saying it. To me, it means the person is trying to manipulate me rather than respect my intelligence. If it is true, then I need to consider what the response is from the opponent.  Does he admit or deny and support with apologies or explanations?  Or does he avoid the fact with a smoke screen of moral equivalents and emotion packed fears? 

Very often, it is impossible to really know what is true.  Every person is a universe unto themselves and we all perceive things based on our experiences, history and education.  One person may see something in a totally different way from another. That is why we have a democracy…even with all the self-interest and bias, somehow, as long as people are thinking and aware of human nature, it can come out to a decent position.  The conditional element here is that people have to THINK and not just react or feel.

What has undermined our thinking?  I remember when MTV started, short, superficial videos of life.  I remember thinking to myself how empty they are, how shallow a look at life.  But we now have a second generation of people and they probably do not share my perspective since this is normal to them, just like they don’t remember what life was like before microwave ovens.  We had to take the food out in the morning to defrost to make something in the evening. 

The next thing that has undermined our thinking is the lack of needing to know how to do math because of calculators.  I am not picking on calculators specifically, because I know they also enhance mathematical ability.  However, I know many people who do not remember their basic math skills and rely on the calculator now.  I am not convinced that is best. A good example again of this is GPS, which I recently have and really love.  Before, I had to have a map, check my directions, make sure I knew where I was going.  Now, I just turn on the GPS and it tells left, right, straight, etc.  Again, I don’t have to think.  And even the internet has interfered with our thinking.  Information is so readily and easily available, I don’t have to remember much as long as I have my laptop.  I love all these conveniences, but have we made ourselves so stupid that we don’t know how to think?

Remember, we need to think because our seichel has to be in the drivers seat or our emotions will be the horses charging in a direction that our bodies may not want to go. And the yetzer hara runs wild with our emotions if it is not checked by Torah, truth and intelligence.

So, it is incumbent upon us to understand and accept that we have a yetzer hara.  It is our responsibility to get an accurate job description for the Soton so that we can spot it within our own thinking.  And, it is our duty to joyously refuse to listen to the Soton’s suggestions, rationalizations and seductions. And when we do, we are taking out our personal garbage.  If every person does this, we will restore decency and justice to the world.

Please don’t allow your life energy to be persuaded into believing something that is not true.  Don’t be satisfied with answers from anyone whose statements are not factual, no matter how many moral equivalents or emotional analogies are evoked.  If we do, we as a nation will go into psychosis - we have to trust our leaders. Something is not necessarily true just because it strikes an emotional chord. It needs to be based on facts that are verifiable. And if the facts were true at one time and a person's positions changed, we need to hear facts and evidence to verify that the original fact is no longer in play.

And if someone is challenged to respond to a fact that is verifiable and they evoke an emotional chord or a moral equivalent instead of answering honestly, please see through that.  It is politics but for every voter, it drives us to act as if we suffer from psychosis.