Pesach - Enslavement through Jealousy, Lust and Glory
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Notes for Enslavement – Jealousy, lust and glory – fourth class before Pesach given by Rabbi Labinsky
The notes below are a sketchy outline –please listen deeply – these notes are nota complete transcript and much has been summarized and left out - intended only as a guide through the wonderful material, not instead of listening.
Now we look at how to grow through this time period and become elevated in the process. In Pirke Avos, chapter 4 28, the three stages of enslavement as it relates to freedom.
Jealousy, lust and glory remove the man from the world.
Why this mishna? What is the relevance. The three stages of exile – three languages of redemption, first three cups of wine, represent three stages of exile. We look at our high low and medium risk situations. Another way is to speak about intellect, emotions, and desires.
A person is neshama, ruach, nefesh . when we give these up, they go into hiding and get protruded as a human condition. Highjacks soulful capacity and redirects it – core human energy gets redirected to jealousy lust and glory.
This world is a Gd created, Gd animated world. It is a divine spiritual elevated world. Our job is to remove the veil that causes Gd’s reality to be concealed. Who is doing it? Gd veiled Himself. We are to minimize and contain the ego which causes Gd to appear more concealed and redirect it to appropriate divine form, which is freedom.
Taking a person out of the world is are you living in a Gdly world or a physical world? If you awaken and redirect your energy toward Divine, if you misappropriate, you take yourself into a material world and out of the real world. We must attach ourselves to Gd’s world and not make it a human based world. That is the difference between slavery and freedom. Everything is a divine focus – Almighty is directing us toward a divine purpose. We don’t want to become trapped in our identity as being simply bodies. That is the difference between slavery and freedom.
Jealousy – kina – what I have ultimately is somehow lacking or insufficient and I must have something outside of me – car, neighborhood, friends. We can never be happy, always seeking something out of ourselves. In Gd’s world He gives us everything we need. What you need you have, what you don’t have is not required for your spiritual mission. Being jealous is not comprehending what you have and what it is for. Being divine means we know Gd created us with a divine identity and purpose and goal and He will give us everything we will need to achieve it. We then feel thankful and appreciative and blessed. Gd knows who we are, what we are meant to do, every single day and moment.
When we are jealous we downgrade from divine to human and take ourselves out of the world. We give into our human identity and steal from our divine identity. We cant be happy because it has no divine origin. We want to expand, have more, extra, overflow, and we feel lacking, something is missing. This is how chometz is in a person. Jealousy is an emotion that takes us out of a divine identity and out of the Divine world. We have everything we need and happy for others because they have what they need. We need to use correctly what the Almighty gives us. Have clarity and focus to use it correctly. Be celebetory for other people. Jealousy is one form of chometz and makes us ego based.
Lust, taiva. It is desire (intellect, emotion, desire) area of the nefesh, physical body. Core lusts are money food and intimacy. Those have potency to make a person very base and lowly. When a person deals with over indulgence in excess of these desires, it brings us down. Preoccupied with money – it takes us out of a Gdly status, we feel earthly and lowly. We took ourselves out to a different universe. We see things in earthly ways that leads to more selfishness. We aren’t careful about commandments and become ego based – how do we get the most out of a moment. It is enslavement on a desire level. Flip side is to redirect to the side of the soul. Our desires are our energy. Is it the body or the soul? If used properly it is for the soul. He is feeding us and connecting to us in a personal way. We have a divine connection to the body to the holiness of the soul. In intimacy, when people join in the correct way, it is tremendous unity. And money can do tremendous Gdly good in this world. Money can make a profound difference..vehicles to awakening the Divine. If we express in lustful self centered way, we are earthly and trapped and lonely and isolated because we are not in Gd’s world anymore. Gd forces us to relate to these….we can decide if it is through the human or the divine. Each is pivotal to defining ourselves. Taiva – is not something to remove. It is controlling and redirecting. What is freedome? Living in a Divinely oriented world. I want to see the spiritual orientation. Gd knows what people are capable of, from high to low. We want to minimize the human condition, bare essential. Chometz is pure expansion.
Glory – kavod. It can breed arrogance, self-aggrandizement – a person can feel greater than life itself. We want to minimize glory. We have to feel our own Gdly image of living in a divine way, but negatively is how honorable and powerful we are. Then the Gdly image is taken away and the human image becomes inflated and exaggerated. We are to feel integrity and divine image to bring out kavod shemayim, His divine truth. When it is directed to the divine realm, it is good. Otherwise it gets downgraded to the human realm. Power of glory is meant to be brought out but if it makes us earthly, not good. We deeply want to bring out Gd’s glory. If we feel powerful and great and it isn’t for the Almighty, it is empty.
We are allowed to be jealous of others spiritual accomplishments, striving to greater heights. We can use the lusts as vehicles for freedoms or they are accidents to taking us out of the world, inflated, convincing ourselves we only live in an earthly world. Soul is isolated – sole –tary confinement, entrapped in the body. World appears to be physical.
These three apply first three cups of wine.
Jealous, first language Gd took us out
Lust second
Glory third Gd redeemed us
And Gd took us to Him – we have been awoken to Divine inner reality, the real us, we have been redeemed. Now we sense our inner divine reality because we are not bound by the constrictions of the body. The soul can channel all the desires to work on my divine mission. Bring sanctity to the body and elevation to the world and just walk around love sick for Gd. That is true freedom. If we can be joyful with what we have and have meaningful elevated actions. The human condition is very strong and tring to bring you into enslavement.
World built on Torah, prayer and acts of lovingkindness
Torah is a person’s relationship with oneself, keeps our desires in check to bring animalistic desire to divine focus.Prayer is where we focus on Gd’s glory and our job is to connect to him knowing He is the source nullify ourself to Him. Lovingkindness knocks out jealousy between people – we don’t lose anything when we give.
These rectify
Lust – nefesh
Jealousy – ruach
Glory – neshama
Enslavement is when three levels intellect, emotion and soul all go underground and are concealed. How you perceive things, how you feel – your relationships need to be Divinely focused. Not what is coming to ME. What am I going to get out of it – that is enslavement.
Take us out, saved us, and redeemed us – the inflation of ego puts us in enslavement. We want to be redeemed. This framework gives us ability to understand how the three realms of desire that drive the soul into the body form and Torah prayer and kindness are the antidote. Now we have a framework.
How much do I want to be free or do I want to be in a concealed form, always enslaved, inadequate. As long as we define in earthly way, as long as not in Gd’s world, we are stuck.
How much do you want life? Dividing line is 18 minutes. Matzah or chometz. The distinction is rising, the excess, when we think we are something within ourselves. Redirect back to Gd, the source, then we are free. Stop stealing our own identity. Make a conscious and purposeful choice as becoming more divine and then we can say we live in Gd’s world. We decide if we want a life of freedom or enslavement.
Gd gives us the choice and we put ourself into the default mechanism.
Acknowledge very firmly that we define our divine destiny. Do we bring it to restrictive form or elevated form. We can break out of human shackles and enter into our Divine reality. Otherwise, it is jealousy, lust and glory that are inevitable. We get trapped and hijacked by the human identity for its own sake, leaving us unhappy and enslaved. Put our focus into what is truly significant. If we do our part Hashem takes us to places beyond what we can imagine..use Torah, prayer and acts of kindness. Do you want it and are you willing to work for it? No freebees in the spiritual world.
Categories: Ahavas Hashem, Ahavas Yisrael, Ego
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