*ORIGINALLY THIS PAPER WAS WRITTEN AS A SELF-ASSIGNMENT FOR AN ENGLISH/HUMANITIES COURSE IN MY OLD SCHOOL FOR THE LIBERAL ARTS PROGRAM. IT IS IN RESPONSE TO A POEM BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH *
----------------------------------------------------- Upon reading William Woodsworth' poem "expostulation and Reply", as I have already previously mentioned in my response, two different philosophies arose in my mind, representing the two speakers in the poem. It is of my opinion that both philosophies are equally valid, yet serve entirely different purposes.
We experience, or understand G-d, through the ten constrictions which He passed through in creating the world. These constrictions each respectfully gave way to ten refractions emanating from the source. We perceive these as the Ten Sephiros (spheres), or attributes. These ten attributes are: 1 - CHOCHMA (Wisdom), 2 - BINAH (understanding) 3 - DA'AT (Knowledge), 4 - CHESED (Lovingkindness), 5 - GEVURA (Judgement), 6 - TIFERET (Beauty) 7 - NETZACH (Championship) 8 - HOD (Humility) 9 - YESOD (Foundation) 10 - MALCHUS (Sovereignty).
(Obviously these literal translations are entirely insufficient to any sort of understanding of the deeper meanings of these concepts, and what encompasses them, but that would be and entirely different assignment, and is in any case beyond the scope of my intellect in its complete sense). The first three attributes are the intellectual attributes, and the last seven are the emotive oneness. They are all male in essence (primarily, though in comparison to one another however, this is not always the case, when comparing only a number of them), save for the last and most important one - Malchus, which encompasses and unites them all, but yet has no foundational definition of its own, and is female.
Humans, being created in the "shadow" (image) of G-d, are made up of all of these attributes as well. Different attributes dominate, however, in different individuals. Women, for example, have more MALCHUS than men emotionally, and more BINAH than men intellectually. It is a recurring fact in the works of Torah (i.e. Kaballah, Talmud etc. ) that as do the makeup of the female and male soul differ, but yet complement one another, and are incomplete when alone (despite common misconception, on the sixth day of creation, men and women were created at the same time, in fact s a single being, who then became separated), so is the Jewish soul, in relation to the Non-Jewish soul. In the Jewish soul, the three intellectual attributes dominate, and define his/her ultimate purpose. In the non-Jewish soul, it is the seven emotive attributes. This is why the number three dominates in so many aspects of Jewish thought. (For example, the 3 patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob). Similarly, the number 7 plays an important factor when studying the non-Jewish role in creation. (there are seven Noachide laws, which they must abide by, in order to complete their role, for example).
In order to understand this concept on a deeper level, and apply it to practice (and hopefully explain the connection to Wordsworth's poem!), we must first examine the numbers three and seven, as well as the concepts of intellect versus emotion in Torah.
The number three is a unifying number. When two opinions appear to contradict one another in the Talmud, a third one comes in and reveals a deeper level, demonstrating how indeed the two original opinions did not contradict one another to begin with, there was just something which had been overlooked. Three is also a number of motion and change, and the rising of different possibilities and combinations. When the Wisdom (Chochma) of the man, unites with the Understanding (Binah) of a woman, Da'at is created, in their creation of life ("Adam KNEW his wife, Chava").
Seven is the natural world, and perfects the cyclical nature of six. This can be understood mathematically from a circle, which in fact relates to the seven emotions:
Circumference of a circle = 2PI*R = 6.28…………*R -- 6 emotions and then the decimals ad infinitum, with no pattern of which we are aware, corresponding to the infinite and essential input the undefined malchus has on the rest of the attributes. The actual outer circumference is the first six emotive attributes. The invisible center is malchus, the last emotive attribute, which in itself does not take up any space, but upon which the entire circle is dependent upon.
The week is made up of seven day. The first six days represent the actions of the week, and the occurrences, and its distinction from the other weeks. The Sabbath Queen however, defines the entire week, but yet no Melacha (most often translated as "work") is preformed on this day.
Concerning the intellect and the motion, briefly described, emotion is passive, whereas intellect is active. When one is in an emotional state, one resonates with something whereas when one is in an intellectual state, one is more apart from what is being intellectualized about, and there is more concern with the person's relation, or impact on the object of analysis or study.
There is infinitely more intrinsic details to these concepts, although going beyond the scope of this work.
All of this relates directly to the purpose of the Jew and the Non-Jew in the world, and essentially, the very purpose of creation itself. Simply put, the purpose G-d had in creating the world, was to one day lay claim to a finite dwelling place, which He could act like Himself in (This is very simplified in relation to what is really going on, obviously). We as finite beings, have been granted the task of brining this about. The Hebrew word for world is OLAM, which comes from the same root as LEHA'ALIM - to hide. This world is one of concealment. G-d is playing hide-and -go-seek with us and it is our job to find and reveal Him. This does not mean that He is not G-d forbid, there in every facet of creation. In fact, he is in every corner of the universe. There is no place devoid of Him. The purpose of the Non-Jew, is to recognize this divine nature in all things. This is done through keeping the seven laws of Noach, each of which corresponds to a different level of the soul. Through doing this, it is truly possible to attain this goal.
Various spiritual paths which are mostly passive, or symbolic in nature (if they are active) can be utilized in order to achieve this feeling of harmony and ONENESS with nature, and G-d Himself.
For the Jew, however, in his Divine service, nothing is symbolic or representative. When we say a blessing over food, we are actually elevating the food molecules, on a PHYSICAL level. The three dominating aspects of this all can be seen in the unifying purpose the Jew has in unifying Heaven and Earth. In performing the 613 mitzos (commandments), we reveal G-dliness in the world, on a physical level, which becomes more and more realized by the Non-Jews in their Noachide laws. The emphasis for the Jew is not to sit back and live in harmony, as this is not His purpose. His purpose is an active one, which may result in certain sacrifices on his part, some of his own personal spiritual aggrandisment (however the 613 mitzvos do allow one to perceive G-d's handiwork everywhere, although again, on a more ACTIVE level. I used to practice Transcendental Meditation, and in contrasting it with Jewish Meditation, the thing that is the most apparent in their differences, is the purpose of each. In Transcendental Meditation, the goal is to reach a state of spontaneous thought, which will hopefully lead to a state of no thoughts at all, or Kosmic Consciousness. The purpose in Jewish Meditation, however, is entirely different. While in TM, the mantra is used simply as a means for achieving tan end, which should not invade the mantra at all, the a mantra that is used in Jewish Meditation, is intrinsic to the meditation itself. In Jewish Meditation, the purpose is not to reach "higher states of consciousness", but rather to connect to G-d and discover new and practical things through this that can be applied to help the process of bringing what is discovered "up there", down to here.
I hope I have not swayed too much from Wordsworth's theme, and have successfully demonstrated the parallels between the Jew and the Non-Jew and William and Matthew.
