In this weeks Torah reading: Mishpatim, we read about all kinds of civil laws, laws involving damages, punishments and other seemingly mundane aspects of managing a society. Apart from the big lesson that the cosmic experience of receiving the Torah does translate into the nitty gritty of how we treat our neighbor and fellow community dwellers, this week's portion can teach us valuable lessons about our own psychological vulnerabilities and potential weaknesses.
The Torah mention damages caused by an ox, an uncovered pit, a person who steals and an uncontrolled fire. Each one can be symbolic of a different type of block in our personalities that can cause us to "damage" ourselves or others.... The ox is symbolic of the stubbornness that traps us into believing that we are limited by our "animal " nature, (G-d made me this way... I am just being true to myself....); the pit is symbolic of the type of self pitying emptiness that can suck others into our negativity and can become a bottomless pit for ourselves too, a place of despair and depression where we are totally disconnected to our power or potential to transform; the thief is symbolic of a kind of arrogance that believes rules are made only for other people to follow... the type of person who always feels his own specialness exempts him from fulfilling normative expectations... and finally the fire is symbolic of the danger of anger, which can destroy and consume everything in its wake.
Consider the manner in which you may loose your way..... could you root down any of your "mistakes" to one of these four ? Stubbornness, self pity, arrogance or egotistical anger?
The Tanya teaches us that we all have the capacity to fall into these areas of "mistake", that is part of what makes us human... we have a G-dly Soul and an animal soul. In the language of the Tanya, our animal nature and "mistakes" can connect to the different elements.... Water for over- identifying with our animal nature, earth for too much self pity and slothful melancholy , air for arrogant scoffing and fire for egotistical anger. By understanding that we were created in order to fix and refine ourselves, we can accept the areas that need growth... and being aware which areas seem to be the ones needing attention, we can get the job of refining done all the sooner!
Wishing you blessings and joy...
may you have insight into how best to refine your "animal"!
The inspiration for this brief essay comes from the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe as explained by Rabbi Yossi Jacobson on theyeshivah.net
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