“by accepting {trouble} with happiness it gets transformed from ZaRaH {trouble} to RaZeH {accepted, chosen} as I have written in the name of my master, his memory blessed.”
Toldos, Noach, 13a
“My Master asked, of what benefit is it to god to be loved by mosquitoes like him {i.e. us} if he would love a great awesome king- what does count for? Nothing?! Although, I have heard from him an awesome answer to this question only {the Toldos here has two more questions about love of god in the name of “the Philosophers” which the Besht’s answer did not specifically address}: that the creation of the world was through judgment which is the mystery of contraction {Zimzum} as is known. Therefore the judgments and suffering of a person are {like} a body to the soul and the spiritual life {Chiyus Rochani}. So when one accepts the suffering with love and happiness, which are the realm of life and spirituality, one comes brings close and connects the {their} body to {their} soul, which is the life and spirit, and the judgments are annulled. And god forbid, vise versa, {if one gets caught up in the suffering}, one pushes away ones body from {ones} soul. Therefore advice is given to man: “love Havayeh your Elokim” which is the realm of judgment to accept it and connect it to Havayeh which is Soul by way of loving {He may be hinting at some thing more – some sort of hint of this idea in the very word of “VaAHaVTa” that I regrettably cannot access}. And understand- and the words of the wise are charming”
Toldos, Eikev, 171 c
This later text is a little more revealing, so lets focus on this one first.
Everything physical is just a manifestation of the spiritual, this includes even trouble, but only the spiritual aspect of it is set in stone, its physical manifestations are negotiable. So when trouble strikes, it is just a manifestation of the one god. A manifestation that is most unpleasant in its current state. There is nothing wrong on the soul end of it, it’s the physical {materialized} side that needs to be changed.
One of the ways to transform tragedy into triumph, teaches the Besht, is by accepting the suffering with happiness and love.
Now there is only one way of doing that, by being connected to the spiritual end. On the heights of soul where no evil exists and no pain could be felt.
Once one is connected to such a place within oneself or consciousness {yes, the Besht does think of even HaVaYe as a part of our psyche}- one has elevated the physical to the high level of soul- thus transforming its physical manifestation to resemble the purity of goodness reflected by the high state of the soul. {and vise versa, he explains, if one is to get totally caught up in the pain, one is lowering ones treasured spirit into the darkness and realm of suffering}.
Here is probably the source of the Alter Rebbe’s “Le’Haskilcho Binoh”- if pain could be experienced, it’s just an indication of loss of touch with ones own true self.
As expected, here at its source it’s so much sweeter, milder and encourageing. When one experience pain, it’s an invitation to get back connected with ones self. Once that is done the trouble disappears. No suffering could ever be experienced, no problem ever materialized, when one is in touch with ones self- which is God.
So loving god, is to love our higher self. As we see in our text, the Besht goes as far as saying that the reason that it is essential love God is because it is beneficial to both god and man, as they are really one. When we suffer, our divine consciousness does too. When we love, our troubles and problems disappear.
A little more of how this technically works is explained in our first text, it is very subtle, hard to grasp and not terribly vital to even this technique- so I’ll try to cover it briefly: as we have learned in the past, everything in this world is energy. All energy is presented by Hebrew letters. Its evolution to the point where it expresses itself into the physical reality, is also reflected in letters and words. Now, the energies presented in the Hebrew letters RZH could be manifested in the physical as ReZeiH or could take form as ZoRoH. There is nothing essentially wrong with the energies of RZH, it only needs to be preformed to its purer form. Accepting trouble with love and happiness is one of the transformative rituals of turning trouble into pleasure. Kanal.
One thing is needed though that the Besht took for granted: know thyself!
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