Reconstructing Rachel: Return to Jewish Nature – Part 2

Secrets of the Jewish Year
Holiday Messages and Meditations on the Jewish Year

The Jewish Month of Cheshvan

Cheshvan According to Sefer Yetzirah  When Will my Deeds Reach the Level of Those of My Forefathers  Jewish Mothers Day: The 11th of Cheshvan, yorhtzeit of our matriarch Rachel.Reconstructing Rachel: Return to Jewish Nature  Part 1: Return to National Jewish Nature  Part 2: Applying the Meanings of Hod on a National Level  Part 3: Reconstructing Rachel in our Service of God  Part 4: A Deeper Understanding: Relating the Types to the Sefirot  Part 5: Understanding the Middle Axis: The Axis of Self-Consciousness  Part 6: Malchut: Rectified Jewish Nature

 

 

Applying the Meanings of Hod
on a National Level

In the previous chapter, we explored the five meanings of the word hod as the key to understanding how to rectify our immune system and return to our true, Jewish nature. In this chapter, we will see how these meanings of hod can be applied on a national level.

National Splendor — Jewish Pride

To be proud to be a Jew means to accept that God chose the Jewish People to take responsibility for bringing His light to the entire world

The first task of the immune system is to identify itself — its body. This self-identity is Jewish pride. As we learned in the previous chapter, Splendor, the level of hod at the Crown of God's Name (keter), is an aura. The splendor principle is the aura of Jewish pride. Jewish pride is not chauvinism or ego. It is the Jew's essential connection to God. To be proud to be a Jew means to accept that God chose the Jewish People to take responsibility for bringing His light to the entire world. This innate feeling that it is good to be a Jew, hardships notwithstanding, is the splendor of Jewishness. It is the aura around every Jew and around the Jewish People.

At the level of keter, a healthy national immune system will identify who we are and take pride in being Jewish.

Confession — Taking Responsibility for Wrongs

The immune system must identify negative forces threatening the body. On a national level, these negative forces are the wrongs committed as a result of lack of Jewish pride. Our essential connection to God produces the courage to confess that we have erred and strayed from our responsibility to bring God's light to the world. The inability to confess points to a self-destructive immune system. At the level of chochmah, a healthy national immune system will identify those forces that are destroying the body from within and without, take responsibility for them and expel them.

Acknowledgement — Identifying Positive Forces

The immune system must identify friendly forces. This identification is the trait of acknowledgment. Acknowledgement comes after the confession of wrongs. It is the admission that "I was wrong, you were right, and you were a positive force."

Living as if all is natural is unnatural for a Jew

Another aspect of acknowledgement in Jewish Nature is the ability to recognize the miracles that God brings about at every moment of existence.  Living as if all is natural is unnatural for a Jew. If a person does not have Jewish Nature, he is afraid of miracles, and may view them as a threat. In actuality, he is afraid of being a Jew.  At the level of binah, a healthy national immune system will acknowledge that those who warned against erring were right, while also acknowledging the miracle of the existence of the Jewish People, and the myriad miracles that are woven into the very fabric of daily life in Israel.

Thanksgiving — Gratitude to Others and to God

After the immune system identifies the friendly forces, it must integrate them into the body. This is the level of thanksgiving. At the level of the six emotions of the heart, a healthy national immune system will show gratitude to all those factors that help it to thrive and be healthy, integrating them into the national system. Most importantly, a healthy national immune system shows gratitude to God, Who gives miraculous life to the nation.

Echo — Reflecting Torah Life

Now that the immune system has identified itself, expelled negative forces and integrated the positive, the body is healthy. At the level of malchut, a healthy national immune system will reflect the nation's connection to God at all levels of its being. As the Torah is God's truth and His instruction to the Jewish People, the healthy national immune system will reflect the Torah's truth in every aspect of national life. This echo will be predicated on the recognition that all the Jewish pride, health and miraculous existence of Israel is a gift from God, which we acknowledge with gratitude as we strive to spread God's light to all creation.