006. a spiraled pair, a curv’ed whole

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This is the discussion of the most crucial part of everyone's lives. Not themselves, but rather their intended mate, Bashert (for lack of a better spelling). Hazal say: If Hashem never interrupts the rules of nature and miracle which he set out before the seventh day of creation, what does he do with all of his time? They answer: He spends all his time pairing people together with their perfect matches. This subtle question and subtle answer unveils the edge of existence. The phrase: "I am to my beloved, and my beloved is to me," echoes the same underlying ramifications. I have told many people of this idea I am about to share, but never delved into the depth of why or how.

Now, first I will point out that men and women are physically different. This is extremely obvious. At the end of this expression, I hope the spiritual differences between men and women will be equally obvious. Now I will step back from this a minute to talk about the universal (relative to both sexes) nature of our existence.

We all have an inner and an outer world. Normally we interact with and are more conscious of the outer world. The inner world is what we call our mind or our soul. These two worlds are parallel, all the attributes found in one are found in the other. Changes in one world directly effect changes in the other. The Ari'zl (R' Isaac Luria, teacher of Lurianic Kabbalah) said as much when he spoke of perfecting oneself in order to bring about perfection in the world at large. All this is true, yet we see one world more clearly than the other. Why does the outer world have a much stronger influence on us? This is because of the sin in the garden of Eden.

I will endeavor to explain this. The Outer world is an incarnation of the Tree of Knowledge (of Good and Evil). The inner world is an incarnation of the Tree of Life. It is actually misleading for me to use the word incarnation. It is my limited understanding that your outer world IS the Tree of Knowledge and your inner world IS the Tree of Life. The broken symmetry of the Tree of Knowledge being overwhelmingly more present than the Tree of Life is a direct result of Adam and Hava (Eve)'s sin. This is not to support the baseless notion of original sin. This is just the way things are, our outer world is perceived to be more accessible or alterable than our inner world.

Now let me explain something about the physical human body and then I will get to the heart of the matter. The human body is actually a combination of incarnations (taken with the same degree of incorrectness as above) of both the Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge. This I learned from the R' Aryeh Kaplan sefarim (books) which I've read. Whether this is literally there or something I understood I don’t recall exactly. Our ten fingers and our tongue are the Tree of Life. Our ten toes and the sexual organ (usually this deals only with the male sexual organ to my (admittedly very limited) knowledge… but we will see how this explains the spiritual difference between men and women.) are the Tree of Knowledge. The human body as it exists today is a fusion of the two worlds. It is the flimsy barrier between both worlds. It is that which is actually you. One of the goals of prayer and mitzwoth (commandments which HaShem has given us) is to unify these two worlds, for it is through these two worlds that HaShem has hidden himself from us.

Now we will breach the subject of the title, a spiraled pair. I long ago shared with some of my friends the idea that one's Bashert feels inexplainable joy when one is on a high spiritual level (ie. in the midst of spiritual rapture). I explained that this was because one's Bashert and oneself are spiritually linked. At the time I don't believe I understood the further implications or depths of such a link, but over the time of my learning more has become clear. One of the secrets of the inner and the outer worlds is that they are actually the same world. The yet deeper understanding shows you that one's Bashert is actually one's world, and that one's Bashert's world is actually oneself. A pair of intended mates make up a paradox, the paradox of individuality, the heart of the creation of HaShem. They are a Mobius strip, spiraling endlessly. In order to make us see a disparate world with separate entities, HaShem must allow us to see objects and entities as separate from ourselves. HaShem takes half of his essence and allows it to see a lack in the other half. This other half lacks the initial half, this is the lack that the first half sees. (And if you aren't lost yet, vice versa.) It is the longing to be together of the intended mates that makes this world exist, that allows one to be blinded of the intimate and complete connection between oneself and all things. This is why it says in Bereshith (Genesis) "v'yihiyu l'bassar ehad." ("They will be as one flesh.") They will not be as one soul, because it is only their separation which allows for individuality. When intended mates are united their separation from HaShem ceases to exist, and all that is left is HaShem. This is why sex is an act of creation, at a moment of complete physical and spiritual unity, a spiraled pair basically channel HaShem’s own nature and an act of creation may take place.

Let us explain the spiritual difference now between men and women. Our meager barrier, our bodies (the only thing clearly definable as 'us', which allows the people in Tanakh to say 'I am dust,' without lying.), our bodies are what we must elevate. Our souls already reach to the heights if we let them, but when we voluntarily intertwine our souls with our bodies, our bodies are carried up as well. The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of my body, are the inner and outer worlds of my Bashert respectively. The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of her body are my soul (inner world), and world (outer world). This is the spiral. I am the flimsy film between her two worlds, and she the flimsy film between mine. Our bodies are different however. The male sexual organ’s nature is to give, and the female’s is to receive, to bound. The outer world which I provide to my Bashert is one of giving, and plenty. The outer world which she provides for me is one of boundary and reception. This is not to say that one has a negative connotation. If you are reading a negative connotation into this, rid your mind of that idea and go back and look over the two halves of the whole directly above. To assume then that only our outer worlds are different would be foolishness on my part because I have already admitted that the inner and outer worlds are intrinsically connected (and in fact, one). So, our inner worlds are different as well, and we can see this in the different acts and usages of speech between the sexes. More importantly this explains why the commandments for men are binding ones, and the commandments for women are unbinding (By binding I obviously refer to time, but that is not the only kind of boundary from which women are free). We live in different worlds, literally.

This is the heart of inter-human relationship. It is the foundation upon which individuality may exist in this world, and a metaphor used to explain God's creation (Throughout writings like Shir HaShirim, the Zohar, and other Neviim (prophets)). Hopefully this will enlighten you as to the seriousness of what one says and does. One also understands the grave nature of sexual misconduct, sinning before the face of God is something which I hope is unthinkable.

I have one more (the 8th) expression (007) left to write on the level above all of what I have conveyed. If this is metaphysics I guess that it will be meta-metaphysics. I want to thank you for taking the time (and the great investment in deciphering-energy necessary) to have read these first seven expressions. Please take whatever understandings you have gleaned from what I’ve written to heart, and do your part to reunite the Jewish people with their God and mankind with it's creator. The yearning between creator and created outweighs even the desire between two intended mates.
Notes:
in the discussion of the separation of Eve from Adam, (in bereshith) think of the depth of the word Tzela, (TzLAy) It contains the word "tzel" (shadow) referring to "b'tzelem elokim," as well as the letter Ayin, which literally means "eye", and was originally drawn as a circle. This can be understood like so (and actually be derived from a completely different direction which I wont go into more than to say Line/Curve): When God separated Adam and Eve, he separated the essence of God within man, Tzelem Elokim, "the image of God", and allowed the concept of an observer, one with eyes, to enter into the scene. When Adam and Eve were separated, the world was veiled in a film of perspective.
The words 'man' and 'woman' in Hebrew ish and isha, both have the word 'aish' meaning fire within them. Yet the man has a Yod in his name and the woman a Heh. The first thing this shows us is that women and men were created of the white and black fire of torah.. only their bodies are of dust (when they are reffered to as Adam (of the ground, or flesh and blood). Their purposes and their souls however are created of Torah itself. It is not clear to me which is white fire and which is black .. however I feel that Men are white fire for many reasons that would need a Notes: of their own. The next thing to notice is that all but one of the letters of HaShem's name exists in Man and Woman's name. The letter Vav is not present because Vav's depth is union, a connection. When Man and Woman become connected, HaShem's name is re-unified and complete.
The joining of Man and Woman has the potential to be as great as the moment of the giving of the Torah on har Sinai, very often however, it is brought low by acts akin to that of the golden calf.