More
important than the actions we do, are the motivations behind them.
I
have a friend who broke her engagement right before her wedding,
because she realized beyond a doubt that her ex fiance was marrying her just for her money. But until that point he did a pretty good job convincing her that it was her he really wanted.
Have I ever done any action for ulterior motives? Absolutely.
The possuk writes, V'hanesiim heiviu et avnei hashoham; And the princes brought the Shoham stones.
If you pay close attention, you'll see that word nessiim is
written without the letter 'yud'. Though it's small in appearance, the 'yud' is huge in significance. Why is it missing?
When the nessiim of each tribe heard that Hashem wanted a mishkan, tabernacle (gosh,
who invented that word?) erected they suggested to Moshe that they
alone would supply all the necessary materials for the mishkan. Moshe responded that Hashem would accept contributions from anyone who was willing to give. So, the nesiim
decided privately that they wouldn't donate with the rest of the Jewish
people but rather they'd wait til the end and supply whatever was
lacking.
Although
this sounds pretty noble, there was a problem. They underestimated the
generosity and devotion of the Jewish people who all gave eagerly and
lovingly, so that no more material was needed and they missed their
chance. The nessiim were left
excluded. They desperately wanted to have a part in the building of the mishkan, so they donated the precious gems for the Eifod and Choshen.
The Torah omits the letter 'yud' to indicate a failure on the part of the nessiim. Although their intentions were honorable, they were wrong to postpone the fulfillment of a mitzvah. The omission or addition of the letter 'yud' to a name is a very significant change.
Remember when Moshe added the letter 'yud' to Yehoshua's name? He did that before he went to scout the land of Eretz Yisrael, so that the other spies wouldn't have a negative influence on him.
So it would be important for us to understand the sin that mandated such a punishment.
Rashi,
in his commentary, offers an answer. "Since they were lazy, a letter
was omitted from
their name". Although they thought their intentions were noble, in
reality it was indolence that was the motivating factor for not
contributing to the mishkan.
Maybe,
just maybe, sometimes it's our subconscious that regulates our reasoning?
The subconscious is a strange creature. It doesn't know what day
it is, and can't add two and two. But it seems to know what may be
causing my pain.
The subconscious has no ability to reason inductively, meaning that it can't use reason to take specific observations (for example, "two plus two") and arrive at general conclusions about them (for example, "equals four").
Instead it often uses blind association to arrive at general conclusions, sometimes linking things that make no logical sense. For example, if as a child you burned your hand on the exhaust pipe of a car when a tall man walked by, your subconscious may believe that tall people make exhaust pipes hot.
Yet despite these and other limitations the subconscious maintains subtle mastery over brain chemistry, regulates hundreds of life-giving processes, stores every word you ever heard or read, and orchestrates massive defenses when alien organisms invade your body.
The power of the subconscious is frightening.
When I was 20 years old, I organized a seminar consisting of 1,000 young women, for Bnos Agudath Yisrael of America. As part of the program, I had wanted to reserve a certain well known speaker to address the crowd. He was a young, enthusiastic Rabbi who lived in Boro Park. I found his number, called his home, and his wife picked up.
He wasn´t home, so I left a detailed message and then left my name and number. I was about to hang up, when I hear on the other end, ¨No Way! Are you the Yaffa Berger who went to _________ school for preschool¨?
Shocked, I answered in the affirmative. She continued telling me how she was my teacher in Pre-1-A.
Suddenly I heard myself shouting. MORAH YOCHEVED??
She laughed and told me that she was, indeed, morah Yocheved.
All of a sudden there were tears in my eyes. I related to her how once, in class, when I was 5 years old, I mispronounced a certain word while reading it out loud, and a moment later I corrected myself, but that she had refused to give me a sticker for it. I was devastated because I really, truly, knew the correct way to read it, but yet she didn´t give me that pink, shiny sticker.
To make a long story short, she asked me for my address and mailed me the sticker.
But to make long stories longer, just delve into the subconscious and see what´s inside. Every little incident can last a lifetime in there, and we often cannot access them until something triggers them to come to life.
15 years later, the memory of that incident jumped out in front of me, causing me to feel that pain, pain that I had filed away, all over again.
The subconscious houses the emotions, imagination, memory, habits and intuition.
Although our conscious mind has the ability to reason and to decide upon the most advantageous course of action, it cannot implement its decision unless the subconscious agrees and directs its energy toward that end. Our source of energy is the subconscious mind. No amount of willpower exerted by the conscious mind can override it.
Willpower can only dent the surface.
It is an enormous power that we store in our subconscious mind and it is we that have to take control and direct it toward where we want it to go – not the other way around.
Sometimes life can be painful. Physically, emotionally, or both.
The subconscious is so powerful that it may be able to turn episodes of uncontrolled pain into events over which we have a degree of control. It can teach the conscious to create survival techniques that make us feel like winners, but we are, in essence ignoring the deep seated issues that the subconscious covered up to protect us from feeling its pain.
The subconscious has no ability to reason inductively, meaning that it can't use reason to take specific observations (for example, "two plus two") and arrive at general conclusions about them (for example, "equals four").
Instead it often uses blind association to arrive at general conclusions, sometimes linking things that make no logical sense. For example, if as a child you burned your hand on the exhaust pipe of a car when a tall man walked by, your subconscious may believe that tall people make exhaust pipes hot.
Yet despite these and other limitations the subconscious maintains subtle mastery over brain chemistry, regulates hundreds of life-giving processes, stores every word you ever heard or read, and orchestrates massive defenses when alien organisms invade your body.
The power of the subconscious is frightening.
When I was 20 years old, I organized a seminar consisting of 1,000 young women, for Bnos Agudath Yisrael of America. As part of the program, I had wanted to reserve a certain well known speaker to address the crowd. He was a young, enthusiastic Rabbi who lived in Boro Park. I found his number, called his home, and his wife picked up.
He wasn´t home, so I left a detailed message and then left my name and number. I was about to hang up, when I hear on the other end, ¨No Way! Are you the Yaffa Berger who went to _________ school for preschool¨?
Shocked, I answered in the affirmative. She continued telling me how she was my teacher in Pre-1-A.
Suddenly I heard myself shouting. MORAH YOCHEVED??
She laughed and told me that she was, indeed, morah Yocheved.
All of a sudden there were tears in my eyes. I related to her how once, in class, when I was 5 years old, I mispronounced a certain word while reading it out loud, and a moment later I corrected myself, but that she had refused to give me a sticker for it. I was devastated because I really, truly, knew the correct way to read it, but yet she didn´t give me that pink, shiny sticker.
To make a long story short, she asked me for my address and mailed me the sticker.
But to make long stories longer, just delve into the subconscious and see what´s inside. Every little incident can last a lifetime in there, and we often cannot access them until something triggers them to come to life.
15 years later, the memory of that incident jumped out in front of me, causing me to feel that pain, pain that I had filed away, all over again.
The subconscious houses the emotions, imagination, memory, habits and intuition.
Although our conscious mind has the ability to reason and to decide upon the most advantageous course of action, it cannot implement its decision unless the subconscious agrees and directs its energy toward that end. Our source of energy is the subconscious mind. No amount of willpower exerted by the conscious mind can override it.
Willpower can only dent the surface.
It is an enormous power that we store in our subconscious mind and it is we that have to take control and direct it toward where we want it to go – not the other way around.
Sometimes life can be painful. Physically, emotionally, or both.
The subconscious is so powerful that it may be able to turn episodes of uncontrolled pain into events over which we have a degree of control. It can teach the conscious to create survival techniques that make us feel like winners, but we are, in essence ignoring the deep seated issues that the subconscious covered up to protect us from feeling its pain.
The best biblical example to illustrate how we can so easily trick ourselves is when the 11 brothers, the shevatim, decided that the 12th brother, Yosef, was a threat to their spiritual future.They convinced themselves of that by comparing him to their uncle Esav, and great uncle, Yishmael, and decided they need to sell him and get rid of him for good.
But you and I know the truth. It´s written straight out in the Torah. They were downright jealous of him and wanted him out of their lives.
In order to thrive in life, it
is of vital importance for us to be totally in touch with, and aware of
our feelings and emotions in order to take control over the subconscious and recognize the true motivation for our actions.
If the intention is wrong, or if we are dishonest with ourselves, we will ultimately come out looking wrong, missing out, or making bad decisions. Or all of the above.
"The teeth are smiling, but is the heart?" (Congolese proverb)
Have a beautiful shabbos.
No comments:
Post a Comment