Earning a Living — Earning a Life

Earning a Living — Earning a Life
Parshat Ekev 5766 — August 5, 2006
by Chaim Kramer
Breslov Research Institute © 2006

The Shattering of the Vessels

“You might eat and be sated, you might build fine houses and dwell in them…Your flocks will expand, you will amass silver and gold…You will become haughty and forget God Who took you out of Egypt…And should you think in your heart, ‘My strength and the might of my hands has brought me this wealth…’ You should remember that it is God your Lord Who has given you the strength to earn your wealth…” (Deuteronomy 8:12-18).

We have seen in last week’s essay that Adam was banished from the Garden of Eden and forced to toil for his livelihood. The reason? He ate from the forbidden fruit. But how did it happen? He was hand-crafted by God and placed in an area that was beyond utopian description. He had everything. What made him succumb to temptation? And since he and Eve did eat and were cursed for their sin, what purpose was there to curse the land too? What can be gained from all these curses? Is that all there is to God’s wrath? “You better listen or else?” The vast majority of all mankind can never live up to such expectations. So, what is this all about?

God created a world with the full knowledge that there will be an “imperfect man.” Therefore, even prior to Creation He created teshuvah, repentance, indicating that repentance transcends time and place. A sin is committed in a certain place at a certain time. How can that act be rectified since that time and place are now blemished. But since teshuvah was created prior to spatial and temporal concepts, it transcends those concepts and allows for rectification of all sins. Thus, despite flaws in mankind, there is always hope of repenting and repairing the damage one does. This is the idea behind the earliest stages of Creation, the Kabbalistic teaching of the Shattering of the Vessels, which follows with this brief introduction. For a fuller explanation of these concepts, the reader is referred to Chapter 10 of Innerspace, by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan (Moznaim Publishers).

God is a Single Unity. The Creation meant for Him to fashion a world that would seem separate from Him, yet still be totally connected to Him. But were God to be openly manifest, physical mankind would not be able to bear the intensity of His Light. He therefore created several Supernal Universes and Sefirot within them, which act to suffuse that light so that as it descends to the lower realms, its intensity becomes sufficiently filtered for this material world to benefit from it.

Thus, when God created the Four Supernal Worlds, more specifically the (highest) World of Atzilut (“Nearness”) with its ten sefirot, He designed the original sefirot with a built in flaw. A sefirah consists of both light and a vessel (the vessel is a lesser light which acts as a receptacle with regard to the greater light). God designed the original sefirah vessels as separate entities, incapable of giving support to one another. As a result, when the original vessels were then filled with God’s Light and could not bear the intensity of that influx, they shattered. The reason is that the intensity of God’s Light must be diminished in order for man to receive it without being overwhelmed. In the original setting of Creation, the vessels were “overwhelmed” by God’s Light and so shattered; hence the Shattering of the Vessels. (After this shattering, God “redesigned” the sefirot so that the vessels could contain and filter the Light.) When the vessels shattered, shards of the vessels descended to the lower realms, to where other worlds—Beriyah (“Creation”– World of the Throne), Yetzirah (“Formation”– the Angelic World) and Asiyah (“Action”– this world) —were to be created. These shards, known as “sparks of holiness,” were scattered throughout the creation. When Adam was created, his mission was to recognize God and pray to Him, elevating all of Creation back to God, so that His Unity would be apparent to all. Adam’s prayers would have elevated all the shards and sparks of holiness to their original levels.

Instead, Adam ate from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This not only did not rectify the shards, but actually caused a much further blemish to the sparks of holiness. Since then, these sparks of holiness are spread out throughout the entire world, awaiting rectification. Presently, it is our mission to gather those sparks and elevate them to their original level by means of Torah study, prayer and performing good deeds.

The ARI explains that since Adam’s time, many sparks were subsequently rectified and restored to higher levels. However, there remain many sparks which still require rectification and Malkhut (i.e., the Divine Presence, the Shekhinah), works to redeem these sparks (see also Likutey Moharan I, 277:4, n.65; ibid. 59:3, n.53; ibid. 62:4, n.52). Until this rectification is completed, there remains a “lack” in Malkhut. Malkhut, which is the Name of the lowest of the Ten Sefirot, translates as “Kingship” and is representative of God’s Malkhut. When we accept God’s Malkhut, we are energizing God’s Kingship to be revealed over the entire world. An example would be the Shema, our call of faith, which declares our acceptance of God’s Malkhut, the yoke of Heaven. Thus, the more we accept God’s Kingship, the more we rectify the sparks of holiness and reveal Godliness.

There are reams of teachings referring to the Shattering of the Vessels but this is the essence of the idea as applies to our essays. The reason for this is that, as the ARI explains, the shards were spread out throughout the world in all the mineral, vegetable, animal and human realms. Each spark has its own place and thus each spark has its individual and unique rectification. For the most part, it is important to understand that there are Four Worlds and just as all the sparks devolved from the highest World and must be returned to their Source, so too, all the sparks in the lower realms have to be elevated and returned to the highest form of our world, that of the human being.

Thus, all the sparks of holiness are part of God’s Unity and everything in Creation is meant for the benefit of the human being, in order man to do good and elevate them. The Hebrew word for a good deed is miTzVah which shares the same root as the Hebrew word, TzeVet, meaning “group” or “to join.” Therefore, each good deed “joins” the separated sparks and brings them together, for the good deed unites all the levels of creation: the mineral, vegetable, animal and human realms.

When applied to our lives, the sparks our found in every facet of our lives. When we eat, by reciting the proper blessings we are elevating the sparks found in our food regardless of the realm from where it emanates. Using inanimate objects for positive goals elevates the sparks in them. For example: cars for transportation (as opposed to drag racing!), washing machines, computers and anything your imagination can “figment” becomes a means to elevate sparks and reveal God’s Unity.

This is the power behind earning a living. Anything and everything we do has the ability to raise the sparks and bring about a revelation of Godliness. During the manufacturing process, etc., at each level, as the raw materials are progressively transformed into a more perfected unit, the sparks are also elevated, level by level. The same applies to dealing, trading merchandise, bartering and any form of work: each effort made towards completing the “deal,” can, in fact, be seen as an effort towards revealing God.

There is yet another introduction necessary to understanding our role in elevating the sparks and this revolves around our deeds, the good, the bland (mundane), or the otherwise. The explanation for how that works lies in the mystery of reincarnation, which will be discussed in the next essay, God willing. Suffice for now that each person is unique, and thus the sparks which share the same root as the individual are the sparks which that person alone must rectify. They are, after all, sharing the same root and must be joined together at their individual root before they can be elevated back to the comprehensive Source. This explains why some gravitate to certain objects to purchase or why some seek a certain livelihood and why others have other choices.

For the moment, let us remember this week’s Torah reading which contains a strong message about where wealth comes from and how we tend to forget the Source. There are a few people who are wealthy from the old-fashioned way — they inherit it. But the vast majority of us aren’t born with the silver spoon. Our origins are middle class or even from more humble beginnings. We struggle. We think we can work hard and rise above our poverty. And, many do. But the harder they work, the more they are focused upon themselves and their work. The workaholic has many reasons to think that his efforts gained him his wealth. But this is at the expense of recognizing God as the Source of our wealth (our rectified sparks). And this also applies to those who already have that wealth through inheritance, as will be explained in future essays. Our mission, if we wish to accept it, is to bring God into our lives. As we do, we make awesome rectifications. It’s not as impossible as you might think.

Have a good week

Chaim