In Search Of The Temple Within

(Excerpt from The Trees In The Forest: Jewish Living In The Context Of Kabbalah) 

 RABBI ELIYAHU YAAKOV

 

Inspirational experiences are called inspirational because they put ‘in spirit’ – they infuse a spirit of passion that leads the individual to an elevated awareness or motivates him to action.  Interestingly, the inspirational experience does not create a new ability in the inspired, rather it awakens a pre-existing inner resource that was within all along.

 

When acting on inspiration, one experiences a higher side of one’s self.  The inspirational experience connects who you are to who you could be.  It brings down the theoretical potential hidden within to the practical actual that is being brought out.  An inspirational experience results in the merging of the ‘Potential You’ with the ‘Actual You’.

 

Just as we experience this as individuals, so does the world experience this as a whole.  Whenever the Torah describes the Messianic Era, experiencing God is the end-goal.  For most of us, that sounds like a foreign concept.  Many of us have trouble knowing there is a God, let alone experiencing God.  This is the gap the Messianic Era is coming to fill.  The Messianic Era is that time when God will go from an abstract idea I hear and learn about to an experiential reality I live and breath.

 

This is what all the mourning, yearning, and praying for the Temple has been about all along.  The Temple was and will be the place of the ongoing most intimate inspirational experience the world has ever seen.  In a sense, it’s was the place you meet the real you and are moved to actually become that person.  It’s the place of unification of the ‘Potential You’ and the ‘Actual You’.  And it is the place the world met the real world and is motivated towards elevation and unification with its true self.

 

The God Spot

In a sense, the Temple is comparable to a spiritual Hot Spot.  That is to say, just as there are hot spots that receive satellite beams and activate your laptop’s internet, so too, there are God Spots – spots that access God-perception and activate your soul. 

 

Imagine we had an advanced satellite – its beams exist equally in all places.  Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean I have access to the beams.  To access the ever-present beams I need a receiving device.  Similarly, God is equally “present” in all places.  The difference between a regular spot and a God Spot is in our ability to dial in to God’s presence.  What makes a spot a God Spot is not a change in the God aspect of the spot, but a change in the spot aspect of the spot.  This is what we mean by a holy place – it’s not that God is more in that place than any other place – that would imply physical limits to God.  Rather, the holy place is a location more susceptible to God-consciousness and matters of the soul.

 

The Hebrew name for the Temple is the Beit HaMikdash – translated literally as The Holy House – it is the God Spot.  But just as the Temple is holy, i.e. a place of God-perception and experience, Kabbalah teaches that each of us can make ourselves into a mini-Temple – a mini God Spot – by being templesque.  At that point, God “dwells” (i.e. is perceived and experienced) within each one of us just as God “dwells” within the Temple.  And just as people would go to the Temple in Jerusalem for a God experience, they can get a piece of that just by meeting up with you for a cup of coffee.[1]

 

Becoming Templeque

For many of us, this idea sounds distant.  How can I be a mini-temple?  Do you have any idea what I have been?  Do you have any idea what I have done?

 

This whole initiative seems totally out of touch.

 

However, if we take into account the fact that our true essence and what we are made of is a Godly soul, turning into a God Spot may not be that far off after all.

 

For example, can you think of anything you do that is goodly or Godly – even the smallest thing?  Of course the answer is yes.  If your essence is a soul – a “spark” of the Infinite, it is impossible that this not be reflected somewhere in your life.  If you’ve answered “No” to the question of whether you are at all involved in something goodly or Godly, it just means you have to keep searching.  It is impossible that a soul not show its true self whatsoever.

 

In matter of fact, the Oral Torah relates the story that took place during the destruction of the Temple itself.  To add insult to injury, those perpetrating the destruction wanted the first person to plunder the Temple to be a Jew.  A Jew named Yosef Meshiska took the task upon himself, entered the Temple, and brought out the Menorah, the Candelabra.  Upon his exiting the Temple with the Menorah, they asked him to re-enter and bring out another item in an attempt to further disgrace the Jewish people and their God.  However, this time Yosef Meshiska refused.  They tried to convince him to do it, offering him wealth and prestige, but he would not budge, so they turned to threatening him with death and torture.  Still Yosef Meshiska refused.  In the end, Yosef Meshiska was tortured and killed by use of an axe.  While he was experiencing this, he cried out – but not because of the immense physical pain he was undergoing – because of the immense regret he felt for plundering the Temple at the time of the Jewish people’s demise.

 

In one moment, this individual changed himself from the ultimate villain to the ultimate hero.  Even when he was acting as the villain, there was an inner spark of who he really is that was waiting to be brought forth.  Certainly this is the story for each of us.  Perhaps we have done things we are not all that proud of, but if we look inside we discover that this is not really who we are at our core.  If Yosef Mashiska can access this point within himself even after acting as a grand Jewish trader, certainly we each have hope to turn things around.

 

Once you have found one Godly aspect within yourself, note that this is the real you.  Even if the majority of your actions seem to say otherwise, they are of no consequence since the only real reflection of you was in the point of goodness – only that point of goodliness reflects the Godliness that you really are.  Once you realize that it is only the good that is you, all rest comes to be seen in its true light – as a distraction and deviation from your true self; as a put-up job masking who you really are.

 

When you come to terms with this, you judge yourself differently – favourably – and you let go.  You start to notice more good points about yourself.   And gradually you align your consciousness with the perspective that the mistakes and mismoves you make are not the real you.  Eventually your actions begin to change in accord with your identity and outlook.  And the more spots of God you find within yourself, the more you become a God Spot. 

 

Make Me, Don’t Break Me

However, there are times when a strong revelation of the ‘Potential You’ is so beyond where you are at presently that there is no way the ‘Actual You’ can handle such an inspirational experience.  For example, if you were a weightlifter capable of lifting fifty  pounds and you were shown a version of yourself that can lift100 pounds (i.e. your higher potential), that could serve as an inspiration, but were you to see a version of your self as capable of even higher potential – such as 450 pounds – that would just be too much.  That would break you, since it is so distant from where you are now.

 

Similarly, when the Jewish People received the Torah, their souls left their bodies – the experience was too much for them to handle.  Moshe, however, was the epitome of the inspirational experience.  He succeeded in opening his Actual Self to experiencing the ultimate in Potential Self.  He was able to include the maximum in beyond experiences within his limited self. 

 

Just as the Jewish People hadn’t reached the headspace within their Actual Selves to include their Potential Selves, resulting in their souls leaving their bodies, so too the world’s Actual Self lost the headspace to include its Potential Self, resulting in the Temple leaving the world.

 

Searching for Myself

Ultimately, with the loss of the Temple, the place of clarity within a world of non-clarity has faded.  The source of light in a world of darkness has been dimmed.  The world’s source of inspiration and ongoing mini-Sinai experience of self-awareness has become a memory, but there is still the spark of hope.

 

With the loss of the Temple, we lost our access to our true sense of self and sense of soul.  Without the light at the end of the tunnel provided by the Temple experience, we find ourselves in greater darkness and confusion than ever before.  Instead of moving in a direction, we are searching for a direction.  Instead of moving ahead, we are trying to figure out which way that is.  In short, it would seem that we are in a personal state of pitch black; a personal midnight.

 

Jewish Midnight

Judaism’s use of the term “midnight” is a bit different than our surrounding culture use of the term.  In the culture around us, “midnight” implies 12:00am – it occurs at the same time on the clock everyday irrespective of what time it got dark and what time it will get light.  In Judaism, however, the term “midnight” means the midpoint of the night – the midpoint of darkness.  That is to say, Jewish midnight is the darkest point of the night.  It is the point of night that is most separated from the light of day.  Therefore, looking into one’s darkness in order to find one’s points of light thereby bringing out and building the Temple within, is of particular focus in Judaism at midnight.  Our objective in searching for one’s good points at midnight is to find a point of light specifically at that darkest of times.  Because, if someone can find a point of light, clarity, and Godliness within himself at the darkest of times, then certainly he will come to reveal and bring forth the light within and come to build himself into the mini-Temple that he is.

 

True Enlightenment

In Judaism, the concepts of darkness and light parallel their appearance to us:  Light is a state in which we see what is truly there.  It is the concept of clarity and understanding.  Darkness is a state in which we can’t see what is truly there.  It is the concept of lack of clarity and confusion.

 

This means that when we talk about the Jewish People being a “Light Unto the Nations”, we are saying that the Jewish mission statement is to bring clarity and understanding – about life, meaning, and God – to the world. 

 

This is what the Temple was all about – it was the meeting point of the spiritual and the physical.  It was the focal point of clarity in a usually unclear world.  It was the point of light within a world of darkness. 

 

It was from this place of light that clarity shined out to the world.  So much so, that the structure of the Temple itself was built reflecting this.  Instead of building the Temple with windows angled inward thereby allowing light from outside to expand inward as was the common practice, the Temple’s windows were angled outward, as if to say that the source of the light is within the Temple and it is expanding outward to light up the world.

 

Home Sweet Home

Despite all this, to our sorrow, the Jews didn’t fulfill their role of enlightening the without from within, and the Temple was destroyed and exile ensued.

 

We know physical exile to mean a state of being displaced from one’s home.  Similarly, Judaism puts forth that there is a concept of an exile of consciousness as well.

 

Physically, a home is where you are based and where you come back to.   If you go away on a business trip, it is only a “business trip”, and not a “buisness life” or “business relocation”, because you have a home base you plan on returning to – the entire context within which you view and psychologically place your trip is based on your mindset of the Homebase.  That is to say, when on this trip you understand where your Homebase is and that you are in a temporary exile for the purpose of fulfilling a particular task and eventually returning home.  Hence, the term “business trip” – a temporary exile (“trip”) for the purpose of fulfilling a particular task (“business”).  This is Exile of Body.

 

However, there is another level of exile.  After all, what if one were to forget his Homebase?  What if one were to forget the entire context in which his trip was occurring in the first place – forget his home, his office building, his family?  This is Exile of Mind.  Exile of Mind means to lose sense of context; to lose the bigger picture within which all is happening. 

 

The difference between Exile of Body and Exile of Mind can be seen in the notion of the Wandering Jew.  The picture of the Wandering Jew we have is the Jew who is kicked from place to place and with each kick in the rear wails out an “Oy!”  But take a closer look at the Wandering Jew – what is he wearing?  What does he care about?  What are his aspirations? 

 

The truth is our Wandering Jew got a bad rap.  Wandering implies aimlessness.  But our Wandering Jew does have an aim.  And if he has an aim he is being kept from – that is not wandering, that’s exile.  You see, our Wandering Jew’s Homebase is his Jewish identity.  It is from this context; from this clarity of consciousness that his Exile of Body arises.  Were it not for this Jew’s identifying himself as a Jew, he would not be experiencing physical Exile of Body.  He’d be in a much deeper exile – an Exile of Mind – an exile in which he has lost his identity altogether.  That is to say, more intense than the physical state of exile the Jews have experienced for centuries is the loss of consciousness experienced by the Jew that has been wandering for so long that he forgets he is wandering in the first place.

 

Similarly, what makes our present situation an exile and not simply population relocation is in the fact that we don’t lose sight of our Jewish identity and as Israel as our true home.  After all, if we conclude that Israel is no longer our home and the lands of the Diaspora are our home, can we really claim that we are in (physical) exile?  Exile implies we have a Homebase which we are yearning to return to.

 

Light Unto The Nations

While there is a necessity for the Jewish People to bring itself out of exile, the Jewish mission is to bring the entire world out of exile.

 

To understand exile in the spiritual sense, we must clarify Homebase in the spiritual sense.  Spiritual Homebase is the premise that all physical actions take place is rooted in the spiritual.  That is to say, if you were to see a physical action occur in the world and understand that it is rooted in the spiritual (and not a random occurance) – this is Spiritual Homebase.  Within this context, were one to witness an event and know that God runs the show but not be clear on why that event took place – i.e. what is the message, why did this happen, etc. – that is physical Exile of Body.  I understand God is the Homebase-context, but, in my perspective, the physical occurrence seems to sit outside of the God Homebase-context.  However, I were to witness something take place in the physical and view it as a random disconnected occurrence, then I’ve moved beyond the physical state of exile and I’ve lost Homebase.  I’ve lost the entire context within which all is occurring. 

 

It is in this Exile of Mind and of God being forgotten, that darkness – lack of clarity and confusion – ensues.  We experience a loss of context altogether and now nothing can be seen in its proper light.[2] [3]

 

It is specifically from this deepest of darknesses – this spiritual midnight – that we search out a point of light in ourselves from which to build and a glimmer of God in which to take refuge.  And it is at midnight particularly – that time of the deepest darkness – that we come to mourn the loss of the Temple and the ongoing exile, because if we are mourning the Temple and the exile in the first place, in a sense that in itself is the light that will ultimately lead to its rebuilding.  If I can cling on to Homebase and say with certainty that I am in fact an exiled Jew and not a Jew simply wandering, that in itself is a light at the beginning of the tunnel.  And, just as even the smallest light lights up an entire room of darkness, so too, finding a point of light in the midnight darkness of my self and my exile is the first step in my building of self and building of the Temple, and ultimately lighting up the entire world. 

 

The Community’s Messenger

In particular, the searching out of people’s good points should be a primary function of the leader of the prayer service.  Each of us should be involved in it constantly, but the Prayer Leader should be, in a sense, a professional.

 

The success of the Prayer Leader is dependant on his capability to fulfill exactly what his title, Shaliach Tzibur, meaning the community’s messenger, implies.  The job of a messenger is to portray the one that sends him.  If you are sending a messenger to carry out an important task for you, you will look for a responsible individual that you feel best understands and identifies with you and your purpose.  The one who captures who you are and what you are about will be best fit for that job.  Similarly, to the extent the Prayer Leader makes himself into one who can see the true essence, goodness, and point of Godliness within each member of the community that sends him, the greater a messenger he will be for that community and the better candidate he is to lead their prayer services. 

 

For this reason, the Prayer Leader is also called a Chazan, from the Hebrew word chozeh, vision.  The Prayer Leader should be the one who is capable of seeing the good nekudah, meaning point or note, in each member of the community and uniting these good points into a melody to God. 

 

According to this, it seems that one of the most important preparations a Prayer Leader should be involved with is to work on himself to be one who judges favorably – meaning, to evaluate others exclusively in accordance with their favorable actions; to realize that their points of goodness are really who they are.  That is to say, the successful Prayer Leader assess each of the members of his community solely by the good they each do while the bad is ignored and assumed to be something other than what that person truly is.