A story about the Baal Shem Tov.
As Yom Kippur drew to a close,
The time came to say the blessing over the new moon.
To say this prayer it is necessary to actually see the moon in the sky,
But on this particular evening the sky was overcast and the moon was not to be seen.
The Baal Shem Tov had the sense that a great calamity was coming to the Jewish people,
But that he could avert the calamity if only he could say the blessing on the new moon.
He concentrated all his powers on parting the clouds so that the moon would shine through,
But to no avail.
Eventually he lost hope and went into his room grief-stricken about the evils that were to come.
Meanwhile the other chassidim who knew nothing of what the Baal Shem was going through began to sing and dance in ecstasy,
So happy they were that their master had successfully led them through the Day of Atonement.
As their ecstasy grew,
The throng made their way into the Baal Shem's room and they drew him into the dance.
His spirits were lifted as he began to move and sing with his chassidim.
Just at that moment a chassid ran excitedly into the house to report that the new lunar crescent had just appeared in the sky and that the blessing could now be intoned.
One of the great chassidic insights is that joy is not merely a symptom of the path,
It is the very foundation of it.
Without joy all of our other potentials will be fleeting or even remain unactualized altogether.
This is why the ninth sphera of Yesod on the Tree of Life,
Which means foundation and represents joy,
Is the point of connection between the upper spherotes,
The upper spiritual potentials,
And Malchut,
That is,
The world of time in which our lives unfold.
Yivdo'et Hashem b'simcha,
Ba'u lef'anav bir'nanah,
Serve the divine with joy,
Come before the presence with joyous song.
This is a line from Psalm 100.
But,
And this is crucial to understand,
This foundational joy is not a negation of grief or sorrow,
It is a way of relating with grief and sorrow.
In this sense,
Joy in the spiritual sense is not an ordinary emotion.
It is a quality of consciousness that becomes aware of ordinary emotions.
It is within our power to access this quality at any moment,
Even and especially in dark moments,
And this is the deeper meaning of the story.
It is not merely that the disciples of the Baal Shem Tov cheered him up,
It is that they brought him into an acceptance of the bitter and the sweet.
This is the transformation from an attitude of grasping and resistance to life into the dance of life.
And,
Only when the Baal Shem Tov accepted things as they are,
Did things change for the better,
And the moon revealed itself.
Re'eh Anochi Noten Lifneichem Hayom Bracha Uklala.
See,
I set before you today,
Blessing and curse.
Blessing and curse are ever the potentials before us.
They are set before us Hayom,
Today,
Meaning right now.
They are not merely consequences that we'll have to deal with later,
They are inherent within this moment.
But,
How do we choose blessing?
Et Ha'Bracha Asher Tishma'u El Mitzvot Adonai Elohechem Asher Nochi Mitzavet Chem Hayom.
Blessing,
If you listen to the commandments,
The mitzvot of Hashem,
Your divinity,
That I command you today.
So,
The ordinary understanding here is that the mitzvot are the various religious rules to follow.
But,
On a deeper level,
Listen means to be aware of Hayom,
Today,
Right?
If you listen to that which is commanded to you today.
In other words,
To listen to the today is the commandment.
Being present with this moment as it appears,
That is the mitzvah,
That is the commandment.
In this deep listening,
In this being present with the reality of the moment,
There can be the realization of blessing.
That is,
The joy inherent within the awareness that accepts both the bracha u'chlala,
The blessing and curse,
The sweet and bitter,
Meaning the things we want and the things we don't want.
And,
Through the window of this fundamental blessing of being present,
Other spiritual qualities can manifest as well,
Represented by the five sfirot above Yesod.
Chesed,
Loving kindness,
Generosity,
Open-heartedness,
Givura,
Strength,
Commitment,
Decisiveness,
Self-discipline,
Willingness to not take so much,
Teferet,
Beauty,
Harmony,
Peace,
Or,
We might say,
The wisdom to make peace,
Knowing what action to take that is skillful to bring about harmonization with whatever's going on.
Netzach,
Commitment,
Persistence,
Not giving up.
Netzach is kind of the outward expression of givura.
Givura is decisiveness,
Not being wishy-washy,
And Netzach is following through with that,
Even over long periods of time,
Like Moses,
Who never got to enter the Promised Land.
Our visions for the future can be much higher than anything we'll ever be able to see in our lifetime.
And chod,
Humility and gratitude.
Chod is the humility to accept that we may not see it in our lifetime,
And gratitude just to be part of it.
Gratitude to be here in this moment,
To be in this life.
All of these qualities are dependent on the foundation,
The Yesod,
Of joy.
And this is another verse that comes a little later in the Parsha,
When it's talking about the rewards that you get,
The blessings that you get for listening hayom.
U'smachtem lifnei Adonai Elohechem,
And you shall rejoice before Hashem,
Your divinity,
Atem uvneichem uvnotechem,
With your sons and your daughters.
This is the power of meditation,
To help us awaken the joy of spacious inner freedom inherent within our deepest being,
Not just for ourselves,
But so that we may lift up one another and draw one another into the dance of life.
