The Kabbalah Kronicles 9 – Captain Kirk & Spock were Kabbalists
By
Uncle Zally, Zalman Velvel
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It’s Shabbos morning and I arrived late for Kabbalah Klass. Rabbi Itchy was sitting at the head table, all by himself, looking lonely. I pulled up the chair next to him.“I feel like I’m sitting at the right hand of God,” I said playfully. The others chuckled.
Rabbi Itchy shook his head, and then my hand,as he continued past my interruption. Ironically, he was discussing two statements I had been disturbed about during the previous week. The first came from the world famous speaker:
“You know, I can listen to someone else, and know exactly what is wrong with their life, and their thinking. But when it comes to my own life, I rationalize away the truth. That is why I have a prayer partner – to tell me when the answers I receive in my prayers are not from God, and I am deceiving myself.”
The second statement was from the Lubavitcher Rebbe:Much of the unhappiness of the world would be eliminated if people only knew who they really were.
Rabbi Itchy explained that our soul really has two separate parts – an animal soul, and a Godly soul. And each of those souls, Godly and animal, has an intellect. However, all of our emotions are rooted in the animal soul. Our animal soul is the engine of energy that drives us – without it we cannot live.
The goal of the intellect contained in our Godly soul is to discover the truth, and follow the commandments. It is our connection to the Almighty.
Think of it as Spock, from Star-Trek, devoid of emotions, rooted in good. (Leonard Nimoy is doing the hand sign of the Kohanim, the Priestly class, from the great Temple.)Now, the goal of our animal intellect is to satisfy the feelings of our animal soul, the rest of the world be damned. Yet, in order to feel anything, we need to access our animal soul. A life without feeling is truly an empty life.
Herein lies the great dilemma of being a human being. If we succumb to a life of pure feelings, without controlling them with our Godly soul, we become like an animal, concerned only with our own feelings. Both of our souls, Godly and animal,are tossed around like moth in a hurricane.
In a tzadik, or righteous person, the animal soul is under tight control, completely harnessed and turned into an engine for doing good.
So the goal of life, according to Kabbalah, is to become a righteous person, to use our Godly soul to transform our animal soul into an engine for doing good. This is not easy, and requires constant study of the holy books, and constant vigilance. In many ways, it’s like “Fake it until you make it.” You are acting as if you are righteous, though inside, there is a war going on in your two souls.
Think of it as Captain Kirk, constantly being challenged by the forces and emotions of life, while using you Godly soul’s intellect to overcome your battles outside, and inside, yourself. Knowing this, we can understand the first statement from the world famous speaker. When our animal soul wants something, whether it’s good or bad for us, or the people around us, the animal soul’s intellect tries to force our Godly intellect to go along for the ride. That is called rationalizing. Here is how it works:
The animal soul says, “I want this.”
The Godly soul says, “No, let me think about it first.”
The animal soul says, “Hey, get in line here.Give me ten different reasons why it’s right to want this – and I want them NOW.”
The Godly soul in a struggling person says, “Do you want them in alphabetical order, ranked by importance, or just any way they come to mind?”This dialogue explains what happens in addictions, self-destructive behavior, and anti-social behavior – basically any behavior that is bad for us in the long run, but satisfies a deep basic need RIGHT NOW!
You would think the animal soul is more powerful, from the above dialogue. However, Kabbalah teaches the Godly soul is more powerful.
The Godly soul in a righteous person answers the animal soul by saying, “Hey, you get in line. This is wrong, and it will bring only short term good feelings, but long term pain. I will not do it.”
What is the difference between the two different reactions? Simply a matter of belief. A person has to believe in their Godly soul, in the power of God, and allow the Godly soul to kick butt over the animal soul, to harness its energy, but turn a deaf ear to the animal soul’s intellect.So why do people struggle with this?
It has to do with how we are raised. If our parents teach us, when we are children, that we are part of God and basically good, and when we do something wrong, we are not bad, just our actions are bad because we didn't know any better, then we will listen to our Godly soul and let it win out over our animal soul.
But if our parents teach us that when we do something bad, it because we are bad down deep, we come to believe that satisfying our animal soul is the kind of person we really are. It’s no use to listen to our Godly soul – we are not good.
People who are overcoming additions are an example of the animal soul running amuck.The first 3 steps in the 12 step method are (my paraphrasing): 1- My life is unmanageable. I’m out of control
2- There is a higher power who can make me sane
3- I give myself over to the care of this Higher Power
In Kabbalistic terms:
1- My life stinks because my animal soul is in control
2- My Godly soul can kick butt over my animal soul
3- I’m turning over control to my Godly soul
The rest of the steps have to do with rooting out bad character traits inside oneself, and then choosing a life of Godliness.
So this week, I was surprised to discover Star Trek was Kabbalah in action, and the 12 steps of AA was based on Kabbalistic principles.
Next week I will describe another totally surprising experience.
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