JACOB JR, MY JEWISH WORLD. WHAT IS A JEW?

Wednesday, Av 13, 5776. August 17, 2016.

Shalom! World.

The chosen aspect of being Jewish is not really a decription of the Jew. A Jew is a created condition. G'd created grass, trees, stones, water, animals, humans, and Jews. A Jew is a unique creation, so the soul of a Jew is inherently and basically different than the soul of a non-Jew (goyn). The Kabbalah says that all things were created by what the Torah refers to as G'ds speech. G'd said, "Let there be light," and there was light, etc. All creation came about through G'ds speech, except the Jew. 

The Zohar says tha tthe soul of the Jew was created by G'ds thought - thought rather than speech. Speech is something you can do or not do. "There is a time to speak, and a time to refrain from speaking." Thought, on the other hand, is not something one can discontinue, thought goes on constantly.

That which is created by speech is finite because there was a time when G'd had not yet said "Let there be light," so before He said it light did not exist and after He said it did. So the world once was not, and now it is, and therefore it's finite and limited. But the statement that the soul of a Jew comes from G'ds "thought" means that the soul of a Jew is not something that comes from an external expression such as speech, but rather from an internal, personal, intimate place similar to thought. Therefore the soul of a Jew is "a part of G'd" (as the Tanya puts it) and not a "creation" at all.

The essence of a Jew, that which makes him Jewish, is his soul, and his soul is not a creation. The soul of the Jew is an eternal, infinite part of the eternal, infinite G'd; the Jew is a piece of G'd. Whoever has this is Jewish. Whoever doesn't have this soul is not Jewish, but rather is a human being created by G'd, created in the six days of creation through G'ds speech.

A non-Jew can not become a Jew, and a Jew can't become a non-Jew.

We find throughout the Torah statements that have parallels. For example, we are told to love G'd our G'd with all our hearts, all our souls and all our might; and we are told to love our fellow Jews as ourselves. Another example is that we are told that just as we must fear G'd, we must fear the tzaddik (righteous person). In other words, anything we're are going  to do for G'd, we must do for our fellow Jews, and anything we must do for our fellow Jews, we must do for G'd. We are to treat other Jews as Divine beings, because that's what they are, and that's why to love G'd is to follow commandments but also to love each other. Our feelings for G'd carry over to the parts of G'd that exist in this physical world (our fellow Jews), and our feelings about these parts of G'd eventually carry over to G'd Himself.

What we're talking about is the soul of a person, and the soul is G'd. When we refer to the Shechinah, the feminine part of G'd, the part of G'd that dwells on earth, the part of G'd that is within us, it means the collective Jewish soul. That's the part of G'd that dwells on earth, and that's why it has been said by non-Jewish theologians that Jews are the presence of G'd on earth.  That's why those individuals in history who have excelled in a hatred of G'd were determined to wipe out the Jews, because the Jews are G'ds presence on earth. There are two different and distinct entities: the human being, and the Jew who is part that of G'd which He invests into creation. There's really no choice.

Knowing what a Jew is, a part of G'd, the disturbing question is: Why would G'd send a part of Himself into a finite, limited, and sometimes even gross physical condition? It doesn't seem right and it doesn't seem appropriate for a Divine Being to be present in such un-G'dly conditions. So comes from the recognition that the soul from the highest hights down to the lowest depths? The question comes from the recognition that the soul of a Jew is not part of creation, and we therefore wonder what the soul is doing here in the created world.

Shalom! Aleichem.

Suporte cultural:  Jacob Jr. B.A.C.E., avec L'Integration d'Association avec Israel et dans le Monde/Cz.