Wednesday, February 8, 2023

The Significance of Turkey's Deadliest Earthquake

 

Rabbi Mendel Kessin


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can someone summarise what the rav says in this recording?

Devorah said...

If I get a chance to listen today i will, otherwise someone else may or we'll have to wait until it's transcribed at TorahThinking.org

Devorah said...

Starting to transcribe it: here is the first 20 minutes. Any mistakes are mine, not his.

Tu b'shvat is a Rosh Hashanah [of trees] as it says in the Mishna and the Talmud says there are four Rosh Hashanahs, one of which is Tu b"shvat,where the world is judged.  Therefore Tu b"Shvat is a Yom Ha Din so its incredible that this devastation happened on such a day.

We can see from the extent of the destruction and the amount of deaths that it is a major judgment.

The first thing Turkey is famous for is the tremendous genocide they performed in WW1 the Turks threw out the Armenians and forced them to go over the Syrian desert, some people say its millions of people. A tremendous genocide where over one million Armenians died. The Turks have always tried to deny this.Hashem seems to be paying back many nations who He has scores to settle with.We can see this with the Ukraine as  well.Before Moshiach comes there is always some kind of retribution, with scores being settled.We can also see this all over the world with the weather extremes, such as in the United States.

Rabbi Kessin believes it is a "pay back" time.These things are not accidents.

Tu b'Shvat is tied in to the Redemption process.

When you look at hashgacha you see there are certain patterns that keep repeating themselves.

What is the pattern of the tikkun process?

There are two major patterns, one is called hishtalkus [removal] and the second is hishpashtus [to expand].The restriction and the expansion of the world.There is always a time when God is removed from the world and there is a time when God is present. So when He's removed it's called hishtalkus, and when He's revealed it's called Hishpashtus.

These things go back and forth depending on the acts of the Jews.
There are six realities that God created to provide a certain climate where man can exist and be tested etc.

The first reality is that of God and that is unknowable.

Secondly, God creates a representation of Himself,some type of Divine force that represents him. Those are the 10 sefirot. They have a nature which is incredibly powerful. He uses them as tools to create other realities.
The third is the reality of the Neshama, where God created an other to exist besides Himself. 

The fourth is where God creates a spiritual reality such as angels who are in the spiritual realm.[there are 10 classes of angels who inhabit the spiritual realm, but their reality is inferior to the Neshama]
The fifth is Geshem: the physical reality, which we know and live in - the universe. 

Then God combines the Neshama with the Geshem and inserts the Neshama into a physical body., even though the neshama is of a completely different nature to the physical world. So now the physical world will serve as a blockage to the Neshama to see that there IS a spiritual world. That is the test of the neshama, to recognise, or not, that there is a spiritual world.

Devorah said...

continuing:

That is the supreme test.

This world is the Low World. We see that this is called the Descent where man has been removed from God in order to allow the situation where he can be tested.

There is one more reality which is even lower than the physical and that is the Satanic Reality.

It is a reality that is inhabited by the Satan and whatever his minions are that assist him. 

The Satan basically has 3 jobs.

The first is to tempt man and in that role he is called the Yetzer Hara [evil inclination] to tempt man into thinking that he is God and is the only reality that exists, and not God at all.

The second concept of the Satan is that he is also a prosecuting attorney, an angel whose job it is to prosecute in the Heavenly Tribunal if that person sins. In that role he is called The Satan.

And the third role is called the Malach HaMaveis - the Angel of Death. That doesn't mean he necessarily kills, but he does that as well, but his job is to execute the Judgment that is decided by the Heavenly Tribunal.

3 jobs for the Satan: Tempter, Prosecutor and Executioner.

In other words, what he is really in charge of is the concept of Din, Judgment.The amount of justice that a man has will determine his future world [Olam HaBo]

The Satanic World, the lowest world, is also called the Sitra Achra, the Other Side.  He is the Other Side of the Sitra Kedusha: The Side of Holiness.

The side of the Sitra Kedusha is connected to God and the side of the Sitra Achra is connected to the netherworlds.

The Zohamo is like a projection from the Satan which connects on to certain beings, and one of the things that the Satan is connected to is the physical world through the Zohamo.  Zohamo means "pollution" or contaminant. He is able to pollute or contaminate you through his projection called the Zohamo. It's like an octopus with his tentacles.

Man did not have zohamo when he was created.  It was just Adam and he was inserted into a physical body. He was not connected at all to the Satan. He was not connected to the aspect of the physical world that the Satan is connected to so the Satan had to tempt Adam external to his body. 

It wasn't until Adam sinned that the reality of the Satan was able to connect to man.

Because when he sinned, he became very connected to the physical world, he became a true physical being, which was a drastic change.

So we are now connected to the Zohamo because of the sin of Adam HaRishon.

Devorah said...

continuing:


So Adam is now connected to the Satan, and therefore we are now connected to the Zohamo and are subject to its force.The physical universe is subject to two forces: in the world of biological creatures, including man, the Satan's Zohamo will deteriorate or decompose biological living matter. What happens is any creature that will live, will decompose and will die. If you're connected to his world then eventually you will die. He's what's called the Demolition Expert.

The animate world is also connected to the Satan and that what is called The law of Entropy - all energy forces dissipate. For example, if you walk into a hot room, eventually it will cool off unless you pump into it new energy, new heat.  That's also Satanic in nature.

God never intended for us to be connected to the Satan directly. He wanted the Satan to influence us, to tempt us... which he did..... because the manifestation of the Satan is the Nachash, the Snake.  But the snake was external to the human body. Once Adam ate from the tree, he became truly physical and because of this he would be subject to death.




That is up to around the 30 minute mark.

If I have time I will continue tomorrow, but in any case I think this is such an amazing shiur that everyone should listen to it.

Anonymous said...

Thanks

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for the above, Devorah!

Anonymous said...

Thank You so much , Devorah!