Havdala-Purim Teaching: Four Signs of Release from Hardship

Four Signs of Release from Hardship rutfier 8:16,Afso, tfu:J{avaalaftseroiet La'y'hudim ha-y'ta orah v'simkha v'sason v'y'kor For the Jews there was light and gladness, joy and honor. 'Iraaitiona£transCation Those who don't deny the truth experience light and gladness, joy and the dignity of life . .fll.quarian :MmyantransCation ORA E LIGHTE ME T SELECTIVE V'SIMKHA APPRECIATION RENEWED V'SASON VI- OR OCE CE II II II Drashing "Release from Hardship" Stages The four experiences under discussion are found to describe the end of the difficult Purim period, as well as the end of Shabbat. Letting go of Shabbat can be difficult as well. Let's drash (freely flowingly interpret) to see what we can discover from these deceptively simple phrases. ORA ENLIGHTENMENT V'SIMKHA JOY V'SASON V'Y'KOR INNER GLADNESS SELF- INNER VALUE The Four Experiences As P'shat (Simple Interpretation): When coming out of dark and difficult periods in life, the first signs of change are experienced as Ora, light, a glimmer of hope, a light at the far end of a tunnel. Continued movement towards betterment produces Simkha, and Sason, increasing levels of happiness such as a sense of joy, release, gladness, etc., that accompany the anticipated hope of a better future. These feelings accrue within and change one's self-perception, culminating in Y'kor, a transformed sense of the self, with greater self-esteem and increased self-valuation. From being fearful and huddled against the dark storm to openly valuing one's self is a vast change. The Four Experiences As Remez (Hints and Associations): The Talmud (Megillah 16:2) adds the commentary, "ORA refers to the Torah; SIMKHA refers to Yorn Tov (holy days); SASON refers to Milah (circumcision); and Y'KOR refers to Tefillin (phylacteries, whatever they are). The Four Experiences As D'rash (Free Flowing futerpretation) ON THEREMEZ: normative thinking processes without our usual baggage might make us feel a little light-headed. ORA Light brightens our path, but enlightenment lightens our load, shows us light at the end of the tunnel, and brings out the joy which was latent within us during the hardship. Ora describes an experience of enlightenment - a wider perception - emerging from Torah, the mystical key to the universe, Ora suggests to us a positive, gradual enlightened movement of all humanity towards a healed earth. After hardship, a glimpse of the light emerging out of the challenge is enlightening. Light and Torah are synonymous. The word "Torah" in addition to its meaning of "teaching," also suggests "light" (orah) as well as "being pregnant" (harah). In punning language, "light" as the opposite of "heavy" at Havdalah time: being that the gravity of Shabbat has lifted, allows us to feel "lighter." Especially after a successful Shabbat which has burned away the load of the previous week, the residue of ordinary consciousness, to be then thrust back into the realm of ordinary concerns and V' SIMKHA describes an experience paralleling that of Yorn Tov - the holy days (especially the pilgrimage festivals) and suggests the full blown transformational experience which is possible on a spiritual journey. Having been released from our load itself provides joy, and this we first realize at the end of Shabbat. This journey of change from hoping for happiness to happiness emerges from a great deal of Selective Appreciation or Selective Intensity of Focus (which involves focused surrender [see page 108.01]). This cannot co-occur with the common distractions of life. There is just so much attention-time to go around and it is our choice upon what to focus and where to obsess. By selectively allocating our attention to a wider perspective of life's possibilities (throug~ meditating, davvening, taking time out from the ordinary and/ or going on a journey, such as a pilgrimage,) we are able to enter Simkha, a state of release, of breakout [see page 90.2] from ordinary mind. This state of Simkha is naturally found at the end of Shabbat as we realize who we now are and what we may be able to do. V'SASON is a by-product of jettisoning the insignificant which has happened through a conscious Shabbat experience. Renewal of innocence and humility naturally emerge when letting go of the usual filter state of critical mind. Sason, which is future directed [see page 98.11 involves choosing our freedom to look beyond our present identity-filter, the result of our past circumstances, and to become the self that will eventually emerge from our present day choices. Like Milah which uncovers the eighth level of soul, affecting the child's entire future soul-development, Sason is a subtle, mixed experience of taking on a fresh identity based on an incorruptible inner faith in coming expansion. Through letting go of the mundane thought processes during Shabbat, an opening within the self is created, and our mind-heart has become unsheathed, giving us new eyes for the week in which to appreciate things differently. Sason involves the flowering of a second innocence in ourselves, no less powerful than the original innocence of childhood. V' Y' KOR suggests the self-acceptance resulting from being Creatively Alienated (22.3]. To be creatively alienated does not involve dissociation or abandonment of society altogether, but the changing of perspective that celebrating Shabbat causes. There is an expanded sense of the self. This involves valuing our own selves. It means standing in a critique of society (much like that of Feminism) that comes from clarity about we ourselves are. Just carried out of the Bet Medrash at the beginning of every morning's session because, after the Magid would begin with the words, "The Infinite God spoke within Moses," Zusyeh would break out audibly mumbling to himself in excitement. That was all Zusyeh could take, or all he would take, all that he allowed himself to receive, because he valued himself and stubbornly, consciously refused to go further, asking himself, over and over, what it must be like to be spoken within and through by the Infinite One - fully, clearly, dramatically. A lot of stubbornly creative denial is involved here, which leads to sacred detachment from the projections and expectations of others' ideas of who we ought to be. Conscious choosing to honor one's own life is a path of innocence-as-evolution strategically aimed at fulfilling one's earliest oath to life - "T'hay Tzaddik." I will be a Tzaddik. (Tanya beginning Chapter 1) To see the Light SIMKHA To appreciate the Light SASON To feel the youthful excitement of the light Y'KOR To take the value of the light into the week