More from Rabbi Kessin

Recently, I shared some insights that I heard in a lecture by Rabbi Mendel Kessin. I wanted to write up the notes I took into a coherent whole, but it is beyond me. So, for what it's worth, here are the notes as I wrote them down. The ideas should be clear enough, but you can send questions via the comments and I'll try to clarify the points as needed.

From the pre-Tisha b'Av 2010 lecture:
History is about the balance of kedusha in the world---who controls it.

The ten sefirot are the forces that create reality. We, along with everything else in creation, are connected to it, so-to-speak, via a cable, and receive kedusha from its flow.

In the beginning, the Satan came to incite man to rebellion against G-d.

Adam's only task was to ignore him, but by listening to him, Adam, so-to-speak, gave him existence. Now the task is changed. Mida k'neged mida, Adam must destroy the Satan.

So what did he do? Adam cut the Satan's cable, so-to-speak, cutting him off from the flow of kedusha. But the Satan was smart, he quickly spliced his cut cable into Adam's (the yetzer hara was formerly outside of man, but now it resides within us). So now, the kedusha that we receive from the sefirot can be siphoned off by the Satan.

Adam's task was passed on to us. Our relationship to the Satan is one of combat. We have to grab all the kedusha and keep him from getting it. Hashem however, put conditions on it. If a Jew does a mitzvah, the kedusha goes to him, but if a Jew does an aveirah (a sin), it goes to the other side, to the Satan. And he turns around and gives it to the goyim so that they can destroy us with it.

Hashem gave the Jews gifts and we, through the loss of the kedusha to the other side, gave it away to the goyim, deepening the exile.

Gifts---

1. Tiferet: access to wisdom/truth at a profound level. Greece got it.
2. Oz (might): went to Rome.

3. Prophecy: The East.
4. Torah: The West.

Not only do we give it away, but they use it to destroy us.

Example: Chr*stianity---"This guy and his mom and the twelve shleppers, what are the odds? ...Whatever we say, they say it's them, i.e. they're Israel, they have Torah, etc. They are Judaism on its head! Without us, they wouldn't exist!"

But that's not all. it's not just a matter of losing that bit of kedusha, but there is an adverse effect as well. The Jew becomes weaker and closer to materiality and physicality. He becomes more pleasure-seeking, gets sick, has parnassa problems, etc.

"Only Jews have the power to defeat and destroy evil." It's not like if I don't do the mitzvah, the kedusha just doesn't come down into the world, instead it goes to the other side and it strengthens evil in the world.

Nevua is a phenomenon where a person can experience and communicate with the Shechina. Imagine. The Satan had access to that. He wanted to give that to the goyim, so Hashem took it away.


SHABBAT SHALOM!