Fractals of Redemption - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

in a fractal every small piece reflects the entire image likewise each individual person has within them the entire mission of humanity in miniature to choose good over evil to elevate Darkness from the light and to reflect and channel Divinity through our actions and through our very essence now the reason that this concept struck me so deeply the reason that I found it so so empowering is because if we're all fractal of Adam and of Adam and Eve then we also carry within us the full spectrum of The Human Experience including not just the righteous and pure Parts but also the shadow right the ASA the Esau within us the Pharaoh in us the Cain the korak the Ishmael even the Amal because they too were expressions of Adam's soul and their traits still echo through our spiritual DNA we've talked about this before but I I don't know that we we dug as deeply as I would like to right now so take for example the Esau within us that part within us craves immediate gratification so much that we are willing to trade Eternity for a bowl of soup to trade the Fidelity of our relationship with God for a fleeting moment of pleasure I wish this didn't cut so deep it really feels like I'm just confessing here but I I think we all have that Esau wasn't just Jacob's evil older brother his evil twin brother he is a part of every single one of us it's not as simple as good and evil there's Dimensions to it which which reminds us of the critical truth that pharao is not just a historical villain he is a spiritual pattern encoded within each and every one of us as well that part of us that actually believes that we are in control that we are calling the shot the part of us that can look at the miracle any miracle and refuse to see it because we really don't want to we don't want to hear Hashem in the way he's communicating us we don't want to hear the message that he's telling us that part of us that denies the Divine because on some level we think we're Divine we experience the Pharaoh within us when we Harden our hearts and refuse to let go when we cling to our ego and manipulate other people we just manipulate others we shouldn't be we shouldn't be ashamed of these dark shadows within ourselves and we shouldn't seek I think to banish them either our work with them is our work that's here in the world that we talk about nearly every single Fellowship to elevate them to transform Esau's passion into Holy Fire right by sublimating our passions and harnessing them and directing them to God to transform Pharaoh's power trip into true leadership and into humility before Hashem right just as Egypt became the center stage for the revelation of God's Oneness to all of mankind our inner Pharaoh can be transformed into the most powerful vessel for divine revelation and recognizing that is the beginning of true chuva and true gah true Redemption and true repentance true return and so I merited to personally host the rabbi and it appears that I forgot to turn on his automatic hot water machine that we all use on Shabbat I don't remember what it's called in English or in Hebrew for that matter but you turn it on it's just constantly boiling and so when he wanted to make himself a cup of coffee he came over and I had him exactly where I wanted him at my Mercy if he was going to get that hot water he was going to have to answer a few questions which fortunately he seemed really happy to do and one of the questions I asked him I said ra like fireman I just want to make sure that I understood you're saying that we have even Kamas within us we even have Amal within us and he looked at me with his piercing brown eyes and said of course absolutely and I think that the reason I found this teaching to be so exciting and empowering is because on some level I think I forgot it and maybe I didn't forget it intellectually but it just wasn't in my Forefront of my Consciousness it definitely wasn't connected it wasn't infused into who I am I I lost it somewhere along the way it wasn't just it wasn't in the Forefront of my mind and and and I know that it once was and so ironically I think this means that the Pharaoh within me that part of me that actually believed in some level in the independent powers of various adversarial entities in the world that it's been gaining strength because I forgot that truth and the reason I asked about Kamas in specific is because my hatred and my rage against Hamas is sometimes all consuming what they did to the daughters of Israel our innocent children the murder torture rape and kidnapping of our innocent well it's just it's not hard to understand why I feel that way truth is it's hard for me to understand why everyone doesn't feel that way and when I hear people siding with Kamas to me they're just exposing themsel in the most bare way of evil that I've ever seen but that that hatred that hatred that I feel towards Kamas without the proper spiritual context is distructive and corrosive and disempowering because the truth is that if Hamas is its own independent disconnected terrorist organization out there then there really isn't very much I can personally do to defeat them or wipe them out but if Hamas is an external manifestation and reflection of something much deeper in in internal in my internal Essence however trace and minute that little light of Kamas may be within my own heart but it's there well then there is something very real that I personally can do to defeat them and wipe them out because when we don't acknowledge the all incomp and unity of God and recognize Hamas as well within that Unity then we're left to our own devices and our own unbridled hatred right true like I said the hatred is Justified but without infusing the truth of God's Unity within we very much run the risk of letting Kamas win of letting that Kamas within you grow even stronger and stronger by slowly but surely becoming more and more like us ourselves by letting that hatred overtake us we are Fanning that we're Fanning that small Ember of the Kamas energy within us making it stronger and stronger and making Kamas stronger and stronger right nii said Beware that when fighting monsters you yourself do not become a monster for when you gaze into an abyss the abyss gazes also into you and I really believe this is true I've felt it to be true I've experienced it to be true because when you hate something or someone you focus deeply on them you you focus on how they act think how they speak and over time it just it happens you start mirroring them not because you agree but because they occupy so much space in your mind that you adapt their language their strategies or even their behaviors just to fight them and so even if my actual position on how Israel should contend with Kamas militarily wouldn't necessarily change from all of this if my inner spiritual experience does change well then everything changes and so the Redemptive work with Hamas begins and I ask you know ask what part of this horrific shadow of Kamas exists in the human soul within my soul and of course this isn't to justify or excuse evil God forbid but to take responsibility for rooting out even the smallest seeds of similar Darkness from within ourselves from within myself so we can be true agents of redemption [Music]