Kabbalah & Mysticism: Uniting the Body & Soul - Rabbi Yitzchak Botton

there was a old TV show I remember called The Odd Couple interesting scenario two opposite characters were put together forced to live as roommates and that was of course the foundation of a very funny show that went on for a while I'm coming here to talk to you also about an odd couple the couple that I'm talking about though is the body and soul the very beginning of our story starts off with two friends two partners in creation body and soul were created to work together to attain one common goal the Veii could with Hashem becoming attached to a Shem through fulfilling the will of God and that's how things were in the very beginning when other halation was created before anything went wrong his body and soul were united and in perfect harmony I hope you know to beloved's that were partnered up and both the soul and body illuminated there's an interesting idea we talked about in Havdalah we look at our fingernail when people ask why are we doing that so of course they mentioned that one of the teachings with the rabbi's that once upon a time before Adam sinned his entire body was similar to the fingernail that type that was his skin so essentially the nail is transparent like a glass and that's the description of the body before the sin before man sinned the body was like a glass that illuminated what was inside it it was there was no no concealment nothing negative about it and that's what we have to remember that is this nail that we can see through it ultimately body and soul work together and they were both illuminating they both were like lights the great light and the small light and when man sinned so then these two partners became enemies and that's when this Odd Couple so to speak begins because now the body becomes course and like the skin that covers over what's inside of it that's why man is called a small world because the word for world means concealment the body covers over the neshamah it actually imprisons the dashana and then the shimmer becomes trapped inside and that's a result of the first sin so you have body with its agenda it wants to dominate and control the soul trap it inside but the soul in there needs to express itself and it's fighting to escape and through tor admits was fulfill its purpose and that is the unfortunate connection of body and soul after the sin now let us look at the first few verses and hopefully see in these verses hint to this for we read Malaysia by looking at Kashima Van Hollen's in the beginning God created heaven and earth heaviness represents the spiritual realms and earth represents the physical grounds here is a hint to body and soul the rabbi's explain heaven and earth can also be reference to the soul which comes from heaven and the body which comes from Earth now if we look at the wording in Hebrew there's the word it that separates it says the eight Kabat says Hashem I am the egg Haaretz now there's an interesting discussion in Messiah the Megillah that says the word that separates there's a discussion there which which tries to connect all of the different days that we read the Megillah and they say if the word Verret wouldn't be there then we could connect all of the days but since the vet is in the middle it separates the days here - we can appreciate the same idea that because the word vet comes between Shama and violets so that hints to the idea of the separation between body and soul this of course is speaking about after the sin the verses continue about its height Tovah vu the whole shock opening to home and the earth was darkness and bewilderment empty this is the story of a person when he's born because originally right when a person is born the first entity that comes into him is the eighth Sahara we he's born immediately with this evil clinician that evil inclination is called the Zohar an old foolish King because his goal is to manipulate the situation and control the the life of the person and directed only towards doing bad he's called the foolish King because even though he's in charge but he has no idea of the right way to go he walks in darkness and that's the hint to this darkness in the beginning of creation that the earth is dark because the body that's controlling everything doesn't have a clear vision of where to go and therefore the earth Sarah pulls it in the negative direction but the verse continues the Lua Elohim met ahavat upon ami but the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters now we know that this divine soul doesn't come into the body fully until Bar Mitzvah so unfortunately this this good inclination is not able to battle and combat the the evil inclination in the beginning and that's why here it's referred to hover over it's not doesn't have it doesn't come in and and it's not able to fight in the beginning vaio Mary leukemia he or Vicey or via a leukemia or keto but eventually God creates the light and the light is the light of Torah and when the person becomes Bar Mitzvah then the good inclination comes in fully and the Tsar calls him a young child yet Columbus can a young unfortunate child because by then when the when the good inclination finally comes in so the evil in collision has took control of the body for so long the person has already sort of set in the wrong direction and now the the soul has an uphill battle so to speak it has to gain control over the body and doused the the King that's currently in charge of the eight Sahara so how does the AIDS of Tove pushed away the eggs aha so here we have a hint to the Torah the Torah scold or God created the Torah which is called light and when you light up a candle the darkroom becomes very bright and it's the life of Torah the wisdom of Torah that is the bridge that helps the eight sort of communicates with the person and slowly slowly push away and overcome the exam and that is the idea of when we talk about the makeup of a person he has a body and a soul which are enemies but what can come now and make peace between these two enemies is the brain intellect the intellectual soul that a person has is that bridge between the two and it's through the learning of toha that one can connect and show the body that there's a better way that a person doesn't have to follow the foolish way of the evil inclination because that's going to end in destruction and we educate slowly slowly the person and the person then can shift his life in the direction of Torah and mitzvot now again we're not saying that a person should give up what appears to him as the good life and suffer that is not the goal of a Torah life ultimately God prescribes man the ultimate way to enjoy this world by partaking of the world with Hashem blessing first of all and with Hashem directives in mind we take the most we can from this world and a foolish lie that the eight sir Karan tells a person is that religious life is the life of suffering it's a life of giving everything up the opposite is true true suffering is living the life that goes against Hashem's ways because you're denying the soul and the body what is truly its portion you're perverting everything and robbing everything of its true you so you you're convinced that pursuer lives that is valueless that is empty and and false and in the end you have nothing so that's the lie but when you follow a life of Torah you get to partake of this world in a way that you have this world and you have the truth and you have value and you have what comes later so the best life we can live not just for tomorrow but for today is a life that shows us how to utilize this world for its ultimate good and ultimately we can see the good and that and take pleasure in living this godly life in this world and with Hashem to help through this work letting the neshamah teach teach us the true way the way of Torah we can unite body and soul which is the ultimate purpose of the Torah the Torah was given to make peace and harmony in the world by uniting body and soul together [Music] [Applause]