

“When you grasp the edge, you grasp the whole,” said the Ba’al Shem Tov.
One lesson of the decaying skunk and the pond beyond: I can get both into my field of vision at
once, or I can focus on only one or the other.
When I focus on just the decaying skunk, I am overwhelmed by sadness, by
ugliness and by the pain of seeing another being tortured, even in death. Sometimes I can see the ecological whole
cloth: the carrion nourishing the crows,
the minerals of its bones leeching into and enriching the earth, the fur
providing nesting material for birds and small rodents. This is beautiful, if I can get there. If I can’t, I am just in pain in the World of
Separation. When I am able to capture the picture of the decaying skunk in the
same field of vision as the pond beyond, I can begin to fathom the World of
Unity. If I can glimpse the world of unity, if I can accept that all sides of
the contradictions—the ugliness and the beauty, the pain and the
love, the suffering and the relief—are all God-given, I can
glimpse the goodness that runs through everything in this world.

The Ba’al Shem Tov, Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, who lived in Poland in the 17th century and is attributed with founding the Hasidic movement of Judaism, teaches that both good and evil are parts of the unity. He explains through the story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt that the goodness of Israel’s redemption from slavery was only made possible by the evil of Pharaoh’s enslavement. This and This are both true.
The question for us is: can we see the goodness in the evil? Can we discern the unity in the
separation? Can we “find sweetness in
the heart of the judgment” so as to “find the loving-kindness within”?

We are in both worlds, the world of division and the world of unity. We experience pain and suffering and we have
the power to ameliorate them. Our exile
from Eden, from ourselves, from others and from God is the source of the pain we
feel. If we accept that the pain is part
of our existence, if we understand in our hearts that God gave us both the pain
and the love, we can then perhaps open our hearts to discover the sparks of the
Divine within ourselves that can act to ameliorate the pain and suffering.
The Ba’al Shem Tov teaches that the meaning of the verse “’you will love
your God with all your heart and with all your soul,’ wherever
you are and whatever is going on, counters the pain and suffering.” Accepting the daily troubles is accessing and
connecting with the “spirit soul.” The teaching continues: “You shall love your God with your
God, taking the loving side of God to love the judging side.” By accepting with
love the daily challenges we face, the harsh, judging side is cancelled
out.

Our job is to end the separation between the Realm of Unity and the Realm
of Division, within ourselves and within the world. To do this, we need to “channel the love and
the unity consciousness that we have experienced into our daily actions,
consciousness and relationships.” One
way we do this is through prayer.
The Ba’al Shem Tov taught that our degradation is from a loss of
faith. Yet everyone has access to Divine
grace. This comes from sincere prayer, because “God
wants to kiss the lips of the man who speaks Torah, [God’s instruction], from
trembling and awe.” Focused, sincere
prayer touches God, which leads to repair of the brokenness of this world.

How do we serve the Divine in this world?
There are some actions in which this is more easily achievable for me, and
perhaps you, than others. In the garden
and at my CSA I have no trouble seeing the unity; God is everywhere
abundantly. But it is much harder for me
to maintain mystical mindfulness in the mundane and in the momentary annoyances,
such as when the phone line is not working at intervals and having to replace
the burner on the stove. The Ba’al Shem Tov taught that “God hides behind many
barriers and is veiled in many garments.
But what is true is that ‘the fullness of the whole earth is God’s
glory.’ Every thought, every movement
comes from God. Everything is made of
God’s own essence. Those who truly
understand this know that the walls, towers, gates, gold and castle are only
God in hiding, ‘for there is no place devoid of the Divine.’”

Rabbi Lori Shaller, guest blogger
Bibliography
Elior, Rachel. The Mystical
Origins of Hasidism. Portland,
Oregon: the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2008.
Jacobson, Burt. Teachings on the
Ba’al Shem Tov:
The Four Core Truths of
the Ba’al Shem Tov with texts of the Ba’al Shem Tov’s
teachings:
A Perennial Kabbalist, June, 2009.
The Four Core Truths, Shorter Version, sent via
email, October, 2009.
The Quest for the Divine: a parable of the Ba’al Shem Tov.
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