A True Utopia?

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In light of everything I've read, said, gleen and seen, what would be the ideal utopian

The Date, White vs Blacks, And BM vs BW: Part 2

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A word on HASSADIM and GEVUROT. Please note that just like "up" doesn't exist without a "down", "left" without a "right", etc. So also HASSADIM is never alone and without GEVUROT.

So, before we conclude that all black folks are pure GEVUROT, and all white folks are pure HASSADIM. Just remember they both exist in a person - not in the same measurement, but they both still exist symbiotically in an individual.

So this made me think of interracial relationships. What does that mean? Can the black community be seen as MOSTLY GEVUROT, and the white as MOSTLY HASSADIM? If so, is the BM the more gevurot-ish of the black community or is the BW? Is the white guy the more hassadim of the white community or is it the white girl? Or perhaps there is no set rule and an individual case by case search is needed?

At any rate, while writing this I decided to ask hubby what he thought of us. "which one of us do you think is gevurot and which one is hassadim?" I asked as I tossed salad.

"I think I'm more hassadim." said hubby as he layed on the couch reading his Economist magazine.

I tend to agree. I seem to be the more active one, while he, at times, needs to be prodded into action. Then again, I can get frantic just sitting at a cafe, while he enjoys himself as if he owns the cafe!

Now please bear in mind, the part about people and their interaction with hassadim and gevurot are speculative on my part. I'll have to really dig to find a sage who actually expounded on this particular topic.

But I do want to thank HaRav Shelomo Eliyashiv for his work on hassadim and gevurot. And Bakst for putting it in simpler terms on his website 'City of Luz' and Hubby, of course, for his contribution.

The Date, White vs Blacks, And BM vs BW

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I have a beautiful friend. She's a BW and dating. Recently, she dated a guy (white guy) who was pretty interesting. Somehow the guy turned the dating into an armchair psychiatric appointment. My friend, let's call her Liza, was so driven up the wall by this guy. Always, the guy dominated the date and kept asking my friend to be more open, more expressive. Date after date, it was more of the same. Finally, I put my big nose into her affair and told her that perhaps its better if they stopped seeing each other.

And so they did.

Time past and I met my friend again. We got into the topic of 'that guy', let's call him Motty. Turns out Motty has been emailing her. I was surprised and said surely she didn't write back. Even more surprising was her answer. She said she still had feelings for him! Still?! I didn't even know she had had feelings for him. Shows how right I was to stick my nose into somebody else's business.

I must admit good things did come out of their dating. One was that she actually DID become more in touch with her own feelings. She was able to confront her father who had been quite mean to her when she was young. She was able to realize her denial about her shyness towards men in general. So much came out after they had dated that she was almost a new, better person.

This made me think of white folks and black folks in general. Then I backtracked and starting thinking about black and white.

Then backtracked some more and thought of the way God made this world, with all its polarizations: up and down; left and right; black and white; good and evil; etc.

Then I backtracked once again and thought about God Himself. In the end of the day, all is God, all is one. We just can't see it here. Here we see the polarized world. At least, we are able to realize that one polarized side can not exist without the other side existing. Many can define "up" as "not down" or they may define "black" as the "absence of white". Basically, there are other ways to define these words, but what I am trying to show is how connected they are, despite their polarization. One side frames out with the other side is -like a picture and a picture frame.

Or like the algebraic equation of X, and (1-X). That was for you, Raw Dawg. lol.

Speaking of black and white. As usual, in Judaism, there are lots of associations to these colors. For example, blackness is associated with GEVUROT -complexity, separation, activity, arousal, and gevurah (from the sefirot. which means strength, restrain, harshness, severity, justice). Whereas whiteness is associated with HASSADIM which is associated with CHESSED which means simplicity, unifying and chessed (from the sefirot. which means kindness and giving).

Of course, coming from America, I couldn't help but to think about race. Due to their association with black and possibly the world's subconscious knowledge of GEVUROT, Could this be why many folks hold on to the stereotype that black folks are strong, potent, etc the whole mandingo myth?

And with the whiteness, I know giving can sound very nice -and it is! I am a very giving type but I know, from experience, too much giving can lead to domineering. The giver enjoys giving to person X. Finally, when the giver needs something, the giver begins to feel 'entitled' to it (after all she's given) while person X begins to feel small and incapable by himself. He begins to be beholden, if not resentful, to the giver. If the situation doesn't correct itself it can lead to oppressiveness, or worse SLAVERY!

The whole deal in the universe, it seems, is about figuring out the right balance.

Right now, the black community is struggling with problems such as "why aren't we unified?" "why are BM dissing BW?" "How come we don't have leaders who care?" and the latest, the contemplation of dating outside the race. (is that so new? **blush**).

Churning this business into my thought process of HASSADIM vs GEVUROT, I remember reading someone's description of HASSADIM and GEVUROT. He (Bakst, from the City of Luz website) compared it to fire. The essence of fire would be blackness. GEVUROT. Drop a little bit of HASSADIM into the picture, and then you can see the real fire -flames, red tips of the fire, blue-ish area where its not too hot. All the variety of the fire's color, the heat, etc.

Imagine a raging fire - it tends to separate things by burning it into ashes and the ashes fly away into the sky. Divided, and not unified. Each spark flying off on its own -leaderless, and starts more fires where it lands. All its variation of colors are out for all to see. GEVUROT is simply the name we use to refer to the force in the universe that attempts to separate.

If we wanted to reverse the picture to look at things from HASSADIM's point of view: HASSADIM is simply the name we use to refer to the force in the universe that attempts to unify. And dominate. Think of the Borg from Star Trek ("We are the Borg. Prepare to assimilate"). Or better yet, think of how the world would be If God did not conceal Himself. Everything would truly be a part of Him without illusions.

Anyway, back to the Fire analogy. With HASSADIM, we would only see whiteness. A big white canvass. Add a drop or two of GEVUROT, and things begin to separate! Now you can see the various flames. Red flames relegated to the most heated areas of the fire, blue for the coolest areas, etc.

Then I went back to my friend and her date. It was such a classic problem. Too much HASSADIM reigning and dominating; And not enough "drops" of GEVUROT setting up boundaries or relegating things in its proper places!

more later...

What's Going On in the World?

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I wonder if I should start putting my money under a mattress?

Europeans scramble to save banks

The Bailout

I have a friend, she and her family and friends live in the outskirts of Israel. The no man's land. Hardly any Arabs and hardly any Jews. There they make do for themselves. Building their own house, figuring out a piping system for themselves, scratching and saving and working odd jobs to afford a generator, etc etc. Sometimes I wonder, is that the direction we are headed...?

An Outrage

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How can we let this happen? A grown man socking a young girl. This is outrageous. But unfortunately, this seems to be a growing crisis in the black community. Everyone is calling for that man to be hunted down. I don't really know what the police will care to do.

However, positive messages are equally important as negative messages are. I think those girls -the one who defended the other girls who got cut in line AND and young girl who came to the first girl's aid when she got socked- should get a positive message. A virtual highfive, a mcdonalds certificate, money, something. Something to encourage BW to help and protect each other.

(hat tip= What About Our Daughters)

Note to self: I called Hyde Park's LAPD @ 213-485-4164, but they said nothing is set up for the victim and info on them is confidential. I'm not really a "professional" activist so not sure how to proceed...

Repost: A Letter to my Brother

(this is an old email I once sent my brother that I thought y'all might enjoy. Nice and light. Perfect for a pre-weekend post)

Sun and Sunshine

Imagine a sun. In its full majestic glory, radiance and brilliance it stands in its place. Up close its a great ball of gas and raging fire constantly aflamed! Its powerful heat consumes anything that dare touch it.

Surrounding the sun are rays of sunshine shooting in every direction. They too have their own brilliance and radiance. They bring life, light and clarity to everything and every place within its reach!

How about that for the imagination?

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Ray of Sunshine

Imagine now, if you please, one ray. It extends from its source, the sun, and onto the farthest recesses. It seems almost to go on forever. Let us say the point closest to the sun is point A and the point farthest is point B. Let us further say that there is a point right on the center of that ray and that is point C. Let us use point C as our focus and circle over to point B.

From the point of view of point B, point C has its own glory and brilliance -much more so than point B. Comparatively, point C is almost like the sun itself!

This reminds me of a documentary I watched about a baby bear cub. A jackal, i think, was passing by and saw the baby bear cub. The jackal began to eye the cub and wonder whether there is more room in his belly for an extra side dish of sweet baby bear cub. The cub, realizing this, stood on its hind legs and raised its arms into the air-just as it remembered its mother do- opened its mouth and let out a tremendously wimpy roar!

To the cub's rejoicing, the Jackal was petrified and scurried off at top speed! What the baby bear cub didn't realize was that right behind it stood its mother bear standing on its own hind legs, sizing up the jackal to see whether she herself had room in her belly for a sweet jackal delicacy!

Anyway, back to the ray. To point B on the ray, point C is right in line of the sun, its source. Therefore its brilliance is compounded even more so by virtue of the sun's own brilliance.

Circling around to point A we see its point of view. To point A, point C still has some of its brilliance and glory however much of its majesty is highly diminished. Nevertheless, comparative to point B, point C has maintained much of its resemblance to its source the sun.

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Arrays of Rays

If you will permit us to delve further, imagine that each of the rays of the sun is a different dimension. Each ray represented its own complete plane, its own complete world or universe. One not like the other. However, by virtue of their powerful source, the sun, they are all interconnected and function in perfect harmony.

I hope you're still there!!!
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Physical vs Non-Physical Dimensions

In the physical world, there exist such a thing as time and distance. Someone can be far from you and to come close, they must arrive by some means whether it is by car, train, plane, etc., to be physically close- and that takes time.

In the non-physical dimensions there is no such thing as distance and therefore no such thing as time. This is the world of concepts, thoughts, ideals, emotions, spirits, etc. There, in order for one entity to be close to another it simply resembles the desired other.

When you see two kids come together physically to play, that is called a "budding" relationship. As they become more and more friendly with one another and naturally want to come closer, they begin to think alike and have same ideas about things, they even begin to dress alike. They are beginning to resemble one another. This is a non-physical dimensional closeness. A spiritual closeness.

Spiritual closeness almost always succeeds physical closeness for humans. Why? Humans are not purely physical beings. We have an element of spirituality in us. Therefore, to be content, satisfied, at ease, we want to arrive at a desired physical plane as well as a desired spiritual plane.

the end
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Have a great weekend!

Kabbalistic Tangents and the "N" Word

I don't profess to know kabbalah in the slightest, but from the little bit that I have gleened from various sources, its very interesting the amount that is already proliferated throughout various societies. Somehow societies seem to just pick up on things in the air simply because it feels or sounds right --but its so inline with kabbalah! For example:

THE COLOR RED
One major similarity is how kabbalah talks about the color red. Red is the color that represents Gevurah - strength, restrain, harshness. And, its interesting that in many countries, the color red is used for STOP signs (restrain), poisonous notices(strength), or other alarming things (harshness).

THE NUMBER FOUR
Another similarity is how God's ineffable name (well, one of them anyway) is written with four letters. At the same time, many foundational things are also listed in fours: DNA is divided into four parts (adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine); The four elements are known throughout various societies-fire, water, wind, dust; the four blood types; four seasons (? that may be a stretch.)

THE WORD "NIGEY"
Now this is a difficult one. When I first learned about this word, it sounded too much like another "n" word that I knew from back in America. Nigey means the children who are born from spilled seed -whether its from a man with another man's wife, or some other "illegal" means (simply not being married is not one of those "illegal" means), they always produce children -physical or not. The children can be just spirits with no particular purpose in the world and so, with nothing else to do, they latch on to the father and 'encourage' him to continue this lifestyle so as to produce more children like them (when the man tries to mend his ways, he gets bombarded with depression, possibly compulsiveness, or other psychological worries).

Some may refer to these as subhumans. But I wonder, if some people -in an attempt to degrade others- try to convince themselves that a group is subhuman. And I wonder, if just by whatever's in the air, they come up with the "n" word that is very much similar to Nigey? I totally don't agree with them and I know that they use it as a ploy for their own minds- to justify their maltreatment of others.

But I do fear when others begin to use it on their own selves. Even if its in an attempt to show how ineffective that word is at hurting them, I still find it disturbing to place such a "crown" upon one's head.

Could those two n-words be related? Can they be one and the same? Can calling oneself such an "n" word subconsciously lead a society towards a world of sexual promiscuity, gang rape, baby daddys, etc?

At any rate, its all quite interesting to me the things that I read compared to how society just seem to 'know' things. Sooner or later, we will all be on the same page with whatever the absolute truth is.