16. Yisro 5780: "The Holiness of Darkness --Working the Beauty of Mankind"

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/avrohom.lipszyc/videos/10157746302938257/ SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/hachaim/16-yisro-5780-the-holiness-of-darkness-working-the-beauty-of-mankind Written Notes: https://www.dropbox.com/s/r8nvdmkh8wjfg0k/16.%20yisro%20-the%20holiness%20of%20darkness.pdf?dl=0 YouTube: https://youtu.be/3Hffvk9O3U4 ------------ Darkness, in most cultures, is synonymous to evil. This is why we start our scary stories with, “It begins on a dark night, where a dark man waits, with a dark purpose.” We speak of our times of suffering, fear and pain as, “It was a very dark time in my life….” So too, it is in the teachings of Kabbalah and Chassidus, in which Light refers to goodness and divinity, while Darkness refers to Evil, the Other Side, and that which conceals and fights the Light. And nevertheless, this is all in the teachings concerning Seder Hishtalshilut -Order of Evolution of the Infinite Light, including the Moar, the Source of Light. However, when we speak of the Essence we speak specifically of Darkness, in a defiance of any form, description or revelation. Thus, there are the polar opposite dynamics of Darkness. Within the realm of Light, it carries a negative connotation, while, above and beyond Light it carries the ultimate expression of exaltedness and divinity. Being that G-d has created man in, “His Image and His likeness,” thus, within us too, there exists not just the negativity of Darkness, but also the ultimate goodness of Darkness. And so too, in the world we live in, and in the experiences that we live through. Darkness while in its expression is negativity, it is also the portal to the exalted heights of our ultimate image and likeness of G-d. In this lecture, we are going to explore the two sides of Darkness, its holy and its unholy sides, and how to transform the entirety of Darkness into its ultimate Light and goodness. This lecture is based primarily on a maamor the Rebbe delivered on this Shabbat, in 1965, exploring the “Opaque Darkness [Thickness of the Cloud],” into which Moses entered in order to receive the Torah.