29. Bamidbar 5777: A Something Called Darkness ~Transforming Into Infinite Light

Trailer Link: https://www.facebook.com/TheLighthouseProjectMiami/videos/1684945018467483/ LiveFeed Link: https://www.facebook.com/TheLighthouseProjectMiami/videos/1685827895045862/ Written Notes: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qc1yfikw54qmn02/29.%20Bamidbar%205777%20A%20Something%20Called%20Darkness%20-Transforming%20Into%20Infinite%20Light.pdf?dl=0 There is a huge difference between when your family doctor tells you that you child has a vitamin deficiency and that you need to add vegetables and vitamins to his diet than if the doctor tells you that you have high cholesterol and cholesterol plaque built up in your arteries. One demands nothing more than introducing more positive stuff into one’s life, while the other speaks of a pre-existing negative situation in our lives, which demands the work of transformation, through strict diet and vigorous exercise. And so it is spiritually as well. However, before we speak of religious spirituality, let us speak of spirituality of good character versus character defects. There is a difference between having to develop and strengthen good character traits, versus removing pre-existing character faults. Here too, one speaks of introducing and strengthening the good, while the other speaks of a hard-earned removing of and the transformation of negative engrained character faults. Here too, the latter is far more difficult. Now we can speak of the religious spirituality. The Torah tells us that Torah-study and commandment-observance brings blessings into our life. When we feel that we are lacking in blessings, we add on in our Torah-study, commandment-observance and acts of goodness and kindness to our fellow. However, there are times that we aren’t merely suffering from the absence of G-d’s blessings. Rather, we are dealing with the reality of true darkness and negativity in our lives. Last week the Torah told us that if we walk in G-d’s statutes we will receive G-d’s blessings. Then the Torah goes on to say, “And if you despise My statutes and reject My ordinance… I will order upon you shock, consumption, fever, and diseases that cause hopeless longing and depression… I will set My attention against you…” There is a difference between not doing G-d’s commandments out of laziness and weakness and of actively despising and rejecting G-d’s commandments. Thus, we speak here of a darkness that is the absence of light, and of a darkness which is a something, an existence of its own, outside of being the absence of light. In turn, we speak of an experience of darkness that is the absence of blessings, and we speak of an experience which is the presence of a dark curse. In this lecture, we are going to explore the transformation of the latter Darkness into the highest form of light.