43. Devarim: Taking Life to the Next Level ~Getting beyond the Serpent's-Bite

Many view life as being made up from positive or negative events, however, in truth, life is made up of positive or negative energies. While there are sweet and bitter events, it is our energy in which we receive it and react to it that will create whether it is a positive or a negative event. The famous Torah-event that exemplifies this concept is the story of Joseph. The story doesn’t read as just a negative journey with a positive outcome. Rather, the story is all about Joseph’s positive energy manifesting itself in every environment he is in, bringing blessing, warmth and light to all those who encounter him during his journey. Thus, the issue that we are here to discuss today is an issue that defines the difference between those who embrace democracy’s opportunity to pursue happiness, and between those who are still using the gift of democracy to just run away from past persecution. I want to spend a moment and emphasize the difference between the two paradigms of democracy. Successful people aren’t running away from a negative past. Now, I didn’t say rich people aren’t running away from a negative past, I said that successful people aren’t running away from a negative past, for by definition, success isn’t running from, but existing within. Allow me to explain that. Whether one is in a negative experiences or whether one is running away from a negative experience, he is living within the grip of a negative experience, and his present situation is being defined for him by a negative experience. Rabbi Yoseph Yitzchok of Lubavitch relates how as a child in cheder (Torah elementary school) his teacher told him that it is better to be outside looking into the classroom, than it is to be in the classroom looking outside. And so it is with our discussion. Better to be outside of ‘success’ looking into it, being absorbed with success, and living within the interest of success, than living within the ‘success’ always looking out the window, being obsessed and living in anxieties of poverty and need. Thus, the gift of democracy isn’t about finding happiness, as much as it is to be able to stop running from purgatory and to start pursuing happiness. In this lecture we will be exploring how to stop running from negativity, how to become immune to negativity, and how to achieve happiness. We will first discuss the mystical teachings of what Adam and Eve brought to the world through eating from the Tree of Knowledge, and how to get beyond what Jewish mysticism refers to as the Bite of the Serpent, referring to the serpent’s persuasion upon Eve. -------- Here is a link to the written notes of this lecture, which will be available until September 1, 2016, after which you can email [email protected] to request them: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lsz5pm8iheh4wku/43.%20Devarim%205776%20Parsha%20Class.doc?dl=0