Sunday, August 29, 2004
after the city is built
1Corinthians:2:2: For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
Revelation 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Revelation 20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Revelation 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Revelation 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Revelation 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Revelation 20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Revelation 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Revelation 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Sunday, August 08, 2004
1Corinthians:2:2: For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
The two cities
http://www.askmoses.com/qa_detail.html?o=93884
The Emergence of Self
by Yosef Y. Jacobson
There are days when we live honestly and genuinely and desire to engage in noble deeds. At other times, we are consumed by animalistic passions, while we struggle to control the impulses burning within.
Why does this constantly happen, and how are we to deal with this fragmented psyche?
"The children clashed inside her," is the way the Torah describes our matriarch Rebecca's pregnancy. Whenever Rebecca would pass a house of prayer or study, the Midrash explains, "Jacob would struggle to come out; when she passed a house of idol-worship, Esau would struggle to come out." In her womb, Rebecca was experiencing the conflict that human beings experience within their hearts on a daily basis.
When the clashes in her womb persisted, Rebecca, asking "Why is this happening to me?" went to seek an answer from G-d.
G-d told Rebecca "two nations will separate from your womb." Indeed, Jacob’s descendants became the nation of Israel, who served as the spiritual compass of the world, while Esau fathered the nation of Rome and its culture of self-aggrandizement.
Although the struggle within her womb did not cease, Rebecca went home satisfied because she received the gift of clarity with the awareness that not one, but two nations lived in her womb.
The response presented by G-d to Rebecca remains the eternal response to our own search for identity and question of “who am I?”
From the moment we are born until the moment we die, we operate on two levels of consciousness. We possess not one, but two souls. The first soul, or the Esau soul, propels our physical life and focuses on the self. Its actions and desires are motivated by the quest for self-preservation and self-gratification. The second consciousness, or the Jacob soul, is drawn to its Divine source, striving to become one with the all-pervading truth of G-d.
When there are two distinct people living within the same brain and heart, it is hard to expect the inner workings to be an inviolable whole. As they both have the same body at their disposal, the perpetual struggles of life between selfishness and selflessness; idealism and self-centeredness; beastly impulses and spiritual aspirations, wages war daily.
The implications of this kabbalistic doctrine of "two souls" are binary: a) there is no need to agitate over the struggle; it is to be expected, b) the moments of spiritual numbness do not invalidate the moments of spiritual growth. Esau and Jacob are both very real parts of our lives.
Why is Esau more powerful than Jacob? Why are even the most spiritually refined people vulnerable to earthly, animalistic cravings? Why is it so much more difficult to talk to G-d than to gossip?
The animal soul embodies a deeper, higher G-dly energy than the divine soul. In a process known in Kabbalah as the “cosmic explosion,” an intense G-dly energy became the animal soul. Consequently, there remains within it an intense yearning to connect to G-d, disguised as a drive towards physical fulfillment.
The animal soul desperately needs the continuous guidance and discipline of its divine counterpart for cultivation and refinement, until it regains its original splendor, as it was in the pre-explosion state. But in this very process, the animal soul grants the divine soul a boundless creativity and passion that it could never attain on its own. Though uniting these two souls in a single body exposes both of them to a never-ending battle, it is only through this union that they can reach their ultimate potential. It is in the collaboration of the twin souls that man fulfills the objective for which he was created.
Yosef Y. Jacobson is the author of the widely acclaimed tape series on the Tanya entitled, “A Tale of Two Souls.”
The two cities
http://www.askmoses.com/qa_detail.html?o=93884
The Emergence of Self
by Yosef Y. Jacobson
There are days when we live honestly and genuinely and desire to engage in noble deeds. At other times, we are consumed by animalistic passions, while we struggle to control the impulses burning within.
Why does this constantly happen, and how are we to deal with this fragmented psyche?
"The children clashed inside her," is the way the Torah describes our matriarch Rebecca's pregnancy. Whenever Rebecca would pass a house of prayer or study, the Midrash explains, "Jacob would struggle to come out; when she passed a house of idol-worship, Esau would struggle to come out." In her womb, Rebecca was experiencing the conflict that human beings experience within their hearts on a daily basis.
When the clashes in her womb persisted, Rebecca, asking "Why is this happening to me?" went to seek an answer from G-d.
G-d told Rebecca "two nations will separate from your womb." Indeed, Jacob’s descendants became the nation of Israel, who served as the spiritual compass of the world, while Esau fathered the nation of Rome and its culture of self-aggrandizement.
Although the struggle within her womb did not cease, Rebecca went home satisfied because she received the gift of clarity with the awareness that not one, but two nations lived in her womb.
The response presented by G-d to Rebecca remains the eternal response to our own search for identity and question of “who am I?”
From the moment we are born until the moment we die, we operate on two levels of consciousness. We possess not one, but two souls. The first soul, or the Esau soul, propels our physical life and focuses on the self. Its actions and desires are motivated by the quest for self-preservation and self-gratification. The second consciousness, or the Jacob soul, is drawn to its Divine source, striving to become one with the all-pervading truth of G-d.
When there are two distinct people living within the same brain and heart, it is hard to expect the inner workings to be an inviolable whole. As they both have the same body at their disposal, the perpetual struggles of life between selfishness and selflessness; idealism and self-centeredness; beastly impulses and spiritual aspirations, wages war daily.
The implications of this kabbalistic doctrine of "two souls" are binary: a) there is no need to agitate over the struggle; it is to be expected, b) the moments of spiritual numbness do not invalidate the moments of spiritual growth. Esau and Jacob are both very real parts of our lives.
Why is Esau more powerful than Jacob? Why are even the most spiritually refined people vulnerable to earthly, animalistic cravings? Why is it so much more difficult to talk to G-d than to gossip?
The animal soul embodies a deeper, higher G-dly energy than the divine soul. In a process known in Kabbalah as the “cosmic explosion,” an intense G-dly energy became the animal soul. Consequently, there remains within it an intense yearning to connect to G-d, disguised as a drive towards physical fulfillment.
The animal soul desperately needs the continuous guidance and discipline of its divine counterpart for cultivation and refinement, until it regains its original splendor, as it was in the pre-explosion state. But in this very process, the animal soul grants the divine soul a boundless creativity and passion that it could never attain on its own. Though uniting these two souls in a single body exposes both of them to a never-ending battle, it is only through this union that they can reach their ultimate potential. It is in the collaboration of the twin souls that man fulfills the objective for which he was created.
Yosef Y. Jacobson is the author of the widely acclaimed tape series on the Tanya entitled, “A Tale of Two Souls.”
1Corinthians:2:2: For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
The two cities
The Emergence of Self
by Yosef Y. Jacobson
There are days when we live honestly and genuinely and desire to engage in noble deeds. At other times, we are consumed by animalistic passions, while we struggle to control the impulses burning within.
Why does this constantly happen, and how are we to deal with this fragmented psyche?
"The children clashed inside her," is the way the Torah describes our matriarch Rebecca's pregnancy. Whenever Rebecca would pass a house of prayer or study, the Midrash explains, "Jacob would struggle to come out; when she passed a house of idol-worship, Esau would struggle to come out." In her womb, Rebecca was experiencing the conflict that human beings experience within their hearts on a daily basis.
When the clashes in her womb persisted, Rebecca, asking "Why is this happening to me?" went to seek an answer from G-d.
G-d told Rebecca "two nations will separate from your womb." Indeed, Jacob’s descendants became the nation of Israel, who served as the spiritual compass of the world, while Esau fathered the nation of Rome and its culture of self-aggrandizement.
Although the struggle within her womb did not cease, Rebecca went home satisfied because she received the gift of clarity with the awareness that not one, but two nations lived in her womb.
The response presented by G-d to Rebecca remains the eternal response to our own search for identity and question of “who am I?”
From the moment we are born until the moment we die, we operate on two levels of consciousness. We possess not one, but two souls. The first soul, or the Esau soul, propels our physical life and focuses on the self. Its actions and desires are motivated by the quest for self-preservation and self-gratification. The second consciousness, or the Jacob soul, is drawn to its Divine source, striving to become one with the all-pervading truth of G-d.
When there are two distinct people living within the same brain and heart, it is hard to expect the inner workings to be an inviolable whole. As they both have the same body at their disposal, the perpetual struggles of life between selfishness and selflessness; idealism and self-centeredness; beastly impulses and spiritual aspirations, wages war daily.
The implications of this kabbalistic doctrine of "two souls" are binary: a) there is no need to agitate over the struggle; it is to be expected, b) the moments of spiritual numbness do not invalidate the moments of spiritual growth. Esau and Jacob are both very real parts of our lives.
Why is Esau more powerful than Jacob? Why are even the most spiritually refined people vulnerable to earthly, animalistic cravings? Why is it so much more difficult to talk to G-d than to gossip?
The animal soul embodies a deeper, higher G-dly energy than the divine soul. In a process known in Kabbalah as the “cosmic explosion,” an intense G-dly energy became the animal soul. Consequently, there remains within it an intense yearning to connect to G-d, disguised as a drive towards physical fulfillment.
The animal soul desperately needs the continuous guidance and discipline of its divine counterpart for cultivation and refinement, until it regains its original splendor, as it was in the pre-explosion state. But in this very process, the animal soul grants the divine soul a boundless creativity and passion that it could never attain on its own. Though uniting these two souls in a single body exposes both of them to a never-ending battle, it is only through this union that they can reach their ultimate potential. It is in the collaboration of the twin souls that man fulfills the objective for which he was created.
Yosef Y. Jacobson is the author of the widely acclaimed tape series on the Tanya entitled, “A Tale of Two Souls.”
The two cities
The Emergence of Self
by Yosef Y. Jacobson
There are days when we live honestly and genuinely and desire to engage in noble deeds. At other times, we are consumed by animalistic passions, while we struggle to control the impulses burning within.
Why does this constantly happen, and how are we to deal with this fragmented psyche?
"The children clashed inside her," is the way the Torah describes our matriarch Rebecca's pregnancy. Whenever Rebecca would pass a house of prayer or study, the Midrash explains, "Jacob would struggle to come out; when she passed a house of idol-worship, Esau would struggle to come out." In her womb, Rebecca was experiencing the conflict that human beings experience within their hearts on a daily basis.
When the clashes in her womb persisted, Rebecca, asking "Why is this happening to me?" went to seek an answer from G-d.
G-d told Rebecca "two nations will separate from your womb." Indeed, Jacob’s descendants became the nation of Israel, who served as the spiritual compass of the world, while Esau fathered the nation of Rome and its culture of self-aggrandizement.
Although the struggle within her womb did not cease, Rebecca went home satisfied because she received the gift of clarity with the awareness that not one, but two nations lived in her womb.
The response presented by G-d to Rebecca remains the eternal response to our own search for identity and question of “who am I?”
From the moment we are born until the moment we die, we operate on two levels of consciousness. We possess not one, but two souls. The first soul, or the Esau soul, propels our physical life and focuses on the self. Its actions and desires are motivated by the quest for self-preservation and self-gratification. The second consciousness, or the Jacob soul, is drawn to its Divine source, striving to become one with the all-pervading truth of G-d.
When there are two distinct people living within the same brain and heart, it is hard to expect the inner workings to be an inviolable whole. As they both have the same body at their disposal, the perpetual struggles of life between selfishness and selflessness; idealism and self-centeredness; beastly impulses and spiritual aspirations, wages war daily.
The implications of this kabbalistic doctrine of "two souls" are binary: a) there is no need to agitate over the struggle; it is to be expected, b) the moments of spiritual numbness do not invalidate the moments of spiritual growth. Esau and Jacob are both very real parts of our lives.
Why is Esau more powerful than Jacob? Why are even the most spiritually refined people vulnerable to earthly, animalistic cravings? Why is it so much more difficult to talk to G-d than to gossip?
The animal soul embodies a deeper, higher G-dly energy than the divine soul. In a process known in Kabbalah as the “cosmic explosion,” an intense G-dly energy became the animal soul. Consequently, there remains within it an intense yearning to connect to G-d, disguised as a drive towards physical fulfillment.
The animal soul desperately needs the continuous guidance and discipline of its divine counterpart for cultivation and refinement, until it regains its original splendor, as it was in the pre-explosion state. But in this very process, the animal soul grants the divine soul a boundless creativity and passion that it could never attain on its own. Though uniting these two souls in a single body exposes both of them to a never-ending battle, it is only through this union that they can reach their ultimate potential. It is in the collaboration of the twin souls that man fulfills the objective for which he was created.
Yosef Y. Jacobson is the author of the widely acclaimed tape series on the Tanya entitled, “A Tale of Two Souls.”
