A person approached the Baal Shem Tov and asked him what was wrong with idol worship. After all, the Baal Shem Tov taught that God permeates all, and there is nothing in the world that is devoid of God; including presumably idol worship. (Indeed the Talmud teaches us that when the Torah says "There is nothing besides Him," that it means to include the Black Arts.)
Rabbi Issaac of Komarna records this story in a number of places in his Torah commentary. The questioner does have a valid point. There are elements of holiness scattered throughout all of creation. Our adventure of life is really one in which we interact with people and objects with the aim of freeing these captive elements of holiness and incorporating them with our own consciousness. We can do so intentionally, for example by performing a mitzvah (commandment) and intending the performance to serve as a vehicle for free the elements of holiness within the object that is used for the mitzvah. Even when committing a sin, and oftentimes unintentionally, our interactions free up these lost sparks.
Each freed spark of holiness brings us one step closer to the ultimate destiny of the world, which is reuniting these elements in the cognizance of spirituality. So, yes, even within idol worship, there is God. What needs to be kept in mind is that those elements of God can achieve their destiny in many ways. Just as interacting by embracing the idol can incorporate those elements within us, so too can we accomplish that be rejecting the idol worship. Any interaction can free those captive sparks of holiness. God has encouraged us through His Torah to choose the more refined manner of freeing those sparks and not the coarser ways.
For a full treatment of this topic, I would encourage you to read a fascinating book entitled You Are What You Hate. The author provides an excellent overview of Kabbalistic thought, and then leads into a beautifully woven exposition of the concept of finding the lost elements of holiness.
No comments:
Post a Comment