Charedi Chaos

Kabbalistic thought teaches us that the world was originally created in a state of תהו (tohu). This was a state in which the Sefiros, the spiritual atomic particles of existence, were not working in harmony. The result was a state of chaos in which each Sefirah was, so to speak, looking out for its own good, and not focused on unity within creation. Ultimately, the goal is to move from a state of תהו to one of תקון (tikkun), the state in which each Sefirah is able to relate to each other one in a harmonious manner. The state of תהו is a state of Galus, exile, in which the world is not achieving its potential. תקון brings with it the coming of Moshiach, a time of peace and harmony.

In the seminal Kabbalistic work Etz Chaim, Rav Chaim Vital quotes his brother-in-law Rav Gedalyahu as presenting an explanation of what leads to a state of תהו and what results in תקון. He explains that when someone is in a state of יראה, fear, he tends to see the deficiencies in another and will stay away for fear of being affected. Rabbeinu Yonah writes that one who has יראה will stay away from even the slightest doubt of wrongdoing. In the same vein, the Sefiros were conscious of the deficiencies they each had and stayed away from each other. The result was chaos.

The only way to overcome this is to leave the paradigm of יראה and move to that of אהבה, love. על כל פשעים תכסה האהבה. Love covers over all deficiencies. When we move from the paradigm of fear to the paradigm of love, we move from barrier building, and finding reasons to justify building them, to bridge building, relationship and connection.

These paradigms are reflected not just within Creation, but within the life of each individual as well as within each relationship. The constant challenge is how to remain in the paradigm of love and away from that of fear.

I find it interesting that over the past few decades the name Charedim (those who fear) has come into use to describe the so-called Ultra-Orthodox. According to Rav Gedalyahu it is that fear which leads them to build boundaries. However those boundaries, while needed according to their paradigm, prevent the achievement of תקון and the coming of Moshiach.

This would seem to support the need for a Breslovite or Kookian philosophy such as that espoused by Hachalban, Shlit"a, which emphasizes the mandate to learn to love every person, no matter how much they seemed to be caught in sinful behaviors.