Rabbi Simon Jacobson - Mashke & Marijuana

[Music] four little boys little oh yeah up in Hawaii Tinley birthday let me man o people of mother-daughter been miss Lila ho ho so regarding drinking what we call Mashka Oh same long time and fair Brennan's I think there's a big misconception here in the larger world alcohol is seen as a high or a low actually but it wants some way it alters your consciousness makes you loser makes you more comfortable takes off the edge you know Americans are prone to drinking once twice three times five times every day in the morning in the evening you've seen culturally seasoned media and so on we don't call it alcohol we call it assigned we call it Mashka Mashka means the poor it's a transmission a high means to life it was never meant to be stimulant to get someone to be high to get someone to be more spiritually sensitive as it gets ought to be uninhibited it was always a means to somewhat yes to minimize it was expressed acts like masking us a Bahama was the expression you pour water on the Bahama and the animal to soften it up but the objective was always to connect to God and to connect your soul to connect the spiritual and transcendent experiences naturally and Maskull was a means that sometimes have helped out but as soon as it became something especially in culture it became an end in itself the Rubbermaid is very clear that's why he made the decree Xavier there not to drink more than four small cups and when he was asked what can four small cups accomplish she says you're right the whole thing is just token it was never meant to be a force what people start saying do you like Geller or vice no it was it became something that people haven't tasted I supposed to have a taste it was always meant to be as the rebus said Dover Moss it means something that's despicable when people get too comfortable drinking your rights already assigned as a problem so the point I want to make is in Judaism and in any healthy spirit the real way to reach any high is through your own effort and through your own opening up there was a time and a baby a pure more naive world with high Mashka was used as well to sum what we can and tame the resistance but today that's not acceptable the rebel who's the ultimate authority said that and drives the point home that it's only a means and even at that at bare minimum and the fact that matter is that if people are dedicated and committed they can open up to each other and if I bring in and talk to each other and they could do it over a cup of water to and they can do it another fashion than another means we wanted to beat a token type of lehayim that we say kiddush Shabbos and so on that's one thing but not in a way that actually gets you in toxicated and to the point where your lack control of your own of your own faculties now since there isn't a tour of the concept of drinking wine or sometimes alcohol you hire Seraph as they call it so at least we have a tourist sanction for the possibility and a minimal level weed was never something part of Torah part of any traditional approach so my answer is twofold the difference between week number one is today alcohol and marijuana alcohol and drugs are very equatable because they're both being seen as as with the tools that people are using even if they're using it for transcendent purposes I should add that many people drink and smoke weed not because they want to reach a transcendence because they simply want to feel better we don't use substances to trance and not alcohol and not weed my main point I want to make is that today alcohol and drugs I was all throw into the same category these are recreational social drugs and social tools people to be able to be less inhibited completely nothing to do with divine inspiration becoming a more selfless person reaching higher transcendent levels [Music] it's a vote of confidence in the human spirit you have everything in your soul that's necessary for you to reach the highest highest levels of awareness and consciousness you don't need to ingest anything you don't need to smoke anything in order to get to that place there's a beautiful prayer we say every morning it says the soul you have given me is pure and the catalysts and the hasidic masters explain what is pure mean your soul is connected to the highest levels of the cosmic energies and you don't need anything to help you get there so the concept that we need a crutch or some escape or some other form of assistance to reach spiritual high is essentially really contaminating and tax defying the experience we'd be like someone saying I want to run a marathon you run a marathon by conditioning yourself practicing exercising until you do it you don't use as we know even in the world of sports you don't use drugs and you're and they're forbidden you have to do it naturally then why because the size of fact that gives you unfair advantage but most importantly excel with your own skills why are you using artificial tools tricks so to speak and Judaism is very pure in that sense experience your spiritual journey in a pure way don't rely on other items point number two is escapism is never healthy for a human being escapism is essentially avoiding the realities of life we all have times of pain we have times of distress sometimes of anxiety and escapism basically immunizes you and numbs you from the natural cycles of life it's like a person doesn't want experience winter the only want summer doesn't work that way natural cycles of life is there's ups and downs the cardiologists he says to me rabbi maybe one day it could help and intervene I have God give me one day of total peace so half humorously I said Tim you mean like a straight line she said no no no no no we all know a flat line in the cardiogram is death what does a healthy heart look like it's a wave sundown a constant wave that's life mobility so imagine a person says I don't want to have the the down I only want to have the up taking artificial ways of trying to numb ourselves from the ups and downs of life that's not a healthy person obviously we want to avoid extreme Peaks or deep valleys means extreme manic or extreme highs and very low depression but it's healthy to have angst to feel somewhat Restless to feel like a flame flickering flame that's the nature of the souls like a flame you're always looking to reach and grow higher once you numb yourself what happens is you're losing touch with your own humanity and you're betraying your own spiritual destiny but not really allowing yourself to experience the entire spectrum of life's ups and downs and life's twists and turns the Torah has actually a story we have a story of the two sons of Aaron not the van of you in their ecstasy and their excitement and their passion the first day the temple was established they came running in and what happened it says a strange fire consumed them interesting expression strange fire an alien fire and they died they dive with good intentions they wanted to have a spiritual experience there are different opinions what did they do wrong one of them says they were intoxicated and that's why afterwards God tells Moses to tell Aaron now that your sons have died now I will tell you how you enter the Holy of Holies in the right way and says the I envy Schaffer I'll taste you shall not drink wine or beer you should not drink intoxicating drinks only in a limited way we make kiddush Shabbos or holidays there are times when we say Allah hime but in a very limited way and actually those that did drink it the wrong way and there were good people they were hi great people they sanctified God's name but it became to self-indulgence so you see how the Torah even with a drink like wine which is considered a sacred drink and we make kiddush unwind and between the four cups on Passover but I pray our governor has that and has that effect on us there was never because of the effect there's only one God you want to experience God go to God don't don't go to alcohol don't go to drugs that's not the approach and even people have good intentions and they were definitely not so-called addicts even they ultimately were consumed by it and it says an alien fire interesting you know sometimes drugs is used as in that words a foreign fire alien fire strange fire that was the word David the first burnout in history is the sons of Aaron in the chapter in Leviticus that talks about their tremendous lessons you can learn from it so I want to sum up again just to make it clear it's never as an end in itself any type of alcohol or drug it never there's only one end is we do not find tricks or quick fixes how to get to experience I know many people for instance that have had LSD experiences and actually brought them to God I know people today that are committed Jews who came to it though safe through LSD and I remember once a person telling me you know that I stopped putting on film I stopped keeping Shabbos and when I had my first acid trip and I became I just have LSD trips psychedelic trips it brought me back to my duties and what do you think about that so I responded Tim imagine someone who's fallen to a coma the doctors have given hope and the only thing they have left is a massive dose of drugs that may shock his system and and he gets revived he comes out of the coma so what would you suggest that every time somebody has a need you give them a massive dose of drugs obviously not so maybe due to the fact that people are in a spiritual coma God allowed for one time or a trick of the trade so to speak to find in Far East whether through Buddhism or through psychedelics to open them up to the possibility but then once you've discovered God you could say goodbye to all these because they were never really meant to be an end in themselves so I'm not going to UM I'm not going to criticize someone that found God through other means but to say that should be the natural approach that should be the initial way absolutely not someone in a coma may need that but everyone else there are natural ways to do this there you studies spiritual Jewish mysticism spirituality considers and teaches you how to get to the place like that now the fact that sometimes you find the use of Mosca or the use of wine as I said in a minimal way and never as an end in itself [Music] what it says in the Torah about that the human being has dominion over all kingdoms of the world of all species including mineral inanimate vegetable and animal Dominion does not mean if to consume everything that you dominate over there are poisonous mushrooms and there are poisonous foods and there are things that we should never consume so no one's gonna suggest no one's gonna go swallow stones and ingest them just because they exist so we have to be wise when it says that human being has Dominion means that they have the capacity to elevate to refine to unite and connect all segments and all elements of this world towards a higher purpose some of the things we do in a way through ingestion yes healthy foods and healthy drink that nourishes the body but unhealthy foods and I forget about now drugs and alcohol I know the foods it's not something we should be consuming and the same thing is with things from the vegetable world not just because it exists doesn't mean you have to be smoking it or ingesting it [Music] so we do so I would say primarily through two main things number one is cognitive meditation and that's through studying about your soul to the point that it resonates with you so we have a whole body of literature what's called chrysalis thought it was based on Kabbalistic thought that maps out will call the spiritual genome it Maps out your soul what does your soul look like the different levels of the soul and how you climb from one level to the next awareness is the first step to any type of growth so we're being aware of your soul it's like being aware of your body so you have an x-ray of the body there's an x-ray of the saw did you know for example the soul has five dimensions the biological element of the salt the emotional element is intellectual is the transcendent and there's that oneness it's called nefesh you're welcome to some a high ethical and they correspond to different spiritual realms so when you study this you become aware of the spirituality and when you're aware of it it becomes easier to experience it the second step in this process what we call Phillip prayer is an emotional I mentioned a cognitive now an emotional type of conditioning cognitive conditioning and emotional condition unfortunately prayer is like a lost art but prayer is essentially learning how to a mote now to mostly be vulnerable and how to emotionally connect to higher spiritual realms so what does a person do when they pray they shut their eyes basically like by the shmatte we cover our eyes we shut out the world around us we create a little oasis with people called today mindfulness or other forms of meditation this is what prayer was always create a little oasis shut off the outside noises of the world shutdown your senses as much as possible and try to experience your inner self so prayer is essentially the emotional way of conditioning yourself and consist consistently with the cognitive conditioning that this comes through study and these ways these methods actually work they can help you literally reach levels that are unprecedented understanding new possibilities see the horizons and the beautiful potential that you carry within yourself learn to sing your own song and obviously doing this with a mentor with a teacher with someone that knows their way can help guide you but it's not something difficult to master once you really go through this steps [Music] people are monitored my slipper

Channel: Jewish Recovery Center

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Length: 15min 12sec (912 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 12 2019