The Meaning of Death in Kabbalah

hello everyone Simon Jacobsen here and welcome to another episode of Wednesday Night Live this of course program will be broadcast and then archived and available at your convenience basically forever in this universe will be speaking now about the cup meaning of death in kabbalah death that is that word that drives dread into our hive and to our hearts because it is both inevitable and unfathomable as soon as one thinks about it whether you think about your own mortality or someone else in your life we're left really with no words and most so many of us just avoid it altogether there are even theories and schools of thought that believe that most fears if not all fears are driven by the fear of death some people call the end the end of life as we know it and it is a very real part of our lives many argue that a lot of the driving ambitions of people trying to memorialize themselves someway eternalize themselves and their legacies is connected that this fear as well the fear of insignificance the fear of not being remembered the fear of was my life worth it I mean the questions go on and on when you talk about the matters of around death on a biological and a medical scientific level we talk about what the definition the symptoms of illness of death are how could be perhaps delayed how it can be prevented how we can prolong life discussion is about more about the things that we observe but the big questions like why there's a body and soul have to separate in the first place where does the soul go to can we connect the souls even after they've moved on those are questions that are far outside of the domain of biology or science and they leave us wanting and they leave us wondering because it's so much part of as I said of our reality in many ways the mystery of death is connected to the mystery of life itself of birth just as we ask where the soul goes to the question could also be there asked where was the soul before we were born what happened right the moment that before conception when body and soul met and fused so life essentially is really two forces at work through this period the bookends of what we call the beginning of life and the end of life which is a very limited time what about the journey before that and after that and many others such related questions and they're not just hypothetical they actually impact who we are how we live our lives how we see the significance of life and of course death as well so all of that is what we're going to be addressing a good place to begin I think is by process of elimination in a way of recognizing how little we do really know about these matters about these mysteries how little we know about life and death because even the amount of life that even though even the amount we know about the lives we live life that occupies this body during our lifetimes is also as much as we know there's so much more to know what is the brain like what is motions like what really is love what makes us tick so let alone trying to understand that which is preceded our being here and that which will follow our being here that makes that for sure is almost outside of our domain and yet we can talk about it and the kabbalah does talk about it the torah talks about it in a very fascinating and very disarming I would even say surprising way so let me begin something I mentioned many many times over the years going to console people who have lost a relative or a family friend a family or a friend you always are left with with a lot of questions people ask questions and they were looking for consolation looking for some form of comfort and the big question people ask is where does a soul go to upon death where does it go to I was just looking at the description to see if I'm covering all the details so where does this all go to upon death and I was always left wanting always left empty really not able to frustrated not being able to answer that question until sump at some point I had an epiphany I realized the question itself was the issue the question itself is based on an assumption that we are we know where it's at here's where we are so we're wondering we are where it's at where does this all go to after death but how do we know that this is where it's at this is just where we occupy life for a short period of time and after a while I developed this almost nonsensical imaginary dialogue between a refrigerator and electricity and it goes like this the refrigerator asked electricity where do you go to when they pull the plug and of course the electricity response to the refrigerator incredulously what kind of hoods but what nerve do you have to ask me that question you're a little box they just invented the last hundred to two hundred years ago you generate the electricity you're able to refrigerate food and now you think you're the center of the universe you asked me where I go I've been long I've been here long before you were ever existed and I'll be long after you got your small little appliance that will wear down and you're asking me where I go I go back to my natural place that's not confined and not limited to the parameters of your box or electricity resides maybe beyond time and space as we know it or a different type of conceptual time and space and that's exactly the true answer and everyone I've said it to either smiles but you can see something resonating even if they're in pain obviously it has to be said sensitively at the right time and what is the point the point is the little box that refrigerators our body is our consciousness our awareness and we ask the question where do you go where does the soul go to as if we're the center of the you everything orbits around us and only what our empirical experience is define reality it's not at all the case we're a little box that yes have we have intelligence we have emotions we have ways of processing but we are still a little box and just like we can't see the whole our entire horizon unless you climb up on a mountain and even then you're still seeing them from a limited vantage point the same thing is when we talk about higher realities where we talk about the soul we talk about electricity where does it go doesn't go any which it is where it is we are the novelty the addition it is in its regular natural place before it was confined and limited and channeled into the appliance in our case into our bodies so that alone opens up a whole new Vista whole new panorama of and perspective of looking at life that we realized one second there's a lot more going on here than what we experience like I always point out our primary tools of experience are our sensory perceptions our eyes our ears our taste touch and smell sight sound taste touch and smell what we see what we hear what we taste what we touch and what we smell as soon as someone says something that doesn't fit that those does not does not is not registered by those instruments we start wandering one second is that really exists an idea for example an idea you can't see it you can't hear it can't taste touch or smell it love truth spirit so much of our experiences I would ever strictly say our most real most truest experiences are not limited and not defined by these instruments so you need other instruments exactly correct you cannot go by this perception of your limited sensory tools when you're dealing with matters that transcend the sensory tools the super sensory and the domain therefore of the soul is in the main of spiritual tools as opposed to sensory and material physical tools and instruments so with that take for taking that in mind then we start thinking about things then one second then we say hold on a second if that's the case that I'm not the center of the universe and my perspective is not the only one or let's put this way it's a limited one what is going on in the bigger picture what is happening in the world of electricity what is happening in the world of souls and that humility that awareness of our limited perception actually opens us up to a much deeper perception because then we realize there are many more things happening here that are beyond my scope or my limited scope using my limited tools you need different tools souls can experience souls bodies experience bodies sensory experiences experience that which the senses can relate to you can see something so it's visible to your naked eye that makes your sense of sight able to perceive that same thing with hearing what about things you cannot see as I mentioned before does that mean you can't experience it it means that you need a different instrument and the same is true when we talk about life and death we need much broader instruments much broader perspectives and tools and instruments to be able to talk about it so let's talk about it in that broader sense once you realize that we need those instruments and once you start talking this way you realize that you can access it obviously the more you master the so-called science of spirituality the more you master the language and and I would say VIN the experience of the spirit the more you can relate to it but even on a rudimentary level even on a beginners level all of us can relate to a certain extent because we are those spirits the end of the day what distinguishes between life and death whether you talk about from a biological scientific or medical definition or not something happens nothing about the causes whether it's the breakdown of certain vital organs or due to disease or illness however you define the causes but something happens death is declared it's not just the heart stopped and the brain stop something separates that lifeforce you can call it anything you want you can call it energy you can call it electricity you can called soul in some way are separated from the body upon conception they connect the bit the fetus begins to develop the cells begin to multiply the fetus develops and then you have after nine months a healthy hopefully healthy child that child will live its life a spirit within a body joined as one fused as one you can't even separate the two and it will age life will take over meaning yes the body may wear down and that energy continues to maintain until the moment of death let's hope at 20 hundred and twenty years and they separate again so that soul energy that electricity doesn't disappear it's just no longer bound to the refrigerator to the container to the box called the body the body on the other hand wears down ages and ultimately the soul is leaves it and that's what we call death separation of body and soul separation of matter and energy if that works better but it's the same idea so the question now is and let's now I'm gonna quote some biblical verses so one second let's explain the logic the science the anatomy of death why should death happen so the way I just explained is because the body wears down it ages and like any appliance the refrigerator won't last forever the electricity that lasts forever it may not last in this appliance but though Jersey doesn't disappear you could keep generating new energy and even old energy can be used energy never dissipates and we know for today that even matter doesn't dissipate it just turns into an energy so when you say you take a piece of wood and you shape it into a firt into a table the wood now just change the state it's changed its said it's a different statement now than it is then you take that table and let's say after time the table wears down breaks you decide to use the wood to put it into a fire place so the wood then is now used as fuel the wood turns into energy and then energy warms and illuminates and then even when the fire burns out and this wood is no longer there it's just turned into some form of gas some form of energy that may not be contained any longer in the fireplace after it's burned out but it still never disappears it's again change this state the easiest example is think of gas liquid and ice water h2o standing water still water or regular water is fluid you freeze it it turns into ice you heat it it turns into gas and you can reverse this process many many many times forever someone didn't know they'd see here's gas and here is liquid then here is ice they think 3 differents three different entities not three different entities one entity three different stages three different states so you could say the same thing soul before it enters the body before birth a conception is an energy without a body think of it like the gas without substance then when it enters a body it's another state the soul and body come together so now it has some type of tangible you can see it you can see a live human being and then upon death they separate again the soul goes back to its state of gas using that analogy that state of energy so those different states so the question is why then does death take place based on these principles because the body cannot contain the soul forever because the body is subject to the laws of mortality the laws of deterioration of the of break down erosion and ultimately death the end of the end of the body's capacity to contain the soul and that's indeed the story when you look in the Bible and the story of Genesis the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden it says had they not eaten from the tree of knowledge they would have lived forever interesting statement that means death is an aberration why because why should a soul and body ever separate a soul has endless amount of energy so is that we're gonna run out of it it's not like gasoline the car runs out of gas so he has an endless amount of energy the body is a container so think of a cup you fill a cup with water barring the effects of evaporation is there any reason that the water should ever disappear why should they disappear the only ways possible if you either pour out the water or you puncture the cup and that's exactly the way the Bible understands it the body in its original form created a divine image was a perfect container seamlessly fused with its energy with its soul and together they can live forever basically an appliance that would not wear down but sin transgression not aligning ourselves to what the purpose of our lives is meaning living a life and making a mistake or making an error and misaligning the body from the soul what happens the body then is no longer aligned with its energy set some point those punctures will cause the energy to have to leave because the body can is not in healthy shape so a body that is a-line meaning it's focused on its purpose is a body that can then receive that purpose which is its soul a body that begins to live a life of its own agenda with its own ego with its own consciousness independent consciousness ultimately has wandered away from its purpose and therefore from its soul and at some point that body will be subject well it's my immediately subject to aging and slowly as the person ages the body will break down and not be able to contain the soul and hence the reason for death that is why from a point of view of the biblical perspective resurrection the idea of re resurrecting the body is not such a miracle in the words of the Talmud if God could create something that wasn't there in the first place he can definitely take something that was there and bring it back to life today with the concepts of were the ideas of DNA another another another scientific fact it's not that difficult to conceive that we can take the energy the DNA and perhaps resurrect something it hasn't yet been done what we have already have the science fiction of it whether Jurassic Park or books like the called the science of resurrection and so on because the fact of the matter is death we know today there's no such thing as complete disappearing everything turns into energy so I can't energy be reversed and turned into matter if we know how to do it so the point being is body and soul even though they do separate that does not mean they cannot rejoin and reunite it's not really the scope of our discussion I just wanted to put it in the full context so in this this context death then is really the cessation of a stage in life because the body can no longer continue its journey with the soul in an intact way due to human error due to human wandering off and hijacking the your life for a purpose for it for filling for living indulgently or living in ways that are not aligned to the soul's purpose so of course I saw that bodies that's aligned to a Souls purpose will not be able to coexist with it now materialism is not a bad thing materialism is not an evil as in itself it becomes destructive when it comes an end in itself if a person eats and drinks and lives their material lives without purpose meaning without direction without liveth sanctifying it and directing towards higher higher end which is to live a more constructive life a virtuous life then yes those material poor forces become essentially the root of illness disease and death but remember because death in this context is not just physical death biological death is the end result of spiritual death what a spiritual death a body that's not aligned with its purpose so even if we're healthy human beings walking around breathing and thank God everything is functioning you could also feel like a zombie feel like I'm no direction nor aimlessness emptiness a life filled with anxiety fear insecurity all that contributes to a sense of like you know I don't feel alive I feel yes I'm physically alive but I don't feel fully alive passion is lacking love is lacking all that in our indicators of a situation where you've already experiencing a small taste of spiritual death whereas a person who's aligned what isn't aligned life means a wide life means that your biological your physical life is the container is like a a vehicle for your spiritual journey so then when you eat a meal you drink a drink you go to work you commute most mundane matters are all stepping stones for spiritual development for spiritual growth and higher consciousness then your body is aligned with the soul so you'll say well then why shouldn't why does that person die so the Talmud addresses that it says once the toxins were released by the dissonance created by the tree of knowledge sin of the tree of knowledge that has affected everybody so even if a person who lives a meaningful life even if a person lives a purposeful life a soulful life they still don't have the perfection that's necessary until we repair it and the entire world will experience a new type of consciousness so the fact is that toxins released back then affected all of us what we try to do is correct it by living material lives that are aligned with our spiritual lives hence call the life of a real life that is alive they are alive not just breathing not just functioning or surviving but passionately alive with purpose and that repairs the punctures firstly in your own life and those in others and collectively when that will happen then soul and body will be able to live side by side yes forever and it's not that crazy if you think about it because why shouldn't they be together so the challenge we have is how do we live that type of spiritually - experts in dynamic life that's the reason that it says the righteous even when their their deaths they're called alive the wicked even in their lifetimes they're called dead how could you say that because death and life are not just defined by biological life it's not just was find by the Divinyls science is defined by meaning by purpose a life of virtue a life of love life of giving we're people who are around you feel I feel alive when I'm around this person they're living a life of spirit spunk of energy of passion so you can live a life that you can live a life and that type of life is touches the eternal and that's why a person like that even when they pass away the spirit that they live by lives on forever so who's never lived the spiritual life and all they lived was indulging or only there only successes were material once so what happens with materialism ends their success isn't now can we say that there's a person on earth that does not have any legacy family love it's hard to imagine but there's definitely in that there's measured their people whose entire lives were soulful lives in their bodies so you can imagine that person lives on in their students in their legacies and their teachings in the people they've touched and influenced just like parents live on through their children in the expression of the Talmud that talks about Jacob why does it not say the word death when it comes to Jacob it says because Jacob didn't die but they say but they buried him they eulogized him they embalmed him so it says as the externals but just as his children are life so - he's alive but that's dependent on two things that he left the legacy for his children to follow and that his children actually follow that it's contingent on that because if the children don't follow it with what is he alive just because they're walking around on earth yes there's a certain extension but we're talking here about living up to the standard to the values to the legacy that this person is Jacob or whoever it may be left and that's the story of our lives that's why death is such a tremendous lesson it's painful and horrendous but it's a tremendous lesson to light because it's reminding us of something that's why it says that when a person of God forbid experiences a death of a family member they shouldn't be callous and see it as it happened they could take a high-heat Nellie be the living shall take to heart see there's a wake-up call why is it a wake-up call you're not at fault for that person dying but in some ways we're all at fault we're all collectively connected and it's when someone close to you so reminds you of the dissonance between matter and spirit that's what that is dissonance between matter and energy so what are you supposed to do take it to heart and reconnect matter and energy do something in spirits and memory of that loved one ground them bring them back to life through good deeds through activities as the children are alive so through that person is alive so this isn't just a theoretical discussion it actually has real implications real implications in how we live our lives and not just the fact that oh you know mortality reminds me I should live my life because tomorrow may be my last day like the way the the famous book the last lecture you know a person writing what would you write what would you say if you knew this was your last day that's one thing that reminds us that to be to focus on priorities but there's something much deeper than that was deeper than that is the idea that death reminds us of what life is really all about that there's a dissonance that we're here to repair and we can repair every moment of our lives and essentially that's exactly right mejia Heim you bring life to life when you live a life of meaning and purpose and higher consciousness because what you're doing is battling the decay the callousness you could say even the howl of the death of materialism materialism by definition is dead this world this materialistic world is dead not because it's dead because it will die one day but as the cat as the hasidic masters explain if something dies is one day it means right now it's dying what do you look at materialism look at it everything about it is mortal everything about it as a beginning an end yes it's true it goes through different stages and States but materialism by definition dissipates it occupies time and space and and it is mortal and limited and temporary spirituality by definition is eternal values love these things do not are not subject to death because they're not subject to birth they're never beginning therefore they have no end so not lies we have the two choices will we live by our bodies by our material lives or by our spiritual lives and death is a reminder all the time of that split of that dissonance that disconnect that we are here to repair so when you think of it from a Kabbalistic perspective what is death the Kabbalist would say death is the disconnect between spirit and matter on a subtle level and in a broadest way it's actual physical death as we experience it the pain of it is of the separation that the soul will I'm not at the soul will journey on this old wood journey with journeyed here till now and the journey will start journey on is the connection we want the souls connection to the body we want the souls connection to people that new to the connection to us so then ask you the question can we connect of course we can connect to those souls by living in their spirits your connecting to them because that journey continues and began long before we were born so our birth our conception our birth and the lifetimes we lived is one stage of the souls journey this is how we look through the lens of the spirits of the lens of the soul look through the lens of the body you see a very different reality what you see is not what you get obviously you look around you see you know a bunch of objects see a sky sea birds sea people an extensible surface level it looks very limited but today you don't even need faith any longer to know that beneath the surface is brimming with energy there's no such thing as something that is dead once upon a time there was no human being in this room and all other lifeforce we'd say it's inanimate - dead room it's a lot of objects in it no one says that today first of all it's brimming with subatomic energy all the time and there's bacteria and there's life forms that we cannot see today look at a salt look at cell phones and so on there's an energy there's soundwaves ear waves light waves microwaves read ultraviolet infrared and so on x-rays so no one's gonna make a claim that only what I see is what I get is not correct there are many many more forces that beneath the surface and many we don't even know about yet so that's a given and including in the human being what you see for persons is inanimate is let's say physically god forbid dies after 120 a corpse is that really dead is the body dead yes we declare death because the soul and body have separated but the body as many of organisms that are still alive and even when the body decomposes god forbid it still has forces in it and we know today the DNA does not die and cells some of them die some of them don't so we look on that level we know there are things that live on they live on a completely different form but this doesn't need pure faith any longer what faith includes is that there's also a divine picture there's a bigger picture total the meaning behind it all not just there's energies everywhere but we can actually connect to those energies we can realign ourselves to those energies and reconnect body and soul and a very subtle level this is a subtle and not-so-subtle you meet someone I just just use a an example recent one that happened with me that someone really felt empty aimless doesn't know where they're going with their lives not motivated not even it's fitting the relationship anymore has been resigned given up and asking me for some help yes why do you come to me whenever I'm around you the person tells me and this is not to toot my horn I feel alive I feel your life see you live passionately you have purpose you're excited you're here you're enthusiastic they say does it rub off at all yeah by being around you I feel that way as I said but you also have what it takes you were sent here for a purpose why don't you live up to that purpose start small steps my point is back to the fellow follow this is a long story of John I'm just telling the short of it took a time but I suggested a few things he was a very good communicator said don't start writing something I sent him some people to speak to he should speak to what happened was as his talents began to emerge and he began to build confidence that was the key he began to feel value he began to feel alive again and he said those words I feel alive again it still struggles there are challenges I'm not gonna go into the whole analysis of it but all of us have moments or more than moments where we feel we've called low the low the low the pilots flame is on but it's at the lowest possible maintenance level that means you're not living a fulfilled life that means that you're not fully alive yes you're functioning and surviving you may even be successful in some ways but there's a part of you that may feel dead what means dead not motivated not driven many of the dreams and aspirations may have been dampened or even eliminated we've had losses disappointments betrayals abandonments I can go on and on with the different factors that kill part of us and we feel like we're killed then remember this nothing is ever dead you may feel that way and you may even be contributing to it because you're projecting but everything can be resurrected everything can be revived you have to find something in your life that ignites your spirit and the best is to find something that you're good at and you see people value that tremendous that's a tremendous nourishing and nurturing factor that nourishment that nurturing brings you alive it's like a flower that's wilted and seems like close to that but then you pour water and slowly care and you slowly start seeing slowly slowly the petals begin to flutter you could see life coming back into it they say how do I know maybe there are situations where you know the flower is dead that's it gotta get new flower well the flowers are flower but a human being is more complex than a flower this period does not die as long as you're alive your soul is waiting to be nourished it's waiting to be watered and what are the many ways one is by using your skills and talents to help people another is by understanding and studying about your soul becoming aware of your soul and its strengths another is by kindness virtue charity these are ways you exercise this is how you water the salt how you're nourish your soul there are real methods so if a person is not ready to do that that's like saying I'm not ready to water my flower and I expect my flower to blossom it doesn't work that way so we cannot give up on ourselves and we have to remember there's a soul in here somewhere and that soul can be brought alive and a ways that you'd be surprised do not give ever give up on yourself and yes another way is being around people that are that way it becomes contagious it's like a incubator where you incubate bios's you pick up from others confidence courage and very often that's what it comes down to it's not that we don't have it we don't believe we have it or we don't believe this that we have the strength or courage to access it and that's what I'm here to challenge never ever give up on yourself and find people who believe in you it's very easy to find people who don't believe in you and just feed your low self perception and slow self esteem and then it becomes a vicious cycle you know what too late for me there's no such thing period and I know that because your soul is alive you may not be feeling it you may not be aware of it but others are aware and the best way is not to wallow and not to percolate in your own misery in your own resignation in your own hopelessness because then you're feeding the beast you're feeding all the forces that actually make the flower will to make the flower thirsty and hungry and parched and you want to revive it and reviving requires watering and watering requires action and speech and good thoughts and a mindset and a heart set and that's what we're here to talk about that's why we do this class that's why I do what everything I do is to feed to help develop those tools and life skills necessary to feed the soul to nourish it to make it come alive that's the way we fight death so many people have tried to conquer death the Pharaohs of old by building pyramids and burying themselves when they died with their brides and live families they thought that was their way Cyril genic freezing is a modern way the Fountain of Youth maybe the cosmetic industry everybody is trying to preserve youth you want to know how you preserve youth you wanna know the real secret feed your soul your soul never dies it only grows it only gets younger actually and more vibrant the more you feed it and when you feed the soul the soul feeds the body that means can we conquer physical death perhaps not directly but you can Kars conquer spiritual death even to some extent even physical death and definitely prepare yourself to the point time where the dissonance will disappear and we will then again fuse and unite the to matter and spirit body and soul so the Kabbalistic view on death the meaning of death and Kabbalah actually it's a very very I would say surprising perspective it doesn't take away from the pain but it gives a whole different viewpoint on it dissonance interesting it's a dissonance it's a separation and we can do something about it it's not just some fatalistic reality and that's exactly what for thousands of years the Jewish people did they fought death by embracing life even when they experienced that even when they experienced being killed they fought darkness with light day for death with life the love of life the commitment to life and many ways have changed the world that the world sees life differently today life is more than just biological life life is a life of meaning a life of virtual life of justice a kind life a gentle life and that lives on and that impacts even the body because the body goes along it's a vehicle a channel for our expressing our souls aspirations the meaningful life center as the name suggests meaningful life not just a life but a life of meaning a purpose a life that is driven by a higher calling that's what we do we consider it to be the single most important ingredient in a person's well-being and health because when you have a life of purpose then you and all your actions and your choices matter when a person does not have a life of meaning then everything becomes negligible everything becomes optional yeah yeah no no meaning you're needed and everything you do is needing your choices matter now and forever and not just to you but to the world around you and every move you make positive move sends a ripple effect that vibrates throughout the entire universe that's our driving ethos so please join us partner with us in every way possible sharing these ideas supporting us suggesting ideas every possible way that a partnership works gota meaningful life com full array of resources in living a meaningful life a full life a life that's more powerful than death a life that fights death and death and dissonance and all forms of disconnect everybody have a very meaningful life a very meaningful week a living vibrant dynamic life we're now in a period in time the Jewish calendar the saddest period where dissonance is what we honor with the objective of repairing the breach in the wall in the temple in our sin there in our inner temple in our inner psyche repairing all breaches by discovering the real purpose of our lives commit to studying something to reading something to feeling it prayer and finally acting on it everyone have a very blessed week we're here every Wednesday 8:30 all these programs are archived and available and download them as podcasts and iPod on your iTunes I'm sorry and all other platforms social platforms from media platforms be blessed and it's always an honor to share a few words of intersecting Souls that the greatest dignity of all is the journey of the soul thank you so much

Channel: Rabbi Simon Jacobson at Meaningful Life Center

Views: 6,528

Rating: 4.8733029 out of 5

Keywords: rabbi simon jacobson, kabbalah, chassidus, death, life, soul, life and death, afterlife

Id: JDBRJBq0EZk

Length: 41min 20sec (2480 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 31 2019