King Without a Crown
The Creator is always sending us hints if we are open to hearing them. Listening to music last week, "King Without a Crown", by Matisyahu, cycled through my playlist. I realized the answers are hidden in these lyrics.
One of the most difficult spiritual concepts to grasp, and even more difficult is the idea of self-nullification, or the subjugation of the ego.
As many of us have discovered, much of who we are, what we say, do, and how we perceive the world is influenced by our ego. It can be difficult enough just to uncover this influence to even begin the work.
However, we should not give up hope - we can make significant progress with effort, and understanding of the basics.
The Creator is always sending us hints if we are open to hearing them. Listening to music last week, "King Without a Crown", by Matisyahu, cycled through my playlist. I realized many insights are hidden in these lyrics.
Strippin’ away the layers and reveal your soul
Got to give yourself up and then you become whole
You're a slave to yourself and you don't even know...
We will unpack these words for more understanding.
In the Beginning
According to the Kabbalah, a devastating and cataclysmic event took place before the creation of our world. This was before - but is entangled with the sin of Adam, known as the "Shattering of the Vessels" (Shevirat haKeilim)¹.
This event epitomizes the negative outcome of failing to see ourselves as part of a larger whole, and prioritizing selfish gain.
On a practical level, we learn that the inability to rise above our ego and share what we've been given will inevitably lead to a similar conclusion in our own lives.
"Stripping Away the Layers and Reveal Your Soul"
The result of the Shattering of the Vessels is that the overwhelming majority of souls that experience life on earth are initially encased in what is called the "Klippah".
The Klippah is a hardened shell that serves as both a protective covering, and also light-occluding barrier, dimming our perception of the Creator². The more we sin, the more opaque the Klippah becomes, making the world a dark place for us.
As the Klippah strengthens, we become spiritually disconnected, forgetting G_D. We may become selfish, or influenced by the guise that we are self-sustaining - a kind of functional atheism. This is the essence of evil.
An excellent summary³ states:
"When something presents the appearance of self-containment and other-than-G_D it partakes of the quality of evil. Conversely, when it presents the truth of Divinity’s one-and-onlyness, it partakes of the holy. Everything in our post-Edenic world contains both, to varying degrees. It follows that evil manifests on the physical plane as the opaque skin or shell (ie klippah) that surrounds each sliver of soul and separates it from everything else. This creates the appearance of many which supports the illusion of other-than-G_D. This is not a moral judgement but a simple fact."
As the song lyrics say, "strip away the layers [of the Klippah], and reveal your soul".
The result is that we may gain more insight into the Creator and His ways.
"Give yourself up and become whole"
The popular representation of the Sefirot⁴ provide us a visual model for understanding.
As the light cascades from above to below, each of the vessels, that is the Sefirot, receive light, fill-up, and overflow their contents to the next Sefirot in the sequence.
This is the case with the exception of two Sefirot in particular.
