in the early morning part 2

The chosen words will automatically arouse other corresponding thoughts in one’s
head, enabling one’s mind to race through a number of issues, often taking one into
visions of the future and into realms hidden and concealed. The message should open
one to see these things with surety and conviction. This is how it was done by the Ba’al
Shem Tov and many others. In this way were they able to see things beyond the
boundaries of physical sight in present time. (Reference, Sefer Ba’al Shem Tov, Bereshit 27 and
the Mekor Mayim Hayim commentary, note 23).
What I was shown hit me hard, hard enough to write this essay, hard enough to share
with you this section of the Zohar.
“Just as one is punished for speaking evil speech, so is he punished for not
speaking appropriate good speech where there is the opportunity and he does
not speak. He blemishes the spirit of the speaker, who is prepared to speak both
above and below, all in holiness. All the more so when the nation is following a
crooked path and he is able to speak to them to admonish them, yet he remains
silent and does not speak…” Zohar 3, 46b (Tazria, Vol. 7, page 262)
There is a Torah obligation to admonish those who do wrong in our community. There
is also an obligation to properly instruct and guide anyone wanting to perform a mitzvah
how to do it correctly. Many leaders in our Torah community are however unfortunately
most unqualified to teach and direct others in a large number of spiritual matters. Not
only do these leaders themselves not practice any form of meditation or similar Torah
exercise, not only do they have no knowledge about how such practices are properly
performed, these self same so-called leaders often exhort others to dismiss any interest
or pursuit of these sacred spiritual practices, considering them irrelevant and not a
necessary investment of one’s time and spiritual energy. Experience teaches us that
when the blind lead the blind this only serves to get even more people very very lost.
I have realized over many years that there really is no way to convince people as to
what is truth and what is falsehood. Everyone has their own points of view and their
preferences. Everyone believes what they want and justifies their beliefs with abundant
amounts of information and proofs that may or may not make sense. In the end, people
create their own little worlds of reality and surround them by walls of convictions. What
we have in the end therefore are many orbiting worlds, but no central sun to unite them
all. Everyone is more concerned about the good of the individual over the good of the
collective. The rule today states how the needs of the few, even the need of the one
outweighs the needs of the many.
When all the world is full of such selfish, self-centered individuals, we have a world that
is doomed for destruction. United we stand, divided we fall. This ancient lesson is
honored in word and forgotten in deed. We share no sense of bonding, no sense of