Supernatural Selection

What drives people? What makes people strive for eg. wealth? With wealth comes the potential to afford things that lack of wealth might prevent – eg. travel, entertainment, house etc.

Simple maths – if I have x dollars, I can afford x things. Wealth puts me in a bracket where affording those things is my ability and I can exercise that ability at will.

The physical world is a reflection of the spiritual. This phenomenon exists in the spiritual too. H’ created human beings, placing their souls in a physical body. The mission, should we decide to accept it, is to nurture the spiritual aspect of our existence, using the physical.

Human beings are created in the image of H’, meaning that we have the ability to transcend the spiritual levels of even angels and attain a likeness to Godliness beyond any other creature.

By striving for knowledge of H’ and spiritual connection, we have the potential to transcend physicality and live at the level of supernatural. This is a law of spiritual nature and if addressed properly, is a guaranteed outcome.

This does not come easily and only the select few have maximised their earning capacity in spiritual levels in this world.

One such individual was Avraham Avinu. By applying all his heart and strength and time to the cause, Avraham transcended the barrenness that he and Sarah faced, to have children at the ages of 100 and 90 respectively.

His ultimate spiritual test was, after a life completely dedicated to spreading the name of a merciful and benevolent Creator and shunning all forms of cruelty and idolatry, to have to kill and offer his son up to H’, which he passed faultlessly, without actually doing the deed. This act of Avraham, earned a level in spirituality and created a spiritual gene pool, that his descendants would now live an existence transcending nature.

Skipping around 400 years, Avraham’s descendants, the Bnei Yisroel are freed from Egypt in the greatest show of Supernatural since the creation. They go on through the supernatural events of splitting of the sea, revelation of Sinai, manna from heaven, clouds of glory and water from the rock.

After the cheit haeigel, the Leviim jumping to mi LaHashem eilai, acquired their even further, exalted level, which was then programmed into the gene pool for their progeny.

They come to Israel, a land unlike any other, which transcends nature and is the perfect place to live a supernatural existence for eternity. They are virtually invincible and at the level where they can walk in and conquer it without lifting a finger.

They lower their spiritual worth by sending spies, the spies descend right down into a natural level of interaction with the world, give a doomsday report, the people cry and as the Midrash says, H’ responded ...because you cried with no cause, I will give you cause to cry. That night was Tisha B’Av. The spiritual inheritance works in the negative as well.

H’ doesn’t change. He built into Creation the ability for human beings to acquire or lose levels of spirituality – closeness to Him. Based on personal achievement in the spiritual realm, the level of exertion required in the physical realm follows.

The Meraglims’ potential for transcending the physical and gaining the spiritual after all they had experienced, was unprecedented. But, due to their lack of trust in Hashem they lost the level of invincibility and as a direct measure for measure reflecting this, became much more subservient to the physical, so that when they tried to go in naturally afterwards, they were decimated.

Tisha B’Av thus went from what should have been a Yom Tov to a day of suffering.

On the first pasuk in Breishis, Rashi quotes a Midrash that at first Hashem planned to create the world with judgement and saw it wouldn’t survive so He partnered the trait of mercy with it.

A world of judgement would mean no room for error.  Now, Hashem has given a way of fulfilling judgement through parallel means. For example, if a person does something wrong, instead of physical suffering, bringing a korban can heal the spiritual void that a person’s actions or lack of action caused.

Instead of offering ourselves, we can offer the next closest life form. A process designed to make us feel as if it is actually ourselves being offered and bring us to a higher spiritual level.

The Beis Hamikdash was the means by which we could offer korbanos. It was the centre of our spiritual connection to Hashem and if utilised correctly, would have kept us on the level of supernatural. Because the Jewish people didn’t live up to their potential at the time, the negative spirit of Tisha B’Av, inherited from the incident of the meraglim, afforded our enemies the ability to destroy both Batei Mikdashos.

But even here is evident the partnership of mercy with judgement. Actually it was a merciful act that the anger as it were, of H’, meaning the descent of the Bnei Yisroel into the physical, was taken out on wood and stone instead of on us.

So, the world has two balance sheets, the spiritual balance sheet and reflecting that, the physical balance sheet. Whilst korbanos are the ultimate tool for balancing the spiritual balance sheet, we still have very powerful tools at our disposal.

Tefillah is called paros sefaseinu – the cows of our lips. We can earn our spiritual balance through the power we invest in our davening. Torah, mitzvos and acts of kindness achieve the same. The destruction of the Beit Hamikdash is not a loss but a confiscation – the ideal is to do Tisha B’Av so well, that we restore the level to bring back the Beit Maidish.