Fixing Your Earth [Sadness] - 004 Coming Out of Negativity

Fire-of-Earth: An Increase of “Dryness” In the Soul

We are continuing here to learn, with siyata d’shmaya, about the element of earth, and its resulting trait, sadness. In this lesson we will learn about fire-of-earth [of earth].

As explained earlier, earth is a dry and heavy element. The heaviness in earth breeds the trait of laziness, and the dryness of earth is the root of sadness. Both earth and fire are dry elements. The difference between them is that earth is a cold element, whereas fire is a hot element. So there are two kinds of dryness – the dryness of earth, the dryness of fire.

Fire-of-earth is the combination of the dryness of earth and the dryness of fire. Therefore, the sadness produced from fire-of-earth is a very “dry” kind of sadness – meaning that it is experienced an absence of vitality. Dryness manifest in the soul as a lack of vitality, hence, the result of dryness is sadness. Therefore, when the dryness of fire combines with the dryness of earth, there is a deep kind of sadness that results from this.

The element of fire contains many properties. Fire is a destructive element. When a fire meets anything, it will try to burn through it, overpower it, and otherwise destroy it. Fire is also a bright, illuminating element. Fire has other properties as well, but here we will discuss these two particular properties of fire, destruction and illumination, and we will see how this pertains to our subject, sadness.

How The Fire’s Illumination Can Increase the Focus on Deficiencies (Causing Negativity)

Hashem has created many creations, as we say in the after-blessing of “Borei nefashos, rabos v’chesronan” – “The Creator of many souls, and their deficiencies”. Each of the creations has its various existing properties (its Yeish), but only Hashem is perfect, and therefore, all of the creations come with their various qualities as well as deficiencies [this is their aspect of ayin, their nothingness]. There are two different ways a person can view Creation. Either a person sees the existence of each thing, something, or, he notices the flaws and deficiencies in everything.

The depth of the trait of sadness is, when one connects his viewpoint to seeing the deficiencies of something. This is the sadness that comes from fire-of-earth. Through fire’s illumination, which brings everything into the light, a person is shown the various flaws and deficiencies in something.

This is also how fire acts destructive. Fire expands the deficiency in something, by illuminating the deficiency and bringing it into the focal point. This is the depth of how fire is destructive. Destruction means kiluy, from the word kol, everything, because fire ‘destroys’ something by illuminating the flaws in something, thereby expanding the flaws, which gives a person the viewpoint that the thing is ‘entirely’ flawed. Fire doesn’t produce new deficiencies in something, it simply expands the view on the deficiencies, which causes a person to focus more on it. This is the negative use of fire-of-earth.

Through fire’s illumination, a person sees the deficiencies in something. Compare this to walking through a muddy path at night. In the dark, a person won’t see the mud and it won’t bother him as much, because he can’t see it. He doesn’t notice it as much, so he’s not focusing on it, hence it won’t bother him as much. But in the daytime, when the mud can be seen in the broad daylight, a person is much more bothered by the sight of the mud he’s walking on.

In this way, the light causes a person to gain a more negative view, instead of a more positive view. While in general the light is associated with the positive – as it is written, “And G-d saw that the light was good”[1] – this is true in the general sense, but there is certainly a way for light to be used in the negative sense. At its higher root, the light is good, but there is also an impaired use of light, and this is when a person focus on the flaws in something – he is using the fire’s “light” to illuminate the flaw in his eyes, and to focus heavily on the flaw. Thus, fire is destructive, by illuminating the flaw in something.

These are the inner workings behind the sadness that comes from the dryness of fire-of-earth [of earth]. It causes a person to see the flaws in everything, and this obviously makes a person sadder. Here are some examples of it.

Example 1 – Overly Concerned With Having Overweight Children

In a family which is blessed with children, a parent may obsess over the various individual circumstances of any one of the children. This causes the parent to be sad, and to brood in the sadness, increasing the parent’s focus on the negative aspect that he sees. For example, his children may all be overweight. Then he may become saddened at this, and the more he focuses on this unpleasant aspect, and he becomes entirely concerned with the weight of all his children. The more he clings to this negative aspect, his sadness worsens, and he becomes even more negative about the situation, and it eventually spawns into a destructive kind of thinking towards his children. And this only increases his sadness.

This is the depth behind the curse, “I will greatly increase your suffering”[2] [the Torah here uses the word atzvus, sadness, in the term atzvoneich, “your suffering”]. Not only is there sadness, but the sadness worsens, with the more that a person clings to his negative view of things. It becomes a destructive view, and he becomes more negative, seeing only the negative aspect in something. It only causes him to become sadder, with the more destructive that his view becomes, towards the situation.

To illustrate, a person has a fire in his house, and he immediately starts emptying out the valuable items from his house. He quickly tries to save whatever he can, as the fire destroys the rest of his home. He will at least manage to salvage a few items from his house. But if he becomes so saddened by the fire because he is focusing on his losses, his sadness worsens and he doesn’t try to save anything from his home. He clings to the negativity of this situation and therefore he doesn’t bother to salvage anything from his home, and the fire destroys everything in his home.

The more that a person is attached to his fire-of-earth [of earth], his sadness worsens, because his destructive, negative view continues to expand, for this is what is meant by the curse, “I will greatly increase your suffering” -where not only is there sadness, but the sadness continues to increase and worsen.

As a result of becoming too attached to fire-of-earth [of earth], when a person encounters just about anything, he will immediately look for the faults he can find in it. He is connected to a negative view, so all he will see is the flaws and deficiencies in something. This is the depth of the sadness that comes from fire-of-earth, and it only makes a person sadder and sadder, with the more he clings to his negative perspective.

In today’s language, this is called having a “negative perspective”, “being negative”, etc. Here we have explained that this problem comes from the impaired use of fire-of-earth [of earth] in the soul.

1 - Connecting To Havayah - The Inner Dimension of Good in the Creation

The depth behind why we see deficiencies in anything is because the world has become mixed with good and evil, ever since the sin with the Eitz HaDaas, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.The Sages state that the world today is “mostly evil, with only a little good.” However, if one’s soul is connected with good, it sees the hidden good that still exists in the Creation. This is the power of how “A good eye, he is blessed”,[3] the power of ayin tovah. This is not just about adapting a more positive perspective, but about becoming connected to the depths of good that are found, in a hidden dimension within the Creation.

The more one connects his mind with the thinking of the Torah, which is called tov\good, for the Torah is called a lekach tov, a “good purchase” - and the more one connects his view with the view of the Sages, who are the einei haeidah, “eyes of the congregation”, who possess the “good eye” that is above the realm of regular human intellect – the more one will see the “good” that is in the Creation. But the more that a person is connected with evil, the more he will see the evil in Creation, and the more he will focus on the negative aspects found in the Creation. While the Sages said that the world today is mostly evil, that is only in the external layer of the Creation. On the inside layer of Creation, it is entirely good. The only issue is: where one’s soul is connected to.

Reframing Deficiencies as “Limitations”

How can a person repair the negativity (fire-of-earth-of-earth), which causes him to be sad? In truth, all of the “deficiencies” in Creation are only “deficiencies” when they are seen as the root of destruction. But the more a person connects to the point of havayah [the raw, existential state of reality, which is completely good]in the soul, the less he will see “deficiencies” of Creation as “deficiencies” destruction, and instead, he sees them as the limitations of something. As the Sages state: “These are the very limits of the world”. [Meaning, instead of viewing something or someone else as having a flaw, one can realize that the thing or the person is simply limited].

In different terms, this is the difference between the concepts of yediah (higher “knowledge”) and bechirah (free will). The more a person connects to the higher view, which is yediah, the more he becomes connected with havayah (the deeper dimension of reality),[4] and as a resulting of seeing things from this higher view, the less he will be bothered when he notices the deficiencies in something. Instead of seeing deficiencies of each thing in Creation, he sees the limitations of each thing in Creation, for all of the Creation is ultimately limited.

This is also described as “eating from the Eitz HaChaim (the Tree of Life)” even as one lives in this current world where we have become affected by the view of the Eitz HaDaas. When one connects his soul to havayah, alternatively known as yediah, it is as if he is “eating” from the Eitz HaDaas, which is above the view of bechirah, represented by the Eitz HaDaas. Through connecting to havayah\yediah\Eitz HaChaim, one sees how everything in Creation is simply “limited”, as opposed to noticing the “deficiencies” in something. This is also known as “higher fire”, like the fire of the Burning Bush which wasn’t eating up the bush, a fire which does not destroy. This is a kind of fire which illuminates each thing and shows a person the limitations of each thing, as opposed to illuminating the deficiencies of each thing.

However, this is a very deep perspective, and a high spiritual level, so it is not that practical for most people who hear this. We only mentioned it here so that we can see the root of how we repair the sadness that comes from fire-of-earth [of earth].

2 – Finding The Good In Each Thing

Now we speak on a more practical level.

We can repair negativity by focusing on the “point of good” that is contained in something. Since the entire Creation is a mix of good and evil (ever since the sin), there is nothing in the Creation that is entirely bad. There is always some good contained in everything. One must traverse this point at some stage in his life, of always noticing the good in something, even if the good is very hidden and hard to find at first. One should think about something and notice any good points in it.

On a basic level, this causes a person to become more positive, and on a deeper level, it awakens the good of the soul.

One should start by noticing at least one good point in something, and then he should gradually work on noticing at least three good points in something. It is recommended that when one begins to work on this idea, he should not try to find the good in anything forbidden by the Torah, for this is very dangerous, and it is not for most people to do.

Not only does it cause a person to see good, but it enables a person to connect to the point of good that is contained in each thing. This is a gradual process. A person with a more positive personality will have an easier time with this idea, but even someone with a more negative personality can work on this idea, and gradually begin to notice the good in each thing. This will slowly connect his soul to the good found in each thing, to the havayah (actual existence) of something, as opposed to the deficiency in something.

This connects a person to the hidden good in each thing, which is really the Torah’s illumination that is in each thing. The soul of the world is the Torah, and one can find a point of Torah in each thing, by becoming connected to the good that is found in each thing. While a sefer Torah can be burned (G-d forbid), this destruction only occurs to the ink and parchment of the sefer Torah, which are physical, but the actual Torah itself can never be burned, for the Torah is the very soul of Creation.

This is another path by which one can return from the view of the Eitz HaDaas, to the view of the Eitz HaChaim. It is more practical than the path presented earlier, though it is not as deep, for it is a path that runs through this current world, which has become damaged ever since the sin with the Eitz HaDaas. The first path, mentioned earlier, is a higher road to take, because it is entirely above the view of seeing any “deficiency” in Creation, whereas the second path mentioned is within this current world of “deficiency”. In either path, though, a person trains himself to see that there is really no such thing as a “deficiency” in Creation, even when it appears to be.

3 – Seeing the “Expansion” of Something

There is also an additional, third method to come out of the sadness caused by negativity.

Since the soul is saddened by focusing on the flaws in something, the same is true in the converse – a person becomes joyous when he focuses on the increase and expansion of something. When something dries up, it contracts and it is lessened, thereby causing sadness. Hence, one can come out of sadness\dryness by finding the expansiveness in something. Therefore, an integral aspect in coming out of sadness is by finding expansion in something.

(Although we are mentioning this concept with regards to solving the sadness that comes from fire-of-earth [of earth], any sensible person can understand that this idea is important for solving all kinds of sadness, and not just fire-of-earth. In each of these lessons, we are mentioning solutions that are particularly suited to the sadness being described in that lesson, but many of the concepts can be used to solve all kinds of sadness in general).

Sadness comes from contraction, and joy is found in expansion. We will give some examples of how to find “expansion” in something.

A person sees a person and notices faults in him. What should he do now? He should now “expand” the person in his mind, by reminding himself that this person must have some good deeds. Chazal state “the good deeds of the righteous are considered to their offspring”,[5] and therefore, we can find expansion in every Jew, for every Jew has good deeds.

(Understandably, this idea can be misused as well, like everything else. For example, if a person meets a heavy person, he should not ‘expand’ the person’s weight in his mind, because this kind of expansion would only make him think worse of him. So one should use this idea sensibly, and only for the purposes of gaining a positive view of the other person).

One should try to find any points of “expansion” that are contained in each person, and in that way, he connects to the “expansion” in each person, as opposed to the flaws found in each person, which would minimize the person in his eyes. (The depth behind this power is that it is a use of the “light of the Infinite” that is found in each thing). In different terms, a person connects to the “additions” (tosefes) that are able to be produced from each thing.)

Here is another example. A person can look at an animal and think about what is produced from it, such as milk, eggs, etc. Even the dung of the animal, which seems to be nothing but waste and garbage, is actually very valuable and highly useful, for it is used to make many different products. In this way, one sees the expansion contained in the animal. Even barren trees which don’t produce any fruit, can have other important uses. One can also view plants and rocks and think about what can be made out of them. In all of these examples, a person is viewing something which is seemingly useless to him, and he sees the ‘expansion’ contained in each thing.

In Summary

To summarize, we have explained here three different perspectives which a person can use to come out the sadness that comes from negativity, which is dryness of the soul:

1. 1.     When you notice a flaw or deficiency in something, instead of thinking it as a flaw or deficiency, view it as a limitation, for everything in the Creation has it limits.
2. 2.     To be aware that nothing in the Creation is complete and perfect.
3. 3.     Through seeing the “expansion” (or addition\tosefes) contained in each thing in Creation, i.e. by thinking of what can be produced from a rock, plant, animal, or human being.

In Conclusion

These are all deep perspectives, which can be used to repair the sadness that comes from the dryness of fire-of-earth [of earth]. The more that a person becomes connected to any of these perspectives, the more he will come out of the sadness that comes from the destructive dryness of fire-of-earth, and instead, he will become connected to fire’s holy illumination - the repaired use of fire-of-earth - which enlightens each thing, thereby causing joy.