Genesis Cycle Five Toledoth

 Toledoth


Understanding Evil

Toledoth brings us to a sensitive subject; the nature of evil.

This is what I think. It exists. It isn’t a thing though. It’s a flow, an energy that enters us if we aren’t careful. Today is November 15^th 2012.  I think of the most recent photo of the BBC correspondent in Gaza carrying his dead baby. I think of the missiles shot at Israel from the Gaza strip. I don’t locate who might be good and who evil. Because I don’t believe that’s how evil works. 

Here are two different definitions I’ve learned from respected teachers.  These might seem esoteric. The objective though is to work through the esoteric and see how we can apply it to Toledoth and then to the situation today to bring about peace. 

 One is that evil is gevurah gone haywire. In this situation gevurah actually breaks away from the sefirotic construct and creates its own construct that mirrors the first. This is quite dangerous. Looking at it we are fooled. It seems good. Our actions seem good. But they aren’t.  How do we learn? Often in hindsight.  

 The other school of thought dictates that evil is caused by a lack of connection between gevurah and chesed. In this case scenario, chesed as well as gevurah creates evil.  The disconnect points to both emanations. It takes two to tango. Neither is fitting into the other, coming to meet. They are cut off from each other, not only in the world but in our hearts.

 How are these explanations different? In the first, if we believe that the sefirot are within us as well as on the outside…  evil can take over human beings in a static solid eternal way. People can be evil. In the second, evil is based on conflict within but it doesn’t attach itself to us. People are not evil.  In the first, the parallel for evil is God. In the second, the parallel for evil is tiferet (balance and connection).

In the first scenario if we were to vanquish evil we would either cut it off (this is a more conventional way) or embrace it and smother it with light.

In the second scenario, neither embracing or smothering the darkness with light will work. Chesed can’t over-do it if it’s going to meet with gevurah. The way to deal with evil-as-energy therefore is carefully, gently, with discernment, self-restraint. It takes time, trust and commitment, a tiptoe effect, a slow approach.  There are two forces here coming-to-meet. Too much of either destroys the process.  This includes too much chesed. 

 Toledoth helps us to find our way through this maze of decision making when it comes to dealing with evil now.

In Toledoth, according to the Talmudic rabbis, Esau is the manifestation of evil. If anyone has ever been hung out to dry in Torah, in fact, Esau would have to be it. 

But  is Esau as frightening a human as we are taught?

Here’s some interesting Talmudic facts:  Rabbi Johannon (Bava Batra 16b) teaches that Esau commits five sins on the day recounted in Genesis 25:29-34. (This is the day by the way that Esau sells his birthright to Jacob for a cup of lentil soup.)  He dishonors a betrothed maiden, he commits a murder, he denies God, he denies the resurrection of the dead, and he spurns the birthright. There are many brilliant ways that R Johannon proves this through inter-biblical interpretation.

Since these sins are extreme, one can only surmise that there is a basic and guttural need on the part of our teachers to reflect Esau in a very negative light.  My personal opinion is they do this partly so that they can therefore raise up Ishmael, also the dark brother but to his credit the son of Abraham. A text on Ishmael is immediately juxtaposed to the Talmudic text on Esau. Ishmael, Rabbi Johannon claims, repents in his lifetime. And this is why he vayigvah vayamat vaya’asef ama’av. Translation: He gave up his breath and died and was collected to his people. 

Esau’s death is not mentioned in Torah.

Also, in my opinion, the Talmudic rabbis vindicate Esau to explain why Jacob gets everything and Esau so much less.  Finally, if Esau is oh so evil then the renown deception of Jacob seems like small potatoes.

However, Talmudic rabbis say that Isaac’s blindness  is in response to Esau’s relationship with a Canaanite woman. And in the Sefer Ha-Yashar it is even said that years after the selling of the birthright and their separation, Laban (their uncle) successfully convinces Esau to fight his own brother. 

Thee’s more dirt on Esau, in fact a whole cesspool. 

The Zohar says that Esau is “a true progeny of the serpent”.  In Talmud we also read that his shameful actions bring about the death of his grandfather Abraham. He is also called one of the three great atheists (Sanhedrin 101).

The sources quoted above range over centuries of time, from the 3^rd century C.E. to the 15^th.  This is a very long and solid history of evil placed upon one man. However we have to understand that for much of that time there were real enemies. If it wasn’t the Romans it was the Christians in the form of the Inquisition. Today as well the Jews have real enemies. If we relate to Israel…and needless to say we should…then we certainly do. More than one country wants to destroy us. Therefore,  it has to be healing in some way to place gigantic vindications onto the shoulders of those who fight us now (and historically) since those who fight us (in the comparative present) have not only hurt us but threaten our security and our dreams. 

Times change though if slowly. Rebecca knows this. She’s the one who carries both Jacob and Esau in her belly. Her confusion over their fighting and her obvious illness during pregnancy brings her to God. And God (or the prophet of God who she visits or her innermost heart/mind) says that one will be stronger and one weaker, but nothing is said that makes one baby good and one evil. 

This is what I think: Their fighting itself is the evil since it’s their fighting, and not one fetus or the other, that makes Rebecca ill. 

 Now, let’s see Rebecca’s womb as the universe.  If Esau represents gevurah (at this moment) and Jacob represents chesed…then it isn’t Esau alone that is causing all of the harm. It is the two of them in a tight space. They are so much of what they are. They can’t come-to-meet.

Jacob later wrestles with the angel. At that moment he becomes tiferet and can bring both energies together within himself. But it takes time to get there, self protection, hard laborious work.

  

Therefore, next time we want to abolish evil from the earth we may want to look at ourselves closely first and see how we can contribute to connection rather than swollen myth, how we can see that evil is an energy rather than a being, and an energy that is within all of us. We may want to pull back first, yes protect ourselves, yes there will be pain during the work, but visualize the connection at the end. Too much chesed won’t work. Nether will too much gevurah.  We don’t want to point fingers. In short,  if a pregnant woman can relax and submit and go to God often the pain of pregnancy subsides. We just need to allow the universe to learn from Rebeccah and emulate her in her wisdom and guidance. We need to help the universal-womb relax through our own meditation, faith, love and compassion.

Not easy given the facts. 

My heart goes out to the victims of these tragic times.