Imaginary And True Freedom, Part 1 – Shackles In Imaginary Freedom

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Freedom,”: “Harut (carved) on the tables”; do not pronounce it Harut (carved), but rather Herut(freedom), to show that they are liberated from the angel of death. These words need to be clarified, because how is the matter of reception of the Torah related to one’s liberation from death?

Question: Generation after generation, freedom has attracted people. What does this mean?

Answer: Freedom is an amorphous concept, it is completely unrealistic, unnatural, something that eludes us, something that we picture in our imaginations. What people think and accept as freedom is derived from a lack of understanding of where they exist.

We live in a limited volume, on a small and enclosed Earth, and within this volume we try to find a state in which we feel the least pressure. In this state we apparently feel ourselves free, independent, choosing and realizing our actions, thoughts, and opinions.

But we are all particles of an immense network interconnected through billions of threads of control, and thus we don’t feel that we are in a rigid system that completely determines everything. Its concealment from us is what grants us the illusion of freedom. But in fact we have no freedom, neither in thoughts, nor in desires or actions.

Question: Does the need for this amorphous feeling, constitute a response to the subconscious feeling that we are not free?

Answer: I think that humanity doesn’t understand that it isn’t free. A person always finds ways to evade unpleasant feelings and thoughts.  After all, our main characteristic is the desire to receive and to enjoy, so I am constantly searching for the condition of maximum enjoyment or minimal suffering. This is the totality of my aspirations in every situation.

We can’t say that a person has a great need for freedom. He wants to find work, spend time with his family, to have everything defined and okay for him. On the one hand, he believes it is best to be in charge. So what kind of freedom is this?

A person puts himself into particular frameworks. He gets married, establishes a family, and therefore is obliged to work, to feed the family, to be concerned about it, to protect it—obligation, obligation, and obligation. So where is the freedom here?!

All our lives are arranged such that we need to obey some rules. Whether I want it or not, in any case I am under the authority of some dogmas, tastes, restrictions, fashions, etc. Whether I want it or not, all of this influences me.

It follows that I am not free in anything, in absolutely nothing! So no freedom is accounted for. Even if a person lives alone in a jungle, he would still be surrounded by some kind of environment that forces its limitations and principles on him.

How can I understand what freedom is? For this we need to rise above our lack of freedom and feel sharply and clearly where we are, which forces determine our condition, how nature, through individuals and through my entire environment, defines and shapes me.

To be continued….
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/11/15