The Unity Countdown to Shavuot
And by the exodus from Egypt they received the level of faith…and after Passover; the purifying work begins in preparation for the receiving of the Torah. And when the Torah is dressed in a person’s soul, this is the time of Shavuot, the time of the giving of our Torah.—Rabbi Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag, Letter 52
Like a whisper from Nature’s backwaters, there is a call to the Universe to return in integral maturity to Unity. From the faded glow of the Creation Event congeal particles, atoms, and molecular chains—the gases, liquids and solids of the still. With the soul of growth, come forth the walled, chlorophyll-filled cells into upwards drive—communities of trees, grasses into the lush plains, leafy forests, and vine-entwined jungles of the great vegetative ecosystems of Earth.
With the soul of movement does the flexible cell of animal tell of its rising to the buzz, squawk, squeal and growl—the herbage eaters, and carnivores on prowl. The balanced communities of colony, swarm, school, flock, herd and pack—do not hold back their cacophonous concert as they ever so await the organization of the Maestro—still coming back his greased hair with such ego. Where is he of soul of speech, some screech? Locked in his dressing room, and he won’t come out others shout!
So great is the human ego that we believe the journey to the ultimate is complete in our individual selves. We’ve played out our little chess game with Nature, placed It check without needing to blink. Ah, but Nature is a much more clever player than we think.
It whispers a little louder and a bit more, through a keyhole in our dressing room door. So the words most mistily penetrate through the natural straight into human history. “Yes, you individual humans are very important indeed. Why what nobility there is in your arrogance and greed—and you should succeed.
It is right and just that you simply must obtain the wealth and power you deserve. Ah, also deep knowledge your wisdom demands—I really respect your nerve. Now here’s the plan, you’ll need to use your fellow man. So relate to him, trade with him, and across the globe join into larger community—nothing real, fear no loss of independence in this pretense of unity.
Oh my, you’re getting a little uncomfortable? Your civilization has some discontents? It’s okay, all you need is an internet lollipop to feel less vulnerable, and gain some newfound confidence. Now there, some ties just a little stronger for just a little longer…
“Do you feel it now in your hi-tech sensation, globalization? Feel the interdependence, my arms about you my little darling? Oh, stop being so tense, and please quit the snarling! Come to me, grow up and be One, my son, truly it is the ultimate happiness, I promise! I love you. I don’t want to hurt you, you’ll strangle—don’t struggle!”
Every day, a voice goes out from Mount Sinai. Every year, we are reminded. We are taken out of the slavery of Egypt, as Kabbalists tell us, the external mask dropped—the slavery of ego.
There is a count each day, each week of this process towards the singular vessel designated to accept the Light of Love from above the mountain of hatred, Mount Sinai, at the end of seven weeks (Heb. “Shavout”) of seven days.
Hidden within this count are corrections of connections, the highways and byways of mutual responsibility, the tendons tying hated differences into beloved differentiated organs that make future life possible and take it to a higher plane.
By Shavout, we are “as one man with one heart” and worthy of the illumination that can lighthouse a world safely to shore through the stormy seas of globalization.
We don’t circle the square in the plane, but in the higher dimension of integral intricacy and intimacy, to found the column building block of the architecture of unity. Search out each other, learn together, do—and teach. For so we have been designated from time immemorial for this moment…
“’The quality of light of the Messiah, the place of the throne of God in the world—”this is his name that he will be called: The Lord-is-our-Righteous-One (Jeremiah 23:6)’—is built upon the foundation of the viewpoint of actual unity, growing so strong that it penetrates all particulars and all causes.” Rav Kook
By Eliyahu
