Rosh HaShanah 5782 1 is a piece of digital artwork by David Baruch Wolk which was uploaded on June 24th, 2021.
Rosh HaShanah 5782 1
For the essential matter of Emunah, which is the essence of the Torah, is the ‘clarification of the imagination,’ (Likutei Halachot, The Laws... more
Title
Rosh HaShanah 5782 1
Artist
David Baruch Wolk
Medium
Digital Art - Digital Image
Description
For the essential matter of Emunah, which is the essence of the Torah, is the ‘clarification of the imagination,’ (Likutei Halachot, The Laws of Shalichim (messengers or agents) 5:1)
I will attempt to explain something of this concept, according to my very limited knowledge. Behold, the imagination, by its definition, is not Truth. Rather it is a matter of images, which are renderings of a matter and not the matter itself. In Lashon Hakodesh the imagination is called medameh, which connotes “something similar.”
Clarification of the imagination is a matter of separation within the imagination; to discern the element of truth which is hidden within the imagination. For all imaginary images have some starting point in truth, some fact of reality to which is attached illusory elements. The clarification of the imagination is the separation of the truth from the fiction.
The subject of clarification of the imagination in the writings of our teacher Reb Nosson of Breslov, ztz”l, author of Likutei Halachot, in particular, and in Rabbinic literature in general, is a vast topic, which cannot in the least be encompassed here.
What I see to note here, is that there is a distinction between Imagination on the Side of Holiness, and Imagination on the Side of the Impure. The spiritual entity known as Binah, Understanding, has, as part of its foundation, the quality of being able to compare one matter to another (מדמה מלתא למלתא); that is to learn true aspects of a certain matter from its similarity in some aspect to another matter. Behold: Truth can be learned from Imagination, from similarities between two matters. For the two entities are not ostensibly similar, only that through keen powers of imagination, a hidden true connection between the two is discovered. This is in the realm of Imagination from the Side of Holiness, the ability to discern true inner correlation, and is an essential aspect in all learning of Torah.
Yet the imagination, by virtue of its amorphous nature, can easily descend into the realm of the impure, where comparisons are established in the heart between two matters and accepted as relevant and truthful without proper scrutiny. In this way, the heart accepts as fact that which in truth is not fact, rather of illusionary, imaginary nature. This allows for fantasies to brood in the heart and is the source of sin.
The clarification of the imagination is of utmost importance, for it is to locate and separate the impurity in the heart; to expose it in its falsehood, and to reject it. This enables the imagination in its pure aspect to ascend and reunite with its source in holiness, with the sechel, the intelligence, whose root is in the Neshama, the soul.
This process can be understood as the essential mission of the Jew in this world; the imagination being the essential battlefield, as it were, of the conflicting forces of good and evil, and of falsehood and truth, in the man and in the world. The clarification of the imagination is thus the victory of Side of Kedusha, the redemption of all the forces in the world, to enter under the realm of the Almighty.
Uploaded
June 24th, 2021
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