Psychology – the study of the soul – is not a modern phenomenon. It is an inherent part of the human condition. As long as human beings have been in existence, we have been seeking and struggling to understand what makes us tick. What forces shape and define us and our behavior? How much potential do we contain? Are we intrinsically selfish or selfless? How much of our lives is controlled by pre-wired circuitry and how much is in our control? Can we overcome fear, insecurity and distrust? What is love?
Obviously, the more we understand our inner workings — the DNA of our psyches and souls — the more we can grow and improve the welfare of our lives and our relationships; the more we can transcend our fears and anxieties.
Please join Rabbi Jacobson in this fascinating journey into the earliest origins of human psychology. Plumb the depths of the psyche and the roots of human consciousness and beyond. What defines a healthy psyche? What is the genesis of dissonance and duality? Is consciousness our ultimate state? Are we doomed to living fragmented lives? What can we learn from a newborn about our natural selves?
A remarkable analysis of the Tree of Knowledge story in Genesis reveals for us the core of our beings, what is our calling in life, how we should look at ourselves, even when we betray ourselves, and how after we have wandered off, we can retrace our steps to regain a state of seamless fusion with our purest essence.
Man prior to eating of the tree was made in HaShems image after their likeness.So to say, knowing, internally, ‘‘good’, yet having free choice. After eating from the tree, ‘Behold he has become like the Unique One among us, knowing good and bad’……now man has internalized ‘bad’ as well as ‘good’, by his own choosing. Therefore, mans makeup, because of Adam’s choosing, has another aspect or awareness challenging his pure essence. The eating caused a greater concealment, tzim tzum, both mentally and physically. Being in the likeness of the Unique One(maybe you can explain further) does not negate being in HaShem’s image, but clouds His image. Now, in this wilderness, we need to deliberately choose ‘good’ in order to alter the wilderness to a state of ‘the Garden’? Freely choosing to return? Can we change the wilderness?
I love your insightful teachings. You certainly get thoughts flowing. Thankyou