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Masks 

Thought, Intention, and Deed.

 

 Translated from Hebrew by DR. S. NAthan

l'ilui nishmat Esther bat mordechai
L'ILUI NISHMAT MAYER HIRSH BEN LAIBEL

 

 

 

“Half a shekel – a soul’s ransom.”  The shekel count is an example of an external mask; it represents man as a number, as a quantitative entity.

 

The priests are required to undergo purification, both in clothing and in behavior, in a manner that is not natural to them but is rather externally imposed upon them from above – their behavior is molded according to an image pre-determined for them. 

 

The incense, the annointing oil, the “spirit of insight and knowledge” in all of Bezalel’s labors, these too are not his own, naturally, but rather originate as an intervention from on high, intended to create a heavenly model for human behavior.

 

Sabbath – Rest.  “It is a sign.” A sign is used for creating an image, a symbol.  Signs, signals - all of these are expressions that come from the outside, or from above.

 

The Calf: “And Moshe saw the nation, that it was wild…and…that they had made the mask of a calf.”

 

Moshe removes himself, and removes the Tabernacle, moving it outside of the camp.  Furthermore, he conceals his face with a mask.

 

Self-image is comprised of thought, intention, and deed.  These three components are created from different sources of influence.

Thought is comprised of images, imagination, stimulations and feelings that awaken the inner self from its slumber.

Intention is the expression of thought consolidated around a goal that is found outside of the personality.  It is directed toward practical execution.

Deed is behavior as a result of intention.

 

Among these three components, a diverse mixture can be formed, from thought to deed, when man is not confused.  “The final deed was in the original thought.”  And from deed to thought: “After the actions, the hearts are drawn."  And all the other combinations that lie between these two extremes.

 

Organization of these components is vital for functional behavior.  When one is wild, it is due to lack of organization, and this is what caused the sin of the Calf.

 

Thought is formed through imagination, which creates self-image.  This self-image is what dictates the character and the course of one’s behavior.  Self-image is not merely negative or positive, but is dictated as well by environment, education, tradition, and also by expectations and their realization, and not merely by talent and ability that have been actualized.  Self-image determines morbid behavior as well, both emotional and physical.  One is the landscape of one’s birthplace.  “Every man has a name,” as the poetess tells us.  This name contains the concentrated essence of the uniquely original self-image of that particular person - on condition that it is controlled.

 

The role of the mask is to regulate the relationship between outer and inner.  A distorted relationship creates the image of the “double”, the hypocrite, “the degenerate with the permission of the Torah.”  Also the madman, who is not responsible for his deeds, because his thought and deed lack intention, the connecting link that is decisive.  It is possible also to find a capacity for thinking (a multi-talented person) without any capacity for control – because it is intention that connects thought and deed.

 

The “sign” that was “the crowning ornament” given to them at Sinai (Horeb), was intention.  They did not take proper advantage of this jewelry, and therefore lost the right to wear it.  “And they lost their jewel from Mount Horeb.”

 

According to the Akeida, this “jewel” was tefilin.  The ritual phylacteries that bind the head, hand and heart: Hand tefillin represent shamor, to "guard" against the prohibitions.  Head tefilin are for zachor, to "remember" the positive commandments.  According to other commentaries, it was a crown with the ineffable name of God inscribed upon it, like that worn by the high priest.

 

A mask is needed when external reality is not compatible with thought.  The mask is intended to regulate and moderate between these two.  Thus Moses' mask was always removed, being unnecessary, when he was teaching Torah to the people, because the reality of Torah contains an integrative factor that causes the teacher, the student, and the Torah to merge, creating one solid whole.

 

The Calf Mask

The Calf was in fact a mask that divided, as opposed to Moses' mask that connected and joined.  The mask within the Calf separated the reality of material-physical force from its supreme Godly/spiritual source.  The people’s sin lay in the faith they put in this brute force as separated from its Godly source, whereas Aaron saw nothing wrong with a brute force reality that did not separate from but rather served as an expression for its spiritual source.

 

Aaron was attempting a delaying tactic, trying to stall things until Moses would come, or until he could find a connecting link between spirit and matter – but he did not find one.  He sought the missing link, the factor of intention, the leshem shamayim, “for the sake of Heaven” – but he did not find it.  Therefore blame was placed on him: “For Aaron had made [the nation] wild.”

 

"Intending for the sake of Heaven," kavana leshem shamayim – this is the factor that creates openness between the three components, thought, intention, and deed.  Hence humility: Here the mask filters, creating a flow of connecting factors.

Compare to arrogance: Here the mask blocks.  When the body blocks, it severs thought from deed.  Then there is no regulating the flow between the inner self-image and the outer.  The external image is then merely a result, a victim of arrogance, of wickedness, and of all other temporal futilities that dominate the self and prevent its expression.  Thus is the self erased.

 

The attempt to detach olam ha’asia, “the world of doing” from olam hayetsira, “the world of creativity” and olam habria, “the world of creation” is the Sin of the Calf that continues to this day.  This is the attempt to free mechanical laws from human morality, to make them independent and autonomous.

 

A society that is too intensively evasive at the expense of the private individual erases the personality, including its emotions, uniqueness, and needs.  It dictates alien needs to the individual, and empties him of his own personality.  Thus is the Calf Mask created.  This is the case in interpersonal relationships as well: The man empties the woman of her personality, relating only to her exterior.  Insightful women are more aware of this danger than men.

 

When the self exists, but with no connection to the deed, this creates paralysis, physical and emotional impotence – depression.  Compulsiveness is an expression of the absence of any connection between outer and inner, with the inner struggling without success to find a path of expression within reality.

 

Kitsch is the product of the thought that lacks the intention.  It becomes deed indiscriminately, without the appropriate and natural criticism that comes from the inner space of the self.  It may result from excessive external stimulation that has difficulty passing through the self’s digestive screen, or from an overflow of emotions that surge into the vaccuum of an environment that does not have the capacity for appropriate response.

 

Self-image is not really from the self, truth to tell.  It is constructed gradually by “the labor of Torah”, which creates a Godly image out of the raw human material.  Thus is the covenant between man and Creator expressed through self-image as well.  Self-image only requires the act of choosing between image-makers that are inner and image-makers that are outer.  It is not created automatically.

 

As the Eben Ezra states: (31:18) “One cannot know God if one does not know one’s own life force and soul and body.  For whoever does not know the essence of his own life force – what use is wisdom to him?”