Throughout the story of the Exodus we are repeatedly told that we are released from exile in order to make it known that "Ani YKVK" - "I am Hashem." R' Kook ztz"l expresses a deeper meaning behind these words. Though only a multiple volume book would suffice to explain this idea as it deserves, I will try to expound one part of this teaching as it is related to Tu Bishvat.
(Please try to take "western" usages of the word "god" out of your mental dictionary when reading this article. As you may have noticed, I try as much as possible not to use the word "god" since it comes from a religion other than Judaism and connotes, for many of us, an understanding which often corrupts the Torah way of understanding religious life and our existence in general.)
In Search of The Inner 'I'
(bakashat ha'ani ha'atzmi)
by Rav Kook ztz"l
'Ani' is in exile. The inner essential 'I' of the individual and of society is not revealed in its true depth, according to the value of its holiness and purity, or according to the value of its upper strength which is saturated with the pure light of the upper radiance that burns inside him.
We have sinned along with our forefathers. Adam Ha-Rishon sinned when he estranged himself from his true 'I', when he turned after the council of the snake, when he lost his inner self and could not give a clear answer to the question "Where are you?" because he no longer knew his own soul and because the true 'I' was lost from him, through the sin of bowing to a strange god.
Israel sinned; they turned after foreign gods. They left their true inner self. They have forsaken goodness.
The earth sinned, it denied its true self, it restricted its power, it went after end results and goals and didn't use all of its hidden powers to create a world where the tree would have the same taste as the fruit. It lifted up its eyes to what was outside of itself (externalities), to contemplate destinies and careers.
The moon complained, she lost her inner orbit, the joy of her portion. She dreamt only of the external qualities of kingship.
So the world spirals downwards into a loss of the 'I' of every individual and every society.
And then there come "learned" educators. They look only at the external and they too draw attention away from the 'I'; they add wood to the fire, give the thirsty vinegar to drink, and they fatten the minds and hearts with all that is external to them. So the true 'I' is slowly forgotten. And when there is no 'I', there is no 'Him' and all the more so there is no 'You'.
"Ruach Apeinu Moshiach Hashem"- "The breath of our nostrils the redeemer Hashem" (Eicha 4:20). This is His strength and the beauty of His Greatness. It is not outside of us, it is the breath of our nostrils. Hashem our God and David our king we will seek out, of Hashem and His goodness we will tremble, we will search for the "I" within us - we will seek ourselves and it will be found.
Remove all foreign gods, Remove all idols "and you will know that I am Hashem your God who takes you out from the land of Egypt to be for you a G-d, Ani YKVK I am Hashem".
The Kabbalah teaches that Ain (nothingness) is the highest sefira of Keter representing the simple undifferentiated unity before creation, a level that is beyond our reach. Ani (I), composed from the same letters in Ain, represents the lowest sefira of Malchut, the revealed world of multiplicity.
The Torah teaches Am Yisrael is brought out of Egypt "in order that you should know that Ain is like Me in the entire land." This motivation is the goal of Tikun Olam, the ultimate perfection of the world-and "the World to Come": revelation of the infinite within the finite, experience of the love and binding of the two, and complete unification of the creation with its creator without reversion to the state of undifferentiated unity of before creation where creation was completely consumed within its creator. (See also the author's commentary on Parashat Shemot.)
Adam sinned in eating the fruit of the tree instead of the tree itself. In Parashat Shemot, we explained the tree represented "process" while the fruits are its final "goal". Eating of the fruit is a refusal to live in the moment and instead seeking only the enjoyment of the future. There is another parallel. The tree represents the "potential," while the fruits are its final "actualization", its "fruition." In this case, eating of the fruit represents ones viewing people and the world at large by its external appearance instead of seeking within at its infinite potential.
There is only one trunk to a tree while there are many fruits. To define a thing by its external expression, ignoring the infinite potential that underlies the expression, is to eat from the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. For it is only in the world of duality/multiplicity, the world in which there are many distinct parts, that there can be levels of gradations in good and evil. At the source, however, in its pure potential, everything is completely one with everything else and there is no distinction or duality.
Adam was supposed to eat first from the tree of life, and then he could have eaten the fruit. However, he sinned and ignored the source, viewing the world instead by its external reality, thereby shutting himself out of the Garden of Eden where we as children of Adam stand today. Every moment he retains this external perception of reality he keeps himself locked in the world of distinction and multiplicity. Were he for a moment to seek within and recall the world of Unity he would slip back into the Garden.
However, it is not for us to take the easy way out. To fix a sin at its source and reveal a deeper reality, a reality that would remain unrevealed if the sin never taken place, requires more than a simple switch of perception. We must develop an understanding of the fractured world we created for ourselves and search for something special that can be gained from our mistake. When after the mistake has been committed the benefit is found within it, the sin then connects with the ratzon Hashem (will of The Creator); then it is no longer a sin, it has been transformed into a merit, for then we see how that "mistake" was crucial for the development of a greater reality than the reality of pre-sin.
Let us analyze our situation. The world, as it was in its pure potential before creation, was completely one, a perfect undifferentiated unity; everything was one with The Creator and one with everything else, no distinction existed whatsoever. But in this state, no real life existed, for without distinction, there can be no change, no time, no space, no individual identity. A world of undifferentiated oneness is a world of complete nothingness.
Before the sin, in the Garden of Eden, Adam was in a similar state. He was all alone, there was no relationship, no production, no children, no goals, everything was freely given to him and there was absolutely nothing to look forward to. Though he was experiencing the All of creation in his inner self, he had no clothing, no external self, and he was completely one with all other creatures. His wife was a very part of his flesh and he knew her inside-out, just as well as he knew himself. There was no need - and no wy - to build any kind of relationship. The source of all life was fully revealed and shared by all. Nothing had unique meaning. Paralyzed by the complete revelation of Godliness he ate the fruit - and here we are today.
We could choose to go back to the world of pre-sin, but keep your clothes on - there is a better way. What we can do with this corrupted reality is conduct ourselves within it in a way which brings forth a completely new perfected reality which uniquely possible after the sin and through our Tikkun Olam, a reality in which creation and Creator, individuals and the whole, share a deep love-making, where we can experience the ecstasy of being one and separate in the same time.
Tu Bishvat is a time, like all holidays, where we are reminded of a spiritual reality, and given an easy opportunity through physical acts to tap into a spiritual way of life in which we ought to be involved always. The holidays (and many mitzvot) are time-bound because only when a spiritual reality is condensed in time, can it be accessed in space and thereby action - since, as Einstein taught us, time and space are dependent on each other. The main action on Tu Bishvat is to eat many fruits and, as Rabbi Chaim Vital says in the name of the Ari z"l, in eating the fruits, intend to rectify the sin of Adam.
This eating of many fruits is to "make known (da'at) that Ain is like Me in the entire land." It is to make known that it is in the very uniqueness which makes each piece piece of creation distinct from all others that the piece is able to complete and take part in a truer dynamical Unity than the fused stasis before creation. The eating of many fruits should move us toward complete attachment with our Source even while we retaining our existences as created and separate entities, and davvka because we retain these special, unique existences. (If you read on to my next piece, you will see how this is related to song.)
This da'at knowledge, the Tanya says, is not an intellectual knowledge, rather it is experiential knowledge. There is no way to logically understand how two things which seem to completely contradict each other can come together in perfect unity. And there is no way to logically understand how two things can be completely one while each retains its uniqueness at the same time. We can cease trying to retain the infinite within the finite, and we may instead enter this endless back and forth relationship between the two and experience the nachat ruach, this joy of constant, active unification.
When we can taste the tree within the fruit, and experience how each potential actualized only becomes part of a greater potential being actualized, we have completed our mission, but it doesn't stop there, because every mission completed becomes part of a greater mission still in progress.
Let us try to truly experience the unique taste of each fruit, the unique goodness of each creation, without pasting on it a label with a grade of good or evil.
To do this, we need to politely excuse the god of intellect and learn to create music.
(Special thanks to Udi Hammerman for teaching and translating this piece of R' Kook ztz"l)