Looking Inside
Once upon a time in Krakow, Poland, lived an impoverished man named Reb Isaac ben Yakil. Reb Isaac was so poor that he never knew where his next meal would come from. One night Reb Isaac had a dream about a treasure buried under a bridge in Prague. Since Prague was far, and this was just a dream, Reb Isaac dismissed it and continued with his day. But then, that night, the dream returned. Night after night, Reb Isaac dreamt the same dream.
Not being able to ignore this ‘sign’ anymore, Reb Isaac embarked on a journey to Prague.
After a long and difficult journey Reb Isaac finally made it to the bridge, only to find out that it was surrounded by officers patrolling it. Reb Isaac came back at different hours of day and night, only to find out that the officers were still there. Not long had passed before the officers began to notice Reb Isaac’s loitering and arrested him. Under interrogation, Reb Isaac told one of the officers about his dreams and about the treasure. The interrogating officer began to laugh. “You came all the way from Poland because of a dream?” said the officer, “I keep having dreams about a treasure buried under the oven of some Isaac’s house in Krakow. Do you know how many Isaacs live in Krakow? Do you think I would actually go all the way there just to look for it?”
At that moment Reb Isaac knew that his dream sent him all the way to Prague in order to discover that there’s a treasure buried right under the oven in his house. He went back home and found the treasure. He became a rich man and built a Synagogue in Krakow under his name. This synagogue still stands in Krakow and was one of the only synagogues to survive the Holocaust.
This story with origins traced to the Jerusalem Talmud used to be told by Rabbi Simchah Bunim of Peshischa (1765 - 1827) to his students whenever they arrived to meet him for the first time. The point that Simchah Bunim wished to make to his students was that sometimes one must travel very far, as far as the edge of the world, to find out that what they were looking for was in their possession all along.
Our Torah portion this week Ki Tetzeh opens with a suggestion some would say, to embark on such a journey.
"כִּֽי־תֵצֵ֥א לַמִּלְחָמָ֖ה עַל־אֹיְבֶ֑יךָ וּנְתָנ֞וֹ יְהֹוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ בְּיָדֶ֖ךָ וְשָׁבִ֥יתָ שִׁבְיֽוֹ׃
“When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives.”
On a surface level read, our portion begins by listing rules of war and war conduct. However, typical Hasidic interpretations view this war as an inner war one fights against their own evil inclinations.
Sforno writes about the opening two words Ki Tetzeh (and you shall go out or and you shall embark) as follows: “כי תצא, beyond the boundaries of your land.”
What I love about Sforno’s interpretation is that much like Bunim suggests, in order to fight your evil inclinations, one must go out of one’s comfort zone and go far. “Beyond the boundaries of your land,” could be understood as beyond the boundaries of oneself.
This is what brings me to Carl Jung.
Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) the Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, is perhaps one of the most famous and influential Psychologists who ever lived, second only to Sigmund Freud.
Jung wrote over twenty books and touched on many topics. I want to focus on just one of his concepts, the process of Individuation, which is relevant to our core idea.
Jung believed that our psyche is built in a way in which, in its core, lies the Self. The Self represents who we really are. However the Self is not accessible to us since it is made of both our conscious and unconscious. Our conscious is made of our Ego, our sense of separation from others and individuality, and our Persona, what we project to the outside world in order to be accepted by society. Our unconscious is made of our Shadow, the dark side of our personality which we refuse to confront and our Anima and Animus, the suppressed masculine or feminine qualities which are hidden within us.
According to Jung, the process of Individuation is the journey one must take to discover or rather remember ones true Selves. The only way to do so is to confront our Shadow and access our unconscious.
Our portion gracefully encourages us to bravely embark on this inconvenient task of confronting our dark side. Jung put it beautifully in his words:
“Individuation is an exceedingly difficult task: it always involves a conflict of duties, whose solution requires us to understand that our "counter-will" is also an aspect of God's will.”
Behind Jung’s philosophy however there is another layer. A profound layer. One that he calls our Collective Unconscious. Jung suggested that the deepest source which forms our Selves is one that we all share. It manifests through archetypes which reoccur in our dreams and appear in our culture and history.
Jung, who was a great explorer of Esoterism, applied the concept of the "Platonic Year" to human history. The Platonic year is an astronomical period of about 26 thousand years, divided into twelve “months” spanning roughly about 2165 years each. These ‘months’ are also called “ages” or “"eons." Humanity is now transitioning from the age of Pisces which began around the year 7BC into the age of Aquarius.
What is important here for our reading this week, is that according to Jung the age of Pisces which we are now transitioning from is the age of opposites, of polarization, just like its symbol of fish facing in opposite directions. The age of Aquarius will be all about learning to accept the other side, contain it, and bring wholeness which will transition us into a different understanding of the universe and of the divine.
But tapping into this collective unconsciousness begins with our inner battles, our inner journeys, our ability to accept the darker side of us. Only once we manage that we would be able to contain those who now stand in our opposition.
