As we cry for the tragic loss of Malaysia Flight 17 -Seeing the Hashkacha Pratis in today’s situation – Where is Divine Dignity?

We cry out feeling the tragedy, the incredible loss to mankind and the eternal pain of the families involved.
Where is our divine dignity as mankind? How do we lift ourselves and the world from a level where shooting a plane out of the sky based on self-referencing fears or judgments can seem like a good idea to anyone?

Happiness and pleasure inherent in learning Torah, emulating Hashem's attributes of mercy, and living with emunah and bitachon as the only real pleasure that there is and that the fact we don't feel it is the problem. Happiness and pleasure for non-Jews is included because Torah gives the seven Noahide Laws for non-Jewish people. Happiness and pleasure come only from Torah. There is no other good, for the Jews, as well as for the non-Jews. Torah is for all humanity because it is through Torah that we access the way to reveal the divine dignity with which our life force is created to reveal, Jew and non-Jew alike. When we experientially touch the pleasure of doing so, no other pleasure can compete.  None.

We need to return divine dignity to Hashem and break the cynicism, shame, blame culture. Whether we call it western values, materialism, ego, narcissism, evil, whatever you want - but happiness and pleasure as the result of divine dignity has been trumped by money, power, friendships and the ability to assert boundaries in a way that causes others to feel blamed and shamed.  We have fallen to the lowest depths. But it is from Hashem Who gives us the Torah to lift us out.  The ropeline is what is built into the soul of every person, the potential to gain experiential understanding that the soul experiences pleasure when involved on a constant basis with revealing divine dignity, that we are inseparable from Hashem and are built to reveal Hashem's Glory and experience the immense pleasure of doing so.

Divine dignity exists regardless of income. Divine dignity exists regardless of previous mistakes. All cynicism on this point, no matter how slight,  is what traps us. Where do we really hold our esteem from?


The subconscious and unconscious cover over with the realities of our human lives and sensations and pursuit of happiness the experience of pleasure felt by our soul each time we serve Hashem according to the Torah, Jew and non-Jew. It will be this way until the redemption in order to give people free willed choice until then. But we can do battle with it by bringing our sabotaging desires and urges more and more into consciousness and then making clear choices to follow Torah, Jew and non-Jews through the Noahide Laws. The image that man is created is in the image of Hashem’s Attributes of Mercy. It is the highest and deepest in the world. When we improve consciousness of this, we gain choice in what we will, we improve thought, and then speech and deeds.

Especially as we enter the first Shabbos of the Three weeks, it is fitting to seek out in ourselves this deepest truth, that we are made in the image of Hashem’s Attributes of Mercy, the highest knowable understanding we can have of Hashem. If we don’t feel it – at least desire to seek it out. Know His Attributes of Mercy that we will call out on Rosh Hashana many times. Simply put, Hashem tolerates our insults and mistakes, He overlooks them, He bears the burden and sadness of our confusion of mind permitting Himself to be involved in the pain just to give us the opportunity to choose to recognize His Attributes and to choose to emulate Him, He forgives us, and He casts our sins into the sea.

Understanding what Hashem is doing with us means that we can glue our imagination to ways for us to emulate that in every moment. If we glue ourselves to tolerating insults, overlooking faults, bearing the burden of the confusion of mind of our fellow man, forgiving and casting sins into the sea, we awaken that deep place of divine dignity with us. When we feel relief from the confusion in a moment of clarity and calmness, we know we have moved ourselves into our true identity. Once there, once we realize that the goals we believe could bring us esteem and pleasure are inferior, we begin to be able to extricate ourselves and bring us back to the only good, Torah.

May we soon see a new light in the world just for considering the possibility and even just thinking about trying to do battle with the barrier of cynicism that even with only a microscopic level of effort can be pierced for an experience of pleasure that could help.

Any Jewish women interested in a guided teshuva to do this, please visit www.brachagemach.com