The spiritual service required of our generation

The work of Sifting good from evil stretches from the sin of the Tree of Knowledge until the period perceding the coming of the Messiah. In our generation--the last generation of exile and the first generation of Redemption--the Lubavitcher Rebbe said that "the work of Sifting has been completed" (from a talk on Rosh Hashana 1987).

The determination that the work of Sifting was complete requires further explanation, because on a practical level it appears as if the world is not perfect, and there is still a reality of evil -- beginnning with the reality of consciousness itself as existent, without subjugating itself to God, all the way to the reality of real evil that operates according to God's will.

On a basic level, we must understand the words of the Rebbe as a directive that although there is still work - after all there is still a reality that requires rectification and upliftment - it is the NATURE of our work that changes as we approach the coming of the Messiah. We are no longer taking part in the work of Sifting that was known throughout all generations; our generation has a different task altogether.

What is the additional work, that is left after the work of Sifting? According to the Rebbe there are three accepted interpretations by way of Kabbalah for the new, additional work that takes place after the work of Sifting with which we were occupied throughout our Exile

A) The Stages of Sifting through good & evil

The work Sifting is the general name for the raising of the holy sparks scattered throughout physical reality back to holiness, but when we look closer at the content of this work it becomes evident that there are two major phases, as explained in Kabbalah and Chassidut, that the work of Sifting is comprised two separate "clarifications", and that when the Rebbe said that the work of Sifting was completed, his intention was that the work of the first stage had culminated, and that now our work is to move to the next stage of the work.

The beginning of raising up a holy spark within the mundane reality that hides G-d, is clairfying that part of reality that is "willing" to surrender itself to G-d--that point of reality which "feels" its dependence on G-d and is ready because of this to nullify itself to Him, to nullify its individual experience for the sake of fulfilling G-d's will. This subservience to Hashem is not identification with G-d's will and complete nullifcation to Him, but rather an awareness that despite my will to do otherwise, I must fulfill G-d' will--this is "nullification of What Is", which "feels" itself as existant and possessing of a searate will, but nullifies itself and subjugates itself to God's will. Finding this point of "nullification of What Is" in reality is the first clarification--the sifting and extrication of the element ready to nullify itself to G-d, amidst the evil that opposes G-d.

After the first clarification, the spark itself is not yet experienced as God, and therefore the second clarification is necessary to raise the spark up to be reunited with the divine will and to identify with it. After the second clarification, there is no subjugation of an existant, independent reality to God's will, but rather a desire, a longing for G-d, an identifying with His will, all the way to a complete nullification before G-d's presence--"nullification in reality". The second clarification takes place in Atzilut, where there is no reality other than G-d.

B) The Beinoni and the Tzaddik

The transition from the first to second clarification is in essence the transition from the work of the Intermediate (Beinoni)--"the level accessible to every person, for which everyone should strive"--to the work of the Tzaddik. First, when we compare the two levels of clarification to the different levels in spiritual service, the first clarification is parallel to the level of Itkafya (Subduing)--the self-imposing work of the intermediates, who do not identify with the will of God but who submit themselves to act against their nature--whereas the second clarification is parallel to the work of Ithapcha (Transmuting) -- the work of tzddikim who turn their animalistic traits into divine attributes, who desire on their own accord in the existence of divine goodness.

During exile, the intermediate was instructed that it was not within his reach to reach the level of true trasmutation, to an essential shift in the character traits of his animal soul, and that at the most he could submit them through Subduing.

Yet in order to bring the Messiah every member of Israel is required to do perform the spiritual service of the tzaddik--to reveal the level of soul about which was said "all of your people are righeous"==and everyone can reach Transmuting. After all, after the work of Subduing, the person is left--his mind and character traits (as opposed to his thoughts, speech and action) are in Inner Exile, unredeemed from the negative desires of the anmalistic soul, and he does not "flow" with the stream of Divine Goodness. In order to reach Redemption in the world, a person must reach the Inner Redemption of the Soul--complete liberation from the evil impulses and desires, and identification with the divine will.

to be continued...

~ The Jewish Nature: the Way to Natural Consciousness, by Rav Yitzchak Ginsburgh, pp.199-202, adapted to English