My great joy is to study the Beginning, the Creation story.  The following teaching is excerpted from Gates of Light (Sha’are Orah) written by Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla (born 1248, Castile).

“Following is a great concept upon which the world stands. . . the essence of the Creation story: All creatures and beings completed a procedure in the Great Heavenly Court known as Elohim, prior to their Creation. . . and then afterward they were created from the attribute of Justice.”

Creation is not a one-time event.  Creation is the eternal unfolding of the will of God.  This means that each and every one of us went through this “procedure” with Elohim, the Creator God whose other name is Justice.  This procedure was like an “interview” with Elohim, wherein it was decided how tall we would be, what our face would look like, how long we’d live, how much money we’d have, and who would govern us. There was informed consent prior to birth.

At the end of our interview, every one of us answered Elohim:  “Even with all that has been told, I remain joyful and optimistic.”  We were created knowing our life plan and desiring it, even though it was forgotten at birth.

“The rationale of this great principle is that no one is obliged or coerced.  All creatures were created with the straight line of Elohim and forthrightness.  There are no curves or deceptions. . . No one can claim: ‘I was not created justly’. . .  No one is cheated or humiliated.”

What does all this mean?

“It’s not fair!” the child complains.  “Life isn’t fair,” the parent responds.  The unfairness of life is true — a limited truth:  the human point of view. In our everyday physical reality, things don’t seem fair; justice does not always prevail.  However, this powerful teaching from the Kabbalah proclaims the presence of divine justice — even here on Earth.

However, we cannot recognize Justice because we don’t always have access to the knowledge and perspective of our higher soul.  The higher soul (called Chayah in Hebrew) is the life essence, the soul level that holds what could be (outside of time).  Here resides the consciousness that sees from lifetime to lifetime and in-between. . . beyond time.  True guidance emanates from Chayah. And this is where our life plan resides.

Our higher soul carries our life plan, the one we negotiated with Elohim. Parents, nationality, religion, life circumstances, talents, and all other details are there in the life plan. Nothing is haphazard or left to chance. There is no coincidence possible; every smallest detail has meaning. My understanding of this teaching is that all events in all the worlds are held in Justice, in Elohim.

In our higher soul, we know the justice of our suffering and of our joy. We can occasionally experience a micro-sliver of this vast Justice and Law that encompasses everything. If we can build our faith in Elohim and His Justice, it will help us in many, many ways.

Elohim saw everything that was created and behold it was very good. (Genesis 1:31)

I am interested in hearing your thoughts and ideas and questions. What do you think about this?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 2:40 pm and is filed under Kabbalah and Healing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.