Why do people sometimes believe one way and act very differently from what they claim to believe? They’re disconnected. But there’s one power, the power of integration, that bonds body and spirit…
It’s the power of consciousness. What is the essence of consciousness? What is consciousness in action?
First, clarification of some concepts:
a) Mitzvah (commandment) is related to the word tzavta, (being together). Mitzvot are God-given tasks or channels through which we connect to God.
b) There are differences between people and differences between groups of people but every single person, without exception has God-given tasks. People who have less tasks to do are still obligated in actions that depend on “understanding of the heart.”
c) It is assumed that God would not give us anything to do that we are not capable of doing.
d) The rabbis of Jewish tradition state that the source of this capacity to do what God wants is consciousness.
This leads to the question: What is consciousness and what about consciousness in particular gives us the capacity to do what God wants?
Torah (the Bible and the accompanying Oral Law) has an abstract aspect and a practical aspect. The goal in study is to derive the practical from the abstract. This approach to study is based on the model of creation itself. Everywhere you look there is a dichotomy between spiritual and physical realities, between body and spirit. However there can be no body without a soul or soul without a body. The division between them is death.
This rule is all-encompassing. There is not a blade of grass that grows that doesn’t have a spiritual force that enlivens it.
The power that connects these two parts and that sees them as one integral unit is consciousness. A human being should not be viewed as a creature consisting of two parts, body and spirit but as an integrated whole.
If you possess something but all you have is the physical part of it your ownership is meaningless. If you own a book but it only sits there on the shelf it’s not yours. But if you learn from it and it changes you then you can say you’ve acquired it. Consciousness always puts the physical together with the spiritual aspect.
Wisdom is not wisdom if it only consists of abstract knowledge. Ideas have to find expression in the world of emotions and vice-versa. There can be no separation between mind and heart. The glue that binds them is consciousness.
We are accustomed to thinking of body and spirit as a dichotomy. From the perspective of consciousness we’re a whole. Whatever we do in life should always involve intertwining of heart and mind, thought and action working together.
Here is where we get to the answer to the original question. Why is consciousness in particular the power that allows us to do what God wants from us? Torah reveals what God wants from a perspective of consciousness.
Therefore if you only understand the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law that goes with it, you may think you’re studying Torah but you’ve missed the point. The essence of Torah is to be God-fearing. Without consciousness you won’t find the soul of the matter. You’ll only see the structure but you’ll never know where you’re supposed to get to!
Consciousness allows us to understand the letter and the spirit together. Without this understanding we can’t possibly know what God wants.
How does consciousness look in action? There is constant work of making connections between practical instruction and principles, between the spirit and the letter of the law.
Torah teaches us to look at all of life this way. The rabbis saw in a blade of grass physical and spiritual reality as one integral whole.
From the perspective of consciousness there is no such thing as pure abstract knowledge. Everything physical has a spiritual foundation and everything spiritual leads to practical action.
(from Pirkei Kinyan Da’at p. 22)