During my Shabbat readings of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's, "The Aryeh Kaplan Reader: The Gift He Left Behind," I found a great insight in the section in his essay "Uniting with G_d Via the Torah: Understanding Supersedes the Sefirah of Wisdom" on p. 110-111.
"In the aftermath of Purim [a few decades after the destruction of the First Temple which closed the era of prophecy and sealed the written Torah], a tremendous new interest in the study of the Oral Torah developed among the Jewish people. Since one does not usually exhibit much enthusiasm or enjoyment for an activity in which one participates under duress, it is easy to understand why, prior to their acceptance of the Oral Torah on Purim, the Jews failed to distinguish themselves in this area of learning.
"A major transformation in the service of the Jew developed during the time between the First and Second Temples, The main focus during the period of the First Temple was mystical, while that of the Second Temple was of a more intellectual nature. The first Temple was dominated by the sefirah of chochmah (wisdom) which is a mystical quality. The Second Temple was influenced by the binah (understanding) which is basically and intellectual characteristic.
"It makes sense that the Second Temple was dominated by binah, an intellectual aspect, as it was during this time that the study of the Oral Torah blossomed. The Written Torah flourished during the First Temple when the quality of mysticism reigned supreme.
"A question may be asked concerning the arrival of the Mashiach (the Messiah) and the construction of the Third (the final and eternal) Temple in Jerusalem. What will be the important aspect governing Jewish awareness during the Messianic era? Will Jews be influenced by the sefirah of daas (knowledge)? We do find the verse in the prophetic Book of Isaiah (11:9) which predicts that in the future, 'The world will be filled with daas (knowledge) of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.'"
Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan continues in his next section: "The Cause of Man's Downfall and Its Rectification."
"There is an additional lesson regarding Purim that we can learn from Purim. It concerns details that the Talmud mentions in connection with the coming of Mashiach. To better understand this, let us ask the question, 'What was the cause of the original downfall of man?' It came through daas (knowledge) or more specifically through the act of Adam's eating from the Etz Hadaas (the Tree of Knowledge) concerning good and bad. The Talmud teaches that when Mashiach arrives, the world order will be rectified. This means that daas (knowledge) which was corrupted on the sixth day by Adam will also be corrected and elevated to its original position during the creation of the world.
"Purim has a very direct connection with daas. There are three stated opinions regarding the identity of the forbidden fruit. One opinion, and this is the view we will pursue, is that the Etz Hadaas was a grapevine....One way to rectify Adam's sin is to abstain from drinking wine...Another way to rectify Adam's sin is with the celebration of the holiday of Purim. The Talmud teaches that one must drink wine until he is devoid of knowledge and is unable to distinguish between blessing Mordechai [a good man] and cursing Haman [a bad man]...."
Why was I so inspired by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan by this section? When I was young, I used to ask G_d that in my world to come I would like to know everything, and I'd dream of sailing through the stars and discovering so many wonderful new horizons. As I became older, I realized that I didn't want to know everything anymore. There was a lot of evil out there that I'd rather not know about. Now I'm in a new growth stage, however, thanks to my beloved Jewish brother who also is named Rabbi Aryeh, and I'm realizing that I can return to my former dream.
My new learning deals with seeing all that G_d creates as inherently good. Though bad things happen to me, I am learning to see why G_d has arranged it that way, so that I may benefit in good ways. An example of this is my sibling rival, my sister, who hated me from my birth.
This sister tried to drown me when I was around 9 years old and at the same time taught me not only how to outsmart her and swim downward so she couldn't grip my head anymore, but how to not suck in water when my body convulsed under the water for oxygen. This was very important to know when I almost drowned at 12 years old and my body convulsed for oxygen when G_d gave me my personal Bat Mitzvah in the American River, a Mikvah.
This rival sister saved me in another way, as well. When I was 15 years old, kidnappers called my home and this same sister answered the phone. The kidnappers explained to her that they had me and that they were going to kill me! She responded with her innate hatred of me, "Good, I never liked her anyway!" and hung up. The kidnappers realized that I was of no value and never tried to kidnap me again. Her need for my death saved my life twice! Her bad was turned into G_d's good.
So what does this mean? How does daas (knowledge) become uncorrupted? It means that we don't see the bad as bad anymore. We don't see the difference between Mordechai and Haman. We see the "bad" man as a tool of G_d's ultimate good. We see it all as good, as I did as a child when I dreamed of knowing everything in the world to come---when I did not understand that there was bad knowledge. We learn to look at everything with faith that it is G_d's good and no longer see "bad."
Everything is from G_d. There is no other influencer. There is no question, "Is this of G_d or evil [from Satan]?" Of course it's from G_d. There is only G_d and only His good knowledge. We have to change our viewpoint and uncorrupt our view of knowledge. We have to look at our painful life experiences and change the pain to faith that it is for our good. Eventually we can train ourselves to rethink the painful part of our life experience---experiencing the bad and accepting that it will be for our good. As we practice, we will rethink in smaller and smaller time periods, until one day we can go straight to the faith that it will all be for our good without having to rethink. Then we will have uncorrupted knowledge, and as a byproduct we will have eternal peace.
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