The Art of Living

Life is a mess. You have a great moment and a second later you loose it. You spent a year saving up fir the vacation; after just a few hours of pleasure you managed to get into a fight with you kid and destroy everything you worked for.

So people created art. If you think about it, it's a great invention. For every form of art is defined with a beginning and an end. It captures a particular feeling or story; once captured its; complete, nothing can change it.

We yearn to create something outside ourselves. We are not satisfied by who we are inwardly, we strive to be able to create something we can put on the shelf. Something that our next bad mood won't be able to take away.

The Tanya teaches that every Mitzvah we perform is a creation of a piece of art. “this unity (created by the Mitzvah) is eternal in heaven”; there is a place that the good in our lives is captured and is everlasting, future negativity can't detract from its beauty.

The artist hangs his creation on the wall, then evolves to discover that he must place the art in his heart. Filling his life with everlasting beautiful moments.

The Modern Malchut

I always felt bad for Malchut (the divine attribute of kingship). Ever since the European revolutions in 19th and 20th century monarchy is foreign, leaving much of the Chasidic teachings on Malchut a bit outdated.

This morning it occurred to me that one aspect of Malchut can be better understood in a modern democracy.

Chasudus says that Malchut is the attribute of speech – expressing to others what was concealed within the person. The reason that speech is associated with kingship is because the king rules by the decrees he commands with his speech.

Never was this point clearer then with the modern politician, whose primary way of gaining power is the spoken word. A person with the greatest ideas will never get elected unless he can persuade people with his words.