You Are What You Hate: A Spiritually Productive Approach to Enemies »

Enemies hold fallen slivers of our souls, estranged sparks that we do not recognize as pieces of our very own selves. They have chosen us as their opponents because they are trying, in their deluded way, to connect back to their root, which really is us. The spark of ourselves inside the enemy must be recovered...

Table of Insets xviii

Table of Figures xix

Acknowledgements xxi

Preface 1

How to Read this Book 4

I Building Blocks & Stepping Stones

1 Confession of Bias 7

2 Straightforward Definition of Enemy 10

3 Pray for Peace but Be Prepared for War 13

4 Metaphors, Teaching Tales, and Anthropomorphisms 17

5 The Cosmic Roadmap 20

6 The Tree of Life-Kabbala's Map of Reality 25

II Where Do Enemies Come From?

7 Wherefrom and Whereto? 33

The Biggest Picture-The Point of It All 35

Before the Beginning 40

8 The Eighth Kingdom aka Our World 43

The First Six Days 43

Adam As Co-Creator 51

9 Adam's Task-To Raise the Sparks 57

What's So Great About Raising Sparks? 59

Adam's Mission 63

10 The Big Bang - What Went Wrong? 65

The Mechanics of Sin 66

11 The Untold Story Behind Adam's Sin 73

The Cast of Holy Characters 73

Adam and Eve-The Conscious Layer of Adam 73

Serpent-The Unconscious Layer of Adam 74

God-The Superconscious Layer of Influence 75

Tree of Relationship-Creation's Cutting Edge 76

The First Sin 79

What a Setup God Imposes on Humankind 79

The Primal Drive to Differentiate 84

Adam Believed that Eating Was Truly the High Road 87

12 What the Serpent Teaches about Enemies 90

Underneath It All, Their Common Cause 91

A Shared Ambition, but a Conflict of Strategies 98

The Serpent: Agent of Concealed Good 103

Debrief: What We Have Learned About Enemies? 110

13 The Origin of Enemies-A Summary 113

III I-Centers

14 The World Has Many Eyes 121

One Stone Seven Eyes 121

I-Centers Make the World Go Round 124

Anatomy of an I-Center 127

Let It Shine 131

IV Upside-Down Soulmates

Introduction: The Text in Context137

A Structural Note 138

From the Baal Shem Tov to the Komarna Rebbe 139

Biography of the Komarna Rebbe 141

Upside-Down Soulmates: The Ins and Outs of Friends and Enemies 143

1 The World is a Network of Intersecting Soul Threads 143

2 Definition of Shekhina 148

3 How Can Absolute Good Also Include Bad? 154

4 Good Cannot Grow into Very Good Except by Encountering Bad 155

5 In the End, It Will Be Clear that Evil Was a Throne for Good 159

6 Evil Is Fallen Love that Must Be Transformed into Love of God 161

7 Always, Eventually, Evil Expands Consciousness 163

8 Every Test Is Eventually Passed, and Light Replaces Darkness 167

9 Enemies Are an Antidote to Pride 168

10 The Higher the Soul, the More Grievous Its Pride 171

11 Success Requires that Hurt Be Turned to Love 174

12 A Prayerful Response Can Sometimes Even Turn Enemies into Friends 178

13 The Test Of Enemies, when Passed, Generates the Brightest Lights 186

14 Your Enemy Holds a Captive Piece of Your Very Own Soul 191

15 Stringencies Apply to Seekers of the Light 204

16 The Enemies' Accusations May Be Outright Lies, But Still... 205

17 Every Soul Has a Shadow 210

18 Guilty, by Association 224

19 A Spiritual Warrior Must Have Courage, Optimism, and a Fierce Commitment to Truth 238

Epilogue: A Solution Truly Good for One Is Also Sure to be Good for All 241

Job as Prototype 252

Quadruple Win 258

V Appendices

Appendix 1a Hebrew Text of the Komarna Rebbe 267

Appendix 1b English Text of the Komarna Rebbe 270

Appendix 2 Frequently Asked Questions 278

Appendix 3 Meshekh Chokhma 284

Appendix 4 Forward Steps and Future Visions 288

Biographies 297

Notes 303

Bibliography 333

Glossary 339

Index 353