Conflict

One of the innovations of Chassidus has been the turning of the Lurianic Kabbala inwards that is, demonstrating that its concepts apply in detail to the inner life of the heart. Baal Shem Tov taught that there are many levels of the soul and that its processes and interactions parallel,mirror the events in supernal words as well as the world in which we live. This teaching enables translating otherwise unintelligable occurrences into internal events and provides the key to assimilating and understanding the world, its processes and the actions of others as reflections of one' own soul.By spititualizing the world in which we live, it provides the key to influencing it though inner change.

Conflict

The world is full of strife. There are wars between the nations of the world and conflicts in every city. There are feuds in every household, discord between neighbors, friction within the family, between man and wife, parents and children...

Every day man dies – for the day that has passed will never return. Death comes closer every day, yet nobody remembers the purpose of life.

Friction in the home directly parallels the wars between nations. Each member of the household is the counterpart of one of the nations: their quarrels correspond to the wars between the nations. Even the traits of the different nations can be discerned in the individual members of the household. Each nation has its own particular trait, such as anger, blood-thirstiness and so on. The counterparts of these traits are found in the different members of each household.

You may have no desire for strife: you may only want to live quietly and peaceably with everyone. Even so, you may find yourself forced into conflicts and disputes.

The same happens between nations. One nation may want peace and is willing to make many concessions in order to achieve it. Yet it finds itself dragged into other nations' disputes, with each of the opposing sides demanding its allegiance until it is drawn into war against its will.

The same is true in household wars. Man is a miniature world containing the entire world and everything in it. A man and his family contain the nations of the world and all their wars and strife.

For this reason someone living alone in a forest can go out of his mind. This is because all the warring nations are contained within him. Each one attacks the other, and his personality keeps changing depending on which of the nations within him prevails. Swinging from one extreme to another can drive him insane. But when a person lives with others, these battles are played out among the different members of the household, or between neighbors and friends and so on.

However, when Mashiach comes, all war s and conflict s will come to an end and great peace will come into the world, for “They will neither hurt nor destroy…” (Isaiah 11:9) .

Sichot Haran #77

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Peace

Through the spread of peace the whole world can be drawn to serve God with one accord, because when men are at peace with one another they talk to each other about the true purpose of the world and its vanities. They discuss the realities of life and how, when a person dies, all that remains is whatever he prepared for the world of eternity after death, because neither silver nor gold accompany a person after death. When people come to understand this they will abandon their illusions and idols of silver, aspiring only to God and His Torah. Their only aim will be to serve God and seek out the truth.

But when there is no peace in the world, and worse still, when there is strife, men are not open with one another and never discuss the true purpose of life. Even when someone does discuss it, his words do not penetrate the hearts of others, because they have no interest in discovering the truth but only in winning the argument. They are aggressive and full of hatred and envy. When a person wants to win an argument, his ears are not open to the truth. The main reason most people are so far from God is that divisiveness and strife are so widespread today through our many sins.

Likutey Moharan I, 27

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