Fixing Your Earth - 006 Sadness Caused By Fire-of-Earth

If You’re Not Sure What Makes You Sad

We have so far described different sources for sadness, and it is up to each person to determine which of these kinds of sadness are mainly manifest in his own personal life. Then he can know what to mainly work on.

What happens if a person is trying to figure out the cause of his sadness, using the list we have outlined so far [we gave 12 out of 16 reasons so far], but he cannot determine the main cause of his sadness? If a person is not sure and he’s in a lot of doubt about what makes him sad, his sadness is probably coming from fire-of-earth-of-earth, which we explained about before. This is when a person lacks general of clarity about himself and he finds himself in darkness and doubt.  

[FIRE-OF-EARTH]

We have mainly explained the other three kinds of sadness, which stem from the aspects of ‘earth’ of the element of earth, the ‘water’ of earth, and the ‘wind’ of earth. Now we will elaborate upon the sadness which comes from the fire-of-earth: the sadness caused by separation.

When it comes to fire-of-earth, there are four different subdivisions, as well: the “fire” aspect of fire-of-earth, the “water” aspect of fire-of-earth, the “wind” aspect of fire-of-earth, and the “earth” aspect of fire-of-earth. We will go in the order of lowest to highest of the elements. We will begin with earth, then water and then wind, and then we get to the highest aspect, which is fire.

Fire-of-Earth: Sadness Due To Separation

Fire is an element that causes dividing and separation. When there is fire, people jump back, and the fire creates a wall of division in between its two surrounding sides. When a person feels sad due to some feeling of separation and division, this is coming from the ‘fire’ aspect within the element of earth, because it is a feeling of “separation” (fire) caused by sadness (earth).

All of the kinds of sadness which stem from fire-of-earth are sadness that comes from some feeling of separation; there are four particular branches of this type of sadness.

1. 1.     Sadness of Mourning (Earth-of-Fire-of-Earth)

A classic example of the sadness which comes from a feeling of separation is the sadness one experiences upon mourning. Mourning is brought about by the death of another, and death is the greatest kind of separation. Death is the ultimate kind of separation that there is, thus it causes pain to the person who is connected to the one who died. It is a feeling of total separation from the deceased, whom the person felt connected to. The deceased has been separated from the “earth”, which makes us feel that the person is permanently gone.

(Of course, we know and believe that even death is not yet the total separation, because our souls continue to exist even after physical death. Death is only a temporary separation, because the soul will eventually return to the body. Death only makes us, from our perspective, to feel separated from the deceased. Later, when we discuss the solutions for sadness, we will see how this concept contains the key to the solution and healing process over the sadness of mourning). 

When we feel sad from mourning the deceased, the sadness is coming a “fire” within our element of “earth” – a separation (fire) caused by the sadness (earth) of death, in which the deceased has permanently been separate from the earth (hence, the sadness we are feeling here comes from “earth”-of-earth-of-fire).

2. Sadness From Feeling Lack of Unity (Water-of-Fire-of-Earth)

There is another kind of separation that exists, and that is when one feels a lack of love revealed in his life. Not only do we feel separated when there is separation in the simple sense (fire), but even a lack of connection with others makes us feel separated.

The element of fire is the root of separation and strife, and the element of water is the root of love and connection. Love is the opposite concept of separation; love, which is “ahavah” in Hebrew, has the same gematria^[1] as “echad”, one. When we feel one with others, there is love. When we are separated from others, there is no oneness, and then there is no love.

This results in a different kind of sadness, and it comes from the water within fire, because water is the root element of love. When there is a lack of water – a lack of love – this causes its own feeling of separation, which results in sadness.

We aren’t talking about hatred. We are talking about something else: a situation in which there is simply no love going on. It is like people who live with each other and don’t hate each other, but there is no love between them – an uncomfortable feeling to live with.

This is the situation of most people’s lives today. The usual situation with most people is that they live amongst each other with neutral feelings. People don’t often hate each other, but they don’t usually feel a love for each other either.

On a deep note, if someone doesn’t love others, deep down, his heart is full of hatred for others; he “hates the whole world”, deep down, but he is not conscious of this. (Anyone as well can discover this in himself when he reflects deeply). But this deep hatred isn’t revealed out in the open, and people just live amongst each other with “neutral feelings”. People also have a power deep down to love everyone in the world, but they don’t either reveal this power. So in terms of how revealed the soul is, people usually don’t feel a hatred for other people; nor do people usually feel a love for others.

This sounds like a neutral kind of existence, but really, what it does for the world is make this world into a very cold environment. When people don’t feel anything toward each other, even though they don’t hate each other, everyone is cold toward each other, and this creates a divide among people.

If a person is strong in his element of water-of-fire-of-earth in a spiritual way (which stems from his Nefesh Elokis), he senses the general cold atmosphere found on this world. It bothers him (and any person that thinks about this) that most people are absorbed in themselves and only worry for themselves. This doesn’t bother most people, but someone who is sensitive to it is very bothered by it. It bothers him deeply that there is not enough love on our world.

Again, we are not describing hatred. We are speaking about a different kind of separation amongst people, which is more subtle and not as easily noticed: when there is simply no love and mutual closeness between people.

The general coldness that people have towards each other only bothers a few people (who are strong in their element of fire) when they realize it, but there is a kind of ‘coldness’ that most people can relate to: when there is coldness amongst family members when they act hostile to each other, or if someone live in an apartment buildings where the neighbors are cold and unfriendly.

The more a person has a nature to be loving and friendly toward others, the more pain he experiences whenever he feels this “coldness” in the world. The more this bothers a person, the sadder it makes him. He also feels a big complaint on the whole world: “Why can’t people just love each other more?!”

On a deeper note, it is written, “And Hashem mourned in His heart.” This shows us that there is an inherent sadness going on about the entire Creation; Hashem is sad, so to speak, because there is no unity going on in the world. When one feels this kind of sadness in Creation, it is coming from water-of-fire-of-earth in the soul

The more a person feels the lack of love and unity going on in the world, the more of a state of ‘mourning’ he feels like he is in. A person is apt to feel like he is in a state of ‘mourning’ when he feels coldness from family members, or when his neighbors in his apartment building are cold towards him, or when he wishes that he could be closer with other Jews When a person doesn’t see the love and closeness from those whom he wants to be close with, this causes a kind sadness that feels like a state of mourning.

It is written, “Seeking desire causes separation.” When each person worries and cares only for himself, there is a separation amongst people, and although there is no hatred, the lack of love creates a rift between people, causing certain sadness. Although the trait of desire can be holy when it is channeled towards desiring a relationship, desire is misused for evil when people become absorbed in themselves as they pursue their various desires, and this brings with it the sadness of separation. (This is referring to pursuing spiritual desires, not material desires.)

3. Sadness Caused By Wind-of-Fire-of-Earth: Inner Contradictions

There is also sadness which comes from the ‘wind’ aspect of fire-of-earth. This is when a person has contradictory desires, similar to the nature of wind, which clashes when it meets with other directions; and the person feels sad at the very fact that he wants two different things. He feels a kind of separation inside himself due to his contradictory wishes, thus, his sadness is coming from the ‘wind’ (contradiction) within his ‘fire-of-earth’ (sadness of separation).

We mentioned a similar kind of sadness before, but now we are discussing a more inner kind of sadness. This is when a person feels an inner contradiction inside his soul; it is caused by the wind within the fire-of-earth.

To give an example of this kind of sadness, a person has a body and a soul. The body has its desires for materialism, and the soul wants spirituality. The desires of the body and the soul contradict each other. A person who is very strong in his element of fire-of-earth (in particular, ‘wind’-of-fire-of-earth), will feel this contradiction a lot. The fact that he has these two different desires within himself makes him sad. He feels like his very self is split up into different directions. We aren’t talking about low self-esteem; we are referring to a more inner kind of frustration.

In the same way that a person can be bothered and sad at the lack of unity amongst people (which stems from water-of-fire-of-earth), a person with dominant wind-of-fire-of-earth is bothered and sad at lack of unification within his own soul. Since the soul itself is by nature unified, a person who has contradicting desires in himself feels a disparity and separation inside himself, so he might be sensitive to this and feel like he is split into two beings. This makes him feel sad.

4. Sadness From Fire-of-Fire-of-Earth: Feeling Separation

We mentioned earlier that mourning the deceased – when a person felt a connection with the deceased - causes sadness; it is caused by ‘earth’ in fire-of-earth. This affects a person only if he felt close and attached to the person who died.

If the person is feeling sad, though, at the very fact that someone died – even if he didn’t feel close to the deceased – this is a different aspect of the sadness. The very fact that a death took place is what bothers him, because he is bothered by the very separation. He is a kind of person who is sensitive to any situation that contains an aspect of separation. He is bothered by any separation that takes places in Creation.

Separation is rooted in fire, thus, if a person is sad at the very concept of separations in Creation, his sadness is stemming from fire-of-earth-of-fire.

This kind of sadness - which is when one feels sad upon any kind of separation – is a very deep point which we need to explain more about.

The Power of “Echad”

In the future, Hashem will unify the entire creation. “And it will be on that day that Hashem will be one (echad) and His Name will be one.” The power of echad (“oneness”) will be revealed onto the world and everyone will be unified – it will be the power that will unify all of Creation together one day.

The more firmly a person has revealed his Emunah and believes in this, the more it bothers him that there is currently a lack of unity in the world, that the state of “echad” hasn’t been revealed yet.

“Echad” will not be fully revealed until the future, but it is still a power that lies deep in our own soul, in which we are able to view everything in Creation as one unit, and in turn, to unify Creation together. Understandably, we cannot ever attain total unity on our current level, since “echad” hasn’t been revealed yet. But “echad” can still be revealed somewhat to a certain extent, to shine some unity upon Creation.

It is accessed when a person deeply desires that there should be unity in the world. There are only a few rare individuals who have revealed this power.

To give an example of the concept, a person who desires that there should be more “echad” revealed in the world is bothered when he has to break apart things. If he wants to cut his challah on Shabbos into two different pieces, and by mistake he cuts it wrong and ends up with some crumbs, it bothers him that he caused unnecessary dividing. There is almost no one whom this would bother, but those who have are sensitive to the point in the soul we are describing here is bothered by this unnecessary cutting: “Why should I separate more than I have to?”

When it comes to a lack of unity amongst people, which is the kind of sadness we spoke about before, most people can identify with being sensitive to this kind of separation, and therefore it is understandable to most people that a lack of unity amongst people can make a person feel sad. But to feel sad at any kind of separation, even to separate items unnecessarily, is a very sensitive point which most people cannot relate to. It is only felt by those who are sensitive to the concept of echad, which comes from fire-of-fire-of-earth in the soul.

This deeper kind of sensitivity that there should always be “echad” therefore only exists by those who have revealed a deep power of love for all of the Creation – not just a love for all people in Creation.

As we said, most people do not feel the point of “echad” in the soul.However, all people according to their respective level can reveal this point in themselves somewhat and become sensitive to separation, to desire more unity in Creation. All people need to reveal some more achdus (unity) in their lives, even if they can’t fully relate to the depth of the concept, and they should come to a point in which they feel sad just from how there is a lack of unity with others, even when we aren’t on bad terms with others.

“Echad” – To Desire Unity Even When There Is Hatred

What will happen if it never bothers a person that he has a lack of feeling unified with others (even if he doesn’t hate anyone)? There are people who don’t hate anyone, but they don’t feel a love for others either. What will result from this?

We can see what erroneous attitude will develop in the person, in the following example.

We have a mitzvah to hate a sinner; “It is written in Tehillim  (139: 21), “I hate those who hate You, Hashem, and I will fight with those who fight You; I hate them with utter hatred, they are enemies to me.” There are certain people who are considered enemies to us, and we are commanded by Hashem to hate them.^[2] The word for “enemy” in Hebrew is called oiyav, which is similar to the word oihev – “beloved one.” This shows us that in order to have the proper attitude toward our enemies, we have to at least be able to have some ahavah/love on the agenda. If we can love him, then we can deal with the enemy properly. If we have no goal of loving the enemy, then we won’t know how to properly deal with the enemy, and we will just view the sinner as someone who’s like another “Haman” to us….

Let’s say that a person has never developed a sensitivity to want to have more unity with people. If we tell such a person that he has a mitzvah to hate a wicked sinner, the person won’t go about this with the proper attitude, because he has never revealed his power to have unity with others. It doesn’t bother him that now he has to hate another person, so when he hears that he is commanded by the Torah to hate a sinner, he will hate the sinner with the same kind of base hatred that he has for anything else he hates.

If a person doesn’t know how to love another, then he won’t know how to reveal any love for the person he hates.

Really, it’s not supposed to be the same kind of baseless hatred. Even when we are supposed to hate a sinner, it doesn’t mean to hate him just like how people have sinas chinam (baseless hatred). If we have to hate someone, such as a sinner, then we are supposed to wish that we could somehow come to bond with him in the end. We shouldn’t just hate him without the goal of eventually unifying with him. 

On a more subtle note, even when we have to hate, there are parts of the enemy which we should hate, but there are also parts to him which we should love, and it is just that we have to know which parts of him we need to love and which parts of him we need to hate.

By contrast, if a person is strong in his love and connection to others, he is able to separate from others in the right way. He doesn’t hate a sinner with a base kind of hatred; he knows how to have a separation from them, and he knows how to love and hate a sinner at the same time. He will actually be able to reveal more unity from the separation, because he knows how to approach separation.

We mentioned before that there is a deep sadness and mourning inherent in Creation; as it is written, “And Hashem was sad in His heart.”  The deep sadness going on in Creation, which Hashem is in mourning about, is that there is lack of unity in the world, only separation. This was the real sadness that came onto the world ever since the first sin; sin caused the world to become a place of separation (alma d’piruda), in which each person only lives for himself.

In Conclusion

We have gone through the 16 possibilities of what makes a person sad. See which of them are mainly applicable to you. If you really work to understand it, you will find that you can break up these matters more and more into endless additional details. But the point of this study is to be able to figure out your own source of sadness.

Before you begin to work on ourselves and discover how we can solve our sadness (which we will explain in the coming chapters), you first have to know these matters very well, in order to first see what the causes of your sadness are.

All of this is for the sake of getting clarity in what makes us sad; it is not meant to cause confusion. We are only trying to gain clarity here in ourselves. If this is just confusing you, it’s a sign that this isn’t meant for you to work on.