The Mask of Reality

This past Friday, August 29-30^th, was a momentous occasion for me as I observed my first Shabbat of my own volition. It was not my first Shabbat, as I have celebrated the day previously with friends and loved ones, but it was different from those days in that I initiated this one (in other words, I was not just joining in on someone else’s celebration). It was truly an incredible experience, and my gratitude is directed towards the tzaddiks at Sinai Retreats whose inspiration drove me to keep this mitzvah.

But there was another greatness about this day. I kept this Shabbat at my Nana’s house in Cranberry, NJ, whom I intensely love and admire, and I made sure that I got there before sundown. I did my best to observe the rules that make this day holy, and that includes no electricity. Although I could have had her turn the TV on and change the channels for me, I chose not to violate the spirit of the law (which I believe to be more important than the actual law), and read. I read Akiva Tatz’s “Worldmask,” an enlightening look at the Jewish worldview from the mystical stance that natural reality is merely a mask that covers a plethora of meaning. This concept is very similar to the Hindu idea of lila—the world of the physical is illusory, and it’s the substance of the physical that is real. I couldn’t put the book down, and Shabbat’s conclusion coincided with “Worldmask’s.”

The book was so relevant on that Shabbat, too, because my Nana, who traveled through Europe and South and North America to escape the terrors of the Holocaust, has her doubts about the Jewish religion. “Worldmask” seemed to miraculously allow me to vocalize smart answers to her questions. One question she had was about the Jewish idea of obligation, and she specifically felt that this sense of obligation put excessive limits on a Jews freedom. She asked, “Where’s the fun?” She’s much more into the idea of rights. To me, the joy and elation I experience when I do things for reasons that are consistent with my beliefs are the most extreme sense of ‘fun.’ Akiva Tatz describes Jewish obligation in terms of giving and receiving, the latter representing the Divine world where G-d gives everything and the former representing the physical world where humans receive from nature. An obligation is diametrically opposed to a right. As Tatz says, “My rights are your obligations: my right to my property can be expressed as your obligation not to steal. My right to free speech is your obligation to allow me to speak freely.” Rights are individual and more selfish, and obligations are social and more selfless. Basically, the response to her query is based on the person. My view is that when you participate in a world of obligation, you are an important connector in the stability of society, and I feel part of a whole. However, when everyone has rights to uphold, the society becomes fragmented into disparate individuals and loses the connector and therefore the wholeness. I believe that the greatest happiness occurs when you lose your separate self and merge into a unity, and henceforth I feel that obligations, limited signs of divinity, have the power to allow one to coalesce with the great unity. Tatz astutely remarks, “Only a slave to the truth is free.”