The Kabbalists, Evil and the Lion
Fabrizio PiolaMany years ago, in Israel , a wise man told me a short story, which seems to me Hasidic , although the setting is, intentionally or not, rather exotic. I don't know anything more precise about it, because I wasn't told where it came from or when it was composed or by whom, but that, perhaps, is not so important. Although I have now tried a little clumsily to lengthen and embellish it a little for your reading pleasure, I thought it was such a surreal and fascinating story that I just can't help but share it, convinced that what I have added to it has not succeeded in damaging it or weakening its force...
Long ago, a pious group of Kabbalistic rabbis gathered in a small community that lived in a village on the edge of the desolation of the desert. The place was perfect for studying Torah and practicing Kabbalah away from the noisy crowds of the city and close to Nature. The village was in fact close to high mountains, large masses of harsh and bare rocks, with few bitter and thorny bushes, which were a refuge for all sorts of beasts and wild beasts.
One in particular afflicted the inhabitants of the cabalists' village. A large, solitary Lion preyed on the flocks that the shepherds took to graze on the barren slopes of the surrounding hills. The Lion killed sheep and goats at will. Day or night, it made no difference to him. Often he did not even eat them. He seemed to kill out of pure malice. The shepherds were frustrated, frightened and full of anger.
The pious rabbis said to each other, “This is too much. We must do something to eliminate this problem.” And they gathered together in prayer, study and meditation and finally came up with a grandiose plan.
That lion seemed to be the very reflection of the Evil that raged in this World. And if they had succeeded not only in the enterprise of capturing it, but even before that in the unthinkable and superhuman enterprise of using the kabbalah of their fathers and, with the consent of HaShem , trying to collect, channel and concentrate ALL the Evil of the World in the body of that evil beast…? Then capturing it would have meant, in one fell swoop, the elimination of Evil from the World that would have remained, under their custody, locked away forever!
For forty days the pious Kabbalists fasted, and prayed, and meditated, and put into practice all the knowledge handed down in the Books of their fathers. At last they succeeded in concentrating all the Evil, gathered in the World, in the body of the infamous Lion.
Then, accompanied by the shepherds, they prepared a trap that they were confident could not fail. And it did not fail. The Lion was captured, and then locked in a heavy cage with thick bars of brown iron tempered in fire, and was taken to the village to be shown to everyone.
The night was spent in great feasts and passionate niggunim of thanksgiving to the Eternal. Now perhaps the Mashiach himself would manifest himself. The World was perhaps ready to enter the Olam HaBa , the one in which the Lion and the Lamb will lie down together and the children of Adam will be able to live in Peace enjoying the joys of the brotherly sharing of Milk and Honey!
The pious rabbis went to bed full of hope.
The next day, after washing and praying, the pious rabbis sat down to breakfast. But the women told them that something was strange that day. None of the chickens had laid eggs. The bread had not risen. The cows had not produced milk. And that was just the beginning.
In the days that followed, the pious rabbis, and also all the other inhabitants of the village, could see, first with surprise and then with dismay, that the crops did not grow in the fields, the fruit did not ripen on the branches of the trees, the bees no longer went around collecting nectar to make honey, the female cattle did not give birth. And neither did the women of the village, because since the Lion had been caged in the basement of the Synagogue, no one had been born. And no one had died.
It did not take the pious rabbis long to realize what they had done. HaShem had allowed them to attempt to eliminate Evil from the World only to make them ponder their pride and the disasters that come when the Kavannah (Intention, Formation of the Will) is imperfectly formulated, which also occurs when, in pursuit of an apparent good, however great and important it may be, we do not reflect enough to try to figure out the secondary consequences of our actions, going forward in thought as far as we can see with the intelligence, experience, intuition and Grace of Gd. HaShem had reminded them, through this sad sequel to their enterprise, of the fundamental lesson about the nature of His Creation.
Everything in this World manifests itself in dual form. Creation will move forward towards its purpose, perpetually in motion of eternal becoming, but the balance of its wheel can be maintained only with the necessary co-presence of opposites, which are always also forms, or energies or principles that manifest themselves in dialectical pairs inseparably related to each other, as complementary and necessary.
How could we ever see anything if we were dazzled by the unbearable Absolute Light of the Or Ain Sof ? But, likewise, what could we ever distinguish if we were immersed in Total Darkness? Everything we see is immersed in a blessed bath made of variable parts of light and variable parts of darkness. The tension between two polarities creates and maintains, in any field and at any level of this World, that CHASHMAL , that energy, that flow, that thing that we call LIFE .
The pious Kabbalist rabbis were ashamed and repented of their frivolity, their presumption, and of the very fact that perhaps for a moment they had thought of remedying what seemed to them an imperfection of the World, that World that we know that HaShem has entrusted to us apparently chaotic, but which is a complete and perfect Kingdom to be able to carry out our Work.
With much sincere contrition and humiliation, the pious Kabbalist rabbis went to the dungeons where they kept the Lion, and having verified that he was rabid but in good health, they took him back to the desert and opened the cage. They watched him walk away into the mountains without saying a word. They returned light and serene to the village where, in the meantime, Life had begun to flow again, strong and sacred as ever.
This is the story as I remember it. May it become part of your memory and be an inspiration and blessing to you. Thank you for your attention. Shalom.
מה רבו מעשיך ה'' כלם בחכמה עשית מלאה הארץ קנינך
Ma-rabu ma'asechà Adon-i, kulam bechokmah asita malah ha eretz, kinianecha
How numerous are Your works, O Lord, with Wisdom You have made them all, and now the Earth is full of Your creatures.
Psalm 104, 24
Fabrizio Piola
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1 comment
MOLTO BELLA QUESTA STORIA PER COMPRENDERE CHE IL MALE DAL MONDO NON POTRA’ MAI ESSERE ELIMINATO IN QUANTO LA NOSTRA ANIMA SI INCARNA PROPRIO PER SPERIMENTARE QUELLA DUALITA’ CHE NON ESISTE NEL NOSSO LAR, LA NOSTRA DIMORA CELESTE.