Chapter K – The Real War – Avodat Hamidot
What is hiding behind all the action scenes?
"Man must know that he did not come here to rest. He came to fight."
The Real War – Avodat Hamidot (the work of refining one's traits)
Many people who watch the film "The Matrix" are shocked by the amount of violence and the many "action" scenes in it. Naturally, the producers and creators of the film "had to" wrap its deep and lofty ideas in a wrapping suited to as many viewers as possible, since beyond all the ideology and messages, the film eventually has "to sell."
The audience loves heroism. The audience loves love. The issue of love was discussed in the previous chapter; in this chapter we will try to touch a little on the issue of heroism.
In a deeper look at the violence and heroism in the film we will discover that there are two "pearls" hiding here, interconnected like a pot and its lid.
– The first message is that the reality of the world (the Matrix), or more precisely of man in his world, is a reality of war. The violent physical war in the film is a metaphor (mashal) for the real war, which is an inner, mental war, expressed by coping on all three levels – thought, speech and action – with the many trials sent to us by the program manager. Everything is foreseen (the program is already written), but the choice is given – the choice to respond and relate to the situations sent to us by the coach from above. A giant simulation of "incidents and responses" meant to help us build ourselves and grow. One of the giants of Jewish thought – the Ramchal, in his book "Derech Hashem" – teaches that man has to know he did not come here to rest. He came here to fight. The war lies mainly in one's attitude towards the collection of stimuli he comes across day by day. Everyone is fighting – the rich, the poor, the wise, the foolish, the miser, the beautiful and the ugly – each one with his own unique, personal war. This approach comes to remove from the minds of the "Easternists" the mistaken theory that man has to "flow" with existence, and that if he is in the flow, all will go smoothly and there will be no difficulty. According to their method, when things are not going smoothly and there is difficulty – it is a sign you are not in harmony with existence. This eventually brings them to escape to the mountains, to sit on a cushion in the lotus position, light some incense and smile undisturbed – since they have left all the coping (the work they were sent to do) behind.
– The second and deeper message touches on the nature of the illusion we live in. The illusion / the Matrix / the world is, as we learned in the chapter "The Essence," a veil hiding from our eyes the true existence – the eternal world, the world of truth. And so, where there are "shining" points in this existence, the creator of the illusion / the Matrix / the world "had to" use a great deal of matter and "dirt" in order to hide the strength of that light. A kind of mirror image is created before our eyes: every higher spiritual being is buried and hidden inside a coarser and lower physical reality that covers it.
This is why the simulation manager placed the soul in a material suit called the body – so that it can descend into this lowly physical reality and raise up from there the high light hiding in those far and dark districts of the kingdom of matter.
This picture greatly resembles the situation of Neo and the fighters of Zion having to enter the Matrix in order to touch the true centers of the war and to defeat the AI.
A development of this same idea of war, from a different angle, is expressed by the Me'or Einayim in his explanation of the process of the creation of the world. He reveals to us that the higher consciousness is an existence with no limit and no end – a kind of infinite giant file. When it comes to reveal itself to a small human being whose mind has a weak processor like ours, it "understands" that there is no way in the world he could cope with such a giant file. So it "decides" to compress itself with a kind of heavenly WinZip, to shrink its own file a little. One contraction is not enough, so it contracts itself 10 times (the 10 Kabbalistic sefirot) until a file is received that man can relate to and work with, in order to discover through it that infinite consciousness. The smaller file received after the contraction process is in fact the world we live in. The world is a kind of collection of details, each one of which is a contraction of one of the heavenly, spiritual qualities of that higher consciousness.
Man, as part of the world, is himself also a contraction of part of that infinite light which preceded the great contraction (tzimtzum). It follows from this understanding that besides the collection of external details, all the inner qualities too – all the emotions, all the loves and all the fears that appear in a person's personality – are low, coarse expressions of pure and sublime spiritual qualities. For instance: when someone feels a strong desire for a tasty steak or a beautiful woman, he should remember and understand that this desire of his is really a coarse expression of a higher, pure spiritual love – an unconditional love that is awakening within him at that moment – but because of his level of materialism and physicality, it is expressed in him in such a low way. Or if he feels fear of something physical, here too there is really hidden one of the spiritual qualities of the higher awe (yirah); only because he does not yet have the vessels to contain such a strength of awe, it comes to expression in him in this contracted and particular framework.
At this point the Me'or Einayim explains the way of the giant of giants, the Baal Shem Tov, who says that instead of running away from our negative qualities we must understand that they are not really bad. At their source, all of our qualities are good; only we, on our low level, do not know how to bring out the potential hidden in them and connect them with their pure root.
Furthermore – the chief programmer sent us these qualities to awaken within us so that we would have a foothold in their higher spiritual source. After the desire for a woman has already awakened in the wrong place or at the wrong time, instead of fighting it, all we need to do is acknowledge its existence, say thank you that it is there and that something is awake and alive within me, understand that it is not aimed well, and then simply aim it to the right place – connect it with its higher spiritual root, with the higher love.
Man's primary work during his lifetime is to fight in order to open the contracted files of the details of his daily routine. To open his pleasures, to open his sufferings, to open his fears and to open his aspirations and his vision. To discover the enormous light hiding within the seeming banality of "the unbearable lightness of being."
The war is hard, since the force of habit and the power of worldly vanity (hevel) make a fool of the sleeping person and tell him the agents' favorite sentence: "What you see is what there is." "Don't look beyond, don't search for more." A true fighter of Zion, on the other hand, fights moment by moment to remove the shell (klipah) from existence and to try to see the powers and spiritual qualities hiding behind every contact he has with reality and with himself.
The whole subject of study among the fighters of Zion is meant to give the fighter mental tools, so that he is able to contain the understanding of reality as it is, and to cope with the traits that arise in him in the face of this reality in a high, spiritual way. This repaired coping reveals the spark of awareness hidden in that reality and connects it with its source in the higher consciousness – and in this way a synchronization of the worlds takes place. The course of life of a fighter of Zion, which from the outside looks like a collection of barren, primitive rituals, is really a measured and structured framework of behavior meant to help him connect every detail of his daily actions with the purpose and with the Supreme Planner who sits beyond the back doors.
Within the world of illusion lie hidden the keys that open the gates and doors. A person who knows how to measure his actions by the right measures (middot – traits) is thereby able to open the files he comes into contact with and to release the spiritual energy hidden in them. This energy gives him the strength, knowledge and power to deal with more complex and more loaded files; and with every repaired encounter he both completes his own individual soul and helps the repair and synchronization of the whole world.
So, to return to the opening question – why is there so much violence in the film? Or more precisely, why are people in the world so drawn to fights and "action"? Now we understand a little more. Everyone feels the inner need for heroism. Everyone wants to be a hero. The book of conduct of the fighters of Zion also opens with the words: "A person should rise in the morning like a hero (gibor)." But not everyone can contain the higher meaning of heroism: "Who is a hero? One who conquers his inclination." Not everyone understands that a man (gever) is one who has grown up (hitbager) – one who is already able to overcome (le-hitgaber). He is no longer a child; he no longer thinks only about himself. True heroism is an inner victory over the compulsive, automatic behavior dictated by narrow personal needs. All those who cannot yet see this inner heroism are drawn, without understanding, to its outer expressions in the form of action and violence.