Question

Rabbi, in your lectures on mysticism (at first I was skeptical about the quality of the lecture, but I was curious, and luckily so, because I was very favorably impressed—and I’m still listening. Truly, thank you for the lectures), you gave an outstanding illustration of the sefirot in order to explain left-wing movements as opposed to right-wing movements. Thanks to that, I understand these movements much better.
You explained that extremism in any one of the sefirot is not good, because reality does not operate that way. Except that regarding Netzach and Hod you did not find an explanation. I wanted to offer you a supplement to the Rabbi’s very impressive explanation.
The word hod in the Hebrew Bible signifies focus, a kind of spotlight that creates the presence of a thing and draws attention. For example, “the might of your voice” means a powerful voice. If hod refers to beauty, then it is beauty that draws attention, and so on.
The right in practice signifies conservatism. Therefore it makes use of the attribute of Netzach, whose meaning is to defend your identity through struggle and to defeat anyone who stands in the way. Fighting in order to preserve the old.
The left signifies revolution. And how do they do that? By creating attention to people’s weakness. In communism they speak about injustice. They make present situations of harm that demand your attention. Regarding the hostages, for example, they place emphasis on their difficult condition, as opposed to the right, which would place more emphasis on our national victory. Regarding LGBT people, they demand attention to the difficulties in their lives, to the fact that this is their source of pleasure, and so on.
In Kabbalistic teaching they say that Netzach and Hod operate as one body. And indeed, in order to carry out a revolution, you also need to defeat anyone who wants to harm it. And in order to win, you also need to pay attention to the importance of the advantages of what exists.
 
 
 
As an aside, the Rabbi argued that our forefather Abraham and Rebecca acted with extreme kindness. The Rabbi raised the difficulty that they acted in a way that appears completely extreme, and that this is not the right way to educate people. I do not know how to answer the Rabbi’s difficulty, but I cannot agree with the conclusion.
Indeed, the kelipot signify the extremity of the sefirot, in the World of Points. However, even though there was a kind of such extremity, it is written that in each light there were the lights of all the sefirot beneath it. That is not complete extremity, and therefore it is still not considered a kelipah. The kelipah appears in total extremity and in the withdrawal of the lights. Only an extreme need guides the kelipah. But in the World of Repair there is inter-inclusion and interconnection among the sefirot (a concept that needs explanation, but the two opinions in the Talmud as to why one may save a life by desecrating the Sabbath illustrate this).
In any case, according to Kabbalistic teaching, the Patriarchs are a chariot for the sefirot of the World of Repair. Therefore this is certainly not a matter of extremism. Even though Abraham is identified with kindness and he is only kindness, that does not mean he does not cooperate with judgment. It only means that even when he does cooperate, he does so from the perspective of kindness.