PARTZUF
SEVEN TYPES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL CRISES
THE SHATTERING OF THE WORLD OF CHAOS
Post-traumatic growth is of course based on the metaphor of the growth of plants. In Chasidut, it is emphasized countless times that growth is only possible after a seed is buried and decays in the ground—only after a complete breakdown of the previous reality. As was already hinted, crisis and burial are terms in Kabbalah that are distinctly associated with the breaking of the vessels—the breaking of the seven kings of the world of Chaos (Tohu), who died, fell into the place of the lower worlds, and were buried there.
About each of the seven kings of the world of Tohu, it is written "And he reigned... and he died" (ויאמלך... וימת)—a phrase whose value is exactly the value of “the world of Tohu” (עולם התוהו), meaning that the crisis is already inherent in his reign. Whoever rises to greatness but is not in a stable state, even if all his sins are forgiven at that moment, is immediately in danger of breaking and falling, as the verse states, “Before shattering, there is pride and before failure there is a high spirit.”
After the list of the seven kings, where it says, "And he reigned... and he died," the king Hadar appears, who is the only one among the kings whose wife's name, Mehitavel, is also mentioned. About him the Torah does not write that he died. From this, it can be deduced that Hadar and Mehitavel represent the key to the rectification of the shattering and death of the kings, as will be explained further.
The absolute shattering in the world of Tohu starts with the sefirah of knowledge (da’at) and continues to the sefirot below. The seven kings thus correspond to the sefirot from knowledge to kingdom (malchut); in the world of Tohu, the sefirot of victory (netzach) and acknowledgment (hod)—the habitual faculties of the soul—are like two halves of one body, like two sides of a coin, and thus are counted as one. At the same time, in the higher sefirot there was a blemish in the crown and a nullification of their backside in wisdom and understanding. However, unlike the lower sefirot, they did not fall outside the boundaries of the World of Emanation (within the World of Tohu). Only the lower sefirot experienced a “death,” i.e., a fall below the realm of Emanation, and burial in the place of the lower worlds.
A true trauma is a crisis that involves burial and decay, after which, a door is opened that leads to renewed growth in a way that is incomparably greater than the previous state (just as a complete tree, with sweet fruits, is incomparably greater in both quality and quantity compared to the seed that it came from). Thus, every crisis is essentially the secret of the broken world of Tohu. However, since the world of Tohu is divided into seven kings who were broken and died, it is appropriate to consider them as seven types of emotional crises—each king having undergone a different type of crisis, one that broke him until he died—meaning, until he reached the feeling that his life is truly meaningless and not worth living, akin to the saying “A poor person [in his own eyes], is like a dead person.”
KNOWLEDGE: NERVOUS BREAKDOWN
As mentioned, the first breaking in the world of Tohu occurs in the sefirah of knowledge, in the first king, Bela ben Beor. His Hebrew name, בלע בן בעור represents the opposite of the future, when “God will swallow up death forever” (בלע המות לנצח) after the shattering of the World of Tohu is rectified and the lights of Tohu will be drawn into vessels of rectification. Indeed, in Chasidut it is explained that one of the meanings of the word Knowledge (דעת) is breaking.
In the systems of the body, the system corresponding to the sefirah of knowledge is the nervous system. The first, most general, and severe breaking is a nervous breakdown (a mental crisis, which sometimes, externally, is caused by issues related to the physical world).
At first glance, knowledge is a fundamental and positive mental power, and inner psychological work depends on in depth consideration and thought using the sefirah of knowledge. Indeed, when there are not enough vessels—just as in the world of Tohu, where there were many lights and few vessels—excessive deep thought and rumination can lead to the breaking of the vessels. A well-known example of this is a very talented young person who immerses himself deeply in his studies, and as a result experiences a breakdown. The cause is not the in-depth thought, but rather that it was not done with true humility and lowliness. These two traits give stability to the vessels and protect them from breaking.
A nervous breakdown can be very difficult, a terrible thing, but from it, one can grow. In a sense, anyone who wants to grow must go through some form of nervous breakdown—but we wish for everyone to experience a very, very light breakdown. If, after the breakdown, growth follows, the person can discover within themselves the spark of the Mashiach that dwells in every Jew.
LOVING-KINDNESS, MIGHT, AND BEAUTY: CRISES OF LOVE, PARANOIA, AND ALIENATION
In the sefirah of loving-kindness (chesed)—symbolized by the king Yovav—the crisis is a sense of alienation, a crisis of love. It is the feeling that “no one loves me”: God doesn't love me, my family doesn't love me, neither my parents nor my other relatives, and in general, there is no one who loves me. An individual who feels that “everyone hates me” nurtures the thought that “I am just a despicable person,” essentially, and this leads them to hate themselves.
It is possible that the emotional crisis of love is based on experiences a person has had, situations where they felt they had no love. However, in general, this is of course a fabricated picture of reality. Of course there is love in the world, and one should feel the love, starting with God’s love for them and extending to all the love surrounding them from their family and friends.
In the sefirah of might (gevurah), the death of the king Chusham, there is an experience of fear—not only do I feel that no one loves me, but that everyone wants to hurt me. The fear is based on experiences of harm and exploitation that the person has gone through in their life (up to trauma like sexual assault, the most severe form of harm), and it can develop into a constant paranoia that everyone is trying to hurt me and harm me.
The sefirah of beauty (tiferet) is the place of society, with all its many facets. The crisis of beauty is one of complete inability to integrate into society; the person asks himself, “What am I doing here at all?! The world is not my place, and I cannot find my place in any society.” In the crisis of love associated with loving-kindness, the blame seems to lie with those around me who seem to not love me—who turn away from me and even hate me; here the problem is mine, that I cannot integrate into society.
The king that corresponds to beauty is called Hadad ben Bedad (הדד בן בדד). His first name stems from the verb meaning “echo” or in Modern Hebrew, reciprocity (הדדיות). His father’s name (בדד) means “loneliness” (בדידות). So he experiences an existential loneliness and has no reciprocal relationship with anyone. The sefirah of beauty receives from both the right and the left, Hadad from loving-kindness and Bedad from might, but while in the world of Tikkun, beauty tends toward the right, in the world of Tohu, of the kings of Edom, it tends toward the left. Regarding this inability to integrate into society, the Talmud states, “Either companionship or death,” meaning that if one cannot find companionship in learning Torah, it can bring him to death.
VICTORY AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT: THE FEELING OF FAILURE
The sefirot of victory and acknowledgment are the forces of action. They represent the transition from potential to actualization, and the crisis that corresponds to them is the feeling of failure. A person feels and says that, "Things are not going well for me in life, I am a total failure, every initiative I take fails, I have no luck, and therefore I am poor and destitute because, in reality, I am poor in knowledge (da’at).”
This is the shattering of the king named Samlah (שמלה), which means “garment.” So the feeling a person has is that “no matter what clothing or attire I wear, no matter what position or job I try do perform, nothing will suit me, as I am simply unlucky.” In the body, victory and acknowledgment correspond to the two legs, which are clearly felt where we feel that things are not going well in life, and I fail (obstacles in life impede walking and cause the legs to stumble).
In the soul, the sefirot of victory and acknowledgment represent active and passive confidence, respectively. Victory is active confidence, described by the verse, “for it is He that gives you the strength to be successful,” but there are those who feel that every initiative they take fails—they try and do not succeed. This is a particularly frustrating state—someone who does nothing, who goes to sleep, may be hopeless, but at least they are not frustrated by their failed initiatives. In contrast, someone who tries and fails...
