Displaying items by tag: Pardes

It is sometimes weird where them moments of creative thinking comes from! I have just had one today from the most unlikely sources the film Revolver. Actually, tell a lie it started yesterday evening, I was watching TV and the adverts were on and a tune accompanying one of these adverts was a haunting tune and I knew that I had heard it from the film Revolver, but couldn't remember the name of it.

Well, searching this morning for the name of the tune (Gnossienne "No.1" (from Erik Satie performed by Alessandra Celletti). While reading about how the film was panned by the so called critics. I also read that Guy Richie was inspired by Kabbalah to make the film, so like you do I clicked the link and came across this story on Wikipedia.

'Four men entered pardes — Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Acher (Elisha ben Abuyah), and Rabbi Akiva. Ben Azzai looked and died; Ben Zoma looked and went mad; Acher destroyed the plants; Akiva entered in peace and departed in peace'.

This got me thinking about the characters at in an organisation and how they react to things happening especially when the business wants to improve the culture. 

• The first man is the one that leaves everything at the gate and never really wants to be involved. 

• The second man is the person who cannot get a grip of the way the organisation wants to do things because it doesn't fit in with their view of the world 

• The third man is the that person who will do anything to upset the apple cart because their world is changing and they have no control of what is happening. 

• The last man is is the person who opens their mind and heart in accepting that things need to change for the better, even though it goes against what they know.

These are the four characters across all levels of the organisation. Even though they are spread across the business, you will find that some are more visible than others in the many layers and departments.

But what makes them tick to act the way they do? Well, looking a bit deeper into Kabbalah and I came across the type of approaches (Wikipedia)

• Peshat (פְּשָׁט) — "surface" ("straight") or the literal (direct) meaning. 

• Remez (רֶמֶז) — "hints" or the deep (allegoric: hidden or symbolic) meaning beyond just the literal sense.
• Derash (דְּרַשׁ) — from Hebrew darash: "inquire" ("seek") — the comparative (midrashic) meaning, as given through similar occurrences.
• Sod (סוֹד) (pronounced with a long O as in 'sore') — "secret" ("mystery") or the esoteric/mystical meaning, as given through inspiration or revelation.

So, if we break it down to the following questions, then answers will appear in helping enhance the culture that has evolved over time.

• How do people read the situations (see, hear, touch and/or speak)? 
• How do people pick up on the clues around them in situations (see, hear, touch and/or speak)?
• How do people ask questions about the situations around them (positive or negative)?
• What makes people want to improve (the drive)?

Sometimes its not about new thinking that drives improvements, but reading old texts and revamping them for the modern world to make them fit in the environments that we encounter everybody.