 |
Sh'lah on the Torah |
| Shlah Archives |
Parshat Ki Tisa The following translation by Mr. Eliyahu Munk is an excerpt from the book Shney Luchot HaBrit -- the Sh'lah We know from Deut. 4,4: “And you who have cleaved to the Lord your G-d are all alive this day,” that G-d has chosen us from all other nations and elevated us beyond all other languages, i.e. He brought us close to His great Name, something which is the innermost secret of Torah. This is the true meaning of Torat Hashem Tmimah, that G-d’s Torah is perfect. Our attachment—dvekut—to G-d finds its expression in our performance of the commandments contained in the Torah. When we fulfill Torah precepts we serve as G-d’s throne, we honor Him. Due to our sins, unfortunately, we have been exiled and the name of G-d is no longer “whole,” as our sages have told us. The subject of dvekut to the Ineffable Name can be approached from two directions. One approach is by pointing out how G-d employed His Ineffable Name to be active in the emanations which initiated the binyan—the work of the six days of creation commencing from the emanation “downwards,” up to and including malchut (kingship), the seventh emanation, the Sabbath. Israel’s connection with the emanation tiferet (beauty) through the choicest of the patriarchs – Jacob – in his capacity as Israel, i.e. the major part of the merkava – divine chariot—(although the other patriarchs also serve as part of the merkava – divine chariot) because “his bed was perfect”, his demonstrated ability to raise all his children loyal to G-d’s precepts, has already been discussed elsewhere. Another way of looking at the dvekut which exists between Israel and G-d as the Ineffable Name has to do with the way Kabbalists view the width of the letters in that Name as alluding to the “four cubits” which play a role in the prohibition of carrying in the public domain on the Sabbath, and the “10 handbreadths” which play a similar role in the definition of what constitutes a private domain on the Sabbath. This number ten is represented in the Ineffable Name when it is spelled as words instead of as letters so that the total number of letters in the Ineffable Name becomes 10. This letter yud = 10, is an allusion to the 10 emanations which G-d in His Essence employed in order to be able to relate to a physical universe. The first letter of each of these ten emanations (keter, chochma, bina, tiferet, gedula, gevura, netzach, hod, yesod, malchut), have the combined numerical value of the word Israel, i.e.541. [According to Pardes Rimonim, in his chapter dealing with definitions of certain terms, the name gedula – greatness—is used as a substitute for the emanation chesed—kindness—so that we may accept the numerical value of 541 for the combined initial letters. Ed.] When accepting this relationship between Israel and the emanations, the number of 600,000 Israelites at the time the Tabernacle was built assumes added significance because – according to Pardes Rimonim chapter 5 of his article on “Gateway of Conduits”, - there are a total of 600,000 such conduits, which originate in these emanations. We have previously demonstrated Israel’s relationship to the Tabernacle; here we may add Israel’s specific relationship to the Sabbath legislation. Seeing that the Tabernacle was a re-enactment of the work of creation, and Israel, as the carrier of the Merkava, is closely intertwined with the forces represented in the construction of the Tabernacle, we can understand why the 39 kinds of work prohibited on the Sabbath are the ones which were employed in the construction of the Tabernacle. [In the interest of preventing confusion, I have taken the liberty of considerably abbreviating the intricate series of allusions used by the author in this presentation. I trust that I have preserved the thrust of his argument intact. Ed.] Because the Sabbath represents a mystical element of the Ineffable Name, we have been forbidden to carry items from the “private domain,” i.e. the domain represented by the Ineffable Name as Yud, as we showed earlier, to the public domain (which represents the number 4, as cubits) as we described. In a nutshell, before G-d created the physical universe, there was only a single domain, G-d’s domain, the private domain; since G-d created a universe, there is an additional domain, the public domain, since G-d by having created the universe – “shared” part of His previously exclusive private domain with His creatures. The principle of private and public domain thus became part of the creation, and is reflected in restrictions placed on the interaction of these domains on the Sabbath. Israel is described in numerous Midrashim as the mate of the Sabbath; this is because both Israel and the Sabbath are holy. In this portion, Betzalel and the other divinely inspired artisans are commanded to observe the Sabbath regulations even during such a holy endeavor as the construction of the Tabernacle, because the Torah (31, 13) says: “But you must observe My Sabbath days.” We will come back to this subject in our discussion of Parchat Yayakhel and Pikudei.” There is a general consensus among our sages that the Torah was given to the Jewish people on the Sabbath. Torah originated in Heaven, (i.e. the domain of Tiferet) the domain in which the concept of Israel is at home. This domain radiates spiritual values in all six directions. Moses told the Israelites in Deut. 4,36: “G-d made you hear His voice from Heaven in order to discipline you, and on the earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the fire.” The “earth” referred to here is the emanation Malchut. G-d told us that the emanations from Tiferet up to and including the emanation Malchut, i.e. 7 emanations, were part of the revelation at Mount Sinai. These are the seven voices, that David refers to in Psalm 29 which we recite every Friday evening when ushering in the Sabbath. They are also an allusion to the tradition that this universe will continue for 6,000 years before it will experience a metamorphosis of 1,000 years after which the olam haba – “world to come”—will be ushered in. The 1,000 year interval symbolizes the concept of the Sabbath. We have discussed the dimension of “Time” on pages 208-209. When calculating the number of Sabbath days in the 6,000 years and adding the fact that the 1,000-year interval before the advent of olam haba – “world to come” is composed only of Sabbath days we get a total of 600,000 Sabbath days, or the same number as the number of the Jewish souls which experienced the Revelation and the building of the Tabernacle. This number also equals the number of letters the Torah is made up of. |
 |
Ascent of Safed
|
|