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Zohar on the Torah |
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Parshat VaYakhel - Zohar, Page 208b Translated and adapted by Mr. Simcha Treister [This week’s portion of the Zohar contains many insights into the laws and customs surrounding Shabbat. The laws of the reading of the Torah, and how one should feel as though one is receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai are particularly meaningful. The below is an excerpt relating to Havdalah – the ceremony at the end of Shabbat – because it ties in with our previous essay on parshat Yitro about the looking at the fingernails to see the reflected light of the Havdalah candle. This essay talks of the significance of smelling aromatic spices and especially Hadas/myrtle at the same ceremony.] Rabbi Yitzchak said that when Shabbat departs a person should smell (yare’ach) aromatic spices. This is because the extra spirit/ruach (derived from the same root as yare’ach) which a person receives when Shabbat enters has now departed and the Nefesh of the person is now left bereft. We learn about the receiving of the extra soul from the words ‘Shabbat veyinafash’ (Gemara Beitza 16a). It is written regarding the Yitzchak’s blessing of Yaakov that ‘he smelled the smell/re’ach of his clothes and blessed him saying, See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed.’ This verse has been explained in the Midrash, but now we shall explain it in a different way. Come and see; smell sustains the animal soul/nefesh in man. This is because the soul enjoys the smell – not the body. When Yitzchak smelled the clothes, he was smelling the same clothes that were worn by Adam and were made for him by G-d. These clothes came about after Adam sinned and Hashem removed his original, more spiritual clothes, that he was given on entering the Garden of Eden. He dressed him in more physical clothes. The first clothes were derived from those pulsing lights called Achorayim surrounding from the higher worlds of Beriah, Yetzira and Assiyah and these lights devolved into a garment made of light, a vestige of which are the fingernails. Gan Eden was like the Temple or a study hall – a place to pray and learn Torah and meditate on G-d, and therefore these holy lights that are the vehicle for the Shechina, surrounded him and protected him from all danger that might befall him. When he sinned and the holy angels [Argaman – Ariel, Gavriel, Raphael and Nuriel] removed themselves from him, all that remained of his clothes of light were the fingernails and toenails at the edge of the ten upper and lower extremities of his body. Then Adam became fearful from bad events and evil spirits because the holy protectors had removed themselves. All that remained were his fingernails to protect him from the filth and contamination of the other side of holiness that was outside the holiness of his original clothes and now surrounds his fingernails. Because of this it is not proper for a person to grow his fingernails long. They collect filth under them and this is where the ‘other side’ gains its power and foothold The longer the nails grow, the more the ‘other side/klippah grows. [Note that in English you are said to ‘clip’ your fingernails! That is to say you remove the klippot—Ed.]. This klippah is called castora a name derived from the place the enemy army camps, and it causes a person to become worried and anxious every day. A person should cut his nails and not throw them out so as not to show that he is belittling the dinnim/forces of judgement that they represent. This lack of consciousness could cause him harm. These physical manifestations are all modeled on the spiritual world above, because all Achorayim are surrounded by the ‘other side’ which try to feed off the light of the holiness. [Note that the very words ‘other side’, used by the Zohar to describe forces outside of the Holy, sum up an important truth. These forces have no separate reality. They are only the other side of the same coin.] A person should not give these external forces power by making places for them to derive strength in this world. After Adam sinned G-d made him different clothes of aromatic tree leaves from the Garden of Eden. At first he merited spiritual clothes from the Achorayim of the higher Garden, now he received more physical clothes and was forced to leave the Garden. Those clothes gave out a fragrance from the aroma of the Garden, and his soul was calmed and uplifted by them. This is what is meant by the verse saying that Yitzchak smelled the fragrance of Yaakov’s clothes and then he blessed him. The aroma calmed his soul and spirit, and the blessing could then flow from that place of calmness. This is why when Shabbat departs a person should smell aromatic spices to calm his nefesh that feels bereft of the higher soul that has departed from it. This smell of aromatic leaves is the aroma of the hadas/myrtle. [It is interesting to note that the Nefesh is said to be in the blood of a person and the smelling of hadas actually causes the blood to stop flowing from a wound. Smelling hadas physically strengthens the nefesh – exactly parallel to the spiritual strengthening explained above! This parallel is in fact one of the meanings of the very word kabala – like the English word cable, it has a meaning of drawing one thing to another, or connecting two things together in tandem.—Ed.] |
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