During tefillah today, I realized that there's a direct connection between revellation of HaShem and breaking. The most obvious is of course: לא יראני האדם וחי - man will not see me and live. We know that any fall in spiritual level is considered a "death." Literally the passuk can be understood to mean, "Every revellation of HaShem comes with a spiritual fall."
This plays itself out in the Amidah: (aka the Shmoneh Esrei) After the first berachah and the revellation of HaShem's love for us, we immediately say the berachah "who reanimates the dead." (מחיי המתים) Meaning, since we just experienced a revellation of HaShem, we just experienced a death, and now we praise HaShem for giving us further life. Again, after the first three berachoth, the fourth berachah is חונן הדעת - "He graces us with knowledge" (knowledge of HaShem) the next berachah is immediately "Who desires our teshuvah." (הרוצה בתשובה) Teshuvah is when one returns to life from the death of a sin.
Finally, we already know that the midrash says that with each of the dibrot, the commandments, that Bnei Yisrael heard at Har Sinai their souls would leave their bodies--ie. death--and would be returned to them.
If the sources bear out support for this idea, (I hope to get a chance to speak to my Rav, perhaps tomorrow) then it seems, the shattering of the vessels and the original sin were all necesary steps in the revellation of Godliness in the world. They were the requisite "deaths" that allowed the continuation of the revellation of Godliness in the world down to the lowest level.
Note, in this scheme of things, the Torah is unique in that the Torah is a shield to all who involve themselves in it. Torah is the only way to a revellation of divinity that doesn't involve a coincident death.
Comments
