Nisan day 6

Today is the sixth (6) day of Nisan, it represents the month of Elul (the King is in the field - I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me) and the tribe of Gad offered the dedication of the mizbeach today.

Today it is easier to be close to HaShem. Close your eyes and be alone with HaShem for a minute.

The Yehi Ratzon for today's reading of the Nesi'im explains that it was in Gad's merit that we recieved the manna in the desert. 

HaShem is everpresent and ever concerned with providing for his creations.

you can't have what you don't want

כֹּל נְדִיב לִבּוֹ, יְבִיאֶהָ אֵת תְּרוּמַת יְהוָה

The Ohr HaHayyim learns out from this passuk in our parashah, (Vayakhel 35:5) that there are two aspects to the world, the physical sensory one, and the spiritual intellectual one. (Terumat (lit: elevated by) HaShem) He explains that "kol nediv libo," (all whose heart move them to give) teaches us that if an action is performed without thought, without real desire, then it cannot affect the spiritual/intellectual aspect of the world. (You can't be involved in the Terumah (the elevated nature of the world) without actively wanting to.)

a hundred what?

What is HaShem asking of you today? That's what Mosheh Rabbeinu says. Chazal explain: don't read it "what," (מה) read it, "one hundred." (מאה) One should be careful to make one hundred blessings every day.

The Noam Elimelech then comes along (Likkutei Shoshanah) and explains what it really means: HaShem wants us to reach a level of self-nullification, bitul, referred to as "What?" (as in the passuk ונחנו מה?) But that level is virtually unattainable, so Chazal come along to give us advice on how to attain this level: If you focus on saying one hundred berachot every day from this level of "What?" (just while you say the berachoth,) then from there one can surely reach the true level of "What?"

So the Noam Elimelech takes the abstract teaching and brings it down as a practical lesson in achieving bitul.

being the voice of the universe

Imagine every single object in your periphery declaring that HaShem is One all at the same time. Your desk, computer, chair, telephone, wallpaper, floor, door, assorted books, cups, etc. (Anyways, you get the idea.) That is what happened on Har Sinai -- only it wasn't just everything talking to you -- everything was talking to all 600,000+ of you at once, telling you all in no uncertain terms that there is only one God, HaShem. That's how the Tikkunei Zohar describes it. (it's quoted in today's Tanya, the 22nd of Adar) Imagine your own body telling you, your hair, everything. 

It seems to me that the beauty of HaShem's world is this: On Har Sinai, the whole world spoke up and told us that HaShem is One. From that time on, it is our job to give voice to the whole world, to unite HaShem's name in the world and proclaim HaShem's One-ness in the name of all the world.

How is it that we can give voice to the world? The Talmud explains that mankind is called the challah of the world. Challah is a special offering, a small quantity of any dough that is prepared is given to the Kohanim and is attributed Holiness, Kedushah. In a way this is similar to the kedushah of other such tithes, ma'aser or terumah, or even the first fruits and first born. What it means is that mankind represents the microcosm of the macrocosm. 

Another midrash describes a similar idea by saying that in order to create Adam, the first man, HaShem gathered dust from the four corners of the world. Astronomers and science fiction writers take great pleasure in pointing out that most of the heavier elements that make up the world around us, including our bodies are elements that were forged in the hearts of stars in the early universe. I don't think they've ever equated these two ideas from these two vastly different frames of mind. Adam's body [and soul too] was created from a gathering of a little bit of everything created. 

There are other midrashim that hint at the same idea, one example equating different parts of the human body with different animals, etc. Other parshanim explain (as we've mentioned in the past) that the Mishkan was a microcosm of both the world, and the human body, implying that the human body is a microcosm of the world. The Tikkunei Zohar goes into this in depth, explaining the metaphor pertaining to the various major organs.

In short, we here today, each one of us, is a microcosm, gathered from the furthest reaches of space and time, heaven and earth. We are the true testament to HaShem's Oneness. If HaShem wasn't One, how could a little bit of everything created be brought together into a single creation. 

On Har Sinai the whole world proclaimed it for us, just to bring the point home. Today, it is our job every time we say Shema Yisrael, (2 (3^*1) times a day) to embody the whole world, as its representatives.

HaShem Elokeinu HaShem Echad - Hear O Israel, HaShem created and sustains everything in creation, HaShem is One.

The whole world waits every morning and every evening to hear us proclaim this deepest truth, to fulfill its deepest purpose, to bear witness to the oneness of HaShem.^*2

This is also a good kavanah to have when you recite Perek Shirah, that all the animals of the world are waiting to praise HaShem, but they need you to give voice to their prayers.

notes:

*1 We say Shema Yisrael in the morning and evening prayers, and we are meant to repeat it (a third time) on our bed every night before we sleep.

*2 The Ramhal in his Da'ath Tevunoth explains that the whole purpose of creation is to make us aware that HaShem is One.

relax and then relax some more

The Ohr HaHayyim, Rav Hayyim ibn Atar, explains on this week's parashah VaYakhel, that HaShem says: If you keep my Shabbath, the work of the other six days of the week will be done for you. Good news!

He says that one of the ways to read the passuk: (Shemot 35:2) "sheshet yamim tey-a-seh melachah," (normally translated as "six days will you work, [and on the seventh day you will rest]")  he says that if you pay attention to the punctuation, the nikkud, of the word tey-a-seh, it isn't 'you will do,' it is 'it will be done [as if on its own]' 

If you properly keep the Shabbat, all your week's work will be done for you. Ah, but then you really have to keep Shabbath properly!

the sweetening of redemption

Today (21 Adar) is the (223rd) Yahrtzeit of the Noam Elimelech. (Rebbe Elimelech ben Reb Elazar of Lizhensk) [last year's yahrtzeit post here: the sweetness of elimelech]

Reb 'Meilech said about himself that he would sweeten the hardships of the time of Moshiah. 

The Komarna Rebbe wrote about the sefer Noam Elimelech that it is pure light and no one can truly comprehend it, they can only perceive it relative to their own level.

In honor of his 223rd Yahrtzeit, I wanted to share a little hidush (according to my own muddied level) on the sefer Noam Elimelech.

Reb 'Meilech often repeated the lesson that a Tzaddik, through his prayers, creates a new heaven and a new earth. Now, it occurs to me that there is almost a literal analog in the chumash of this description, creating a new earth and a new heaven: The splitting of the sea by the exodus from egypt. What are the heavens, the firmament that divides the heavenly waters with the earthly waters, well, on that day there was another firmament dividing the waters around the Jewish people. Similarly the earth, aretz, or land, is originally created (in Bereishith) through gathering the water away from and exposing dry land. Once again we see that in the splitting of the sea, new land, a new earth, was created.

Now to really get to the point of my teaching we need to visit two teachings of Chazal: 

(1) In Rabi Meir's (the Tanna who is responsible for much of the mishnah) Sefer Torah, the Talmud teaches, the words "robes of leather" (עור) was written "robes of light." (אור) The Komarna explains that Rabi Meir was on such a level that his flesh was totally transparent to HaShem's light, the true and deepest definition of learning Torah for its own sake (According to the Baal Shem Tov) and so in Rabi Meir's Torah scroll, the ayin was written as an aleph.

(2) The midrash mentions that by the splitting of the sea, HaShem appeared before Bnei Yisrael

as a powerful warrior in the prime of life, (sure enough we see in the song by the sea, Az YaShir, that Mosheh praises HaShem as a "Man of war") and by Har Sinai, HaShem appeared before Bnei Yisrael as an old man with a flowing white beard. 

The point is this:

In the Noam Elimelech (and once more in the appendix 'Likkutei Shoshanah') there appears a seeming reference to this midrash, but instead it is written that HaShem appeared by the splitting of the sea as an old man with a flowing white beard. 

At first I puzzled at this reading and even asked Rav Tal Zwecker (who recently translated the Noam Elimelech into english) for his explanation -- it would seem that the original manuscript abbreviated "Har Sinai" (ה"ס) and the printer misread it as (הים) "the sea." Seems like an honest enough mistake. 

But I would like to be mechadesh (offer a new interpretation) here that in fact, Reb Meilech was on such a level that all of HaShem's harshest judgements were clear to him as truly the sweetest kindness,  and so like Rabi Meir's Torah in which it was written "light" instead of "leather," here too Reb Meilech's sefer recorded only a likeness of Hesed, a kindly old man with a long white beard, by the splitting of the sea, not a man of war.

on purim, everyone's a hassid

[I can't recommend enough the Komarna Rebbe's commentary on Megillat Esther, Ketem Ofir. When I first learned the introduction a few years ago, I was blown away, in one page he managed to fit in all the Hassidut I had ever learned. Where would he go from there, if that was only the introduction? This year I found myself listening to the Megillah and wondering what each verse was really hinting at, wishing I had had more time to review and learn the Ketem Ofir.]

He mentions that Haman wanted to cut us off from being able to access HaShem's infinite Hesed, (loosely translated: Kindness) a light so pure that it cannot be affected, changed, or tainted. It reaches from one end of the world to the other and eradicates all trace of evil. For this reason, for fear of eradication, Haman wanted to separate us from it, HaShem's infinite Hesed.

How did he want to do this in practice? To begin with, how does one connect to HaShem's infinite Hesed? We serve HaShem with excitement and heat. Haman and Amalek, they're power over us is to cool us off, try and bring us back to 'cool' reason, 'cold logic.' To try and ruin the 'heat of the moment.' When we devote ourselves totally and wholly to HaShem with passion and heat, in that place, we can connect to the root of our souls, forever bound up in HaShem's infinite Hesed, from that place all the evil, all the klippot melt away, and Haman is no more. 

I think we can see this in practice through Esther HaMalka coming before the king, at great personal risk and for the sake of the nation, from that moment on, we see Haman's actions are no longer his own and a chain of uncontrollable events lead to his almost immediate downfall. The Rebbe went further in explaining the idea, more technical and more detailed, but that's not for me to give over here.

I believe this also explains why it is we are required to get drunk on Purim, to be filled with the heat of love and excitement in performing HaShem's mitzwoth. It's no coincidence that most of the mitzwoth of the day are bound up in Hesed, acts of kindness. The drink takes away the edge of the "cold logic," the cooling effect of Amalek.

One more thing that was never clear to me on Purim was the mitzwah of hearing the megillah, without missing a single word. The rest of the day is about losing da'at, about not being able to maintain an intellectual relationship but rather an emotional, in a way deeper, one. So, it's striking that we are required, on the very same day, to follow, with perfect precision and focus, a text being read aloud. In the context of our tremendous and unfailing love for HaShem this mitzwah can come into focus: When we love someone, we can't take our eyes or ears off them, every word every gesture is not only pleasing, but also vital. If we can connect to the love of HaShem inherent in the day of Purim, then listening to every word of the megillah comes as a freebie, we wouldn't pass up a single word in the story of how He saved us, everything He did for us.

getting carried away

הארון נושא את נושאיו - The ark would carry those who carried it.
Chazal explain that those who would bear the ark of the covenant were actually carried by it, rather than carrying it.

The Noam Elimelech offers another explanation of how this passuk relates to the Tzaddik:

When a Tzaddik starts on his journey towards HaShem, people speak out against him and cause him great difficulty. He doesn't pay them any heed however and continues pushing forward. These tests from those who challenge him actually propel him along on his way, the Noam Elimelech explains, and quicken his rise to greatness. (Each test in which he remains silent and ignores their taunting allows him tremendous spiritual growth.) When he finally becomes a true Tzaddik, he then returns the favor by awakening them [those who troubled him] to do true teshuvah and in this way, the Tzaddik who is referred to as the holy ark, actually carries those who at first appeared to carry him.

brand spanking new

When a baby comes into the world, there are two things (and only two things) it needs to work on. Only after it has mastered these two can it really move on to the rest of life. What are the two things? (1) eating its food, and (2) excreting its waste. 

If you watch a newborn, you will see just how much effort they expend performing these two apparently simple tasks.

What I only realized recently is that in a broad sense we can be (and generally are, for most of our lives) spiritual newborns. Spiritually speaking our souls alternate between performing holy deeds like mitzwoth, hesed, prayer or learning, and removing the waste and damage done through less than spiritual endeavors, through teshuvah. 

It's not really such a long jump to relate mitzwot (and everything else we categorized along with them) as 'eating' because we know that in Gan Eden, the souls are clothed in the mitzwoth they performed in their lifetime; just as the food we eat becomes the flesh our souls wear in this world. Along the same lines, the connection between the expulsion of waste from the body and the expulsion of waste from the soul (teshuvah) is apparent.

The really interesting question for all of us to think about is: Newborns grow up, and move beyond eating and excreting to many far more interesting goals; what comes next spiritually?

Yes, just as these two basic functions (eating and excreting) still play a real role in our day to day adult existence, our spiritual lives will forever revolve around mitzwoth and teshuvah, but the spaces in between is where all the real depth takes place, where relationships are built, and life is given meaning.

I believe that HaShem put all the deepest secrets of life (the universe and everything) right in front of us. If we really stop and think about life and living, growth and growing, we'll see just how far our souls can grow.