the in-gathering of the filings

There's a great metaphor the Ben Ish Hai (Introduction to Parashath VaEra, Year 2) uses to explain what the final resurrection will be like. He explains first that only the Jewish people will be resurrected, and while this does not differentiate them now at this time, when HaShem drops the dew of life on the ground, it will be absorbed only by the dust that was formerly part of a Jewish body, and it will return life to that body.

How will the dew differentiate between Jewish and non-Jewish dust? Here's his example: Imagine someone spread iron filings all over a dark sandy floor. There's no distinguishable difference between the different kinds of dust.. but pull out a magnet and instantly discerning which dust particles are iron filings becomes trivial.

Similarly, when the final resurrection takes place, only then will the different nature of the Jewish People become apparent. This, R' Hayyim explains, is hinted to in the letter vav of the word פדות (pedut) which is not written in the text, but is nonetheless pronounced.

open to criticism

The Baal Shem Tov explains Rashi's explanation: "Their tent openings weren't opposite one another."

As many explain, the tent refers to Bnei Yisrael's Torah study. Openings are their mouths. When they opened their mouths in Torah study, they didn't do so just to contradict (say the opposite of) one another, rather they sought only to refine their common understanding of the Torah.

soul survivors

If our soul doesn't spend time learning God's Torah and keeping God's mitzwoth in this world, our body won't rise up in the end of days, in the time of the resurrection. (Ohr HaHayyim, Haazinu)

He learns it out from here: If the heavens [soul] listen to my speech, then the earth [the body after the soul's departure] will hear my voice [when it calls, as the Zohar teaches, in the end of days to awaken the body once more]

mouthing out His words

The Ohr HaHayyim, R' Hayyim ibn Atar, says that [in parashath Ha'azinu] HaShem referred to the written Torah as 'my lesson' (לקחי) and to the oral Torah as 'my sayings.' (אמרתי)

That's amazing!! One normally thinks the 'oral Torah' (תורה שבעל פה) refers to the speech or interpretation of the Rabbis, when here the Ohr HaHayyim is telling us no! HaShem counts the oral Torah as Torah spoken from His Own mouth.

This bolsters the teaching that every word of Torah we speak is tantamount to all of the mitzwoth combined, as taught by Chazal.

haazinu : AZ-ify us!

האזינו השמים ואדברה - heavens! harken and I will speak

These are the opening words of parashath Haazinu. While learning the Ohr HaHayyim, he asks a simple question: what is the meaning of האזינו - harken? It suddenly occured to me that the deeper meaning of these opening words is something quite different from what we might have otherwise thought:

For a little background, we need to understand a few ideas. Speech is the power of the Moshiah. Why? Speech is associated with the sefirah of Malchut in a number of places, most notably in the introduction to the Tikkunei Zohar: מלכות פה - Malchut is the mouth. Also, the Moshiah will wage his wars through prayer - בקשתי ובחרבי - with my bow and my sword - is translated as through my supplications and my praise.

Another important introduction: Az Yashir, the song that Bnei Yisrael sang upon the Exodus from Egypt, hints that Mosheh and Bnei Yisrael will sing in the future, אז, not in the past. Chazal explain (since clearly Mosheh sings with Bnei Yisrael) that this song in the future will be in the time of Israel's final redemption. (when Mosheh is resurrected with all the rest of the 'dead')

Now we can understand the prayer that was hidden within the opening words of Parashath Haazinu:

האזינו השמים ואדברה - [I entreat the] Heavens, bring us to the time/state of אז (literally: make us אז) the time of the final redemption, and then [as the Moshiah, with the power of Moshiah] I will speak.

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.)