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.

fear the vessel

In Pirkei Avoth we learn that Yirah (fear/awe) must preceed one's Torah learning.

In the Midrash, we learn that HaShem created the world initially out of Din, (judgement/might) and then joined it with Rahamim. (Mercy)

The Ramhal (Rav Mosheh Hayyim Luzzato) along with other mekubalim, (like R' Immanuel Hai Reiki in Mishnath Hasidim) explains that this Gevurah (Din) is the initial Tzimtzum that created the empty space into which the world was created. As they explain, the Tzimtzum is the root of the creation of the kli, the vessel.

It seems to me that the reason our Yirah must precede our learning, our Hochmah/wisdom, is because we need to create the vessel first that will contain our learning.

The Notzer Hesed explains that learning the secrets of the Torah, in the Zohar and the recorded writings of the Arizal, gives us proper Yirah. He says that even young children should be educated in these secrets so that they will have proper Yirah.

From this we can perhaps even understand that the learning that we do that is not l'shmah (for its own sake) still leads to learning l'shmah, because it creates the vessel for our future learning. How does it create the vessel? Through our learning, we see how much we don't know, we learn that there is so much still to learn, we get the smallest glimpse of just how great HaShem and His Torah are. This brings us to awe, which creates the vessel for our future learning.

performance enhancers

Nothing connects to everything else in the world like anything under discussion in Likkutei Halachoth.

Case in point: Tzitzith. It's hard to find a subject Reb Natan hasn't brought up in the discussion of the deeper dimensions of Tzitzith. Here's a few of my personal favorites:

Tzitzith connect you to the heart of the Torah. There are 32 strings, which is gematria for לב, heart. The Torah begins, as we know, with the letter ב and ends with the letter ל, so simply by putting on Tzitzith, one is connecting to the entirety of the Torah. (more about 32-heart [1] [2])

Rebbe Natan says that Tzitzith is all about purification of one's imagination--taking control of it to use it for holy purposes, rather than letting it control you and your thoughts. One's actions (especially one's mitzwoth) are referred to as one's clothes and these clothes, when our actions are imperfect are said to be filthy. Tzitzith are utterly white, hinting to their purification of one's clothes, one's mitzwoth, one's actions through the purification of one's imagination.

Similarly, by purifying one's imagination, one can connect to the aspect of Tzitzith that encompasses all places, being that it has four corners, like the four corners of the world, when one returns to this place, one can truly judge everyone justly, for he has found the true place of each of them. (Since he has returned to HaShem, who is called "the place of the world, whom the world is not His place." He can then see the place of each person in the world, and judge them. Just as Chazal say, do not judge your fellow until you arrive at his place.) This judging with mercy is the rope of Hesed (חוט של חסד) that one otherwise may bring down through learning in the evening. (Another means of purifying one's imagination)

The Tzitzith, as the rope of Hesed, become the strings of David's harp that begins to play at midnight, because once one's imagination is purified, God's hidden spirit, רוח צפון, is revealed. (iirc) This connects Tzitzith to music, a connection that is made through wine as well, because the essence of the song of the Leviim in the Temple was when the wine libation was poured. Wine, as we mentioned in a previous post, is of the nature that when your imagination has already been purified, it releases all of the fallen sparks from the dark (aka other) side. So, when we clarify the imagination, we release song, the song of David's harp at midnight, the song of the coming Redemption, which is the source of all songs, and all happiness.

Needless to say, Tzitzith also connects to Yetziath Mizrayim. The imagination-connection once again לא תתורו אחרי לבבכם ואחרי עיניכם - don't stray after your hearts (see Kriath Shema)

[I'm beginning to think that perhaps Likkutei Halachoth can't be paraphrased]

What is the best part about all this? When I put on tzitzith, I'm no longer just putting on tzitzith. You can't do the mitzwoth like an automaton when you start to learn about the mitzwoth. The biggest set back to doing the mitzwoth with real intention (כוונה) is not the energy it takes, but our lack of learning. (This is more or less one of the Ramhal's messages in Mesilath Yesharim זריזות & זהירות)

Learning the Beit Yosef (R' Yosef Karo's in-depth derivation of all the halachoth in his Shulchan Aruch) can do the same thing. So can learning the text of the Torah itself, the Talmud, or whatever you connect to, whatever is most thrilling to you to learn. The best part is, the learning itself is great, and your mitzwah performance improves because of it. (Shimon at a Jewish Blog points out that enhancement of your mitzwah performance indicates that you are on a good path. This is also something I saw in the Noam Elimelech (מקץ) yesterday.)

For me, Likkutei Halachoth really brings the mitzwoth to life. [When I wash my hands in the morning now, I'm revealing God's light in the world and driving the dark side out of it.] For people with a more Chabad leaning there is the Derech Mitzwothecha of the Tzemach Tzedek. (I learned his chapter on Tefillin while debating taking on Rabbeinu Tam tefillin and it was tremendously exciting)

living to die

Judaism must be the only religion where we're expected to think seriously about dying (for the sake of sanctifying God's name) six times a day. (Three Amidahs (arvith, shacharith, minha) and three Shemas (arvith, shacharith, and al haMitah (before going to sleep)) every day)

This morning, during the first beracha of the amidah, I was thinking about dying for kiddush HaShem. (Which is actually an important thing to do, especially at the word באהבה - with love)

I was thinking that in Shema, we have the same responsibility, to think about dying for kiddush HaShem when we say ה' אלוקנו ה' אחד - Nature and the super-natural both originate from the one God. If we actually internalize this idea when we say it. Then, dying for kiddush HaShem is not so difficult. If we know that what is befalling us is solely the result of the will of God, it shouldn't make a difference whether we are chilling out watching a sitcom rerun, or if we are having the flesh raked off of us by a Roman centurion. And, in truth, the Noam Elimelech says that about Tzaddikim, for them, they know their lot is directly from HaShem, and they have no care (absolutely none) for their personal situation.

So, in a sense, for us mere mortals, the goal of dying for kiddush Hashem right when we are supposed to be acknowledging God's one-ness seems like a logical after-thought. Since it's all in our imagination anyways. (Yes, I really want it when I'm thinking about it, and would want to be able to welcome it, but some small part of me knows that the actual challenge would be nothing like the imagination, obviously. As a simple example, last night I was annoyed with my wife about something totally trivial, but try as I might I couldn't ignore it, even though I knew she'd done nothing wrong, and it was totally my yetzer trying to get me to be mad at her. Something stupid and trivial and I had to beg HaShem to keep me from getting upset about it. (Coincidentally Today's Tanya this morning speaks specifically to that.) )

This wasn't what I wanted to talk about, I wanted to meta-out a little further. The goal of the Jew in the world is to unite the natural and super-natural recognising and making apparent to all that they are one and the same. To reveal God's one-ness in the world. (At least according to Rav Moshe Hayyim Luzzato, the Ramhal, in his Da'ath Tevunoth.)

If and when we reach the point where we're walking zen-masters. (lehavdil elef havdaloth) Living in the moment, aware that everything we perceive is God's will and God's private conversation with us. (at least according to the Baal Shem Tov) Then why are we here? Why be presented with choices about what to do when? Why the mitzwoth? The minute we totally get HaShem. Totally recognise the truth and goodness in every outcome, what purpose does action serve? In my prayers this morning the answer was patently simple. Sometimes, when you are sitting with someone you love, you're happy to sit silently gazing into one another's eyes. Other times, you want to tell them something exciting, or suprise them, or do something special. In fact, the relationship really only grows and develops when you communicate with them through actions and words, through sacrifices and selflessness.

Our Torah, our mitzwoth, our prayers, all those things are what we do to develop our relationship with God because we love him. Everything that happens to us, it's what He does to us because he loves us. Through the interplay of our respective actions and responses, the manifold conversation in simultaneous multiple media, we develop deep bonds and intense relationship.

The Noam Elimelech says it's true, from God's perspective we don't need to act, the thought is enough--witness what the Talmud says about someone who intended to fulfill a mitzwah and was prevented by external (extenuating) circumstances--God makes it as if he actually did fulfill the mitzwah.

But, Avraham Avinu knew that from his perspective, nothing less than the action would do, and eventual action isn't sufficient, it needs to be immediate action, in the heat of the moment. That is why, the Noam Elimelech explains, that he chopped the wood for Akeidath Yitzhak right after God commanded him, even though he would need to carry the wood for three days to a place that most-likely was wooded.

Even moreso, Yitzhak asks Avraham, why do we need to go through the whole charade of offering me, I'm willing and ready to be offered, why not just find the sheep and sacrifice it in my place already? Avraham says, when I've tied you down and placed you on the Altar, only then will you have fulfilled your part to it's utmost. (This is a paraphrased version of how the episode goes down according to the Noam Elimelech)

Our actions and all our mitzwoth, along with this physical world, are all here solely for our benefit. God knows we really want him, there's a part of us that wants him no matter how much we fight it. (The Tanya talks about this in Likkutei Amarim perek 24&25, as does the Notzer Hesed in Ketem Ofir (re: Shushan HaBirah in Esther 1:5)) But God also knows that we have to see what it is we're really ready to do for Him. We have to reveal and develop the relationship until everything we have and everything we are is that relationship. This world is about the flow from potential to actual. (מן הכח אל הפועל)

This is actually the lesson that Esther learns in the Megillah, Mordechai tells her that she needs to go now and intervene with the king, otherwise she and her family will be lost, but HaShem will save Bnei Yisrael some other way. It's not for Bnei Yisrael that Esther needs to risk her life before the king, it's for her own soul. (It's the pshat but I never understood it that way until I heard Rav Aly (from the Kollel of Yeshivat HaKotel) talking about it 5-6 years ago.))

When we are thinking about dying for kiddush HaShem, it's not that were dying as a favor to God, to make his name great in the eyes and hearts of all who see and hear about it. We are dying for kiddush HaShem because that's all we want from existence, to see God so clearly, to cleave to Him so closely that we cease to exist and all that is left is his one-ness.

not perfect and not knowing it

Today's Tanya, as well as R'Moshe Hayyim Luzzato (in Messilat Yesharim:1, via Cosmic X) and others, mention the plight of the neshama in this world, in this body. Namely, that it suffers down here in this body, in this world, where it is far from the perfection of it's origins. These same sources talk about how the Godly soul itself has little to do with this world other than to be a shining example to the Animal soul within each of us. Our Animal soul being that which needs to be fixed and perfected. Ok, great, but still I never asked this question before today but: Why this particularly Godly soul with this particular Animal soul?

I read today that Rebbe Baruch, the grandson of the Baal Shem Tov (by his daughter Adel), said that an herbal remedy not only cures the patient, but that that particular patient actually cures the herb as well, fixing the 'brokenness' that this herb has been suffering from since the orginal sin.

This is a really radical and novel point of view. Visible elsewhere in the ideas of God's supreme justice. But still, looking at things in this way opens up new possibilities. Namely, that the Godly soul you have been given is not complete, not until it refines the Animal soul within you, through which it completes and refines itself as well--even though the Godly soul was initially blind to any fault or lack in itself.