you have to visualize to realize

On Shabbat Chazon it's important to realize we can't see the world clearly. Rebbe Nachman explains that the sun shines with the same brightness all day, but during the night we can't see it because the world is hiding the sun from us. In the same way the light of the Torah is the brightest light in all of creation, but the world hides it from us.

How do we solve this problem? Simple, R' Nachman says if we look away from the world (wordliness) we can see the light of the Torah. This is the true light. 

Elsewhere Rebbe Nachman explains that the light of the Shabbath is the light of the Beit HaMikdash, so it seems to me that it is on Shabbath Chazon that we can most clearly be aware of the painful loss of the Beit HaMikdash. We have all this light, but it has no place to dwell in this world. We want and miss the lack of a vessel in which to store this beautiful light of Shabbath.

Rebbe Nachman also explains that if we don't look to HaShem to provide for us in the right time, then our blessings will still come but not in the most opportune times, not when we really need it. 

It would seem that Shabbat Chazon is the Shabbat where we can look beyond this world, hoping and expecting to receive the Beit HaMikdash once more. This is the meaning of Shabbath Chazon that we are granted a vision of the Beit HaMikdash. Not that it is a glimpse of the future, but that we are granted the ability to really look to HaShem to provide the Beit HaMikdash for us now. 

May HaShem open our eyes, and may we see with all our longing the Beit HaMikdash sitting on Har HaBayit. Now. In our days. (In the world to come all our days will shine as one, rather than this world where each day takes its own individual time to shine.) In our "days" is now, when the Beit HaMikdash is revealed.

Furthermore it seems unusual that in our tefillot we always mention the Beit HaMikdash before mentioning Moshiah (Tishkon (ie. Mishkan) b'toch Yerushalayim..V'Kiseh David (Moshiah) l'Tocha Tachin.) even though we seem to have this expectation that Moshiah must come first and build the Holy Temple. Perhaps the explanation is this: In our prayers we reference the final Shabbat Chazon in which we see the Temple first, and then Moshiah comes, and builds it.

First we need to have the vision, the inspiration, the foresight to bring about the Beit HaMikdash, once we have the vision, then HaShem sends the Moshiah to realize that vision.

May HaShem open our eyes that we may visualize the goal.

Shabbat Chazon Shalom!

visions of fire and hope

An unbelievable Hidush from Tish'a b'Av:

Midrash Rabbah (Bereishith) explains the beginning of Avraham Avinu's relationship with HaShem. Avraham reached an epic discovery and in a vision sees a city afire. He says "Is no one in charge?" At this point HaShem speaks to Avraham for the first time and says, "I'm in charge."

To the best of my understanding the burning city always represented the perpetuation of life, consuming resources, moving onward, basically: entropy. Avraham saw entropy and said, it seems like life is chaos, but he was puzzled by this because he thought for sure there was a creator, at which point HaShem reveals himself.

Later, this time in the Humash itself, (Shemoth) we have a similar vision: Mosheh Rabbeinu sees a bush afire, and wonders how it is the bush is not consumed? At which point, HaShem reveals himself to Mosheh and sends him on the quest to free the Jews from slavery.

To me this always represented the Jewish people, they were a small sappling yet the fires of bondage never consumed them.

Finally we have a mountain aflame, Har Sinai, at the giving of the Torah. Here all the nation witnesses HaShem speaking to them directly, coprophecy of an entire people.

The humble mountain aflame with the presence of Godliness, is a pretty straightforward metaphor.

To me, on Tish'a b'Av suddenly, all three visions represented the same vision.

All of them witnessed the burning of Yerushalayim. The destruction of the temple.

At the first destruction, Avraham Avinu asks HaShem: "Is there no one in charge?" After the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash everything seems pointless. Wasn't the beit HaMikdash the very point of creation, after all, everything HaShem promised Avraham came true? HaShem comforts Avraham that no, this is all part of the plan.

At the second destruction, Mosheh Rabbeinu asks: "Why won't the tree ignite?" It seems he was asking more about the nation, why won't they burn with passion for HaShem as is there potential? (instead they burn with hate at one another, and yet they aren't consumed.) HaShem reveals Himself to Mosheh and explains again that it's part of the plan.

At the final third temple, the whole nation stands and bears witness to the oneness of HaShem, and the mountain (the Temple mount) is alight shining up to the heart of heaven.

The destruction of each Temple was a revelation of the final rebuilding, flames up to the heavens, but we weren't ready to receive it yet. HaShem's very first revelation to Avraham Avinu, the vision that began it all, was a vision of the destruction and the promise of the rebuilding.

Maor Eynayim: Parashat Vayishlach

The Maor Eynayim on the parshah is rather short.

He explains that just like there are 365 sinews and 248 limbs in the soul (nefesh), there are similarly 365 sinews and 248 limbs in the complete level of both the world (olam) and the year (shanah).

He goes on to explain that the 365 days represent the 365 sinews of the year, and the year analog to the soul's gid hanasheh (sciatic nerve -afaik) is the 9th of Av. The gid haNasheh is the source of the power of the 'other side' in the level of soul. The 9th of the month of Av plays a similar role in the level of the year. The 9th of Av is the day when the 'other side' is at its most influential, hence the destruction of both temples and the sin of the golden calf(?) happened on that day.

When it says that the Angel strove with Yaakov until the rising of the sun, he teaches that the Satan will strive with Bnei Yisrael until the coming of the mashiach at which time, the 'other side' will be annihilated. Until then, he used his expanded influence over the gid haNasheh/Tisha B'av to wound us.