Month: June 2016

Foundry

The wick which is lacking oil burns up immediately, producing no useful light. The twisted linen which draws oil remains steadfastly lit, retaining the wicks function much longer.

The סנה which משה רבנו experienced represents on one facet the עולם ברור

וילכו שניהם יחדיו this is the revelation of His unity.

In our world the flame consumes the wood and together they reveal light in their mutual destruction. The nuclear forces of stars push back gravitational forces and when one looks out into the cosmos he sees their glimmering light embedded in a vast blanket of darkness.

This סנה did not reflect these characteristics, it was inverted, it revealed the עולם ברור. The light of its origin, though of the interior, was outside as a flame leaps from the wick but the סנה  was not consumed. The fire did not have to obtain sustenance, that it would bring fuel from an external source as the sun’s light shines on us, because it’s innards are digesting. Rather it is sustained internally from His open hand and the light shone out from within. Here we have to see from the perspective of אדם that the light of the sun shines onto him. This light of his soul, of the hidden portion illumines from inside out so that nothing is concealed.

This reflects a profound parallel with בני ישראל we assume מושיח  will bring our national redemption but hasn’t this occurred with the דור הדעה and the יציאת מצרים ?

Rather this burning סנה is the individual man and woman of  ישראל.

The man is מקדש the woman to himself as HaShem is מקדש the שבת קודש. HaShem has revealed His unity as all elements of creation merge into One with the elevation of Shabbos kodesh.  The woman is מקבל the man as שבת קודש is מקבל the Abishter. But really, ביום ההוא יהיה ה’ אחד ושמו אחד. the ר’מ’ח’ל’ ז’צ’ל’  states that טוב שולט רע is טוב for the whole and that רע שולט טוב is רע for the whole. This because אדם is only one entity, though of infinite components in the עולם הפוך and whichever force prevails, this defines the yachids being.

But as the verse clarifies for us in תהלים one manner is known and one is lost.

In this world man and woman reflect the עולם הפוך as they are divided into separate entities yet they cling to one another. Separated we are the fire and the wood.

I heard from R”G”J, shlit’a, in the name of rabbi Yaakov Kaminetsky on במדבר  Israel could be counted as tribes because the משקן provided the foundation for the uniqueness of each individual, tribe to be centered on. Their distinctions did not lead to מחלוקת לא לשמה followed by the destruction of form. The man and woman also must reveal the Divinity within each other, a revelation of unity which reveals that they are בשר אחד and founded in service to HaShem.

 

What is straight forward to the cow is good for the wolf.

Do you only say what is straight forward?

Sometimes straight forward is so sublime you need to appear as though you’re reading between the lines to observe it clearly.

What do you see?

That, already, you’re standing in a forest with trees so high their crowns are beyond perception and you  realize, in that moment, the tree is feminine, the shade, masculine, and you’re grateful to have heard that vort from Rebbe, shlit’a, that the one (influence) is the other (receptivity) when considered in its way, and the others, all together, are the one (Adam haKadmon).

You couple that idea, walking to shul, with an understanding acquired from Rebbe, again, der Helige Yid talking of our holy Sabbath’s spiral staircase, and smile; even before you were born, the worlds are for you.

“Eat joyfully, for you have already gained approval” – Menucha v’Simcha

“You open Your hand and satisfy every living thing [with] its desire.” Tehillim 145: 16

That is the hidden admonition in the words, “Wise Torah scholars increase Shalom in this world.” The wise increase scope, and greater understanding resolves conflicts. The lack of conflict reveals unity and we resolve with an increase of Tov, light, good.

What is straight forward to the cow is good for the wolf.

Wildernesses

על פרקי אבות ביעור טובה

והיה כעץ שתול על פלגי מימ אשר פריו יתן בעתו ועלהו לא יבול וכל אשר יעשה יצליח תהלים א:ג

משלי ג:טו יקרה היא מפניים וכל חפציך לא ישוו בה.

This is how the human being elevates himself.

ותלמוד תורה כנגד כולם the מדרש רבה on במדבר ד:כב 

“The stone the builders rejected became the cornerstone.”  The human has two elements, a theme we find ever present in the ma’aseh Bereshis, creation, from Ha Kadosh Baruch Ho. This is similar to the construct of the מצוות מנורה which has two portions, the אור and the הנכה. Also it is stated literally in the first possuk of our holy Torah that within the Reshis, the primary, Israel (both from Rashi ז’צ’ל’ and the משנה פרקי אבות),  HaShem placed שמים וארץ.

We are inclined towards the material world as it is the predominate environment in עולם הזה (Exile being ra sholet tov). This is explained by the רמחל זצל in his דרך השם, as well as by many other sources, for the state of the world after אדם וחוה were expelled from the גן .   

שירו לה” שיר חדש. And also Torah is called שיר and we recite אין דבר חדש תחת ה שמש

We are pulled between the recognition of our virtual nonexistence and the greatness of the concealed soul HaShem has placed within us. פ”א ב:ט comprises the whole of the matter with respect to the attitude the בן תורה must inculcate if he is to reveal his G-dliness and share in HaShem’s eternity as a yachid.

תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם

I am crafted to be a vessel receiving Your Torah, with Your concealment I am free to act with or against Your instruction. I am girded with weapons as one at war,

תערוך לפני שלחן נגד צוררי,

my table resplendent in white, the gleam of silvers, and the expanse of breath as song. The reflective surface of the wine conceals the depths of Your Torah at the recitation of Kiddush.

I am like You in potential. We are children desiring our Parent’s kind words of approval and encouragement rather than as employees looking for our compensation.**

All that HaShem creates is perfect and good.

All which בן אדם performs that is harmonious with the “רצון ה is too, perfect and good and merits our understanding of what the meaning is for praiseworthy. That is, what does אשרי define?

האיש אשר לא הלך וגו and this human is known to HaShem, and lives, having been giving the choice to act and having followed through. We are created to become אשרי this is the complete manifestation of the potential imbued in our having been formed by the Abishter.

While we may perceive the nuance of אשרי with sensitivity, which demands humility, this is interior knowledge, prophetic knowledge which may not be qualified through division, and in the scheme of our material world, our revealed behaviors may only be informed by טוב, halacha, or רע, entropy.

As I heard from Rebbe, shlit’a, from the Shem M’Shmuel, the extent that we negate the fear of פארה is the extent to which we fear HaShem. When we fear material concerns, they become real, ra being the obstacle of our own will when failing, as Hagar, to see the well of salvation before her own eyes (She was shown the wellspring, it did not appear miraculously) and rather desires its own idea of satisfaction or security. As the mishnah in P.A. states, it is not our task to finish, only to proceed with. Our mesorah is replete with encouragement to be brave and to move forward with Torah and Mitzvohs despite the foreboding obstacles because, if not now, when, and if you say later, there may not be a later, and so forth. Whereas we learn from אברהם אבינו, that he recognized HaShem’s presence everywhere and acted accordingly so that it states, he received all of their, the other nations, rewards combined.*

How does this affect the world practically? When the distorted pray or teach, the idol worshippers, the atheists, for the well being of others, though they mean to do good, though to their bones they are full of love, only greater sorrow approaches, just as one who is unfit to treat the ill will do harm when coming armed with cure alls full of personal faith. That is what it means, too, when Shlomo haMelech states, a crooked thing cannot be made straight (Koheles 1:15).

Notes From Shavous

Who may dwell in Your בית?

Cleaving to You as a spouse?

האשר, for whom He toiled six days.

Count the crowns of Your name. But where you find His humility there too you find His greatness, and Avraham, Your generous servant, served Your world for Your sake and revealed this banner on the eighth day of the life of יצחק. He became a singularity himself and placed himself, and us, into Your candelabra*. The eighth light of חנוכה, the lost day secured, concealed beyond the horizon of Your Shabbos. His descendant, the most humble of men, yet with the capacity to strike down and kill a centurion, was trained from adolescence to oppress. Nurtured in the heart of night against Your lit bosom as the stars shimmer against the pitch.

השמימ מספרים כבודו

Your faithful servant, rabbenu, whom You drew from the water revealed the light of the room into which the nation crowds, not a one lacking space* משנה ד:ג 

Drawing from the water, he gives us water, and the land never lacks satisfaction.

Had we prayed for him when his moment was at hand as he prayed for us during ours, who can speculate but the pure of heart for it states in the Gemara ברכות as was taught to me by Rabbi Moshe Schapiro שליט’א, that one may acquire both worlds at once.