Secret #1) The Water-Drawing Celebration
"He who has not seen the rejoicing at the place of the water-drawing
ceremony, has never seen rejoicing in his life!" declares the Talmud.1 That same Talmudic passage goes on to describe the entire scene
which took place every Sukkot at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem: gleaming golden
candlesticks, burly oil bearers, dancing rabbis, juggling sages, and a vast
rejoicing mass of Jews.
The all-night dancing and rejoicing took place in the large Women's Courtyard
of the Temple (the men in the courtyard below, the women on an elaborate balcony
that was especially erected for the ceremony), whilst upon the broad circular
stairs that led up to the Men's Courtyard, the Levites stood with "harps, lyres,
cymbals, trumpets" and many other musical instruments. The Levites provided the
musical fanfare and spiritual song that kept Jerusalem wide-eyed till dawn, as
they stood upon those "fifteen steps that led down from the Israelites'
Courtyard to the Women's Courtyard, that correspond to the fifteen 'Songs of
Ascent'2 (shir hamaalot)
found in Psalms."
At the call of the dawn, two priests sounded their trumpets and began to
descend these fifteen steps. They paused on the tenth step to sound their
trumpets once more and then again upon reaching the Women's Courtyard. The
priests then continued until reaching the Eastern Gate that led out of the
Temple, whereupon they spun around to face the Temple's main structure and
announced, "Our fathers who were here (i.e. prior to the destruction of the
First Temple, as recorded in Ezekiel,) turned their backs to the Temple of G-d
and faced eastwards to worship the sun. But as for us, our eyes are to G-d!'
According to Rabbi Judah, the priests would repeat their words, announcing 'We
are to G-d and to G-d are our eyes!"
The multitudes then followed the priests to the Shiloah Spring from which
they would draw water for the Sukkot water-libations.3
Secret #2) The Fifteen Steps
One thing that seems out of place in the above description is the by-the-way
mention of the fifteen steps "that correspond to the fifteen Songs of Ascent in
the Book of Psalms." Such a comment seemingly belongs in those tractates that
deal with the Temple design, instead of being causally slipped in by the
description of the water-drawing ceremony. Besides, here the priests
descended those Steps of Ascent!
Unearthing the promising trail that this little clue leads to, will allow us
to discover an entire interrelated theme of historic, mystical, and applicable
dimension.
Let us begin with the Talmud: Rabbi Chisda asked "a certain rabbi" why King
David composed these fifteen Songs of Ascent to begin with. The Rabbi replied
that when King David had begun the excavations for the place of the Temple's
altar, the waters of the subterranean deep rushed upwards and threatened to
engulf the planet. David thereupon composed fifteen Songs of Ascent and the
depths safely subsided.
If so, Rabbi Chisda immediately protested, why not call them the Songs of
Descent to reflect on the subsiding waters, instead of Songs of Ascent!
You have reminded me, replied the anonymous rabbi, that this is what
occurred: When the Deep surged upwards, King David thought to inscribe the name
of G-d on a piece of earthenware and cast it into the waters. His teacher,
Achitofel, ruled that it would be permissible to do so based on the following
reasoning: if, for the sake of harmony between a husband and his wife whom he
suspects of infidelity, G-d commands us to erase His Name by placing the
parchment into a container of water and giving it to the woman to drink,4
then it is certainly permissible for King David to
cast the Name into the surging waters to bring peace to the entire world!
King David immediately cast the Name into the waters, which then subsided
sixteen levels. King David realized that the Earth's irrigational needs would
henceforth be lacking, and therefore voiced fifteen Songs of Ascent that brought
the waters back up to a safe and useful level.
In his commentary on the Talmud, the Maharsha5 adds that the particular Divine name King David wrote was
Yud-Hei, which bears the numerical value of fifteen. The Temple steps and
the Songs of Ascent likewise correspond to this name of G-d. The two priests who
descended these steps on the way to draw the water on Sukkot, specifically
paused on the tenth step, to indicate that the fifteen steps are divided into
two parts, ten and five, to correspond to the Yud (ten) and Hei
(five) respectively.
Maharal6
goes one step further and quotes the
verse from Isaiah 26:4, "For in G-d (Yud-Hei) is the strength of the
worlds." Our Sages stated regarding this verse that all creation comes into
being via these two Divine "letters," Yud and Hei. Therefore, says
Maharal, the limit of attainable self-perfection within the realm of creation
cannot exceed fifteen "levels," for that is the parameter within which every
created being exists. (Beyond that is beyond reach and can only be bestowed by
G-d.)
On a more specific level, the letter Yud corresponds to the attribute
(sefirah) of Chochmah (Wisdom) whilst the letter Hei
corresponds to the attribute of Binah (Understanding). The first is the
"masculine" aspect within creation, that which bestows, and the second is the
"feminine" aspect, that which accepts. In other words: spiritual and physical,
form and matter, or body and soul. It is explained at length in Tanya, that all
physical existence is constantly dependent upon its receiving a spiritual input.
Moreover, the very Divine letters with which all creation came into being are
likewise comprised of a "form" that comes from the letter Yud, and its
"matter" comes from the Hei. That makes all material substance a
recipient and all spiritual existence a source of bestowal.
This then is the secret behind the fifteen Songs of Ascent. There cannot be a
sixteenth Song, for that would reach beyond creation. And likewise, there were
fifteen corresponding steps in the Temple, that led a person upwards from the
more material and therefore "feminine" aspect within creation (which is the
recipient of spiritual vitality), the Women's Courtyard, to the more spiritual
and therefore "masculine" aspect within creation, the Israelite's Courtyard.
And that is also the secret behind the priest's declaration "We are to G-d."
The particular name of G-d that they used on this occasion, as recorded in the
above passage from the Talmud, is Yud-Hei, which equals fifteen.
Secret #3) Unveiling Rosh Hashanah
On a less kabalistic dimension, the number of the steps and their connection
with the water-drawing ceremony on Sukkot is due to the fact that our planet's
irrigational needs are judged on Rosh Hashanah. Our Sages have stated that all
of our prayers, devotion, and efforts during the Ten Days of Repentance, that
begin with Rosh Hashanah and reach their climax on Yom Kippur, are revealed
during the festival of Sukkot.
Thus the psalmist sings: "Blow the Shofar at the new moon, at the appointed
time (or 'concealment'), for the day of our festival."7
Meaning: Whatever is accomplished spiritually during the "new moon," i.e. on
Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the month when the moon is yet in "concealment,"
will be revealed as bright as "day" during "our festival," Sukkot. All of our
needs along with the vital life-giving water supplies are judged on Rosh
Hashanah. The joy of vindication and the blissful fallout of the Divine favor of
Yom Kippur occur openly during Sukkot.
Secret #4) Steps of Joyful Descent
Our lunar pattern too, came about as a reflection of the Divine Name that
bears a numerical value of fifteen, with which it was created. And just as the
moon begins each monthly cycle by gradually waxing daily for fifteen days, so
too do the spiritual efforts of the Jewish people, "who are compared to the moon
and calculate their months by the moon," grow steadily for fifteen days, from
Rosh Hashanah until Sukkot, whereupon all is revealed and shines forth in
fullness.
During the first fifteen days of Tishrei, the Temple's steps are truly steps
of Ascent; then the Jewish people individually and collectively climb higher and
yet higher in self-refinement, away from their material concerns and the
Courtyard of the Physical, and towards the Creator via the Courtyard of the
Spiritual.
On Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Judgment, we re-accept our Father and King and
turn to Him in joyful penitence. During the subsequent seven Days of Repentance
we advance yet higher in self-refinement, until Yom Kippur, the Day of
Atonement. On Yom Kippur, the only day in the calendar with five prayers that
correspond to the five levels of the soul, we rise to yet loftier heights, until
contacting the very essence of our souls, during the fifth and concluding Neilah
prayer. The essence of our soul is rooted in the Essence of G-d, far beyond any
steps or levels, and for a brief time we touch Infinity. We then have four more
days to absorb these heights whilst preparing our spiritual gains for delivery
into the regular world, on Sukkot.
Subsequently, those Steps of Ascent become Steps of Descent, whereby our
acceptance of G-d on Rosh Hashanah and His forgiveness on Yom Kippur, the fruits
of fifteen intense days, rapidly "descend" and are revealed during Sukkot,
causing unparalleled rejoicing.
And therefore, the priests specifically sounded a series of shofar-like
blasts at the top of the stairway, again at the tenth step, and once more at
base of the stairway, to correspond to Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur (ten days
later), and Sukkot (fifteen days later).
Parenthetically, that is also why it was the Levites who stayed on the steps,
played music and sang songs, whereas the priests descended and led the
procession. The Kabbalah explains that the Levites, who were tasked with raising
their voices and elevating the people with their music, reflect on a strict
"ascending" mode of rapture. So, they sat on the Steps of Ascent. The
priests, conversely, who were tasked with drawing down the Heavenly fire onto
the altar and to elicit divine blessing upon the people, reflect on a
"descending" and benevolent bestowal. So, they descended and led the
people. Likewise, the initial "ascending" Days of Awe are days of strictness,
whereas the subsequent "descending" days of Rejoicing are marked by benevolence
and exultation.
Secret #5) The Mission of the Lower Waters
"And G-d made the heavens, and separated between the waters under the heavens
and the waters upon the heavens" (Genesis 1:7). That was on the second day of
creation. From then on there were "upper waters" and "lower waters."
The lower waters complained to G-d, "We, too, want to be close to You! Why
are we so far away?"8 G-d consoled them saying,
"There will come a time when you, too, will be close, when your waters will be
poured upon the altar during the holiday of Sukkot to celebrate the drawing of
the water."9
Our Sages state that the water-libation on the festival of Sukkot caused the
materialization of the blessing that our subterranean water sources will
irrigate the earth in a productive manner throughout the entire coming year.
But it was not only the waters of our planet that were separated from birth
and long to be reconciled in some manner. The soul of man too, was divided by
creation, part of it being lowered into a physical body far below the heavens
and part of it remaining above. They likewise wish to be reconciled, and the
lower water of the soul cries out bitterly to G-d, "Why can we not likewise
remain before Your Presence? Why must we be trapped in a foreign finite material
body?"
And G-d consoles the soul saying, "When your waters will be poured upon My
alter, when you utilize your energy to keep My Commandments and live a life that
is joyfully inspired by My Torah, then you too will be close to Me – even closer
to My essence, in fact, then anything in the heavens could ever reach."
During the first fifteen days of Tishrei we cry out to G-d and longingly
strive to draw closer to Him. We climb the steps within the parameters of our
existence and are temporarily united with the heavens beyond, with our original
Source and Spring of our soul. And then comes G-d's loving reply, and we
joyfully bound down the fifteen steps to re-enter our Courtyard of Physicality
now infused with a sense of purpose, a mission, and a bursting resolve to reveal
that essence within the realm of the finite--something that only ourselves, the
"lower waters" trapped in bodies, can accomplish.
And we dance our joyful way into the physical commandments of Sukkot: the
sukkah that entirely surrounds us with corporeal walls that radiate G-d's
will, the Four Species of material vegetation that gladly unite before the
influence of G-d's wisdom. Leaping with the guarantee of spiritual success,
emboldened and empowered to transform the night to day, until the call of the
dawn and the light of Divinity will fill the skies of creation... That is Sukkot
and the delight of the lower waters.
Secret #6) To Bestow and Receive
"From the straights I called to G-d; G-d answered me with expansiveness"
(Psalms 118:5).
Bright joys that blossom on long stalks of somberness are all the more
delightful. Warm rays of relief that burst forth from cumbersome clouds of
anxiety are all the more brilliant and comforting.
The above verse from Psalms serves as an opening bugle for the solemn
invocation that is intoned by the congregation at the blowing of the Rosh
Hashanah shofar. Like the shape of the shofar itself, the month of
Tishrei begins with "straights," the severity and somberness of the days of
judgment, repentance, and atonement, when we band together to call out to G-d.
His answer and "expansiveness' arrives on Sukkot, on the Festival of Our
Rejoicing.
Pointedly, this verse uses the Name Yud-Hei for both the straights and
the expansiveness. Fifteen days of cautious ascent and fifteen steps that brings
the holiness down to earth.
So, we first surge actively upwards towards the Men's Courtyard, dispensing
charity, supplying supplication, presenting our case and amending our ways--we
bestow. From us, to G-d. Then we return to the Woman's Courtyard to bask in the
delight of our renewal, the relief of our atonement, and the joy of oneness with
our Creator--we receive. The participants of the rejoicing at the water-drawing
ceremony who danced in the Woman's Courtyard, says the Talmud, would be the
recipients of Divine inspiration. From G-d, to us.
Secret #7) Marital Harmony
As portrayed through the Songs of Songs, the Jewish nation is compared to a
wife; G-d is our Husband. A Jew who strays from the path of G-d's Torah and
clings to other attractions is as a woman who is untruthful to her commitment
and commits fidelity to other men. As the Days of Awe approach, every Jew is
therefore aroused to take stock of his ways and return to G-d, beg His
forgiveness, reconciliation, and protection.
Just as a suspected woman would undergo a test to determine her status, using
the Name of G-d, the Jewish people likewise undergo a process of Judgment and
evaluation during the fifteen days that correspond to the Name of G-d. And just
as there was abundant blessing and rejoicing when a woman was found innocent and
was lovingly reunited with her husband, likewise the Jewish people hold a
festival of rejoicing and reunion with their Husband, following the annual Day
of Atonement.
Secret #8) The Rising Deep
Throughout the year a person becomes sidetracked by the pressures of life and
can be misled by the attractions of vanity. The soul housed within our bodies,
the "lower waters," is reluctantly dragged through soil and sand, over pebbles
and rocks. Weeping like a prisoner, it must follow its captor through the
crooked paths of materiality and the coarse trails of triviality, mixed with
sediments of transgression and dregs of guilt.
With the awaking call of the shofar, the soul's waters come rushing to the
fore. As a person begins his excavations within his own life, to remove the dirt
and grime, and lay the foundations for a personal Temple to G-d by following His
precepts and acting with truth and care, the suppressed currents of his soul
begin to swell.
With every further stirring of repentance, each rush of remorse or throbbing
desire to cleave to G-d that a person experiences during the Days of Awe, his
soul's pure wellsprings are further released from their captivity. Unfettered at
last, the soul shines forth. The person now realizes that material substance is
grossly unimportant compared to the purpose of life itself. He may even be
somewhat disgusted by his wasted pursuit of the world's fleeting glories. Oh, to
experience a true closeness to G-d! Who could ever again desire a return to the
mundane cycles of everyday life…?
Why, on Yom Kippur, the climax of the Days of Repentance, we abstain from
food, dress in white, and spend the entire day cleaving to G-d through prayer.
We are more angel than man. Our true G-dly self has been revealed; home at last!
That, however, is the very juncture at which the Deep threatens to overwhelm
the earth. The drive towards Divinity and self-perfection threatens to seduce a
person to disengage from a physical lifestyle and involvement with society. On
that enlightened level, the surrounding world seems superfluous and distracting,
a false trap that must be shunned.
Secret #9) The Tent of Peace
Once a person has reached such a desire for G-dliness accompanied by disgust
for seemingly obstructive physicality, he has reached the point where he must
cease contemplating himself and his own soul's desire. Now he must consider the
will of the Creator. True, he seeks G-d's closeness, but what does the very G-d
he seeks desire from him? Where is the love of his soul to be found--in the
heavens that are merely spiritual creations full of G-d's radiance? Or perhaps
in this darkened world of struggle, where by vanquishing darkness G-d's essence
is revealed?
This material world was design with intent; G-d makes no mistakes. If this
world existed simply to be avoided it would not be here to begin with! Why do
souls wait thousands of years simply to enter this world? Was the soul not
enclothed in a fleshly body in order to fulfill a mission? True, raw physicality
is obstructive to spirituality, but was that not the purpose of the separation
of his soul's lower waters--to filter through the coarse strata and irrigate the
planet with divinity and purpose?
Through utilizing the physical surroundings according to the Torah's path,
and via harnessing corporeality to fulfill the purpose of mankind, his waters
must flow along the sands and soils of circumstance and forge a careful path
between boulders of deceit. Yet by doing so, the waters become pure, clear,
drinkable. Instead of turning murky, they can refine and grow refined. Far from
becoming stagnant, they can soften and cause growth.
It may be easier to avoid one's mission and to pursue G-d, but G-d's essence
is to be found by specifically engaging His corporeal creation in joyful accord
with His will.
And so, following those Days of Ascent that freed us from sin, it is now time
to cast the Name of G-d upon the surging waters of our soul. The intention is
not to flood the planet with divinity by ignoring its materiality. Rather, the
ultimate purpose is to inscribe the Name of G-d on the very earthenware of
existence itself; to suffuse the corporeal with Heaven. (Note that in Jewish
tradition, the day following Yom Kippur is known as "The Day of G-d's Name.")
This course, Achitofel advised King David, just like the domestic harmony
between the soul and it's Source, the Jewish nation and her Husband, which is
attained on Yom Kippur, will bring peace and harmony between the entire physical
creation and its Creator.
Let the Deep, the newly inspired person, reengage the roads of everyday life
and allow his freshly gained heights be a source of growth and harmony to
himself and the universe. The realization that "we are to G-d" now allows for an
inspired "to G-d are our eyes' throughout our daily affairs. Let the depths of
inspiration suffuse our reality without negating it, rather, let it safely
nourish and support our world with the meaning of life.
That is the joy of the Water Drawing ceremony, and the secret behind the
"tent of peace" represented by the sukkah, wherein heaven and earth dwell in
harmony.
"He who has not seen the rejoicing at the place of the water-drawing ceremony
has never seen rejoicing in his life!"
