This week's Zohar commentary advises us about the nature and manner of giving blessings to others. If a person praises his friend and doesn't confirm that the praise is for a blessing, then that person is ensnared (to his harm) in the spiritual realms first. However, if he blesses him, then he himself is blessed from above. Furthermore he should bless with a good eye and not with a bad (i.e. jealous) eye. In every instance G-d wishes that the person blessing has love in his heart for his friend and wants the person to bless with good intentions and an expansive heart and with merciful love. This all the more true when one blesses G-d. This is the reason it is written, "And you shall love the Lord your G-d with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." (Deut. 6:5)
Kabbala considers chesed and love the male side of reality, and gevura and fear/awe, the female side. In a general way, this accords with male-female approaches to life the world, i.e. that the male is the more abstract emphasis, while the female is the more concrete. In order to concretize the reality of divinity in this world, the female must evince great strength and power so as not to be overcome by the distracting forces of evil. She derives this power, of course, from the inspiration she takes from the male. In this context, the male is the giver and she is the recipient. On this week's Torah reading, the Ari teaches that the overall tribe of Levi is the source of the five states of gevura, known as the "crown of gevura", the feminine portion, from which the main female partzuf, the Nukva of Zeir Anpin.
The Shelah teaches that as a rule, nothing counted or measured
attracts blessing. This rule applies, however, only when the numbering or
measurement is intrinsically physical, meaning part of this material world. Such
numbers do not bode well, since by their very definition, they stress
individuality and separateness, each item being counted separately.
A number also suggests limitation. Even if we say, "The number
of the children of Israel will be as the sands of the beaches of the sea" (Gen.
22:17), an apparent blessing, the presumption still is that ultimately, this is
a limitation, since the number is finite. However, in the context of the
spiritual world, a number does not imply limitation. On the contrary, once
something is numbered it will have an infinite existence, usually on an
ascending level; an object that is numbered advances towards ever-greater
achievements.
The verse mandating the nation's census says lit.: "Raise the heads of the Jewish people to their skulls..." The properties of the physical body mirror those of the soul, the physical head paralleling the spiritual head, the "head" of the soul. A skull surrounds the physical head, or brain. The soul's "skull" is "Ratzon" - desire; the desire of the soul "surrounds," i.e. transcends, the intellectual aspect of the soul.
G-d commands Moses to take the soul's lower desire - born of the soul's head and brain, and clothed in human consciousness - and elevate it to its source and root: the soul's essence which hovers above, transcendent, a level at which the essence of G-d is fully revealed.
On the verse "…in the Sinai desert in the Tent of Meeting…take a
census of the Assembly of the Children of Israel (Num. 1:13), the Lubavitcher
Rebbe teaches that the phrase "…in the Sinai desert" is a metaphor for the
overwhelming thirst for G-dliness we feel and express in prayer. The Tent of
Meeting alludes to the revelation of G-d in the Torah and its commandments; a
tent is an enveloping cover, alluding to the transcendent divinity (makif)
we access by performing the commandments, while the word "meeting" alludes to
the intimate encounter with divinity (penimi) we experience by learning
the Torah.
Thus, the desert is a metaphor for our upward striving toward
G-dliness, while the Tent of Meeting alludes to the downward flow of G-dliness
into our lives. Our relationship with G-d must incorporate both of these
opposing yet complimentary dynamics, the ascent of prayer and the descent of
learning Torah and performing the commandments.
The Maggid teaches that when a craftsman or artist plans his creation, most certainly he decides to finish it in the most beautiful way. Nevertheless, since he is flesh and blood, it is rarely possible to bring out his full dream into reality, that the final action will be exactly what he first had in mind. But our Creator does not have this same limitation.
Each Jew has the power to bring his positive aspirations to fruition and is part of the commandment to be like G-d. Just as G-d completes each of His thoughts in its entirety, so each of us - at least in those thoughts connected to serving G-d - can also achieve this.
The man continued to cry uncontrollably, and never uttered a word in response…
In the same way that through a person's pulse, bodily sickness can be known and recognized to healers of the physical being, so, too can one's power of thought be unable to clarify and expel the extra refuse of the blood outside, due to his transgressions.
But if he causes the masses to become meritorious, G-d will forgive him immediately of that particular sin, even before it begins to have an effect on his pulse.
Shabbat Shalom.
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