"And the voice was heard," the voice that weeps for the First Temple and the
Second Temple, is heard in the Supernal World, the world to come.
" Rachel
weeps for her children who are in exile; she refused to be comforted for
her children," because her husband [Zeir Anpin] is not with her [the
Shechina]. If her husband had been with
her, her children would not be in exile.
When G-d raises
this voice from the dust, it will join the vav that joins Zeir Anpin
and the Shechina. Then all that was lost by Israel at the time of exile
will be returned to them.
The Zohar teaches that the purpose of the Israelites' trek through the desert was to enable the Israelites to seek out isolated sparks of sanctity and to release them from captivity. This required total sanctity, i.e. a combination of the complete sanctity of Israel, the Divine Presence and the holy Torah. (The definition of completeness is not applicable to fewer than 600,000 souls which originated in holy domains.)
There were forty-two journeys in all. The Baal Shem Tov explained that they exist in the life of every human being, from the moment of birth until the day of death. I also heard from a certain individual that the forty-two journeys correspond to the forty-two letter name of G-d.
These journeys are recorded in the Torah in order to teach us the right path to follow in our lives, and that all of our journeys are holy and pure. Now we can understand how all the journeys were holy or contained aspects of holiness and exalted levels. However, the Israelites distorted the nature of these places through their deeds. Yet, had they not distorted these places, each one would have revealed its hidden light.
The Baal Shem Tov taught that these forty-two journeys are also the forty-two spiritual journeys we make throughout our life. The nation's exodus from Egypt is both its own birth as a nation and an allegory for every individual birth, the liberation of the fetus from the confines of the womb into the freedom of the outside world, where it can develop and become independent. The final journey is to the spiritual Promised Land, the afterlife that awaits us after death.
If we choose properly between good and evil, we will live out these phases of life in the way G-d intended; if, like the generation of the desert, we make some wrong choices, they will have to be expressed as
setbacks. Let us try to always choose to live them out in positive, holy ways.
The closing section of parashat Massai and the entire book of Numbers deals with the "Cities of Refuge". If a person accidentally killed someone else, he was given the opportunity to escape to the cities of refuge where he was protected from the revenge of the victim's family.
The Torah teaches that a Jewish person's essential nature is to oppose sin, so as not to become separated from G-dliness; any sin is really committed by accident. Just as the accidental sinner exiled himself to a City of Refuge, so too, the Jewish people were exiled because of accidental sins.
And, just as the Torah guarantees that the exiled person will be judged and released, so too, the Almighty will vindicate us and redeem us from this exile with the final and true redemption. The second Temple was destroyed because of a drastic lack of unity between Jews. We must rectify this by creating true unity between Jews, beginning with each and every one of us identifying ourselves as an integral part of the Jewish people.
"If you are hungry, ask no man for money or for food, but if people offer you something out of compassion, you may accept it."
Shabbat Shalom.
LOGIN
ASK THE RABBI
Comment
