Friday Night
THIS WEEK’S PARSHA is climactic for an obvious reason, and a less obvious reason. The giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai is one of the most important events of all of history, greatly altering the direction of mankind.
The world doesn’t know or appreciate it, but all the civility that we live with and depend upon is only because of the Torah. Nothing else comes close to the moral standard it teaches man to live up to, and those who haven’t have lived far more barbaric lives…even today. The deterioration of society in any generation is because of a lack of Torah influence.
The less obvious reason has to do with the main purpose of Creation, which so few people know or think about. It’s why God started with all of this, “this” including so much more than we see or know about, most of which cannot be picked up by the “James Webb Telescope.” To see that part, or what we are allowed to see of it, requires the proper tradition, and a good mind’s eye.
That purpose? The revelation of God to man. That’s all life is about, and that is all life has ever been about. God created all of it, the Ohr Ain Sof (Revelation Level 1), the Kav v’Tzimtzum (Revelation Level 2), Adam Kadmon (Revelation Level 3), Atzilus (Revelation Level 4), Beriyah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah (Revelation Level 5), just for this purpose. Oh, and our physical universe too, which is on the lowest level of Asiyah.
Now, if you were to ask the seven billion plus people living on this planet what they thought the purpose of life is, if they have an answer, it is unlikely to be this one. I’ve asked this question to people with many years of Torah learning under their belt and, not once did I receive such an answer. Some have come close, but no one has said it clearly and decisively. How could something be so central to everything and yet be so unknown to so many people?
Because it is not only about God’s big reveal to all of mankind, but mankind’s big reveal of God. When Yeshayahu HaNavi called the Jewish people to be a “light to the nations” (which happens to also be imprinted on the wall of the organization that likes us the least), he was telling us this: Go reveal God to the world.
And by reveal, we don’t mean on a theoretical level only. We mean, find a way to make the reality of God so real to people that they can relate to Him and feel His Presence as they might another person in the same room. We mean, act in a way that makes the existence of God palpable to you, which will make it more palpable to others…as it was in this week’s parsha at Mt. Sinai.
Shabbos Day
TECHNOLOGY MAKES LIFE easier physically and spiritually. I don’t mean that it doesn’t challenge us spiritually because clearly it does. Technology has created more stumbling blocks for the Torah Jew than anything else in the last couple of decades, if not longer.
What I mean is this. I have great friends and chavrusos I have never met in person, or hadn’t for the longest time. In the past that would not have been nearly as true if we had only been able to be pen pals, because there is only so much you can learn about someone from the way they write. But thanks to programs like Skype and Zoom, people can meet with one another from thousands of miles away time after time, and develop relationships and bonds that once were only possible from actually spending time in person.
It makes a profound point that may get lost on most of us and that is, how we can develop close relationships with people we can’t really see or hear, just imagine. But you’ll ask me, “What do you mean, just imagine? We can actually see and hear who we’re talking to when using any of these programs!”
Yes and no. You’re not seeing the actual person as you would in real life. Rather, their computer is translating their picture and words into electrical impulses. Those impulses then travel over communication lines and are later reassembled according to their original order by our computers. This results in a pixelated version of your counterpart that you associate with the real thing. In short, it’s just information that is allowing your brain to relate to the other party as a real person, and develop emotional responses to them based upon what you are relating to.
The success of a such a digital relationship depends upon the conveyer of the data. When the Internet is slow, the picture freezes and the words become garbled. If it remains frozen, the relationship becomes frozen, and it becomes like talking to a “dead” person, God forbid. Even if an individual stops talking in person, you can still sense they are alive and relatable.
Now we can take that information and apply it to our relationship with God. You don’t have to actually see God to see Him, or actually hear Him to hear Him. As great as that would be, and will be in the future when prophecy returns, it is not necessary for developing a close and personal relationship with God. When someone says, “I would believe in God if I could see Him!” they have to realize that the only reason why they don’t, is because they haven’t taken the time to gather the right information about God to have that relationship. That’s on them, not God.
Seudas Shlishis
TO KNOW GOD is to love Him. And not just love Him, but to “see” Him, to sense His Presence, as if it is palpable. If you ask, “How is that possible?” the answer is, “Is anything impossible for God?” We may not have the ability to create that sense, but if we try, He’ll take care of the rest.
So many times in Tanach we find the Shechinah “resting” on a particular person and changing their reality. Yiftach was a virtual nobody who became the leader of his people when God imbued him with His spirit. In Parashas BeHa’alosecha, 70 elders became members of the prestigious Sanhedrin when God gifted them the knowledge to function on such a high level of Torah. It’s what God does when His plan for Creation requires it, and people become worthy of it.
This was essentially the Har Sinai Experience. It was God giving the Jewish people a taste of just how real an experience of God can be if you go after it. This is what Yeshayahu was telling the Jewish people when he said, “Seek God when He is found, call Him when He is near” (Yeshayahu 55:6). In other words, God can be “found” and God can be “near,” if you make it so.
It is not just a gift. It is the very purpose of Creation. When someone creates a situation of revelation of God, they bring meaning to all of existence. They rectify themself and the world, mitigating the need for God to have to “force” His revelation onto mankind. Because that is all the War of Gog and Magog is intended to do, to get the world’s attention and make them realize Who God really is.
As God will later say in the Torah, “You have been shown, in order to know that God is God; there is none else besides Him” (Devarim 4:35). Once we learn this and project it through our lives, the world will catch on as well. Then we will have been the light unto nations we were taken out of Egypt and to Mt. Sinai to be.
That’s where all of this is leading, what’s going in the world today. All the bad and all the confusion may hide the Presence of God for now, but that is just to amplify the eventual revelation of God. But this amplification can either be because of us, or through us. Judging by the rate that things are changing for the worse, we don’t have much time left to make that decision.
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Acharis K’Reishis, Part 5
CONTINUING ON WITH the translation, it says:
It has been explained that also in the Egyptian exile, the Jewish people left oppression prior to their redemption. They elucidate the verse, “the rain is over and gone” (Shir HaShirim 2:11) as referring to the main oppression. They also make a parallel to the days of Koresh, as well as the future pekidah, as will be explained. They explain how the order of redemption applies equally to all of them (i.e., to all redemptions).
See the Ma’amar Geulah of the Ramchal [where he says]:
“It is necessary to know that the redemption from Egypt and the future redemption are equal in many ways. It is just that the future one will be even greater, because Creation will then find a rest that it has not known from the day of its existence until now (i.e., the end of history).”
In the commentary of the Ramchal on Shir HaShirim (Otzros Ramchal, p. 45) [it says]: “This is the matter of redemption that is found many times in history. It is all from the same source, that is, the redemption from Egypt and the future redemption come from the same source, as it says [with respect to the final redemption], ‘like the days of your leaving Egypt I will show you wonders’ (Michah 7:15).”
The GR”A explicitly says on Shir HaShirim [on] 2:8, and there [on] 6:10, that the leaving of Egypt was the beginning of all the redemptions, and it will be likewise in the future as well. Therefore, all the specifics of the future redemption are actually similar to the details of the redemption from Egypt. We find that the redemption from Egypt occurred in many levels, as it was mentioned previously (Ch. 2 from Aderes Eliyahu, Parashas VaAira 6:6). “[The verse says,] ‘I will take you out [from under the burdens of Egypt]’ and this refers to the oppression of the Children [of Israel] and all their difficult labor. ‘I will save you [from their labor]’ means you will no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. ‘I will redeem you [with an outstretched arm and great judgements]’ refers to the leaving of Egypt. ‘And I will take [you as a people] and I will be [God to you]’ is the giving of Torah, as it says ‘You will be to Me a people [and I will be God to you]” (Vayikra 26:12).’”
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Good Shabbos,
Pinchas Winston