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Orchard of Delights Vayishlach

symbolizes his ability to control the animalistic drives that fuel his limitations, is inherited directly from his grandfather Abraham.
humanity’s desire for food. Or, to phrase it differently, “the actions of the fathers are a sign to
the children” (Sotah 34a).
Joseph becomes the quintessential example of how humans can
overcome their base cravings and enable their intellects to rule over The Hebrew word for “he wrestled” contains the same letters as
their emotions. Rather than attempting to annihilate the body’s Jacob, except the letter ayin in Jacob is exchanged for an alef. The
innate needs, he harnessed them to the good. By conquering these missing letter ayin from the word “Yabbok” is realized within Jacob
forces, Joseph went from bondage to second-in-command of Egypt. but then transformed into an alef during his existential battle that
fateful night. The letter alef numerically equals one, representing the
unity of purpose that Jacob had to attain in order to defeat his foe.
The letter ayin significantly equals seventy, the exact number of souls
later accompanying Jacob down to Egypt. Jacob wrestling with the
£Dreams and the Secrets Dreams and the Secrets
££Dreams and the Secrets “man” represents his struggle to attain the inner certainty that he
of Space, T
of Space, Time, and Soulime, and Soulime, and Soul was worthy and able to accomplish all that God had promised him.
of Space, T
The Hebrew word for “he struck him” (teka) containing two letters
from Jacob’s name, reveals a deep psychological truth. Whenever
The key to Joseph’s correct interpretation of the butler and baker’s we do battle – whether with external forces, with internal forces,
dreams in the portion of Vayeishev, as well as Pharaoh’s dreams in the or with both – we do not walk away whole from the encounter.
portion of Miketz, was his ability to conceive of the dreams’ physical Even when we are victorious, there are inevitably wounds we take
objects and their quantities as signifying time. Rashi comments that with us. Whether these wounds come in the form of cutting words
Pharaoh’s magicians interpreted the seven cows and the seven ears or suspicions aroused, guilt experienced or raw emotions exposed,
of grain as signifying the numbers of daughters Pharaoh would give every victory has its price to pay. The trick is to learn to take things
birth to and the number of daughters he would bury, or alternatively in stride and shrug off the negatives. The Torah explicitly mentions
the kingdoms he would conquer, and then lose. Only Joseph realized that Jacob was wounded, but shortly thereafter it recounts that
the intrinsic connection between the objects, which exist in space, Jacob came “whole” to the city of Shechem. He was able to shrug off
and time – a connection which Albert Einstein only made at the his injury and remain unhampered by it.
beginning of the last century. The similarity of the letters in these four words, which allude to
Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh explains that time is the inner dimension Jacob’s struggle, is a profound example of how the inner dimensions
of space, in that the three physical dimensions only “move” or change of the Torah are revealed by the subtleties of the Hebrew language.
through time. The Sefer Yetzirah (3:3) discusses five dimensions: This is why any translation of the Torah from the original Hebrew
three of space, one of time, and one of soul. Science, which now can never convey the true depths of its meaning. Tellingly, to reveal
posits time as well as space as a dimension, still has not discovered these depths the Torah must be studied using the PaRDeS system,
the “soul” dimension – the Divine dimension that provides reality for only then can the full import of the text be revealed.
with its life force and offers it value and purpose. Time serves as
the intermediary between the dimensions of space and soul, between
the physical world and the spiritual worlds. Interestingly, science
has recently accepted the critical effect consciousness has on reality.

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