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Orchard of Delights Toldot
God: “He is the place of the world, but the world is not His place” concepts; however, since God knew the type of world that would
(Bereishit Rabbah 68:9). follow from His giving humanity free will, this reality too became
part and parcel of the Torah itself, and was ultimately – if, somewhat
Moses spent forty days on Mount Sinai praying for forgiveness
after the Jewish people sinned by worshipping the Golden Calf. In paradoxically – reflected in the world. Since the Torah provides the
the course of this process, God revealed the thirteen principles of path to the world’s rectification, it addresses the nitty-gritty reality
compassion, and he also told Moses that no one can see God’s face of a non-rectified world in need of much repair. The Torah is full
and live: “And God said, Behold! There is a place with Me, you may of stories of war, murder, jealousy, incest, theft, political intrigue,
stand on the rock. When My glory passes by I shall place you in a rebellion, and so forth. The basest of human emotions parade across
cleft of the rock; I will shield you with My hand until I have passed its pages because these are part and parcel of the world we live in. Of
by. Then I will remove My hand and you will see my back, but My course, the Torah does not advocate giving in to our darker sides, but
face will not be seen” (Exodus 33:21-23). Rashi comments that the it accepts the world as it is, as humanity has shaped it, and provides
text states that “there is a place with Me” and not that I am in this both the individual and the world with an instruction manual and a
place, for God is the place of the world, but the world is not His pathway to rectification.
place. God knew that in order for Jacob to rectify such a world, leading

Seeing the face of God would imply direct revelation, a form of it to its purpose, he would have to learn to survive in a far from ideal
revelation beyond the grasp of any finite being. A human being can reality. God tested him, as he had tested Abraham, to teach him
only see God’s back, His essence is concealed in nature, in the reality how to overcome the pitfalls of an imperfect world. Jacob received
of time and space. The Arizal taught that all matter, animate or the name “Israel” after he defeated the angel in battle because this
seemingly inanimate, large or small, exists because a spark of God name signifies that he had “contended with God and with man and
animates it. Jacob who had spent his entire life cloistered in the tents had prevailed” (Genesis 32:29). Jacob’s inherent love of truth and
of Torah was now encountering the world for the first time, as it honesty were constantly challenged by the tests life threw at him.
were. He suddenly realized that God is truly everywhere, permeating And like all of us he did his best to balance the means and the ends
every aspect of existence. This revelation is crucial, for it is the first of each situation.
step Jacob must take in assuming his life’s work and mission, the Despite all these challenges, Jacob not only survived but
process of uniting the physical and the spiritual. established the resilient nation of Israel. Even today, the State of
Israel is constantly forced to deal with situations and circumstances
that threaten its very existence. Like Jacob, Israel is sometimes
forced to act in ways that defy the world’s hypocritical definition
of what is irreproachable behavior. Once again Jacob’s descendants
have the awesome challenge of existing in a less than ideal world,
trying to hold fast to what is true, moral, and ethical.

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