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Orchard of Delights
By searching for the essence and primary causes we trace our
souls back to their initial unity in God, the source of all existence.
It is there we find purpose and meaning in life and the strength to
be all we can be. Using the PaRDeS system (which peaks with the
mystical level of sod) to delve into Torah, likewise trains the mind
to continually look deeper, beyond the superficial literal sense of the
text in order to unearth myriad dimensions of meaning, a veritable
Orchard of Delights.
£Time, Space, and SoulTime, Space, and Soul
££Time, Space, and Soul
The giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai was
accompanied by several natural and metaphysical phenomena:
“And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there
was thunder and lightning and a thick cloud upon the mountain,
and the sound of a shofar exceedingly loud” (Exodus 19:16); “And
all the people saw the sounds of the thunder and the lightning and
the sound of the shofar and the mountain smoking” (Exodus 20:15).
Rashi comments that all the people were able to see that which is
heard, something which cannot ordinarily happen. Modern science
refers to this phenomenon as “synesthesia,” a condition wherein one
of the senses reacts in a novel way to a stimulus ordinarily dealt with
by another one of the senses (such as, the sense of sight designating
a certain sound as blue, or the sense of sound designating a certain
color as bell-like). The ability of all the people to see the sounds of the
shofar represents a heightened state of consciousness, a “harmony of
the spheres.”
Kabbalah explains that as God uttered the Ten Commandments,
the people perceived the dimensions of physical and spiritual reality
as one harmonious whole. Symbolically, the mystical tradition relates
that all the heavens opened and were revealed at Sinai. Further
stressing this unity, we are taught that at first God uttered all the
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beshalach ח ַּ ל ַׁש ְּב
£The Meaning of FiveThe Meaning of FiveThe Meaning of Five
££
This portion begins with a description of Israel leaving Egypt. Part
of that account relates the following: “And the children of Israel went
up armed from the land of Egypt” (Exodus 13:18). Rashi explains
that the root word for “armed” (chamushim) is the same as that of the
word “five” (chamesh). Thus, after first explaining that the peshat, the
straightforward meaning of the word in context, is “armed,” Rashi
then offers an interpretation on the derash level, that the word here
means “one-fifth.” According to the Midrash four-fifths of the Jews
died during the plague of darkness; only one-fifth of the Jews were
actually redeemed from Egypt! As fanciful and horrific as it sounds,
what relevance does this Midrash have for us today?
Had the twentieth-century Holocaust not wiped out more than
a third of the Jewish people one might tend to view this Midrash as
somewhat exaggerated or symbolic. Likewise, one might be tempted
to read the Scroll of Esther in a similar manner, questioning whether
Haman really intended to kill every Jewish man, woman, and child
as the text indicates. However, in light of the very real destruction
perpetrated on the Jewish people during the Holocaust, we need to
approach the above Midrash open to the possibility that perhaps the
figures are more than just symbolic. Perhaps only a small percentage
of the Jews actually merited being redeemed. Additionally, we should
learn the hard lesson that when a dictator arises who threatens to
wipe out the Jewish people or eliminate Israel from the map, we
should take his words at face value and plan accordingly.
There is an additional, psychological or mystical (sod), explanation
for the Midrash’s assertion that only one-fifth of the Jews left Egypt.
According to the Midrash, the soul has five names: nefesh, ruach,
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