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Orchard of Delights Mishpatim

In one of his profoundest teachings, the Arizal describes the This interplay between the physical and the spiritual is expressed
cataclysmic event known as “the breaking of the vessels.” During very clearly by Shabbat. According to the Zohar, Shabbat is called
the creation process the immature vessels were not strong enough to “a day of the soul,” a time to feel and experience reality in a more
contain the primordial light, so they shattered. Our world is called spiritual manner than is typically possible during the hectic six
Olam Hatikkun (the World of Rectification) for it is composed of workdays. We might naturally assume initially that Shabbat’s all
a previous world’s broken vessels. Humanity’s mission is to repair encompassing sense of spirituality would demand a de-emphasis of
and redeem each of the shattered vessels, which enclothes a trapped the physical in order to allow the spiritual to take precedence. Yet
spark of light in need of repair and redemption. we dress in our finest clothes, set the table with our best dinnerware,
Upon deeper reflection we see that garments simultaneously conceal adorn the house with flowers, eat three festive meals where we linger
and reveal. The Hebrew root word for the word “olam” (world) means around the table, and enjoy a longer nighttime sleep and often an
“to hide.” Paradoxically, just like garments, the world both reveals afternoon nap. Furthermore, the Kabbalah teaches that the most
and conceals God. The world and the laws of nature hide God so well appropriate time for intimate marital relations is Shabbat evening.
that His presence is not at all obvious, yet to a spiritually attuned From this we can see that far from being a hindrance to spirituality,
soul, the beauty and awesome precision of nature and its laws reveal the physical activities of Shabbat are the very material used to
the handiwork of the Divine. engender spirituality. When performed with the proper mindset, they
are raised and infused with their enclothed spiritual essences. Yet as
Significantly, the holiday of Purim usually falls in close proximity the Slonimer Rebbe explained, this can only be truly successful if we
to the annual Shabbat reading of Tetzaveh. Many commentators have first purify ourselves of our baser attractions to the physical.
pointed out that God’s name does not appear in the Scroll of Esther,
which is read on Purim. They take this to symbolize the fact that This notion of Shabbat and of the interplay between the physical
God’s Providence was hidden in the historical narrative. Only after and the spiritual is also reflected in Yom Kippur. The Torah refers to
the miraculous salvation had come to pass did the people realize how Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, as “Shabbat Shabbaton”
involved God had been behind the scenes, leaving nothing to chance. (the Shabbat of Shabbats; Leviticus 16:31). On this day we refrain
In fact, when delving deeply into the text and the commentaries, from any connection to the physical world by not eating, drinking,
one realizes that God’s hand was behind every detail of the unfolding bathing, anointing ourselves with oils, wearing comfortable leather
story. shoes, or engaging in marital relations. This represents the first
stage of clarifying our relation to the physical. When this has been
Parenthetically, this dynamic of God being hidden and yet revealed accomplished, we are elevated to the higher level of employing the
in the Purim story is reflected by the custom of dressing in costumes physical on an ongoing basis to reach great spiritual heights.
and masks on Purim. On the one hand, masks or costumes hide their
wearers, yet, on the other hand, wearing costumes allows people to Having deepened our understanding of the interplay between
reveal certain aspects of themselves that they would either never have the physical and the spiritual, we can now return to the incident
the opportunity to reveal or would, under ordinary circumstances, under discussion. Whether or not the leaders’ eating and drinking
be afraid to express. This custom is also connected to Queen Esther was deemed appropriate by the commentators depends greatly
concealing her nationality when she was chosen as queen, only to on whether those involved had in fact reached the second level as
reveal it later when it would elicit the greatest effect. described by the Slonimer Rebbe. Onkelos and Ramban apparently
concur that their motivations were indeed pure. Rashi and Midrash
In the portion of Terumah, we discussed how the cherubim Tanchuma were obviously not convinced that this was the case
on the ark allude to the cherubim guarding the Garden of Eden.

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