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Orchard of Delights
and the hauntingly beautiful Kabbalistic poem “Yedid Nefesh.”
The Kabbalat Shabbat service reaches its climax with the singing
of “Lechah Dodi,” whose words express the great love of the people
of Israel, the groom, for the Shabbat bride. All these expressions of
devotion convey the intense love between God and Israel and it is
from the love between God and Israel that He communicates with
us.
££Inherent Unity
£Inherent UnityInherent Unity
The Hebrew root for the word “Kabbalah” means receive, connoting
the received body of Jewish mystical tradition, the sod, handed
down from generation to generation. Since this body of wisdom was
transmitted from teacher to student orally, and for much of history
secretly and to the chosen few, this name is very appropriate. Yet,
Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh teaches that this same root also means
“to parallel” or “to create [or recognize] correspondences.” This
meaning of the word, he teaches, sheds light on the very essence of
what Kabbalah attempts to reveal and achieve The Hebrew root word
for “Kabbalah,” in fact, appears in the Torah only in the context of
making correspondences and not in its other meaning of receiving.
We are taught that the context in which a word or root word first
appears in the Tanach defines its very nature and meaning. The
Hebrew root for Kabbalah appears for the first time in the portion
of Terumah and by examining this context, we can reveal the root
word’s deeper nature:
You shall make the Tabernacle of ten curtains – twisted
linen with turquoise, purple and scarlet wool – with a
woven design of cherubim shall you make them. The
length of a single curtain was twenty-eight cubits, and
the width for each curtain four cubits, the same measure
for all the curtains. Five curtains shall be attached to one
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another, and five curtains attached to one another. You
shall make loops of turquoise wool at the edge of the
single curtain at the end of one set, and you shall make
the same on the edge of the outermost curtain on the
second set. Fifty loops shall you make on the first curtain
and fifty loops shall you make on the end of the curtain
that is on the second set; the loops shall correspond to one
another. You shall make fifty hooks of gold, and you shall
attach the curtains to one another with the hooks, so that
the Tabernacle shall become one. (Exodus 26:1-6)
As the text clearly states, the purpose of the corresponding fifty
loops on the two sets of curtains, which were to be connected by fifty
gold hooks, was “so that the Tabernacle shall become one.” Rabbi
Ginsburgh teaches that this is in essence the purpose of Kabbalah –
to reveal the correspondences between objects, entities, and events
on manifold levels until the essential unity underlying all reality can
be perceived. The study of Kabbalah makes us sensitive and aware of
the connection and ultimate harmony between physical and spiritual,
form and substance, cause and effect, plurality and singularity.
Learning to see the connections, associations, and the manifold levels
of symbolism in the Torah text, the essence of the PaRDeS model of
study, allows us to then apply that way of thinking to the way we see
the world and how we make sense of our own lives.
The Tabernacle had to be connected in such a way so that it
became one because God’s description of the Tabernacle makes this 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 9 - A | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Magenta #24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 9 - A | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Yellow 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 9 - A |
a prerequisite for it to fulfill its function: “They will make for Me
a Sanctuary and I will dwell in their midst” (Exodus 25:8). God’s
oneness is only truly revealed in a place of oneness and unity.
Similarly, the awesome revelation of God at Mount Sinai could only
occur because the people arrived at Mount Sinai “like one person
with one heart”.
The study of Kabbalah reveals the inherent unity between all
things and, especially, to use the Zohar’s terminology, the connection
between God, the Torah, and Israel. Where there is unity there is love
and Kabbalah promotes a deep love of God and of all His creation.
Significantly, according to Rashi, the Tabernacle was made out of
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