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Orchard of Delights Pekudei
Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach gained fame for traveling all over the In conjunction with the repetition of the word “tabernacle”
world in order to create and lead inspiring Shabbat experiences (discussed in the previous section), the word “accountings” is written
(Shabbatons) where through joyous and meaningful prayer in the plural. This also hints to a deeper message: each person is subject
services, learning, singing, and story telling, thousands of Jews were to two different levels of accounting. Many explanations have been
exposed to the spiritual depths of Shabbat, many for the first time. given for these two levels of accounting, some providing spiritual
Having learned from his example, many organizations dedicated to guidance, some exploring the theological aspects of Judaism, and
introducing Jews to the beauty of their heritage have realized that some entering the mystical realms.
Shabbat may be the greatest educational tool of them all. Using the Attempting to provide spiritual guidance, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach
Shabbat experience to trigger a thirst for Judaism, multitudes of teaches that there is one type of accounting for what we have done
Jews have been acquainted with their roots and the eternal aspect of wrong and another kind of accounting for what we did right but in an
Shabbat has been transmitted to countless people who will then pass unenthusiastic or perfunctory manner. Similarly, he also taught that
it on to their children and their children’s children. we are judged for both those things we did and for those things we
could or should have done but refrained from doing out of laziness, a
lack of conviction, or callousness.
On an even deeper theological and mystical level, Rabbi Shlomo
£The Golden Calf and Purim£The Golden Calf and PurimThe Golden Calf and Purim Carlebach, as well as the Slonimer Rebbe and other Chassidic masters,
£
teach that each person enters this world charged with performing
a certain task, mission, or rectification. Even if an individual does
Ki Tisa recounts one of the most catastrophic sins in Jewish history, everything right and can account for this, the primary accounting
the sin of the Golden Calf, which took place forty days after the that he or she will have to give on judgment day is whether the
Giving of the Torah. The enormity of this sin is best understood specific purpose for which he or she entered this world was carried
from its context. According to tradition, the Giving of the Torah out.
was supposed to inaugurate a new era in human development. The The Ba’al Shem Tov and the Arizal before him similarly taught
Midrash explains that in preparation for the Giving of the Torah that sometimes a person is reincarnated in order to fulfill one mitzvah
the Jews were cured of all their ailments and the world was purified or to perform one crucial action that will rectify a serious flaw or
of the primordial impurity of the snake of the Garden of Eden. The omission from a previous lifetime. This additional mystical notion of
Jewish people reached a new level of consciousness, acting “as one two levels of accounting that relate to this lifetime and previous ones
person with one heart” and during the Giving of the Torah, the seven is based on the belief that everything is accounted for and judged,
heavens opened and God revealed Himself to humanity, in a manner yet sometimes that judgment, for reasons only God knows, is not
He never had before. Moses was supposed to descend from Mount meted out immediately, but rather takes effect over more than one
Sinai after forty days, present the people of Israel with the tablets of lifetime.
the law inscribed with the “finger of God,” and lead the people into
the Land of Israel where a new world order would be established. The As the Jewish people completed the Tabernacle’s construction and
Midrash even declares that death itself would have been abolished. prepared for its inauguration, it is quite fitting that Moses had to
All this potential development came to a disastrous halt when the provide an accounting of his actions, for this also teaches us that
Jewish people worshipped the Golden Calf. accountings take place at every major juncture in a person’s life,
whether the person provides the accounting him or herself or God
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