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Orchard of Delights
meant to turn what transpired at Sinai into an ongoing experience.
The secret, mystical meaning, the sod, hinges on the fact that Moses
gathered “the entire assembly.” The Slonimer Rebbe explains that
although individual Jews sin, fall short of the mark, or stray from
their roots, there is a soul level he calls “all of Israel,” the collective
source of Jewish souls that always remains in a state of perfection,
which no sin can blemish. This root source of Israel’s souls, by
definition, remains pure and untarnished. The core of an individual
soul, no matter how far it is from its true potential or how far it
strays from its Jewish identity, never loses that intrinsic connection
to “all of Israel.”
Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach used to say that while every Jew may
not be holy, every Jew is the Holy of Holies. In other words, Jews
may make all sorts of mistakes and act totally improperly on the
outside, but they are still fundamentally connected to their inner
essences, their Holy of Holies. He made it a habit of trying to see
beyond peoples’ superficial exteriors and actions, so that he could
focus on their inner Divine sparks. This was in fact one of the Ba’al
Shem Tov’s cardinal teachings, as he labored his entire life to achieve
this spiritual level and transmit it to his students.
The Arizal would proclaim each day before his prayers that he
was taking upon himself the mitzvah of loving each and every
Jew as if each one was himself. His prayer then became dedicated
to the collective totality of Israel; it transcended the limits of his
own ego and individual concerns and was focused instead on “all of
Israel.” The Arizal also formulated a kavvanah (spiritual intention)
to be recited and contemplated when performing mitzvot. Part of
this formula reads as follows: “For the sake of uniting the Holy One
Blessed is He and the Shechinah…. in the name of all of Israel.” This
kavvanah attests to the fact that the Arizal wanted each person to
consciously connect to all of Israel when performing a mitzvah. For
it is from that elevated, pure, and holy place that every Jew draws
the energy to discover his or her own unique role and actualize his or
her own potential.
In this section, we once again see how a Hebrew word, in this
case “and he gathered,” may be viewed from various interpretive
310
Ki Tisa
this question also addresses the troubling presence (and, in this case,
success) of evil in this world. Although the Talmud offers several
answers, its conclusion indicates that human beings as yet cannot
completely understand the answer to this question (Berachot 7a-b).
In the Talmudic discussion, the Sages explain that at the burning
bush God sought to reveal Himself more fully to Moses, but out of
humility, fear, and awe, Moses turned his face away. Now that Moses
sought to see God’s glory, God only agreed, as it were, to reveal His
back. Perhaps, at the burning bush Moses was aware of God’s hand
in the evil of Israel’s bondage and was fearful of confronting Him
for allowing such evil to thrive. After the sin of the Golden Calf, as
a leader of his people, Moses now felt he had the responsibility to
directly confront the issue and ask God what possible glory He could
derive from allowing evil to exist in the world.
A number of fascinating stories in the Talmud involving Rabbi
Akiba shed light on these complex existential issues. The first
incident involves four great Sages who “entered the Pardes,” a state
of deep meditative consciousness where their souls were elevated to
an extremely lofty level. Of the four, only Rabbi Akiba entered and
exited in peace; of the other three, one died, one became a heretic, and
one became mentally unstable. Rabbi Akiba warned them beforehand
that on such a level of revelation, they would inevitably be confronted
by Divine paradox on all levels, including that of God’s goodness and
the existence of evil; therefore, they must prevent themselves from
being overwhelmed by theses paradoxes by attempting to envision
God’s oneness underlying any apparent dualistic contradictions they
might see (Chagigah 14b). It is clear that Rabbi Akiba was well aware
of the intrinsic paradox at play in probing the very essence of God.
Another highly symbolic Talmudic passage recounts the story of
Moses’ ascent to heaven during his time at the top of Mount Sinai.
Upon arriving in the heavenly realm, Moses discovers God placing
crowns on the Hebrew letters. Moses asks God what he is doing, and
God responds that in the future a person named Akiba the son of
Joseph will derive heaps of laws from these crowns. Moses is curious
to see this scholar, and he is transported into the future. He finds
himself sitting at the back of Rabbi Akiba’s study hall. To Moses’
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