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Orchard of Delights Ki Tisa
When, as the verse states: “God will reign for all eternity” (Exodus the Torah with no reservations and no hint of coercion. They went
15:18). from a state of near annihilation to an even stronger belief in God
and the Torah.
The concept of an earthly and a heavenly Temple is part and
parcel of a very deep mystical notion: everything in this world has Similarly, after the sin of the Golden Calf – when God seemed
a corresponding root or source in the upper worlds, or even more to entertain the thought of destroying the Jewish people and
precisely, everything in this world is a reflection of a higher reality. beginning anew with Moses – the Jewish people repented, and as
In this world a tree’s roots grow below the surface, while a tree’s a result of Moses’ supplications were forgiven. During this process,
trunk, branches, leaves, and fruits grow above ground in an upwards they also attained a higher spiritual level on some plane, for through
direction. In the upper worlds, the very opposite is true: the roots their repentance God revealed to Moses the Thirteen Principles
grow above while the tree’s trunks, branches, leaves, and fruits grow of Compassion, which would awaken God’s mercy whenever
below in this world. What we call reality in this world is a reflection, needed in the future. Furthermore, as an additional sign of God’s
a mirror image, and a result of what occurs in the upper worlds. forgiveness, Moses descended Mount Sinai with the second set of
Ten Commandments on Yom Kippur, which established it for all
The person designated by God to oversee the Tabernacle’s
construction was named Bezalel, a name that quite literally means, time in the Jewish calendar as the holiest day of the year. Thus we
“in the shadow of God.” The Talmud (Berachot 55a) explains that see that both the sin of the Golden Calf and the sin of attending
Bezalel knew how to construct the Tabernacle because he understood Achashverosh’s feast nearly lead to annihilation, yet through true
the secrets of the Hebrew letters that God used to create heaven and leadership and the people’s repentance they merited new revelations
earth. This Talmudic tradition supports the notion that the building and new levels of consciousness that paradoxically they might not
of the Tabernacle and the dynamics of creation are intrinsically have been reached otherwise.
connected. Indeed, the Sages considered the Tabernacle to be a
microcosm of creation. That Bezalel was operating in the shadow of
God alludes to the fact that the Tabernacle he built was a shadow, a
mirror image, of a higher reality. £Noah and MosesNoah and MosesNoah and Moses
££
The two levels of lower and higher reality described above are
sometimes referred to by the terms microcosm and macrocosm. For
instance, Kabbalah and Chassidut explain that every detail of the According to the Arizal, Noah’s soul was reincarnated in Moses
Tabernacle (the microcosm) reflects all of creation and the higher in order to give him the opportunity to rectify a very serious
spiritual worlds (the macrocosm). Indeed, all of the Tabernacle’s soul blemish. Despite the fact that the Torah refers to Noah as a
materials, colors, shapes, and measurements contain deep secrets righteous man, “perfect in his generations” (Genesis 6:9), the Sages
and profound correspondences, not only with the higher worlds but were divided over how righteous he was. Pointing out that Noah’s
also with the human body and the soul too. righteousness is defined as “in his generations,” some Sages argue
For example, the Arizal explained in a classic case of the relative that had he lived in a more righteous generation he would have been
relationship between macrocosm and microcosm that “the world is even greater than he was, while others contend that had he lived, for
a big man and man is a small world.” He meant by this that in a instance, in Abraham’s generation, he would have been considered
certain sense man can be seen to encompass all the worlds, while quite ordinary (Rashi on Genesis 6:9). What prompted the Rabbis
simultaneously the worlds can be envisioned as being, in some to debate Noah’s level of righteousness? Aside from the potentially
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