Page 318 - 24107

Orchard of Delights
renders judgment with or without the person being aware. Ultimately,
as mentioned above, each person also gives a final accounting of
his or her actions to God upon leaving this world. These multiple
accountings are all alluded to by the plural form of “accountings” at
the beginning of this portion.
£The Eighth DayThe Eighth DayThe Eighth Day
££
“And God spoke to Moses saying: ‘On the day of the first new moon,
on the first day of the month you shall raise up the Tabernacle, the
tent of Meeting’” (Exodus 40:1-2). The Tabernacle was erected on
the first day of the first month of Nisan (Rosh Chodesh Nisan), a
very auspicious day, as will be explained more fully at the beginning
of the book of Leviticus. According to tradition, Moses erected and
dismantled the Tabernacle during the previous week. During those
seven days Moses served as High Priest and wore but one simple
white cloak, as discussed in “The Holy Garments: A Message of
Oneness.” On the first day of Nisan, the eighth day of this process,
the Tabernacle was inaugurated.
Given that the Tabernacle’s every component is invested with
deep spiritual meaning, especially in terms of its correspondence with
creation, as mentioned repeatedly above, here too Moses’ construction
and dismantling of the Tabernacle has great significance. Proverbs
24:16 profoundly hints at the meaning of this process: “Seven times a
tzaddik falls, but rises.” The verse seems to be conveying the message
that the ability to get up after falling even seven times is what defines
a successful individual, what distinguishes a winner from a loser.
However, on closer inspection we see that the verse is speaking
explicitly about a tzaddik, a righteous person. We might have
thought that a righteous person, due to his or her elevated spiritual
level, would be immune to falling; however, the verse teaches us
that not only may tzaddikim fall, but they may even be subject
318 # 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 10 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Cyan
# 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 10 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Magenta #24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 10 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Yellow 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 10 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Black 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 10 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Cyan
Ki Tisa
that slowly eats away at the animating life force of Shabbat, leaving
an inner dead space. People who introduce the mundane into the
Shabbat not only further cut their souls off from the rest of the nation
celebrating the holiness of the day, but also, even more significantly,
cut themselves off from their own spiritual roots. They reject,
consciously or unconsciously, the enormous opportunity inherent in
experiencing the bliss and inner peace of Shabbat.
£Shabbat: An Eternal CovenantShabbat: An Eternal CovenantShabbat: An Eternal Covenant
££
“The children of Israel shall observe the Shabbat, to make the
Shabbat an eternal covenant for their generations” (Exodus 31:16).
Noting the declaration that Shabbat observance will transform
the Shabbat into “an eternal covenant for their generations,” the
Chidushei HaRim, the first rebbe of the Ger Chassidic dynasty,
makes two brief but profound observations.
Firstly, he points out that the Hebrew word for “generations”
(dorot) shares the same root with the Hebrew word for “dwell” (ladur).
Shabbat, he comments, should be thought of as a dwelling place that
we are entirely inside of, surrounded by and eternally present within
its spiritually protective walls. Secondly he suggests that Shabbat is
not only an eternal covenant between God and Israel but provides
the opportunity to experience eternity.
For many modern Jews, who were raised with no knowledge of
Torah observance, just experiencing the beauty of one Shabbat
is enough to inspire them to investigate their Jewish heritage. In
other words, sometimes experiencing just one Shabbat can become a
seminal experience leading to the formation of an eternal covenant
between a Jew and Shabbat and a Jew and God; furthermore, this
one Shabbat can lead to future observance not only for the individual
but for all his or her descendants, or as the Torah writes, “for their
[his or her] generations”.
24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 10 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Black 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 10 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 |