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Orchard of Delights
and impure, permitted and forbidden. Yet on Purim we go one step
further as we realize that just as God is behind the scenes directing
the show and the actors in the Purim story, so too is this the case
in our own lives. We make our choices but ultimately God’s plan
for the individual and the world comes to fruition. “Ad delo yada”
paradoxically means rising to a level of consciousness in which we
are aware that many times our choices are really beyond choice (that
is to say, predetermined or fated because, in some paradoxical sense,
they are part of a destiny far greater than our own).
The Talmud teaches that after the Mashiach comes all the mitzvot
will be “nullified” (Niddah 61b). This does not mean that the mitzvot
will no longer be performed (though some say this is the case); rather,
Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh explains that the act of performing
a mitzvah will become, as it were, nullified to the great joy it will
produce in the soul. In the future, the human character will be so
naturally in tune with God’s will that the mitzvot will become void
in the sense of their being commandments. Human beings will be so
inherently in tune with God’s inner vision and plan for creation that
performing the mitzvot will become as natural and unconscious as
breathing.
Bechukotai is the final portion in Leviticus. The book of Leviticus
begins with the word “vayikra,” as God calls to Moses from
the Tabernacle inviting him to initiate the Tabernacle service,
symbolizing the overall spiritual service of God. The letter alef is
written especially small in the word “vayikra” (“and He called”) in
traditional Torah scrolls. The alef (א), the first letter of the Hebrew
alphabet, graphically represents the paradoxical relationship between
God and man. The alef is formed from three distinct letters: a yud (י)
above – on the upper right-hand side; a yud (י) below – on the lower
left-hand side; and a diagonal vav (ו) – in the middle – simultaneously
joining and separating the yuds. Thus, the very form of the letter that
has the numerical value of one and connotes the oneness of God and
all reality actually embodies the kernel of all duality. The book of
Leviticus begins and ends with different levels of paradox, teaching
us that paradox underlies our entire relationship with God and in
fact underlies all of creation.
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Yet it is important to note that these configurations are hinted
to in an earlier incident in Jacob’s life: Jacob’s dream of the ladder.
Jacob had this dream on what would one day be the Temple Mount
and prophetically set up twelve stones around his head before he lay
down to sleep. Indeed, when he awoke he consciously realized that
“this is no other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven”
(Genesis 28:17).
Since the Tabernacle in the desert was the prototype for the
Temple in Jerusalem, it is no surprise that the Zohar teaches us that
Jerusalem was established on twelve rocks, three on each side, all
surrounding the Temple Mount (Zohar 1:231). Symbolically, these
twelve rocks symbolize the twelve tribes that surround Jerusalem,
the heart of the Jewish people. (As noted, it was in fact this conscious
or unconscious prophetic realization that motivated Jacob to place
twelve stones round his head that awesome evening.) Even when
the Jews lived in exile, scattered to the four corners of the earth,
Jerusalem remained the central focus of their hopes and dreams. For
this reason, all Jews, no matter where they are in the world, face
Jerusalem when they pray.
Jerusalem’s position at the center also plays out in other ways.
In the Middle Ages, for example, Christian cartographers drew their
maps with Jerusalem at the center, recognizing both Jerusalem’s
spiritual supremacy as the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity
(as well as its formidable influence upon Islam) and its position from
ancient times at the crossroads of all the major land trade routes
linking Europe, Africa, and Asia. Today, not only is Jerusalem
situated almost precisely at the geographical center of modern day
Israel but it is quite significantly also at the epicenter of international
politics.
At this point we can ask: on what basis did Jacob instruct his sons,
and the Torah the tribes, to camp in such a manner? Further, we can
ask why is Jerusalem, which was chosen by God to be the spiritual
and physical capital of Israel, conceived as being built upon twelve
rocks, three in each of the four directions?
The Jewish mystical tradition teaches that everything which occurs
in our material world has its roots in the higher spiritual worlds. In a
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