Page 53 - 24107

24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 2 - A | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Black
#24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 2 - A | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Yellow
24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 2 - A | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Magenta
#
#24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 2 - A | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Yellow 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 2 - A | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Magenta 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 2 - A | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Cyan 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 2 - A | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Black
Orchard of Delights # 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 2 - A | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Cyan 2

£One Becomes Two One Becomes Two One Becomes Two nOah ַחֹנ
££
in Order to Become One
in Order to Become One
in Order to Become One

In this portion, the Torah teaches that God created man in “the
£The Three Floors of the ArkThe Three Floors of the Ark
image of God” (Genesis 1:27), but what exactly does this mean? How ££The Three Floors of the Ark
can man be created in the image of God when God has no body? The
answer is clearly to treat the word “image” figuratively, an approach
which has led to several different profound answers. When God told Noah to build an ark to save himself and his family
from the impending flood, He described the ark in the following way:
A concept mentioned above, may provide one answer. It is man’s
ability to speak that expresses his creation in the image of God, as “A window you will make for the ark and to a cubit finish it above.
this gift mirrors the Divine speech through which the world was (and Put the entrance of the ark in its side, make it with a bottom, second
still is) created. Another explanation suggests that the gifts of free and third floor” (Noah 6:16). Two of the Ba’al Shem Tov’s most
choice and the moral and ethical sense to distinguish between good importance teachings are based on this verse.
and evil express humanity’s creation in God’s image. These gifts are The first derives from the ark’s division into three distinct floors.
implicit in the verse describing why Adam and Eve were banished Kabbalah and Chassidut teach that Noah’s ark was an archetype for
from the Garden of Eden after they chose to eat from the Tree of the Holy Temple, which was itself a microcosm encompassing the
Knowledge of Good and Evil: “Behold man has become like One physical and spiritual worlds. The ark’s three floors symbolize the
among us, knowing good and evil, and now lest he stretch out his three levels of consciousness that encompass all human experience
hand and take also from the Tree of Life and eat and live forever” and physical and spiritual reality: Worlds, Souls, and Divinity.
(Genesis 3:22). The middle floor, symbolizing the soul, links the bottom floor – the

From another perspective, man’s creation in God’s image may physical world – to the top floor, the spiritual realms of Divinity.
be read as reflecting the process of creation itself. Before creation According to Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, on the level of “Worlds,”
only the undifferentiated oneness and unity of God existed. The very man searches for God; on the level of “Souls,” man attempts to serve
act of creation implies the beginning of multiplicity; something has God; on the highest rung of “Divinity,” man longs to unite with God.
been brought into existence that is, as it were, other than God. The In the realm of “Worlds,” man’s task is to uplift, enabling himself to
first letter of the Torah, a beit whose numerical equivalent is two, ascend above the mundane and gravity-bound weight of physicality.
symbolizes this new reality. In fact, this beit is even written especially In the “Souls” realm, souls are drawn to connect with other souls
large in our Torah scrolls in order to stress that, one, as it were, has in intimacy and shared friendship. On the level of Divinity, the
become two. soul passionately wishes to unite with God, foregoing any sense

“Hear O Israel, God our God, God is One” is the cardinal expression of individuation. (Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, The Hebrew Letters,
of Jewish belief (Deuteronomy 6:4). However, belief in the unity of pp. 14-15). The three levels of Worlds, Souls, and Divinity and the
God extends beyond the unity of God Himself to the realization interaction between them are reflected in our constant processing of
that in essence everything is connected, everything is unified and our internal experiences and in our daily encounters with external
part of God’s essential oneness. Human beings reach their highest reality.

44 53