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Orchard of Delights Chayei Sarah
demarcation line in the ancient world. Thus he was known as one who more. This process continues ad infinitum; as the intellect achieves
had “crossed over.” In a more spiritual sense, the Midrash describes ever greater clarity, the power of imagination increases in tandem
the entire world standing on one side while Abraham crossed the and time is increasingly nullified. For this reason, one who masters
boundaries of accepted thought and action by choosing to believe in time can accomplish in a relatively brief period what it would take
one God (Bereishit Rabbah 42:13). Undeterred by physical hardship others much longer to accomplish, if they even succeeded at all.
or the emotional difficulty of standing alone, Abraham was unafraid Rebbe Nachman in fact translates the term “World to Come”
of crossing both physical and spiritual borders. As mentioned in the as “the world that is always coming.” By expanding consciousness
previous section, God took this one step further by urging Abraham and connecting to a more Divine experience of time and cycles we
to go “outside,” leaving behind the strictures of the natural world increasingly free ourselves from the tyranny of time and learn to
altogether.
employ its inherent Divine power to transcend a strict and limiting
The letters in Abraham’s name even allude to his standing alone, as linear conception of time and employ it to our advantage.
only one letter – the letter alef (א) – distinguishes the root of Abraham’s This explains why the first mitzvah given to the Jewish people as
Hebrew name Avram (םרבא) from the root of the word “ivri” (ירבע), a nation was to mark time, to construct a uniquely Jewish calendar
which instead contains the letter ayin (ע). Both letters sound similar, (Exodus 12:1-2). Coming as the Jewish people left Egypt, this
and in Kabbalah they are often exchanged in order to reveal a deeper instruction was particularly apt as the word for “Egypt” in Hebrew
hidden meaning of a word. In this case, the numerical values of the connotes “constriction” or “a narrow place.” Mastering time is
letters tell the story. The letter alef equals one and the letter ayin the primary quality needed to go from constriction to expansion;
equals seventy. Seventy is the number of offspring from Noah’s sons from slavery to freedom; from finite borders to a state of eternity.
who repopulated the world after the Flood. The Sages taught that Abraham, and by heredity, all his descendants, have the ability to
these seventy souls represent the world’s seventy archetypal nations. master time and to extract the most from each moment.
This numerical code is the key to understanding the deeper meaning
of the aforementioned Midrash: Abraham crossed over and stood
alone because of his belief in one God (represented by the alef in his
name) while all the other nations (the seventy nations represented
by the ayin in the word “Hebrew”) were on the other side!
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Some critics of the Jewish people have claimed that Abraham’s
decision to cross over and leave the rest of the world on the other
side indicates his disregard for the rest of the world. This is not the “And Isaac went out to converse in the fields towards evening
case. When Abraham is commanded by God to leave his land, his time” (Genesis 24:63). This verse contains one of many references
birthplace, and his father’s house and come to Israel he is promised by to meditation in the Jewish tradition. From the patriarchs to the
God that “in you will all the families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis prophets, from the kings to the Sages, from Kabbalists to Chassidic
12:4). God promises that Abraham’s separateness will actually be a rebbes, meditation has played an important part in Judaism’s
source of blessing for the entire world. Abraham’s decision to cross spiritual side. (For a fuller explanation, see Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s
over actually demonstrates how much he cares for the entire world. classic work, Meditation and the Bible).
Indeed, Isaiah memorably defined the eternal Jewish national The Sages deduce from the aforementioned verse that Isaac initiated
mission as being “a light unto the nations” (Isaiah 42:6). Abraham the Afternoon Prayer. The fact that the same verse addresses both
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