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The various usages of the root “to cross over” whether they be ££Coming into Days – 3
£Coming into Days – Coming into Days –
the command to Abraham to leave most of his old life behind him
or the request that he go beyond or “outside” his preconceived Becoming a Master of TimeBecoming a Master of TimeBecoming a Master of Time
understandings are, in fact, consistent with a certain message God
wishes to impart to Abraham. Through the ten trials, Abraham
is being taught that he must “cross over” certain emotional, Immediately following the section recounting Sarah’s death and
psychological, or spiritual limitations and stretch himself in every burial the Torah states: “And Abraham grew old, coming into
manner possible in order to pass the tests.
days, and God blessed Abraham with everything” (Genesis 24:1).
This insight into the nature of Abraham’s tests offers us a profound The Sages teach that the Hebrew word for “old” (zaken) means not
perspective on a verse summarizing the world’s creation: “These are only aged but also wise. The mystically inclined understand the
the generations of the heaven and earth when they were created, in enigmatic phrase, “coming into days,” as alluding to the new state
the day that God God [Hashem Elokim] made earth and heaven” of consciousness Abraham achieved in the process of burying Sarah
(Genesis 2:4). The Sages point out that the Hebrew word םארבהב and acquiring his first portion of the Land of Israel. This new level of
(behebaram), “when they were created,” contains the same letters as wisdom was bound up with attaining an understanding of how to be
the Hebrew word םהרבאב (be’Avraham), “in [or through] Abraham,” the master of time and not its slave: how to “come into days.”
(Bereishit Rabbah 12:9). The implication being that heaven and earth The root word for the Hebrew word for “world” (olam) means “to
were created in or through the aspect of Abraham, for he is blessed hide.” Paradoxically, the world both reveals and conceals God within
with boundless creative energy! nature. On a most profound level, the cycles of time and nature are
From a Kabbalistic perspective this makes good sense, as in patterned on the needs and interior worlds of human beings, who in
Kabbalah, Abraham is not only deemed the aspect of chesed, loving- turn mirror their Divine Creator. By observing the cycles of time and
kindness, but the “chariot” or vehicle through which love enters the nature indirectly, as revealed in the Torah, as well as by experiencing
world. In other words, Abraham represents an archetypal energy and them directly, humanity connects to a more spiritual Divine flow
his actions in this world channel the Divine blessing of love. Being and attains a more spiritual perception of time and reality.
a “chariot” means being (whether consciously or unconsciously) Divine time flows in a series of cycles. When we understand these,
God’s agent of creative energy through which the world is constantly we can enter Divine time. The most fundamental of these cycles is
recreated. the cycle of seven, manifested at the very beginning, in the six days
Traditionally the letter heh, in the word םארבהב (behebaram) is of creation and the culminating Shabbat. This cycle underlies all
written especially small in the Torah scroll. One explanation for Jewish cycles of time and the number seven is subsequently reflected
this is that this very letter was added to Abram’s name when God in a wide range of ritual as well.
renamed him Abraham. Why would this specific letter have been By aligning ourselves with the Jewish calendar, based on the
added to Abraham’s name? The Sages teach that the letter heh was monthly renewal of the moon and the Jewish holidays – which
used to create this world while the letter yud was used to create the themselves correspond to nature and the agricultural cycles of
World to Come. It is important to note that both these letters appear the Land of Israel – we open ourselves to realizing the cyclical
in God’s essential four-letter name, the Tetragrammaton. Thus, the and allegorical framework constructing our lives. By studying the
letter added to Abraham’s name connotes the ability to create, to changes of nature and the seasons, we become privy to fundamental
change one’s most basic worldly nature. Abraham truly lives up to
lessons of spiritual and emotional growth.
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