Об этом документе

Chabad Research Unit — Behaalotecha 5784

Выпуск: Chabad Research Unit — Behaalotecha 5784. Темы: не определены автоматически. CHABAD ‫ב"ה‬ RESEARCH UNIT Summaries of points from the Rebbe’s Chassidic Discourses ‫בלי אחריות כלל וכלל‬ ‫פרשת בהעלותך תשכ''ד בלתי מוגה‬ Published for Shabbat Sedra Behaalotecha 16 Sivan 5784, 22 June 20241 TWO KINDS OF RADIANCE T HE SEDRA SPEAKS OF KINDLING THE LAMPS. But another way of interpreting the plural form of the word ‘lamps’ is in terms of two kinds of radiance: one expressed in the verse ‘the lamp of G-d is the soul of a person’ (Prov.20:27), suggesting that the person shines radiance towards G-d, and the second ‘for you G-d are my lamp’ (II Sam.22:29), meaning that G-d shines radiance to the person. Rabbi Shneur Zalman comments on this2 discussing the idea that the Jewish people are called ‘daughter’, citing a Midrash which gives the image of a King who had a daughter whom he loved very much; he loved her so much that eventually he called her not ‘my daughter’, but ‘my mother’. With every breath a person should praise G-d, and it is through this dedication to the Divine with every breath that the flow of life-force and radiance is drawn from the upper realms of the Sefirot, Binah, into the lower realms, and the universe is given existence and life. Rabbi Shneur Zalman describes the combined prayer of the entire Jewish people in terms of a meal: there is the basic staple like bread, savoury food such as fish or meat, ingredients which make the food more tasty, and also condiments with a sharp 3 The lower Sefirot are Kindness, Severity, Mercy, Victory, Submission, Dedication, Kingship (the Feminine). Thus we see the way the soul of the individual Jew, and the souls of the entire Jewish people, function as a ‘lamp’ which gives radiance to the Divine, drawing spiritual illumination from the exalted level of Binah, Understanding (the ‘mother’) to the stream of Divine energy which gives life to the universe, bringing it into being and maintaining it constantly. Just as with physical food, if salt and pepper are missing the food is tasteless, so too with the combined prayer of the entire Jewish people: as the Sages said, when there is a fast, like Yom Kippur, the prayers of the ‘sinners’ are also necessary. This is a challenging process, because due to the necessary ‘contraction’ and veiling of the Divine radiance, in order to create the finite universe, there can be

Издание

Chabad Research Unit

Дата

21 июня 2024 г.

Страниц

3