How does one make sense to all the upheaval in the world right now? We just got over two years of a world pandemic, and all of a sudden a world leader decides to take over his friendly neighbor country. Kill people. Hundreds of thousands of refugees, people that I even know, are fleeing their homes. My mechutan I just made a wedding with, is fleeing his home. They have nowhere to go, no schools for their kids. Thank G-d he wasn’t there when the war broke out. People are dying. How do we make sense of that? How do we view people? How do we view situations and even on a deeper level, how do we view Hashem?
One thing is for sure. The tendency of the world is to look at things on the surface. We live in the world of multiplicity and it’s very hard to connect the dots. The wisdom of unity, da’as, is also called the wisdom of connection. The ability to see the connections. And that’s what I want to talk to you about right now.
I want to go one level deeper. We’ve talked already about the Golden Calf. The reaction of the Jewish People is not so good. And the proper response of Moshe Rabbeinu when Hashem says, hanicha li, leave me alone. Right after these words, Rashi brings simple words that are really the deepest secrets of Kabbalah. Rashi says, mikan patach lo petach. From here, Hashem opened an opening for Moshe.
As I’ve said trillions of times, problems are really opportunities. But on a deeper level, this is a hint to what the ARIZal brings in the beginning of Eitz Chaim, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the whole world for one purpose. Everything that you see in the world is for one purpose, to reveal His mercy.
I don’t understand. How can we look at the world today and see G-d’s mercy? We see pandemonium. And G-d willing, we will connect this, and I put an accent on the word connection. We will connect this all with Megillas Esther, which we could translate as the revelation of the hidden. Megillah is to reveal. Esther is the hidden. We are going through a Purim shpiel. Hashem created the world to reveal His mercy. If He didn’t create the world, who would be able to perceive His mercy? Therefore He created the world from the highest level of atzilus to the most physical aspect of this physical world. When Hashem wanted to create this world, there was no place to create because everything was einsof, the infinite light of G-d.
Makom is a key word here. The first thing that Hashem had to do when creating the world was create a space. Now that concept that happened thousands of years ago, that first act of creation is relevant to each and every one of us every day because that place is the now. That place is the place of free choice. That is why the Golden Calf is relevant to each and every person on a daily basis.
No matter who you are, you will get to that place. There was no place for the creation. Therefore, Hashem constricted Himself, pulled Himself back, and created something called the chalal hapanui, the empty space, the vacuum. It’s in this vacuum that He created the world. All of this is brought down in the beginning of Eitz Chaim by the ARIZal. All of this is hinted in the words, “From here He opened him up an opening.” How is this space created for us on a daily basis, and what is our proper response to this space?
It appears to the person without da’as, looking from the external point of view, that the world’s cruel. People are cruel. And even G-d’s cruel. But to the bar da’as, Moshe Rabbeinu, he knows things that we have to know. There are lofty concepts that the tzaddikim want us to understand. And that’s what this series is all about. The wisdom of unity is an attempt to explain these lofty ideas so that we can pick up our consciousness, not view the world on the surface but to know that everything’s very deep and connected. And by knowing these facts, it will enhance our ability to see that all is one. It’s all from Hashem, and it’s all good.
One of the most important factors that the tzaddik knows that we don’t quite know is the holiness of the soul, the loftiness of the soul, and that truthfully, the soul is a portion of G-d. It’s not pertinent to this soul, transgression whatsoever. Therefore, the greatest mercy case is when a soul falls into transgression and substitutes G-d for something else. That’s called strange worship, which is an avodah zarah that creates divine anger.
Wait a second! I don’t want to think of G-d as being angry. It’s part of creation. G-d tells us He’s a jealous G-d. But it’s also all for the best, because now we have a gap. This gap is the empty space in our lives. It was created by transgression. And the question is, now what? Do you freak out or do you respond with da’as like Moshe? Mikan patach lo petach. From here, Hashem opened for Moshe an opening. This is the beginning of the greatest gift of all time, the 13 Character Traits of Mercy. And we’ll see how it’s all connected because that’s the key word right now. Da’as is the wisdom of connection, the wisdom of compassion, the wisdom of unity.
So Moshe sees what’s going on. Moshe understands that this is all a Purim play. It’s all a megillah. And he sees an opportunity. This is the avodah of Moshe his entire life. Moshe’s work in this world is to sweeten the anger of Hashem. Therefore, Rebbe Nachman reveals that Moshe — the numerical value of Mem-Shin-Hei, 345, stands exactly in between two words. Shemad is 344, which means destruction, and 346 which is ratzon, Divine Will. Moshe fills the gap. Moshe says, if I see a pocket where it’s empty of G-d, instead of freaking out, I’m going to be the godliness. I’m going to be the light.
Because Moshe has true compassion for the Jewish People. He knows the loftiness of their soul. He knows that their soul is hued out of the supernal soul. He knows that all of the gifts that he has are for the Jewish People. Moshe saw it was an eis ratzon, it was a time of will, so Moshe said the following words. Hashem, I want to see Your glory. I want to see Your honor. I want to see You on a deeper level.
Moshe’s on a roll. He’s got Hashem’s favor. Hashem tells Moshe the secret of the place. In order to reveal all of this to Moshe, He’s going to put him inside a crevice, a place. And Hashem says there is a place by Me. And Rashi says, don’t think I am in space, but rather space is inside of Me. This is a hint to the chalal hapanui, the vacant space. This is the place that Hashem reveals Himself to us.
Now Hashem is setting Moshe up to see the climax of this, the bakut that turns into the greatest gift to the Jewish People, and He shows him what? The knot, the kesher on the back of his tefillin. What in the world is that? The meforshim say an amazing thing. He shows Moshe the deep kesher, the connection between the soul of the Jewish People and the supernal soul. He shows him that everything in the world is intertwined. Don’t look on the surface and try and understand the world. You have to have a deeper understanding. It’s called the wisdom of connection, the wisdom of unity, the wisdom of compassion.
No matter what level you’re on, this is the advice for every single person. If you see an empty space, try and fill it with whatever you have. Be the light. And if you are the light, then you merit to what Moshe merited to. That is more capacity to give more and experience more da’as, more connection, more unity. G-d willing, through that, to push the mercy buttons and activate the supernal mercy, which is really the purpose of creation, and speedily build the Beis Hamikdash in our days. Mamash.
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