Transcript
What does one do when the lights go out? The tragedy of the Golden Calf was a few hours of darkness. It was like a spiritual solar eclipse. The Jewish People lost their connection, their connection with the men that brought them out of Egypt.
This great secret is in the first verse of the Golden Calf. The people said, we don’t know what happened to him, “Lo yadanu meh hayah lo.” Mem-Hei is a codeword. It’s a numerical value, 45, of adam, the essence of a man is his da’as. The wisdom of unity. The Jewish People lost their da’as, they lost Moshe. Moshe said about himself, “Nachnu mah,” what are we? There are things in the world that are so high, so lofty, that it’s impossible for a person with normal intellect to perceive.
So too, the burial place of Moshe, it says that no one knew where Moshe was buried until this day. The Zohar expounds and says not even Moshe knew where his kever was, because this burial place is the key to the Beis Hamikdash, which is also one of these lofty concepts that are beyond human intellect, that G-d willing we’ll talk more about.
Moshe shines da’as into the Jewish People, as the verse says, “Atah horeisa lada’as,” you saw to know that Hashem is Elokim. That the greatest mercy is hidden inside the character trait of din, of strict justice. All problems, whether they’re personal or world problems, are all a lack of clarity, a fog. What does one do when the lights go out?
Da’as is the most important thing that a human being needs. If you have it, you have everything. If you’re lacking it, you’re lacking everything. The definition of the word da’as is the wisdom of unity and this is my life’s mission from right now.
The same principles that helped me to put together this family and keep the family together, with all of the different parts — and believe me, in that wedding picture there are a lot of moving parts there — to keep it together, you need the wisdom of unity. To build the Beis Hamikdash, you need the same wisdom of unity.
That’s the secret of the Gemara that’s brought down in two different places, but the one that interests me the most is Sanhedrin, Page 92, where it says, that great is the wisdom of unity, that it was given between two names of Hashem. Then it says, great is the Beis Hamikdash. Great means expansive. It’s so high, it’s so out there that it was given in between two names of Hashem. Then the Gemara says, anybody that has this wisdom of unity, da’as, it’s as if he built the Beis Hamikdash.
We need this. There is a way back to the Beis Hamikdash. There is a problem in the world, there are people who are reacting to the problem improperly. There is a proper response to the problem. There’s a big difference. Reaction and response is the difference between transgression and rectification.
The reason that it says, great is da’as, that it was given in between two names of Hashem, the Maharsha and the Maharal explain that these two names are one, Hashem and the other one, Elokim. Hashem is the character trait of mercy and Elokim is the character trait of strict justice.
Someone that has da’as understands that Hashem is Elokim. That Mr. Merciful actually uses strict justice to reveal His mercy. The greatest mercy is hidden in the darkness, and that’s why Moshe goes into the fog where Hashem is. Everybody else stands away at a distance. No, no, no. It’s foggy, it’s dark, I can’t take it. I don’t want problems.
Moshe says, you don’t understand, it’s in the problem where there’s the greatest mercy. In the problem is the opportunity of higher consciousness. It’s through this way of living that a person is going to go to a higher level. If you get this formula, which is very simple, it will change your life. If it changes your life, it will change the world. Remember this, because this will be handy on a daily basis to every single person at every single level. We are always going to come to moments of darkness where we don’t have clarity and we don’t know where to go and we don’t know what to do. We will be in situations where we simply are mixed up. What are we going to do? Well, in one minute, you can literally ruin your life if you react instead of respond properly.
We’re going to learn, in this historical event, how Moshe responds to the transgression of the Golden Calf. It was dark for Moshe, too. Don’t forget that Moshe was experiencing something that was devastating for him. He worked very hard — he didn’t even want to go on this mission. He worked very hard to take the Jewish People out of Mitzrayim, and he worked very hard to bring down the Torah. Within 40 days, the Jewish People had already turned to worship a golden calf. That was darkness for him.
What did Moshe do? He responded because he is the wisdom of unity. This is the secret of how a person goes to higher levels of understanding, higher levels of consciousness. This is why Hashem turns out the lights. He wants us to grow. He doesn’t want to punish us, but if we don’t know that when the lights go out, here is the turning point, we can easily sell our souls out for a quick connection to something that’s not designed to really connect you, but to separate you from the Source. That’s what an idol is, it’s a false connection. It’s a strange way of serving G-d.
Now, it looks kind of ridiculous. That’s great, we’re going to make a golden calf that’s going to be a substitute for Moshe. That is so stupid, right? When a person loses it in the midst of being mixed up, a couple of days later he looks back and he says, that was really stupid. What was the proper response to recognize that right now we’re going through darkness and here is a great opportunity for us to go to a higher level of connection, not just with Hashem, but with Moshe? We’re going to understand him on a deeper level if we are able to properly internalize what’s going on right now. That’s what the tzaddikim teach. That if the Jewish People were patient, like Yehoshua, and they would have yearned for Moshe, instead of looking for a substitute, the proper response would have been a rectification.
The whole Creation hinges on this concept of an empty space. In order for G-d to create the world and give us free choice, which is the most novel concept of creation, He had to vacate the Infinite Light of Hashem and create a dark space in order to create. That dark space comes around on a daily basis, because that’s the place, that’s the nekudah, that’s the point of free will, the turning point between absolute darkness and the beginning of the redemption. That, my friend, is Tikkun Chatzos. Tikkun Chatzos existed before there was even a Beis HaMikdash and that’s the secret of why the first exile, the turning point was chatzos laylah.
Rebbe Nosson says clearly in the first halacha in Likutei Halachos that the final redemption will be al yedei chatzos. Chatzos is the darkest hour. It’s the darkest hour, it’s the tipping point between a problem and higher consciousness. Beis HaMikdash is a concept that’s beyond the comprehension of human intellect. That’s da’as. That’s why Beis HaMikdash is equated with da’as. We need more of that and the only way we’re going to get it, is by connecting ourselves to those that have da’as. You want to attach yourself to people who have clarity. The more you do that, the more da’as you have. The more you learn, the more you integrate what you learn, the more you connect with people that have clarity, the more clarity you will have. There will always be dark situations and you need to learn what to do when the lights go out.
Right now, my dear friend, there’s no Beis HaMikdash. There’s a big gap. The problem is that there’s separation. The separation and gaps between people. Never before have there been so much isolation and polarization and gaps. Where is it coming from? It doesn’t matter. That’s the reality. What are you going to do about it? We cannot fight, we need to go to a higher level of consciousness. What is that level of consciousness? It’s called da’as. The wisdom of unity. The ability to understand things that are beyond human perception. Would you like to build the Beis HaMikdash together with me?
I’m on a journey and I want to include a lot of people in my family. I want all the nations of the world to join together. I don’t know how it’s going to happen, but I know that, one by one, we can inject a little bit of wisdom of unity and begin to rebuild the Beis HaMikdash.
