Musar zu Jeschijahu 4:9

The third: "And passes over transgression" - this is a great trait. As behold, the pardon is not through an emissary but rather actually through the Holy One, blessed be He - as it is written (Psalm 130:4), "For with You is forgiveness, etc." And what is that forgiveness? That He washes away the transgression, as it is written (Isaiah 4:4), "When the Lord will have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, etc." And so [too,] is it written (Ezekiel 36:25), "I will sprinkle upon you pure waters, etc." And this is [the meaning of] "and passes over transgression" - He sends forth waters of washing, and He passes and washes [away] the transgression.

In addition to this common factor which links every Israelite with one another to form part of the whole, each Israelite is a distinct individual as is evident from a statement by our sages (Bamidbar Rabbah 21,22, based on Isaiah 4,5): "any righteous person is burned or singed by the fire G–d has provided as part of the canopy He grants to every righteous person." This teaches that though every Israelite has his share in the World to Come, everyone is assigned a place of his own. Concerning this state of affairs, Moses said in 32,12: "The Lord guided him separately, unaccompanied by any alien power." The word ינחנו in this verse is a singular, (guided him, not guided us) to stress that every Israelite is an individual unit, personality. When Moses continued that: "He was not accompanied by another power," this refers to the שרים and מזלות assigned to guide the fates of the Gentiles. None of those forces exercise the slightest control over the Jewish people. The two commandments in these last three portions directly reflect these thoughts. The commandment of Hakhel, demanding that all of Israel – women and childen included – assemble in the courtyard of the Holy Temple to listen to a reading of the Torah, is rooted in the fact that all of Israel is perceived of as a single body. Subsequently the Torah once more instructs every individual Israelite separately to write a copy of the Torah for himself. As long as Israel perform G–d's commandments they experience a close affinity with G–d both on a national and on an individual level. If, G–d forbid, they were to fail to observe the Torah's commandments, they would find themselves under the influence of אל נכר, an alien deity, i.e. Satan, the evil urge (mentioned in ראשית חכמה, שער ענוה נ"ז). When this happens, the sinner will find himself in the domain of "the left side of the emanations," i.e. subject to influences similar to those which govern the lives of the Gentiles.

The Tabernacle, which was a reflection of all the various stages of creation, one of which was the Sabbath, alludes to a world which is totally Sabbath oriented. We have numerous Midrashim all of which quote G–d as saying that in return for having provided Him with a Tabernacle of goats' skins He would act as our protector in the future. The statements are based on Isaiah 4,5: וברא ה' על כל מכון הר ציון ועל מקראה ענן יומם ועשן, ונגה אש להבה לילה, כי על כל כבוד חפה; וסוכה תהיה לצל יומם מחורב, ולמחסה ולמסתור מזרם וממטר. "The Lord will create over the whole shrine and meeting place of Mount Zion a cloud by day and smoke with a glow of flaming fire by night. Indeed, over all the glory shall hang a canopy which shall serve as a pavilion for shade from heat by day and as a shelter for protection against drenching rain." These Midrashim continue to quote G–d as promising atonement for our sins in return for the Jewish people having made the lid on the Holy Ark, quoting scripture to support such claims.

The Tabernacle, which was a reflection of all the various stages of creation, one of which was the Sabbath, alludes to a world which is totally Sabbath oriented. We have numerous Midrashim all of which quote G–d as saying that in return for having provided Him with a Tabernacle of goats' skins He would act as our protector in the future. The statements are based on Isaiah 4,5: וברא ה' על כל מכון הר ציון ועל מקראה ענן יומם ועשן, ונגה אש להבה לילה, כי על כל כבוד חפה; וסוכה תהיה לצל יומם מחורב, ולמחסה ולמסתור מזרם וממטר. "The Lord will create over the whole shrine and meeting place of Mount Zion a cloud by day and smoke with a glow of flaming fire by night. Indeed, over all the glory shall hang a canopy which shall serve as a pavilion for shade from heat by day and as a shelter for protection against drenching rain." These Midrashim continue to quote G–d as promising atonement for our sins in return for the Jewish people having made the lid on the Holy Ark, quoting scripture to support such claims.

The Torah tells of Abraham giving gifts to the sons of his concubines (Genesis 25,6), and Sanhedrin 91a describes these "gifts" as שם טומאה, i.e. Abraham did not want them to refer to Satanic forces by the name of G–d (Torah Temimah on that verse). The reason that the word פלגשם in that verse is spelled defectively, without the letter י to indicate the plural ending, is to allude to the name i.e. שם of the קליפה. Read פלג-שם, the name divided, and you have a hint of the dichotomy of forces, which is what סטרא אחרא and טומאה is all about. In the future this process will be reversed and טומאה will vanish.

The next stage of comparison between the building of the Tabernacle and the creation of the universe as mentioned in the Midrash, and quoted by Rabbi Bachyah (page 661) was the comparison of G–d's directive: "Let all the waters be gathered to one place," to the instruction of making a copper basin from the waters of which the priests would wash their hands. This stage is one that involves the body rather than the soul which is involved in Torah study. The aspect of physical Sabbath observance by the body which is closest to the observance by the soul, is the preparation for the Sabbath such as bathing the body. Scripture discusses the washing away by G–d of the filth of the daughters of Zion, (Isaiah 4,4). This is presumably the source used by Rabbi Yehudah bar llai-i, who bathed himself and dressed in sheets every Sabbath Eve, and who, when dressed for the Sabbath, evoked the feeling in those who looked at him that they were seeing an angel of the Lord (Shabbat 25). The mystical dimension of the "sheets" no doubt was that he used something akin to the coverings of the Tabernacle, the יריעות. There is an interesting Mishnah in Demai 4,1 that, if someone who is not trusted to have tithed his produce before selling it has sold some produce to a customer and the customer forgot to tithe it before the Sabbath, this customer may accept the assurance of the seller that it was tithed prior to the sale if such an assurance is given on the Sabbath. The reason given for the ruling is that the seller experiences the holiness of the Sabbath and is afraid to desecrate it.