Musar sur La Genèse 1:5

We find hints of such a future in the statement of Rabbi Yochanan in Tractate Pesachim 88a: "The day when the exiled will be gathered in is as great as the day on which heaven and earth were created, as described in Hosea 2,2: 'The people of Yehudah and the people of Israel will assemble together and appoint a single head [leader] for themselves; they shall rise from the ground, for marvelous shall be the day of Jezreel.'" It is also written: "It was evening it was morning, one day" (Genesis 1,5) [the day of Jezreel is a reference to the first day in Genesis]. When the true ingathering of the exiles takes place, at the time our righteous Messiah appears, Creation itself will renew itself; a new "light" will emerge. At that time body and soul will be able to fuse. Also the earth itself, though purely matter, will be full of knowledge; thus together with the perfection existing "down here," the full extent of G–d's blessings from "above" will be experienced, so that body and soul may live forever. At the time of creation man was described as אדם ביקר בל ילין, "unable to last the night despite his precious qualities." (Psalms 49,13). Man had corrupted his potential so that mortality was decreed upon him. G–d however, has given us the Torah by means of which we can acquire the merit we need to assure us of an everlasting future. He has given us commandments which teach us that this is indeed the case, for they provide the clue to the eventual immortality of the body, in addition to that of the soul. At the present time, the "eternity" of man's body is restricted to man as a species. דור הול ודור בא, "one generation goes and another comes in its place" (Kohelet 1,4). Man's soul, however, enjoys eternal life even in these times, for every individual soul survives the death of its body. Whereas nowadays the body's "life" is considered as incidental, its death is permanent; the soul's life is however, eternal, its "death" being merely incidental [apparent, seeing it can no longer function within the body. Ed.].

This is the reason that we recite the paragraphs dealing with G–d having created the universe both in the mornings and in the evenings immediately prior to reciting the Kriyat Shema declaration. In those paragraphs we mention G–d as having created both night and day in order to demonstrate our conviction that they are part of the same whole and do not represent different domains presided over by different deities. This is why the Torah, when describing the process of creation, keeps saying ויהי ערב ויהי בוקר, "it was evening it was morning." Night is part of the unit called day and vice versa. Rashi explains on Exodus 10,21: וימש חשך, "that the darkness was tangible," that this was a phenomenon that intensified the normal darkness of the night. The night is darkest immediately before dawn. Before the sun sets in the evening, we observe the sun assuming a reddish colour in preparation for evening and night; the same process happens in reverse prior to sunrise. All this proves the basic unity of night and day. G–d is eternal, without beginning or end, without limitation of His powers, etc., as I have explained on other occasions. When G–d created the universe, He created "limits," as distinct from Himself who is limitless. In order to do this G–d imposed some restrictions, צמצום, upon Himself. The universe itself represents an act of G–d's self-restriction.

At this point I want to tell you what G–d has revealed to me concerning the metaphysical aspects of the spies' mission. The mission never was intended to pave the way for conquest by natural means. On the contrary, it was to pave the way for conquest by employing supernatural forces. The twelve spies represented the twelve tribes of G–d, who in turn corresponded to the twelve possible permutations of the four-lettered ineffable name of G–d as we have explained elsewhere. Celestial forces descend to earth via twelve "lines", the letter ו represents a line. Six of these lines emanate from the left side of the emanations, i.e, from the attribute of Justice, the other six from the right side, i.e. the attribute of Love, חסד. This is in line with the concept which we refer to often when we speak about G–d as השם אלוקינו, השם אחד own, meaning both of G–d's attributes. All of the above is alluded to when the letter ו is spelled as a word, i.e. ואו. The two letters ו, represent the attribute of דין and חסד respectively, whereas the letter א establishes the bond between them. I have explained elsewhere on the verse in Genesis 1,5, ויהי ערב, ויהי בוקר יום אחד that the first six hours of the night are under the aegis of the attribute דין, Justice, whereas the remaining six hours from midnight on gradually switch to being under the aegis of רחמים, Mercy. By day, on the other hand, as long as the amount of light keeps increasing, the first six hours are under the aegis of רחמים, whereas from noon on they switch towards the attribute of דין, Justice. At any rate, the 24 hours consecutively together form one day. The letter ואו, i.e. spelled as a word, totals 13 in numerical value, the same as the word אחד. The idea of the “line,” or better "lines," that act as the ducts for emanations from Celestial Spheres are symbolized by the external appearance of the letter ו, which is after all a "line." This is further symbolized by the verse שמע ישראל ה' אלוקינו ה' אחד a verse containing six words. (ו=6) The verse we recite immediately afterwards, i.e. ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו לעולם ועד, also contains six words. The combined twelve words comprise the twelve horoscopes, of which six are above the horizon at any one time, whereas the other six are below the horizon. The book Beer Mayim Chayim, points out that the verse שמע ישראל is made up of 25 letters, whereas the verse ברוך שם כבוד וכו' is also made up of 25 letters. Between them they represent the 49 שערי בינה, plus the “hidden” 50th gate (which has not been revealed to man) which enables all the others to be joined together.

When G–d said: "They shall make a Sanctuary for Me and I shall dwell within them," בתוכם, this referred also to the fact that much of the Tabernacle was due to the תוכם, the innermost feelings of the donors. The Tabernacle could not have been completed if the people donating all these materials had not been motivated by a spirit of generosity. The word בתוכם is therefore essentially not much different from the word בתוכו, which we would have expected the Torah to use. There is another dimension to the verse ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם. The word בתוכם, refers to the innermost part of the Tabernacle. It is there that the שכינה resided and merged with the people of Israel. This is the mystical dimension of Exodus 26,24: ויהיו תאמים מלמטה ויחדו יהיו תמים על ראשו אל הטבעת האחת, "They shall match at the bottom and be perfectly aligned at the top inside one ring." It is a reference to the uniqueness of G–d and the uniqueness of the Jewish people respectively. G–d will never abandon His people for the sake of His great Name; the uniqueness of each i.e. אחד=13, i.e. 26 when combined. This equals the numerical value of G–d's "great" Name י-ה-ו-ה =26. The verse is a reference to the mystical union between קודשא בריכיה and כנסת ישראל, between the well known concepts of the holiness of G–d and the spiritual unity of the Jewish people. This is the reason why we find the מקדש described as היכל ה' on occasion. The numerical value of the word היכל equals the numerical value of א-ד-נ-י, a term for G–d which includes the souls of the people of Israel, as in Psalms 68,27: במקהלות ברכו אלוקים, (י-ה-ו-ה) א-ד-נ-י ממקור ישראל. "In assemblies bless G–d, the Lord, O You who are the fountain of Israel." To signify this dual meaning, the name of G–d is spelled as the Ineffable Name but pronounced (read) as א-ד-נ-י. There were one hundred silver sockets (אדנים) for the boards forming the walls of the Tabernacle which are symbolised by our reciting one hundred benedictions daily, which all mention the name of G–d (א-ד-נ-י). The עמודים, columns, each one within a socket, אדני, were an allusion to the emanation תפארת, the Ineffable Name which is found within the name א-ד-נ-י. The ווי העמודים, hooks attached to the columns, allude to the number 6=ו, the sixth emanation, i.e. תפארת, which is the mystical dimension of the letter ו in the Ineffable Name. That letter also represents the mystical dimension of the word אחד as we know from Genesis 1,5: ויהי ערב ויהי בוקר יום אחד. We have explained earlier in this chapter how day and night are part of a single unit. Night has 12 hours, the first six of which until midnight are under the domain of the attribute of Justice, whereas the last 6 hours are under the domain of the attribute of Mercy. The day, too, is divided into these two periods of 6 hours each, the first six hours under the domain of the attribute of Mercy, the last six under the domain of the attribute of Justice. As long as the light intensifies, the attribute of Mercy is in the ascendancy; once it diminishes, the attribute of Justice comes into its own. Since they have both been created by the same Creator, they appear linked together in the story of creation. This is the deeper meaning then of "evening and morning being one day." When you spell the letter ו as a word, thus: ואו, you have an allusion to the respective 6 hour periods during which each attribute exercises its dominance; the letter אלף in the middle alludes to the One and Only Creator who has created both day and night, both the attribute of Justice and the attribute of Mercy. You will also observe that the numerical value of such spelling of the letter ואו=13, the same numerical value as that of the word אחד. When the Torah in 26,6 describes the Tabernacle as becoming אחד, one, this is merely a confirmation of how the various components all combined to create this unified microcosm.

This is the metaphysical aspect of the word אמת, that we find mentioned by Joshua's spies; it is the measuring line described as the "תקות החוט" (see Joshua 2,14 for the word אמת, and 2,18, for the red line)ץ When the letter ו is written as a word, it symbolizes אמונה, faith, loyalty, since the middle letter א joins the two letters ו together. By so doing it creates a bond between דין and רחמים. Since the א also means “one,” this means that either group of six tribes is always joined with the אלוקי יעקב, "the Lord G–d of Israel”. Each group of six represents half the permutations of the ineffable name of G–d. The specific attribute for Jacob is that of תפארת, the sixth of the ten emanations, ספירות. This corresponds to the letter ו in the Ineffable Name. This is what Joshua's spies had in mind when they spoke about the אות אמת. We also know that Jacob and אמת are inextricably linked, since it says תתן אמת ליעקב, You have given "truth" to Jacob (Michah 7,20). If, G–d forbid this א would be separated from its respective ו, this would point at a universe in which more than one authority would rule, as the heretics claim. Their argument is that it is inconceivable that the power that created light should be the same as that which created darkness. This amounts to a denial of the verse: "It was evening, it was morning, one day (Genesis 1,5)."