Chasidut su Neemia 9:78
Kedushat Levi
Exodus 30,12. “when you take a census of the Children of Israel according to their numbers, each shall pay the Lord a ransom for his person when being counted.”
Seeing that G’d so loves the Jewish people that He feels personally oppressed by their troubles, He gives them an advice on how to save their lives/souls from the attacks of the evil urge.
It is a fact that the “life”, i.e. continued existence of all phenomena in the universe, however exalted they may appear, is due only to the brightness that emanated from the Creator Who had to restrain Himself by garbing Himself in various veils of appropriate thickness in order to prevent His brightness from fatally harming the creatures He exposed to it, and He has to provide them with nourishment to enable them to remain alive.
We have an explicit Biblical verse in Nechemyah 9,6 spelling this out; we read there: ואתה מחיה את כולם, “and You keep them all alive,” [by providing appropriate sustenance. Ed.] If this applies to the universe’s creatures generally, how much more so does it apply to G’d’s favorite nation, the Jewish people. (Compare psalms 135,4-“for the Lord has chosen Yaakov for Himself.” The Jewish people are a means through which G’d illuminates the universe, as we know from Isaiah 2,5: בית יעקב לכו ונלכה באור ה', “House of Yaakov, let us walk by the light of the Lord.”) From internalizing the meaning of these verses we come to the conclusion that when we pass through a period of distress and troubles, one that has been brought about by G’d’s having to discipline us, He Himself is also experiencing part of this pain. We have already mentioned elsewhere that the root of evil befalling the Jewish people is actually one manner in which G’d reveals that He is –“G’d.”
Our verse commencing with: כי תשא את ראש בני ישראל וגו' לפקודיהם, reminds us of the meaning of the root, as we find it in Numbers 31,49 לא נפקד ממנו איש, ”not a single one of our number is missing.” [After the 12000 men who took part in the punitive campaign against Midian had returned. Ed.] G’d tells Moses that if he is interested in raising the status of the Jewish people from their depressed state, (after the sin of the golden calf), he is to see to it that each of the men between 20 and 60 pray to the Lord to redeem them from the attacks of the perennial antagonist, Satan who is always at work trying to seduce them into transgressing His commandments. [Contribution of a half shekel to the Temple treasury is merely a symbolic gesture of atoning for the guilt stemming from their involvement in that sin. Ed.]
Seeing that G’d so loves the Jewish people that He feels personally oppressed by their troubles, He gives them an advice on how to save their lives/souls from the attacks of the evil urge.
It is a fact that the “life”, i.e. continued existence of all phenomena in the universe, however exalted they may appear, is due only to the brightness that emanated from the Creator Who had to restrain Himself by garbing Himself in various veils of appropriate thickness in order to prevent His brightness from fatally harming the creatures He exposed to it, and He has to provide them with nourishment to enable them to remain alive.
We have an explicit Biblical verse in Nechemyah 9,6 spelling this out; we read there: ואתה מחיה את כולם, “and You keep them all alive,” [by providing appropriate sustenance. Ed.] If this applies to the universe’s creatures generally, how much more so does it apply to G’d’s favorite nation, the Jewish people. (Compare psalms 135,4-“for the Lord has chosen Yaakov for Himself.” The Jewish people are a means through which G’d illuminates the universe, as we know from Isaiah 2,5: בית יעקב לכו ונלכה באור ה', “House of Yaakov, let us walk by the light of the Lord.”) From internalizing the meaning of these verses we come to the conclusion that when we pass through a period of distress and troubles, one that has been brought about by G’d’s having to discipline us, He Himself is also experiencing part of this pain. We have already mentioned elsewhere that the root of evil befalling the Jewish people is actually one manner in which G’d reveals that He is –“G’d.”
Our verse commencing with: כי תשא את ראש בני ישראל וגו' לפקודיהם, reminds us of the meaning of the root, as we find it in Numbers 31,49 לא נפקד ממנו איש, ”not a single one of our number is missing.” [After the 12000 men who took part in the punitive campaign against Midian had returned. Ed.] G’d tells Moses that if he is interested in raising the status of the Jewish people from their depressed state, (after the sin of the golden calf), he is to see to it that each of the men between 20 and 60 pray to the Lord to redeem them from the attacks of the perennial antagonist, Satan who is always at work trying to seduce them into transgressing His commandments. [Contribution of a half shekel to the Temple treasury is merely a symbolic gesture of atoning for the guilt stemming from their involvement in that sin. Ed.]
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Me'or Einayim
And you give life to them all (Nehemiah 9:6), you contract, as if it were possible, down to the lowest levels; and a portion of Divinity from above is placed within the darkness of materiality. For the whole essence of the intention is so that the lowest levels can rise above and have the advantage of light over darkness (Ecclesiastes 2:13). And this is the meaning of Joseph’s descent to Egypt, the lowest levels, “the ocean strait;” for through this enjoyment is increased as is written, the advantage of light, that enjoyment advances when it is lifted over darkness, and therefore he is called Joseph, connoting addition [tosefet]. And that is [the meaning of the verse (Gen. 42:1)] when Jacob saw that there was grain [shever] — connoting breakage [shvirah], which are the degenerations of Heavenly Wisdom, Torah that has fallen and broken; all that descends from its level is called “broken.” In Egypt, in the ocean strait: for he saw there degenerations of Torah that fell there and needed to be clarified and elevated. And he said, Go down there (Gen. 42:2) to elevate and descend to bring [them] to the life-force of the root and the self. And that is the meaning of Joseph died (Gen. 50:26), for the fact that the Torah descended until the final level is called “death,” for whatever descends from its level is called “death” (Zohar 3:135b). And they embalmed him (Gen. 50:26): for the Torah is called “Tree of Life,” and with trees we go according to the ripening of fruit, which is to say even though he descended to the final level he bore fruit. And he was put in a coffin (Gen. 50:26), as in the statement [of our Sages] of Blessed Memory, “The Tablets and the Broken Tablets were placed in the ark” (Bava Batra 14b): even the degenerations have elevation to be in the ark just like the Tablets, which are the Torah itself. And we will return to the matter at hand: since in every thing it is the Torah that gives that thing life, one should not look at any thing in its materiality, only at the internality of the thing in the secret of The wise person has his eyes in his head (Ecclesiastes 2:14); and in the Zohar they said, “And where else should a person’s eyes be? Rather, a wise person gazes to see who stands above his head” (Zohar 3:187a), which is to say that in every thing he should gaze toward the beginning of that thing: from where it evolved and who is that thing’s root.
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