Musar para sa Jeremias 17:12

We must try and understand why Rabbenu Bachyah was so selective in his comparison of the creation with the construction of the Tabernacle. He could have cited additional parallels. A look at a lengthy Midrash in Shemot Rabbah 33,4 quotes Rabbi Berechyah as presenting a long list of parallels between the Tabernacle and מעשה בראשית. The list includes many items found in the heavens such as ערפל, זבול, עצי שטים, כרובים, אופנים and many others. In each case Rabbi Berechyah demonstrates that the Tabernacle contained something parallel.

Jacob's descendants merited the same advantages in due course. They experienced that the sea was split for their sake, and they witnessed the "great hand" of G–d at work (Exodus 14, 31). Israel merited the “רקיע” when G–d descended to Mount Sinai traversing all seven Heavenly Regions each known as a different רקיע at the time He gave them the Torah, commencing His revelation with the words: "I am the Lord your G–d who has taken you out of Egypt" (Midrash Hagadol Exodus 19, 20 – slightly different wording). Israel's relationship with G–d's throne is alluded to in Jeremiah 17, 12: כסא כבוד מרום מראשון מקם מקדשנו, "O Throne of Glory exalted from of old, our sacred Shrine". The "throne" mentioned is the throne of G–d in His Heaven. The same prophet wrote in Lamentations 2, 1: (after the destruction of the Temple) ‘השליך משמים ארץ תפארת ישראל, "He cast down from Heaven to Earth the majesty of Israel." Our sages in Eicha Rabbah 2,2 commented on this verse: G–d said: "The only reason you have the audacity to annoy Me is the fact that Jacob's features are engraved on My throne; Here I fling it down in your faces!" At that point in time, the letter כ in the ירך of Jacob became dislocated. The three letters in the word ירך, thigh, are the respective first letters of the words ים, רקיע, כסא. The dislocation of Jacob's thigh joint is an allusion to the dislocation of G–d's throne. The numerical value of the word כף in the expression כף ירך יעקב, is 100. It is an allusion to the letter ק which is written smaller in Rebeccah's exclamation קצתי בחיי, in Genesis 27, 46. We had explained previously that that was an allusion to the destruction of the Temple as foreseen by Rebeccah. Allegorically speaking, if one removes the letter ק from Jacob's name, one is left only with יעב, meaning a cloud which blocks out the sun and the daylight. This is the deeper meaning of Jeremiah in Lamentations 2, 1: איכה יעיב באפו א-דני את בת ציון, "How has the Lord shamed (brought dark clouds) the daughter of Zion in His wrath." The prophet refers to the former distinction of Israel having been flung to earth.

Now to the third gift עולם הבא, the World to Come, acquired only through one's having to suffer afflictions and deprivations. That world is identical with what our sages call the ארץ ישראל של מעלה, concerning which it is said in Jeremiah 17,12: כסא כבוד מרום מראשון מקדשנו, "O Throne of Glory exalted from old, our sacred shrine!" Jacob did not sire any spiritually inferior children and it is therefore his features that are reputedly engraved on the Throne of Glory. He was the immediate source of a whole nation of 600,000 holy souls who formed the mystical dimension of the holy Torah, for these souls are the spiritual dimension of Torah inasmuch as the Torah contains 600,000 letters. I have explained this in detail elsewhere. These souls in turn are "hewn" out of the Throne of Glory and form a cluster around it representing the perfect nation descended from Jacob. [That which happened historically in our world is reflected conceptually and spiritually in the "higher" world Ed] This is why Sanhedrin 90 teaches that every Israelite has a share in that עולם הבא.