KEHILAT NOTES 7/17/04
MATTOS/MATTOT Num. 30:2 – 32:42 and MASEI Num. 33:1 – 36:13 (end)
Jeremiah 1:1-3
Jim:
This week’s is a double portion. Mattos = Tribes; Masei = Journeys. This doubling happens because of the Jewish calendar changes from year to year. There can be 46 – 54 Shabbat readings in any year. It often happens that the portion has something to do with the lives of each person reading it that week. 16 of the 54 are grouped into pairs. When we get to Simchat Torah and start a new cycle, we get cleanly to the beginning again.
Things that were coincidence and accidental in the past we’re seeing as having a reason behind them. Each week we live with the times; we derive inspiration from each portion. When they come together it’s for a reason. Rabbi Yeshayahu Horowitz in the 16th Century pointed this out.
What is the significance of the fact that these are always read between Tammuz 17 and Av 9 when we mourn the destruction of the Temple?
Founder of the Lubavitcher movement is the basis for a lot of tonight’s teaching.
Hardness is one of those qualities we are forever seeking to acquire and to get rid of. There’s more than a hint of condemnation when we describe somebody as tough – but no small measure of admiration as well. We get caught in those dilemnas, but it’s kind of strange. I don’t want to be continually browbeating people, but I do wish I had his backbone. We denounce in others behavior that is obstinate and unyielding. Our journey through life requires hardness and yielding --- hard as a cedar and soft as a reed. Sometimes we are required to demonstrate every bit of obstinacy in order to resist something that would be harmful.
One should carry in one pocket the verse “I am but dust and ashes” and in the other “A person is commanded to say for my sake the world is created”. Two names for the tribe of Israel – it is one nation, but comprised of 12 tribes each of which brings some unique quality.
Shevatim = Branches
Mattot = Rod
Galut = stress of the world, including the Diaspora of the Jews
Distinct from each other but parts of a greater whole. Therein lies a deep significance for the tribes of Israel. There is a need for flexibility in life. There is also a need for firmness, and that’s when we have to be a rod, when we’re involved with a mission.
Here the tribes are called by the name Mattot. There are times in the history of a people when they must employ the fixedness and fortitude of a rod, when they must stand firm against the rest of the world.
Hardness comes into existence when a substance is subjected to pressure. When you’re on the battlefield and the enemy is shooting at you, you become hard and experienced.
As a branch, Shevet is supple and yielding; it bends to the wind. It has flexibility to it. When you disconnect that branch from its tree to face the elements alone, it hardens. When you get ahold of a willow branch that’s been curing out for a few weeks, you’d better not let your father practice with it on your behind. A Matteh is a Shevet hardened by the experience of Galut.
During the three weeks we mourn the absence from our homeland. We remember how the shevetim of Israel were torn from their tree to become a nation of homeless mattot.
Even as Torah commands us to mourn the tragedies of these three weeks, it also commands us to make that into something positive. We must see how being torn from our natural environment makes us harder and tougher. What would have happened if we had just remained a nation of shevetim?
There’s more to Galut than just toughening our souls. It’s a journey – not just a trip away from home either. It’s an advance toward a destination. That’s the difference between a wanderer and a traveler. The wanderer is escaping or being driven away from someplace. The journeyer is going somewhere. The wanderer is defined by where he is not. The journeyer is defined by where is he going. What will we bring home with us when we return?
The Talmud defines the Galut as the gathering of converts. There is purpose to the lives we live, and we are being a light to other people. As we become a light, we bring people in. The converts gained are not only human, but also include the souls of all creatures with whom we come in contact. Every creature has within it a spark of divinity. Everything has a soul. We find ourselves above the basic one that others have. This is part of God’s overall plan of creation. Every time we find ourselves doing something to serve the Creator, it’s mundane, and then we realize its very essence. This even happens with pets. (I’ve never had dogs like I have now. My home is different now due to understanding.) Everything is struck by the way we live our lives in Torah.
Look at it in your own lives. Look at it in the people you’re around. We can see it at work – I’m still a bum there, but people treat me differently. The impact can be profound, or just a little bit.
This is the purpose of our Galut, to redeem the sparks of holiness that lie in the most far-flung places. When you see Mattot, you get bored by the long list of places, but that has a purpose. The parasha’s name derives from its opening verses. 42 journeys comprised Israel’s move from Egypt to the Holy Land. These journeys are the forerunners and prototype of the journeys of Israel from Ezikiel to the arrival of the people in the Holy Land at the time of Masiach.
We’ve left Egypt. We don’t want to go back. But what lies ahead? The 42 stops the Hebrews made is a foreshadow of the journeys we have to make. My stops are going to be different. The Torah refers to their travels as journeys in the plural. If the purpose was just the wandering, that would not be much. If the purpose was just as the arrival in the Holy Land, that would mean the trip through Sinai was just one thing. He takes us to a point in time, and then moves us to another.
Mattot shows the contrast between branch and rod. Massai describes the journeys.
We pursue both. We have to see which is to be emphasized according to the circumstances. Two distinct but interrelated aspects of our lives.
When you start this walk and get into it in sincerity and truth, it has importance to you because it is establishing that backbone and rigidity in you that you need.
When those women had that request about their inheritance, they were required to marry within their tribe, so the inheritance would not be lost to the tribe. What if someone does fall in love between tribes? Most of the time people find ways to get around that. What do you do? There’s no magical answer or easy way out. You obey God’s word. A broken heart sure beats the heck out of a broken soul.
We now know what Torah is. We are faced with the prospect of do we go forward, or do we take a rabbit trail somewhere? It’s hard sometimes. It isn’t the baboon teaching at Kehilat, it’s God’s word. Don’t go aside from the path you’ve embarked on now. Some of the congregation are experiencing difficulties beyond our wildest imaginations. Remember, we’ve been exposed just like a photograph, and we now know what is right. We have to be decisive in determining what a course of action should be. Many of us want to get another opinion, from a stockbroker, psychiatrist, whatever. God’s commands are before us and we need to live by them.
Mikhael (by phone):
It’s a lot more enjoyable and less difficult to teach Torah portions. This material is difficult to teach because most people don’t have a significant foundation to understand all these things. I think it will get a lot more interesting & relevant over the next few weeks. We’ve all been raised in the church and culture with a certain mindset that’s difficult to break out of.
I was on the back porch the other day watching my grandson playing with a stick pretending it was a rifle. When I asked him what he was doing, he said “I’m shooting Palestinians”. We see Palestinian children playing that they’re shooting Jews on the Internet. I pray that we can change our way of thinking from the Greek mentality to a Hebrew or Biblical one so that God’s mind is in us. This gets us able to see things from a completely different perspective. If we change our minds we can see things in truth, the way God sees things. It would make such a difference.
Ha-Satan is one of the Malahim, one of the angels. They are there to communicate with us. He’s one of the angels that’s sent with a mission. He can’t attack us outside the will of God. He’s a servant of God.
Last week we defined the Ein Sof, which is God. Aur Ein Sof is the Light of God. Try to imagine that the sky is a place that never ends. It is a place that never has a beginning. It’s impossible for us. This is what the Ein Sof is. What we know of space within our universe is that vacated space. Beyond that is the light of God that never ends or begins, and extends infinitely. Nothing can exist in the intensity and brightness that light represents. He removed that light from a space that becomes, and that’s where Genesis 1:2 begins. This is where he withdrew his light in order that he could reveal and create man and being and matter.
Maybe it’s hard to understand. That’s where we left off.
Kav
– that line that goes from infinity into the vacated space. Within
that Kav there is a place that Hashem left like a tunnel or
connecting line. There is a measured quantity of the Ohr (light)
that was reduced from the infinite to the lower forms of creation. This
light remains there, which we might say in very broad terms is
the Spirit of God. This allows the vacated space to not collapse
back into the full light of God.
Olamot – comes down into this universe. Olam is our universe. Sefirot also come down. Olam comes from the Hebrew word root Elem, which means Concealment. There’s a concealment within the Olam, and that concealment is the Ohr which is brought down and then concealed in the Sefirot. Judgement, Kindness, Mercy, etc. are the Sefirot. The Sefirot are concealed within the Olamot.
The Kav coming from above to below is made up of the 10 Sefirot. A lot of you have seen that in the form of a man standing upright. Kether is the head, others represent other parts of the body. The Sefirot stand up with 248 limbs and 365 connecting tissues that correspond to the 613 commandments. These are distributed along the three columns of the Sefirotic tree. Each of the 10 Sefirot are made up of 10 more, ad infinitum (to infinity). This forms the Tzelem or Elohim, Godly image described in Torah. The most mundane expression of God’s image is the 10 Sefirot. The character of nature and who we are can’t be broken down like that really. There’s a supernatural spiritual body that we can’t see.
If we break it down into the atoms and molecules and cells etc. we can see how this cosmic body can be tens of tens of tens infinitely. This flows into our soul. This is part of the essential representation of who Elohim is. We are created in his image.
I’ve been to Rome a few times. I remember on some of our trips there, we visited the Sistine Chapel. There’s a man on the ceiling, casting people into hell and lifting them up to heaven. This man Michaelangelo depicted him to be muscular, old, with a long beard.
I think it was Isaiah 45 where God said, “I am not a man. Besides me, Elohim, there is none other.” God is a spirit, not a man. God cannot be anthropomorphic, with a face, muscles, and a beard. This is a violation of Scripture and a violation of the definitions of the Ein Sof. If he was physical, then he couldn’t be God. You cannot take something that I defined earlier as infinite and put it into flesh. It can’t be a god that you have on your windshield or your wall.
So the sages never understood God in the way that Michaelangelo did. The early church hung on to this concept that we can put God into a body. This has become like idolatry, one of the central premises of the church.
Col. 2:9 talking about Yeshua “the fullness of God dwelt in him bodily”. From our mindset that we inherited from our fathers is that means Yeshua is God. That’s not what it means. It means that the central nature and character of God were one with him. They were working completely together. The fullness of God dwells in each one of us. We were each created in his image.
Rashi says talking about Elohim, “being created in God’s image means that humans posess the qualities of understanding and discernment”. The human spirit just as God is immortal, is immortal.
Maimonides says that “anyone who believes that Elohim has a corporeal form is a heretic.”
I agree with those comments. A more exact understanding comes from the author of the Zohar. The sefirot are the pattern by which man was designed. The nature & personality of Elohim are expressed in the sefirot.
Sapher = to express or to communicate
Sapir = brilliance, luminary
Sephar = boundaries
These are the root words of Sefirot. Their function is defined by these three roots. Light to reveal or communicate or express God’s greatness, nature or personality in somewhat understandable terms to the finite mind. They are vessels that limit Sephar, limiting it and bringing it into the finite realm having boundaries. These are bound within the Sephar.
The Sefirot are divided into 5 categories, called Partzuphim, which means “persona, character, or personality.” We are again bringing this down to being in his image. There are 5 Partzuph. Its from these that we derive the concept of the image of Elohim as being transformed into man, an anthropomorphism. Applying spiritual concepts to the physical nature of man.
Arikh Anpin = extended countenance, forbearance, restraint, moderation, self-control. It parallels in the Sephirot with Keter, the Crown. The family counterpart is grandfather
Abba = father. Parallels Chochmach
Ima = mother Binah wife
Zer Anpin = diminished or reduced countenance son, groom
Chesed, Gevurah, Tefirah, Netzach, Hod, Yesod
Nukva = female counterpart to the Zer Anpin, daughter or bride. Final or base of the Sefirot called Malkhut.
I want this applied to life so that we can know God. All this applies to God’s will and spirit.
We’re not told to believe in the commandments, but to do them. Our deeds, good or evil, have an impact on this world and the upper world. Our deeds all relate to our bodies and minds, and how these things affect everyone else that we have a relationship. My violation of a Torah command affects the universe as a whole. That’s why we are told to do Tikkun, repair, of the universe that we’re in.
The soul of this heavenly body is God, and the Sefirot represent the organs of this cosmic body.
The highest of the sefirot is the apex of the Yud, corresponds to the crown of the head of this cosmic body. Ineffability, finality. This is the cranium.
The Yud of God’s name, is Chochmah. It corresponds to the right brain, the seat of thought, wisdom, knowing.
Binah parallels to the He in the name of God; corresponds to the left brain, the heart, ability to discern.
The
Vav are the next 6, which correspond to the torso, genitals,
and legs.
Chesed, Mercy, right arm & hand
Gevurah, Justice, Strength with restraint left arm and hand
Tefiret, Beauty, torso
Netzach right leg & kidney, and also right testicle
Hod, left leg & kidney and testicle
Yesod, foundation & passion represents the entirety of sexual organs
He in God’s name is Malkhut, the feet. The female of the female sexual organs. This is the place that the holy covenant is referred to as the Oral Torah. The place that visible life comes forth in the declarations and explanations of Hashem that you can see in this physical realm.
Left side is feminine, right is masculine.
Genesis 2:7 God breathed the soul into man’s nostrils. This is conveying the essence of who he is into the created man. Man’s soul cannot be separated from God.
Nefesh comes from root word Nefash which means to rest. Lowest extreme of the soul, identified with the flesh, body, blood. Spreading throughout the body giving life to the cells. At this level a person gains awareness of his body. People in the days of Noah lost, or never found, the idea of the body as a tool for the spiritual. This can only happen when you isolate yourself from the stream of your thoughts. Comfort, sexuality, gossip, hatefulness are contrary to the definitions of the Sefirot. We need to restrict the awareness of these in order to see this level of our soul.
Before we can move into the next level of the soul, I can be in Nefesh today and be in Yechidah tomorrow. It’s not like levels of graduating from one to the next. You can be in Yechidah in this place, and Nefesh in that place. You can go from one to another – this is what you call the ups and downs. If we understand this perhaps we can walk in the higher levels in the nature and character of God that he created us to be.
In order to get to the next level which is the Ruach, I have to understand the conflict between flesh and spirit and tune it out. Rom. Chapter 8 comes to mind. We cannot walk satisfying the flesh because of its enmity with God.
All the things of the flesh – “I want you to feel sorry for me, make me feel good” relates there. If we can put it in the realm of recognizing that it’s flesh, degrading and occupying spirit, we can move to the next level of the soul, which is Ruach. That’s like wind, air, direction – a person’s character. It reflects a person’s desire or maturity to make responsible decisions in the light of greater things, and to be held accountable for those decisions.
Here’s where information can be communicated on a spiritual level, seeing visions, becoming conscious of higher levels. Reaching out and touching other people, rather than a quiet sometimes nonexistent unawareness. Completely elevated and transformed.
Neshamah is the next level. Is like the word Neshemah, which is breath. God breathes into us just like he breathed into Adam. We become aware of the source of spirituality. Like feeling the wind blowing into our face on a hot day, different from someone you love breathing on your neck. Close intimacy with God.
Chaya – life force of the soul. What comes before the breath, the air that forms the vessel, from within the lungs.
Yechidah – oneness, unity. The soul is one with Elohim, the source. What lies beyond the wind that comes. It’s the decision of Elohim to blow.
Beyond Yechidah we go into realms that are unimaginable.
NEXT WEEK: DEVARIM Words Deut. 1:1 – 3:22