39 MELACHOS CHABURA
With Rabbi Yaakov Zalman Labinsky

Seeing the Underlying Act of Creation & How to Use it to Grow Closer to Hashem.

More Shiurim by Rabbi Labinsky: www.becomingdivine.com

November 8, 2021 | 4 Kislev
Connecting Maamer / Gathering & Loish / Kneading: Pnimius of Giving

Nov 1, 2021 • 26 Chechvan: The Practical Side of Loish / Kneading / Togetherness

19 Cheshvan • 25 October, 2021
Loish / Kneading
How do you Relate to Togetherness? Tzur me ra, Aseh tov

August 23 ,2001 - TOCHEIN / GRINDING
Practical Tochein for Teshuva

Aug 16, 2021 - TOCHEIN / GRINDING

We are starting the 9th Melacha.

First a hashkafa review to put into the halacha to have the big picture of what we are doing.

What are we doing?  We are working towards hastening redemption, building ourselves and each other, bringing kedusha to ourselves, families and klal Yisrael. Every person is a mini world, an expression of yud k vav k, fire, wind water and earth. A person’s inner makeup is our own constitution of shem havaya. The more we relate to these the more we bring out the inner kedusha and bring into the world. That is what we are striving for.

It relates to Shabbos.  Recreation is that we are using the four categories of the Melachos.  Each melacho is a creational activity. We are creating ourselves.  39 weeks is the gestation. Each melacha is a critical pathway to recreate our humanness to a divine reality.  We restructure the four elements from human to divine to make ourselves a beis hamikdosh. Our life and how we live it is not mundane or purposeful, it has a direction and mission. The more we integrate them, the more we recreate in the moment

In each melacha there are 9 conditions.  

Mind, action, outcome if we want to rebirth ourselves. On Shabbos, the 40th, the revelation of the Shechina where we feel the new reality of what we birth. That is the framework for how we look at the melachas.  Hashem creates us in a special place on a special mission.

The ninth melacha – breaking down the grain into flour. 

We want to get to the showbread. So we need to go from grain to flour itself. The underlying creational energy, the grinding, is breaking down an object from the ground to smaller particles for a new function.  We will see that the fifth melacha is similar.  We are breaking down grain, an object from the ground, to smaller parts.

What are some additional prohibitions?  If you are taking wood and grinding it, or chopping wood to smaller parts, that is prohibited.  Grinding potatoes is another. No grating on Shabbos.  Since medicine came from plants and earth, we do not take medicine because it was ground down, unless sick.  Vitamins for preventative purposes is permitted.

Tahini is ground up chick peas.

If we look at something like grain and we break it down, grind it to its smallest part, and we will talk about klal and prat. In potential, something has to be broken to finer terms to create the dough. On a character level, when we apply it, we have to look at our tzelem Elokim and break it down to its parts. That is the first level of getting to the elements, of breaking down the element to its component parts, fire wind water and earth.  When you want to get into the nuances then we get to grinding.  We are breaking an object that grew from the ground with component parts.  We can extrapolate and begin to look at the middos in terms of elements.   Within the element where am I flawed, get into the nitty gritty of it. as opposed to when a person is anxious or nervous, the grinding can cause problems.  The outcome is not pain grinding, but grind things to create new things, not just grinding the pain.

How do we look at any one area or element and break down the trait? 

Break down to component parts and take those components, the grain before we broke off the husks, now grind it down and reconstitute it.  we break down the element and we see the inner workings of the identity, where you are stronger, not as strong, developed or not.  When you get into grinding in general and in specific, we are going to component parts within itself. As you grind, there is no grinding after grinding. If it was already ground, it is done. If it is coarse flour it can still be broken down.  We can grind down the characteristic.

Our teeth break things down to smaller pieces to digest. 

Another area is how much time is spent on the process of questioning.

The process of questioning, not just asking a question but a good question. If we want to understand something make it into a question.  Understand what that is dealing with.  The question of a wise person is already felt past the end.  When you look at a situation, strip it down and break it down, the grain, to coarser and finer parts. You are narrowing out all the irrelevant, tertiary and insignificant. Hone into it and formulate the question. The question is the teshuva, it is fact finding. To break down a difficulty, like a doctor would do or a therapist, we are being asked to break down our lives on the big picture, the klal to small and then into prat and prate prat, where all the nuances of the depth of understanding are.

It is important to break down what you are struggling with and aspiring towards, thinking through all the details and hone and lock in on the primary things, and sharpen it by asking the right question to show the next level of understanding.

Why is this the question, lets say why.  That is the power of grinding.  When it comes to educating children, or communal issues, we want to serve hashem in a greater capacity. Break this year down into the quarters that went by, and now the final quarter corresponding to yud k vav k, and then to a nuanced moment, a moment of pure consciousness. That is all forms of consciousness.

We have to grind down our year, to break down the experience without losing the klal.  We are grinding the grain into flour but the goal is the 11 melachos for showbread. When it comes to breaking down experience, formulate a live question half way to the answer.  That is how to look at it and formulate the right question and that grinding process is tremendous. There are many kinds of questions. Break down your year, go back to cheshbon hanefesh, what are the patterns.  Break down from a klal is where you get your honest answer.

Maybe you are making an inaccurate assessment if you are not looking at the data. When you get into the melacha truthfully, and be diagnostic of our own middos, and then bring it back to the klal.  When it comes to a tzelem Elokim and breaking it to 4 elements and then to midda and then to its elemental parts, we come to understand we are a walking miracle.  Hashem gives us immense capacity in a specialized way.  That questioning process – the generic process – through grinding – use it wisely.  We can see grinding is either simple or in depth when it comes to Torah.  When you go to subtleties and nuances, it is in the subtle.  Like gematria is not always simple.

A spinoff of grinding are the interpretations in Torah.  It teaches the mind and life experience to pay attention through rich, be a part of it, the fullness of it, and then as you break it down, see the layers and layers of hashgachah.  The same thing is true over the year. 

What are four experiences this year that were defining and break it down to components and grind it down. How do the core experiences and nuances shape, define, and reconstitute you.  And that is the melacha

The 9th melacha of grinding the grain is teaching the creational process of restructuring the world from an earthly thing to a Gdly thing, and grinding is our willingness to do so. Have a more complex understanding, love y ourself in a more intricate way and have love for hashem invested in us. 

Break it down in the creational way.

October 25 2021

We started kneading going into bishul.  We spoke about building collectivity.  There is a notion of a group in gathering but in kneading it connects something intermingled and intertwined.

How do you relate to togetherness, where am I strong or not as challenged?  

There is turn from evil, turn from what holds us back, and ase tov is to create it, and darke shalom is our mission.

A five minute deeper idea to help with this and other Melachos. The main point we are working with is that in our own self development our job is to transcend our human condition and aspire to our neshama.

There is aloneness, levad.  That is where our deepest fears are.

Will we survive in this world and the next?…

But Hashem uses the internal psychological experience of levad to get to ein od milvado, an expression of divine unity.  But it is not that straightforward. The early generations set up the system but it is not just for us to pick the final fruit. The reality of togetherness is the bridging point. The real thing of a bridge is that it is connected to both sides. It has aspects of both but not to one side or the other.  That is what a bridge does.  By metaphor, the bridge expands the gap between two opposites and unify them.  Aloneness and oneness are bridged by togetherness.

There are 2 levels of togetherness - Lower and Higher

… like a bouquet, where you take a weaving together. So what is the difference with kneading?  And this is the deeper answer.

There are two madregas of togetherness. The reality of togetherness bridges aloneness to oneness.  Every bridging point has aspects of both. Togetherness as lower and higher togetherness.

1. The lower togetherness bridges from getting out of the self and the limited perspective of gathering like a bouquet, that goes beyond the limitations of self.

2. But the higher reality of existential oneness, the higher unity is coupled, intertwined and mixed in a blended way that approximates what is needed to achieve divine unity.  

   
   

Lower gets us out of lowness.  Higher brings us to existential oneness.

The perception of togetherness is bridging.  Levad to vaad.  The metaphysical purpose of together ness whether with body and soul or us and Hashem, there is a gap between two opposites. Levad is I stand on my own and no one gets me. that is deep pain.  But levad can become oneness, existential togetherness. Maamer represents lifting above aloneness where we are part of something greater, a bouquet. 

How do we do it? What a couple is trying to achieve is that distancing is existential togetherness. We are always connected, even when we pull back. 

The lower sense takes us out of loneliness and make sure the spouse, during the separation, is not alone. Just like during sheva brachas under the chuppa, the ten languages of joy, the couple should have a deep spiritual friendship.  True divine soulmates in a real sense. It is like a deep friendship and there is togetherness. 

After the nidda period, the couple reunites and we have the higher sense of togetherness, to blend together, higher togetherness for existential oneness. 

The whole cycle of existential oneness is found in the chumras of purity.  Continuous existential togetherness, even during distancing, by having spiritual togetherness by not allowing the other to feel truly alone.  The renewal is transforming the levad.  That reveals the divine in you.  

That is the practical one. The biggest paradigm of using togetherness, to transition from aloneness to existential oneness to oneself and spouse in time and space, we convert the reality of levad to levado.  

How do I relate to togetherness?

What am I struggling with?  

How do I positively create togetherness with myself, spouse and hashem. where is the designated time, Shabbos, hisbodedus, learning, quiet time?  

Are you seeking to have more wholeness within oneself, others and Hashem?  

The 6 Constant Mitzvahs are walking in mind heart & desire.

Capacity, bridges, level of yearning…

What are your successes and how far can you go with that, with Hashem, and the Jewish people?.It is a capacity.

Let’s have a heartfelt conversation.
How are you relating to this?

Where are your fears, strengths, deepest yearnings and longings?

Nov 8, 2021

Connecting gathering and kneading.

We are working with a core concept. We are dealing with a notion called – togetherness has two levels.

1. The lower is gathering, with a significant degree of separation.  

2. Kneading is higher with minimal separation.  

3. Togetherness is bridging between aloneness and oneness. Aloneness is separate existence. Oneness is when we meld with Hashem. they are opposite.

Since togetherness is a bridge, it has aspects of the opposites but not one or the other. Gathering is not really alone, together with others.  Kneading goes up, we are almost there, to true oneness.  Each is an intermediary.  Gathering and kneading connect and that is levado.  We want to connect to existential oneness.

3 dimensions : olam / shana /nefesh. space, time and soul.

Where do we apply this? The most general way is a concept in sefer yetzira, olam / shana /nefesh, space, time and soul.  these are the three dimensions . the job is to connect them and unify them.

In Bereshis, it says yom echad, that is the dimension of time . Hashem gathered the waters together in one place, that is unification of space.  And adom and chava, come together, that is souls joining together.  We see these echads as to awaken the correction in the soul, bring it through the realm of time and into space. Take one essential aspect of gathering and kneading to bridge aloneness with oneness.

On the level of nefesh, any two opposites in this world – every two opposites in this world are rooted in male and female, when it is stripped down, that is the basis. On the nefesh level, how do zachar and nekeva apply to us, to others and to Hashem.  Lets see how we can use togetherness, lower and higher, to bridge these notions of two opposites, the male and female dimensions.

In Michtav Eliahu, on giving, he explains within middos. all middos in a positive sense are rooted in giving and bad middos are rooted in taking.  But there is a question. What would the world look like if we were all givers?  Why would that not work?  Taking is not the same as receiving. Those who take is different from being a receiver.

Shlomo tells us the realm of giving and receiving are two sides of the same coin

A giver needs a receiver. And the two connect.  When a person receives, they give the opportunity to be a giver to another.

When a person is in pain whether impoverishment or illness, and you have to endure to allow someone to give to you. The one receiving gets double the merit.  A person has to go through tzar in a place of pain.  They get double the merit. Do not be mistaken to think that taking and receiving are the same.  Receiving is the other side of giving.

Male and female on the level of nefesh, male is emanating and female is receiving.  The emanating force is mekabel. Hashem designed the world this way.  if there is no receiver there is no giver. Receiving is an art, giving the oother the opportunity to give. 

Male and female, it appears opposite, and the togetherness is this .  a giver and a taker have something in common, needing each other to allow an interaction to take place. The receiver needs to draw benefit from what is being bestowed.  The giver needs to emulate Hashem, the point of togetherness, allows complementary roles in the exchange.  If there arrogance, like I know and you don’t, I see and  you don’t, there is no point of togetherness.  Those capacities remain polar opposites if there is arrogance like I have and you don’t. the commonality of togetherness must bridge the aloneness with the oneness to have the experience of divine blessing.

When someone gives, it is like a coin.  When you extend your hand out that is the ו vav and the open hand of the other is the ה hai.  Both understand the dimension of giving as male and female. It does not matter who has and who does not.  

That experience of togetherness unifies Hashem’s presence. In that exchange, that shared togetherness, can be uplifted to divine unity.

If it is gathering, then it is at least I was not alone. Thank you for asking about my needs. You showed you cared, the receiver is upgraded to the first level of togetherness. But if the giver is attune, he realizes he needs the receiver even more than the receiver. To invest deeply, to be bound up with this specific need, it is Hashem drawing out through me to this person, then nullify myself and focus on tzedakah saving from death.  Understand this sense of togetherness has a deep moment of connection.

It awakes emanation of ahavas chesed.  From there feel a moment of divine unity.  The male and female giving and receiving is about a relationship.  About becoming righteous together. 

The whole male female dimension on the level of soul, and there are many aspects, experience giving and receiving.  The less lishma, the less you are focused on being mekabel.  And if they ask for more, there is pirud, not togetherness. Did you fulfill the higher midda of chesed, ahavas chesed.  Did you emulate Hashem?  

If we think the receive owes us something it is a mistake.  Giving time or attention, all forms of giving, are male and female components.  Awaken two levels of being together. Knock out aloneness, go to the bouquet, there is a sense of not being separate. Lift yourself and the other out of aloneness. Go to a higher level of abstract to see how another is bound up, and see that the whole world is just Hashem.  all giving, starting with spouse, and children, and you see giving and receiving, and break out of existential aloneness.  Why does a person feel they are only giving and not receiving.

The place for togetherness can be bridged with an eternal moment. Internalize higher consciousness that Hashen’s world is all good. This is the consciousness to have in the moment of giving. In the realm of nefesh, we can feel the existential reverberation. That chesed, done with higher awareness and intentionality and purpose, connects this world and the next. It expands and expands. Through the midda of chesed, especially when it was not comfortable, it is male and female  when we animate it, we bring a revelation of His divine unity. If it is animal driven it is the opposite.  Then it is I have and you do not. I know and you don’t know. When that dynamic happens, the aloneness is in you. 

The two aspects of togetherness teach us we feel alone in life. We may be on our own but we are not truly alone through the dynamic of the nefesh, we break out of aloneness and create a bridge and aspire towards divine unity, to experience reality, blessed and tranquil.  

If we understand this male female dynamic, in the bridging of it, bridging the whole world of action, the world of nature, the body of something, has no independent existence. One aspect is giving and another is receiving, and that interaction goes towards lishma, it changes the creation itself.

If it is a divine expression of giving there is a divine revelation.

How do I relate to myself in relation to others. Giving to oneself is much more complicated. Giving to others, how do I look at myself in giving to others, altruistically, or in a self serving way. There are degrees of everything. Why don’t we receive things well. Challenge it. taking no, but receiving yes, it is to be related to in that way.  If we don’t think we matter or are deserving it reinforces our aloneness. Fight for the wellness of our soul and relate to the capacity of receiving, to what extent does the animal soul creep in and how do we sensitize ourselves and work on it, for a sense of shared togetherness.

Gathering and kneading.  Transform the aloneness to oneness.  We have to work on this.

That is how it applies to the level of soul, what our capacity is and where we need to refine ourselves. 

Oct 11
Kneading, the 10th melacho

There are 11 strands in one thread.

We will review the first nine.

We want to be re-creational in our efforts.

We look at a melacha on Shabbos on what we refrain. During the week it is a positive act of creation to change the physical structure, an act of creating.

We are restructuring ourselves into our nefesh elokis. Fire, Wind Water and earth, ARMA, parallels yud, hai vav and the final hai.  This is unique patterning of our composition . 

Core creative activity and how they link up.

The first is plowing, preparing or enhancing the ground. We break the ground that has nothing there and opening it for something to grow

Planting is enhancing the growth process.

Harvesting we detach it. it now has independent existence and we use it for something. 

Gathering. We take the individual things with separate existence and it now has to be bound up with a group. This is the power of the individual in relation to the collective.

Threshing . we break what grew into its component parts. Once gathered it has a collective. Now we break it down and break it apart, fragmented into detail.

Winnowing selecting and sifting are together because they have one thing, purifying a mixture .  we break something apart and as we do, it is a mixture, and we remove what is desirable to potential, a sifter, removing the bad from the good for future use.  This process of purification is on the individual level.

Grinding is breaking down an object to its smallest functioning particle.  Once you purify something, and it may take several layers, we are not just breaking it apart into component parts.  We are grinding it smaller and smaller, more subtle, nuanced, detailed, exacting and more purified.  It is a micro level. Something comes into existence and we see it in a context and then we break it down.  When we break down life in its nuanced form, there is appreciation in the depth of detail.

Kneading. The melacha is dough making.  That is the creative activity. In the temple they mixed flour and water together. The underlying principle – according to Sephardim – forming any solid and liquid and couple it and it is a dough. Ashkenazi way is combining any two substances to form something but it does not have to be doughy. The Sephardi is stricter, a solid and liquid that is thick. Ashkenazi means it has more possibilities.  Any two substances combined, like mayo and ketchup, even if not thick like dough, it is not allowed on Shabbos.  No making cement. Some might not make egg salad. 

What is kneading adding to the process?

Once you get to grinding to tiny details this is like getting lost in the details.  Life is like going from one detail to the next. It is all very real but I am stuck in the details. While it is skill to break things down, we need balance and measure. We created that thing and extracted it to the ground and built it into other things in gathering and breaking it down, so that we can knead. Water and flour – we are adding a new substance. We are recreating something from the flour. Any one thing on its own is limited and limiting. It has a purpose and a place. When it connects beyond and has a higher purpose like a dough that goes beyond the flour, the flour nullifies itself to the water and creates something it could not have done on its own. As great as the individual is, its true depth can only be brought out through the joining with something and by combining and mixing within it, it creates something else.  Only by combining is something holy created. This is a partnership idea.  

We mevatel to co-create greater than either one of us by melding and merging together. 

Both mevatel separateness to create something new.  Does it have to doughlike? What is common is that each loses its own individuality, in its detail, to combine with something else. It is merging and blending. Coupled with water, it becomes bread.

The consciousness of kneading is the profound sense of togetherness and merging with something else.

In a marital context, it is Kneading You. When you work on marriage for interdependence, we need the other because Hashem makes us holy and incomplete to be completed through the other. We knead someone so we can have interdependence, the place where there is higher marital togetherness. Core character traits and melding. We have to bound up like a dough like process. To truly need someone is to merge with the other without losing one self.  Something is cocreated, a sense of partnership. The challenge – to mevatel our own flour and join with water and to mix intensely, to create a thick consistency – we don’t want to be that close.  We don’t trust, we don’t rely, we have been burned, we were raised to be independent.  While it makes us sophisticated on some level, we are not co-creating ourselves as a mini bais hamikdosh.  It is required to go from full independent existence and in that refined form, meld it with something beyond oneself.  To have true perceived togetherness we have to have trust and rely, there is  a process of co-creating.

We can create something greater between us.  If we don’t define the higher substance, we don’t touch anyone. We don’t believe there is anything beyond the self.  

This melacha says when we truly knead (need) someone from a greater desire to be a whole and refined existence, that is the higher transcendant realm in marriage.  It is whole living, more refined and complete living.  We are inherently lacking on our own no matter what.  We are only complete through the other. We nullify ourselves in a deeper way to co-create.  

A working partnership.  It requires a higher notion of partnership. We can be all in with each other.  We work towards something and bind in a deeper way.  We co-create together and sense between us that we can create something higher, interdependence for transcendant living. That is a great marriage.  

We trust fully and inherently know that I am flawed and cannot be complete. I must join with the spouse. That level of consciousness is higher interdependent. We see a remes to this in lamed shin, 30, 300.  The I and you, the melting of the two individuals to create a higher divine consciousness. That is an incredible thing.  It is how we are supposed to love every Jew, to blend and meld and roll in the dough, with Hashem, surrender parts of ourselves and we can create something greater. 

We can apply in a work context to a partnership too. An agenda has to set the goals to fill the organizational agenda. 

We want the bais hamikdosh where we can all serve Hashem . Start with the body and the soul and then with the spouse. The soul needs the body to carry it from one place to the other and the body needs the soul to direct it so it knows what to aspire to rather than just what it desires. Each needs the other. 

The body surrenders to the soul and they blend together. That partnership is how the soul and body work together. 

We want to create a divine partnership where fire & wind couple together with water & earth and that partnership is kneading.

 There is a coupling that creates a sense of divine partnership and completion so we can reveal Hashem. the body and soul work together and nullify themselves to the other. That is a kneading reality.  Only when they come together and couple can they do something.

The flowers in a bouqet ties them but they have not melded.  Kneading is a deeper level of melting merging and blending, higher togetherness.

We can look at ourselves in our marriage and then with Hashem.  The koach of kneading is to cocreate our structure to be more full solid and secure to reveal Hashem.

Erev 10th of Teves. Dec 13, 2021

We talked about the Chosom Sofer – what is the connection of the 10th of Teves and Chanukah. The bais hamikdosh is being judged again. Will it be decreed to be built or destroyed?

What does that have to do with me?

The Chanukah candles , we have no permission to use the candles for any physical purpose. Rather, just look at them.  It is not about a superficial looking. Look deep into oneself through looking at the light of creation. 

After Chanukah begins the pregnancy process of the “new you.” What we are trying to understand is, look at ourselves as a mini bais hamikdosh, receiving the Shechina is akin to being ourselves as a nefesh elokis. That is rooted in the four elements, and that is rooted in the animal soul and our limited character traits that we are trying to rectify.

What does this have to do with the 10th?  The judgment is from now to Tisha bav. The starting point is ratzon. The siege is what the soton lays on us that cuts us off from our ratzon. It cuts us off from the inner vitality of our being.  It does not mean we don’t have vitality going through us.  You can’t shut it off. You can cover it over. What we are trying to do is to begin awakening our ratzon specifically for seeing ourselves as wanting to mekable the divine presence. See ourselves as that and use the inner elements to work towards the divine presence. The greatness of our spiritual being is seeing ourselves that way.  It is not so simple

In the turn to good way, positive way, how do we look at ourselves. What is the commitment I am making to myself by expressing it to the group.  We want to make a real commitment. Action commitments for the sake of being a mini sanctuary, a place for the nefesh elokis, and to go into the fast with inner vitality, a commitment to seeing oneself as a divine makom for the Shechina.

Then what do I need to detach from, to stay clear of?  Part of that is to strengthen will to keep out the negative forces.  The bais hamikdosh had a filtered system to keep in the purity of holiness and connect it back above. 

We have been talking about the Melachos.  We must mentally map our very being in soul, time and space, including where you live. We want the Shechina within us.  What do I need to be all in and what takes me off that waters down or diminishes intensity that I need to move forward in this direction?

We are standing before Hashem for a positive judgment, will the temple be rebuilt? What do we want, what are we committing to? What is the appropriate course of action?  It is a ratzon to want it and make a commitment for the rest of the year.  It has to roll. We want to strengthen inner desire and yearning to seeing ourselves that way, a whole makom, a mini bais hamikdosh. 

I will start the ball rolling with the positive side first. It is an intellectual point, the basis of my ratzon.  When I was originally learning about Shabbos through the Mishna gemara and halacha, the one language was driving me crazy, 40-1. If you are using imprecise language, so why 40-1?  Why not 39?  It teaches something greater about what Shabbos is.  for many years I stayed on that question, researching 40.  My commitment statement is, the reframing of the 39 melachos is building ourselves as a kli and the 40 is the drawing down of the divine presence on Shabbos. The kli is built. Then the ohr goes into the mini vessel. The 40th is a taste of the next world in this world. The number 40 is 4 times 10. It can correspond to four worlds or four levels of soul, shelamos in the 4 worlds.  We are looking at fire wind water and earth and these four elements are natural and the root of one’s core middos and the root of one’s unique combination of yud k vav k, your own inner constitution of the Shechina. When the Mishna says 40-1 it is telling you the mission statement of Shabbos, creating the next world. Toiling all week to fix our nefesh, to purify and refine out the ra in us to leave us more whole and on Shabbos we stop creating and we don’t do melacha and we taste mortality, the level of Shechina that is there on Shabbos attunes to the future world while we are in this world. 40 as it relates to what we doing, are you committed to your wholeness and completion in four elements, 4 times 10, the wholeness and over the wholeness. Are you committed to being shelamos, all the four elements within each element. This whole world is to be mashlim yourself. Do the Melachos, have a mini death, be mekabel and correct nefesh behamis, how much did we shift to nefesh elokis and Shabbos shows us what we take with us. That forty is are you committed to living a shelamosdik life because you want wholeness and full integration. You have to want the 40.

The 39 melachos are in four categories. The vessels, are the inanimate, and that is all about making showbread from plant life. Then 12 to 31 are for the coverings for the aron, the animal part, and the last 8 are specifically for the human who can write and erase build destroy light fire and extinguish.  These correspond to earth, water, wind,fire.  Four levels of creation, inanimate, plant, animal and human. All the Melachos are designed to purify the adom, the animal, plant and inanimate parts of us. When you get shelamos in all it is 40. Shabbos is a taste of the next world. To what extent do we yearn for that.  

What is that telling us about ourselves, my commitment statement is to look at my physical and spiritual being as a structure of earth water wind and air and wanting shelamos in each one and between them so that I can be a makom for the Shechina in this world. To return the Shechina back to this world. When we see ourselves that way and see the Melachos and the parallels, we realize we area  bais hamikdosh.  It is the cycle of the 7 day week and the 6000 years and the point of creation

My commitment is to want and want to want to see myself as a bais hamikdosh.  Welcome to my makom Shechina.  Welcome means coming into my divine space and to welcome Yidden. See ourselves as Gdly being and push out those things that diminish or lower the intensity or downgrade the continuous revelation of Shechina.  From chanukah and forward, to feel even in the body, to work on our physical being and be kedusha.  I have to keep out the forces that say the Shechina is not welcome here. This is what I want to go into the fast with, to see myself and others this way. To welcome others into my life and be welcomed into theirs.  I pour my heart out for this inner ratzon and keep it with me all year.

11.29.21

Day & Night: Gathering & Kneading

We will review and then get practical.

We talked about gathering and kneading.  There are two levels of togetherness, gathering with a sufficient degree of togetherness, and kneading with virtually no separation. That is a divine sense of oneness.  

Soul time and space is how we get there. There is the giver/receiver in tandem concept.  And time itself is a creation.  It has a cycle in the day, day and night. By maariv when we leave day and go into the night, we say “the light rolls over into he darkness and the darkness rolls into light.”  Just like the unit of 24 hours, and how much darkness depends on the season, 48 minutes and 23 seconds is a halachic hour. 

Daytime itself is a 24 hour cycle in two units, day and night, male and female, and in the male we have the first six hours and that is the male of the male, and when it is constricted, it is female of the male.  And at night, the first six hours are the male of the female, and the last six are the female of the female.  That is where the light is born, at the end of those 12 hours.

We are saying there is day, night and day, and searching for the holiness.  The day is emes, the night is emunah.  A day is both merged. The togetherness is male and female emes and emunah. The avoda is the light rolls into the dark and the dark into the light. Hashem recreates time through emes to emunah and emunah to emes.  

The first thing, the avoda of night time, female

we are trying to have emunah, to deepen emunah, to internalize the reality of emunah, to be a mekabel, to accept willfully.  What it is not is taking control, being directive, giving direction and movement perfectionistically.  It means we let go of control and let Hashem control because He is perfect. It is not mine, not in my sphere of influence at all.  We have hishtadlus.  Moving things forward, which is more daytime, the night is not that.  To get to a state of mekabel is tzur me ra, separate from the nature of life that says take control and accept nothing less. Emunah is lighten up even though it is darkness. Let go. Give power and control back to Hashem.  Power is never ours to begin with.  Shift our consciousness.

Malchus is the sefira, we have no positive point of inner light of my own.

 I have truly have nothing of my own I have to nullify my arrogance.  Have emunah.  We are not directing things.  That is ego based and gaiva driven. My existence is not separate. Being accepting is an act of surrender, giving up perceived limited separate existence. That is tzur me ra.

Feel positive that we have nothing, like the moon in relation to the sun.  a person has to willfully let go of the illusion of control. Internalize a positive sense of one’s lack of separate existence.  No existence is rooted in me.  my existence is not my own and I am created to be a kli, to receive all that Hashem wants to emanate into me, to draw it in, and interinclude it all together. Then in relation to Hashem, we have emunah and an identity.  Emunah gives it back to Him that is His.  Surrender the ego, internalize and be aware of nothingness, and now that I am empty be a repository to receive what You want to give and put it together and express it, my unique portion of kovodshomayim. That is emunah. It is tremendous strength.  But the ego does not want to mevatel our yeishus, we feel we are a force of our own.  It doesn’t mean we should not be accomplished but it is not our own.  We only possess it. there is no basis for ego.  It is not ours.  

Some people get depressed when thinking we are nothing, degrading the self to nothing and it feels s horrible.  So we mistakenly realize we are something. All that we have we rely on to tell us we are wonderful. That is gaiva.  Rather, internalize the reality of divine unity.  

Be mekabel and enter into the avoda of darkness, emunah, and take in the active avoda of nighttime. That is chanukah.  

We are in the darkest part of the year.  Take the natural elements and say as cold and dark as it is, what is happening is that our seed under the ground is getting reconstructed and will become actualized over the year. Draw inward.  Don’t get caught up in whether it is hot or cold. Connect to the divine element of nature. Light ourselves us and awaken this nekuda of ohr coming to this world. The light comes below ten tefakim to within three feet above the ground.  We say here too Hashem is to be acknowledged.  Declare Hashem’s darkness is limited and His light is absolute. Use the potency of emunah to receive and willfully and positively say I am nothing.  That does not mean I am worthless. 

Nothinginess is that everything that I am,which is huge, a reflection of Hashem that matters, is not to myself.

The positive side is to direct it be ack to Hashem and use it the right way.  Just as what we go through during day rolls into night, the emunah rolls into a new level of truth, of emes. The sun comes up, a recreation of light born from the darkness before.  We see the interdependence of male to female and the coupling is in time.  We take the emunah and accept it and reflect it out as truth over the day.  That is the koach of zachar to be mashbia. Then emanate in home, street, community.  The koach of emanation is coming from being mekabel first.  We are not to show how much we can give.  That is ego.  The emanation is simply the emanation from what we know, that we are nothing and there is nothing but Hashem. in that inner impoverishment, that emunah gives over to emes that we are a shaliach, a vehicle of Hashem’s blessing.  The more we are clear and roll it into emanating forces, it is not driven by ego, the male is a further continument of the darkness.  

In Maariv, just as we leave the daytime, we go through an operating part of time that is two cycles of emunah to emes, female to male, we are coupling in time. That is gathering.  Then we go to kneading, that it is one thing.

On a simple level, gathering is incredible. 

How do we relate to emunah in general

How do we develop it

How do we receive

How do we receive and create an emanating force from that 

How do we relate to these.

11.22.21

Gathering is together with separateness. Kneading is intense togetherness, undistinguishable separateness.

The sense of separateness and independence is gone. We have to go through the first ten malechos to get there.

The perception of together is to rectify pirud, separateness, from hashem.  We take something that is alone, bridge it to oneness.

This applies in nefesh, shana and olam.

We have spoken about soul one to another and one to self. On the level of olam, it is giving and receiving, how do we receive within oneself. The core is to be a true giver, learn to emanate and receive at the same time, two forces at the same time.  Go a little further into time. 

Piske Shearim, in the back, on how everything integrates together – when it comes to time, there is the quantitative part, a minute, an hour, a day, a year, a decade etc.  Is there a qualitative way to experience time?  Through gathering and kneading we can understand a whole different way of looking at time.  In the nefesh realm there is male that emanates and female that receives and that is everything in the soul dimension. But it applies to time as well, male and female. When you break down a time period, we see there are four quadrants of time.  So where is emanating and receiving?  The 24 hour period is 12 hours light and 12 dark.  The day is male and the night is female.  We acknowledge the morning light and the night is like emunah.  At night, when it is longer, what is relevant is that the halachic hour 48.20, the male dimension of time is day and when it is dark it is the female dimension.

We can look at things coming together. What are the two opposites, the male and female. The male is day, emanating, night is female. There are four parts, so day is split in two as well. Midday is the male of the male in time.  The sun then gets less intense and goes back to the female, the first six hours of the day are the male of the male and the second are the female of the male. At night the first part is male of the female and the second is female of the female. 

The four languages that subdivide into 4 units of six, what does this have to do with gathering? If you see everything is male and female that appears opposite and each stands alone, we have to bring them together and unify them.  If a person is inclined to relate to day hours, for whatever reason, such as productivity, seeing where we are going, businesses being open.  Or night is tiring, stores are closed, less hopeful even gloomy.  

What is our peak? Morning, night?  Do we have trouble getting up early?  

There is no togetherness relating to day and night, a person says I am more a day or night person.  That polarizes time.  It is undersandable that we do this. However, day and night are not mutually exclusive.  The male is day and the night is female, and you cannot polarize time, we have to see the yichud that light and darkness come together. Day is the reality of emes and night is the reality of avoda. He is emes and she is emunah.  Just like male and female are to come to perceived togetherness like a gathering, there has to be a gathering of time, emes and emunah.  So don’t compartmentalize time based on what we relate to, that is anochius.  Hashem is in all time and there is emes and emunah.  There is emes in emunah and emunah in emes.  We must see time as a gathering.  Don’t polarize it. it is a continuum that makes a whole.  Relate to them both. 

Time is a unit, a sense of togetherness, not just what works best for me.  it is one bouquet. Even though there is perceived separateness. It is clearly distinguishable, what is day or night.  We see the zmanim through out the day.  It is discernable what is day and what is night. When the sun hits the peak, that is midday, the sixth halachic hour, and now that it is descending it is the female part of the male.  The sense of perceived togetherness, if I can relate to day and night, what I am training my soul to do is to have a relationship with truth through the evolution of time. This is Rochel and Leah.  The female is the shechna, the Rochel and leah, male of female and female of female. There is togetherness within the 12 hour period. We are dealing qualitatively to understand how things expand and contract, emanating and constricting in day and night.

What we need to begin to do practically is to be a shelamos person, we have to relate to emes and emunah, male and female, through time itself.

We have to sensitize ourselves to the spiritual. If we plug into time, then we can do it in space.  Spiritually emanating, day and night, and even within the day – how do we relate to time, do we manage time, do we enjoy time, are we pressured in time. What we are struggling with is the quantitative part. But in gathering and kneading, looking at emanating and receiving, we ask how do we create ourselves with the creational forces of time knowing Hashem is renewing the creation in a specific pattern.  Once I can relate to that, to even a moment, we relate to Hashem’s unity.  Relate to the connectiveness. The aloneness means I am splitting and compartmentalizing time. We think we have to control it, justify our existence, but beyond that Hashem is in time.  How are we relating in emes and emunah. How do you reveal Hashem in truth.  Emuah is when it does not make sense, uncontrollable, uncertain, on edge, and all we want to do is make emunah emes, get to the day.  The uncertainty is the night time within us.

Kneading shows us the spiritual rhythm.  It is about being emeskik in the day and emunahdik at night.  

This is the hidden part of seasonal disorder.  The winter is tikkun of the female, things are decomposing, there is more darkness.  We get in Cleveland 15 hours of darkness on dec. 21. Don’t get pulled down by this quantititative part. Connect to the qualitative part, the divine energy and calling. If we are attuned to the female, to the evening hours, and even the first half male, first part of preganancy and the second half, birth female. There is tremendous rhythm of time, emanating receiving, male and female.  There is a sense of togetherness.  How do we do the first and second parts?  Frame it as male and female and become sensitized to the two parts of the night that are together, that is the bouquet of togetherness. 

We relate to it as a unit.  Experience time coming together. Same with the day.  Don’t listen to the nefesh behamis only, on what we have to get done.  This is the world of action, yes but don’t act blindly and mindlessly.

 While you are busy, on a soulful level be in touch with time and connect to the emes and emunah and the emes in emunah and the emunah in emes.  We then see the unity.  And then we see it in the week.  

Six days of the week are the emanating force, chesed to yesod.

And Shabbos is malchus, female.  Same on the monthly level and yearly level. We can see these as minimal togetherness with separateness. It is an incredible way to feel the divine unity in time. We want to connect to Hashem in time.  As we relate to the qualitative part, we have our activities, but we want to live as a nefesh elokis, a divine being who relates to time in a timeless way, to use it to the greatest extent. That is male and female and seeing emes and emunah in each. That is what day is teaching us, what Shabbos is teaching us. As we develop the sensitivity of togetherness in time, calling it truth and emunah.

The root letters are aleph and then mem in order. The difference is the nun of emunah is of nefia, falling. Where emes ends emunah begins.  Emet has a tav at the end, it is whole, no doubts, it just is.  Hashem designed it. but with emunah it is unpredictable. Take a leap of faith based on knowledge, move into emunah based on knowledge.  What do we believe. The emunah must be based on emes.  Emunah is the next stage of where your emes cant go further. Take the leap of faith based on knowledge. Then draw down the next level of emes.  It cycles. They work together, Hashem’s hand, whether day or night. Yom Echad. This is an introduction in thought in how to relate to emanating and receiving force into the soul dimension. Be attuned to the qualitative dimension of time. It teaches us how to see the rhythyms of time. 

We can see hashem’s world beyond the physical. Hashem is watching us and every moment we can serve Him.

Jan 3, 2022
How do you relate to time?

The practical application of kneading / maamer and mixing / loish.

How do you relate to time, to a day, to the parts of the day and how does it become a building block for Shabbos

 Mixing and kneading have to do with creating a collective, gathering things together,  and kneading is mixing together where they become more like one. Gathering and kneading are levels of togetherness.  Gathering, things are perceivable, and kneading is where they disappear within each other and a third appears.

There are two levels of togetherness.

A question is why do we need two levels of togetherness. 

When you want to bridge aloneness to oneness, where the deepest pain is loneliness and the highest is existential oneness, the lower part gathering is the way up.  And one level down from existential oneness is kneading.  That is the concept, to create a bridge.

The generic form of looking at the world is soul, nefesh; time; and space.

How does it apply to time?  Based on a kabalistic interpretation from Rabbi Hagar a talmid of the Gaon said the day itself is based on Chumash, on the shema.  There are four parts of the day, in the house, go on the way, go to sleep, and when you get up.  The Baal HaTurim says it is four parts of the day. The first is the brightest, then diminishing light, then the first part of the night and the last six hours of the night.  24 divided by 4 is 6.  In March and September it is all equal, 12 and 12. However, when the rotation of all the luminaries shift, halachic hours shift, so there is 45 minutes of daylight in every hour.  In 12 hours, 3 hours, a quarter, is lost of daylight.  Then the darkness goes to 15.  Chazal tell us that the day works in a four part rhythm.  We are saying togetherness, of opposites, day and night.  On a soul level, an emanating and a receiving force is male and female.  That is soul.  in time, the day is male, and the night is female, emes and emunah.  For 24 hours, we relate to emes and emunah.  Emes rolls into emunah and emunah roles into emes. There is a relationship of male to female and female to male.  A person can experience this.  In the light time, the day, half way is male part of the light, when it is coming strongest and when it retracts, there is female part of the day. Male / male, male / female.  At night, it is the same thing, it is female male for the first part to midnight, and then from midnight to dawn is female female.

If we want to use gathering, how do I relate to time or to a day? 

How do we break a day to day and night and how do we relate to emes or revealed and emunah, what is concealed.  Then how is each day a building block towards Shabbos.

A day is one sixth in preparation towards Shabbos.  A day in preparation, 1/6, it is light and dark, male and female, and each part too has male and female. The gathering part is that it is like a basket, one unity, a day, light and dark.  Once you see that there is a rhythm of how they meld into each other. 

It is telling us that day is not just for tanning!  Hashem creates a luminary and He is emanating the light and when the light shifts, then it is retracting and the energy of the day is changing.  Learning how to do the right things at the right time is key.

How do I relate to time, how do we see together, emes and emunah, a composite called a day.  Am I strong in day or night. How do I develop a mindset of togetherness. Day and night do not have to be so opposite. They have not lost their status of day and night as in kneading, but on a gathering level, what is a unit of growing through time, gathering.

The highest question is how do I relate to 24 hours together with Shabbos, building towards Shabbos.

That is a perception of looking at time.

On the ground we can discuss it.  what is the divine rhythm of time, a limited sense of togetherness of the day, and then in relation to Shabbos.

When we are busy doing and accomplishing, we are not thinking about time and relating to male and female but it is for us to sensitize ourselves to making time divine.

Jan 10, 2022

Time as it relates to a month. 

How do we relate to a unit of a month?  Next week we will do a quarter, as it relates to tu b’shevat.

What we are doing with togetherness with Hashem in time is to understand time without getting swept up in time. We can have a healthy relationship with time.

Big units of time can still be managed with this.

We are developing gathering within the context of kneading within time. We are talking about a relationship with time, putting the soul part into time.

Ask yourself is time a friend or enemy?

Do I work with it or against it.  what is blocking me, too much time, too little time?

We are going to use from the whole to the part and part to the whole.

Let’s say 100 years, 50 years a jovel year, a year or even a month, how do we grab hold of that.

The whole to part and part to whole relationship is break it down to its component parts.  Relate to the smallest unit of time, an hour or a moment.  The Arizal says without a yud in Shechina….

It culminates into week four.  We are taking a detail and connecting to bigger parts so we can hold mental space for a month.  The day is made of four parts as well, male male, male to female, etc. once it is broken into 12 combinations, the order is different and gives the koach to that month.

Think of four shabbosim, a bouquet, and how they work together, and then how they blend like kneading for the month of shevat.  That sensitivity to time is seeing the divinity of time, the divine opportunity of time.  We have a greater sense of hope.

The word chodesh is rooted in renewal. 

We can renew ourselves in pure potential to complete actualization, give it back, empty oneself, hold space to draw anew is the cycle of renewal. That is what a woman’s cycle is, all cycle’s of renewal, expansion to contraction to a recreated expansion.  Develop competency for and develop a process of renewal. We are always with Him, always seeking the divine opportunity. We can relate to a month of shabbosim like that, why we sanctify the moon, why we bless the upcoming month.  We want our soul on the divine opportunities of time. What is the power of the divine opportunities of this month?  Then it goes into the four weeks where it goes from potential to actualization. There is a rhythm, there is no place He is not.  We use gathering and kneading to understand the mitzvahs of the month.

Next week we will talk about a quarter of a year, a unit of time of Hashem’s Shechina, unlimited, enclothed within a unit of time, and have a feeling relationship with time using gathering and kneading.  We can feel His divinity from soul to time.  When we go to space we will see how to access the soul dimension and time and then we can feel the holiness of space itself.  Soul time and space are the unit to relate to Hashem and feel His presence and feel close to Him and to bring creation back to its Creator.

Here are the questions

1. How do I relate to a unit of a month, have I had exposure to a month’s time?

2. We want to expand our consciousness to hold space from one Shabbos to four, a building block for the whole year

3. What do we struggle with?

We want to develop and deepen our consciousness to Hashem in time.

Jan 31, 2022
Gathering and kneading to see how to blend time.

The moon in relation to the sun
and how it relates to the different times of the year.

There is extended play, where something is elongated a little longer. This is one more aspect on time that relates to the whole year.

We have been understanding the spirtiaul dimension of soul time and space, with a divine element that we are to bring together and unify. We have used klal to prat and prat to whole to reconstruct the smallest to the biggest and biggest to smallest to bring a deeper togetherness.

There is one part that has not been discussed, how to relate to the beginning of the year itself. It is not just the beginning, of a year, a thousand years…the starting point of a year is worth looking at.

It is so important that the Gemara in Rosh Hashana 10b talks about it. the idea is, when was the world created? When do we start the beginning of the year? Rabbi Eliezer says tishrei and Yeshuda says Nisan.  We assume that the beginning of the year is Rosh Hashana.  But there are many ways to look at any one thing. Things can look upside down.

What is the argument?  The beginning of the referencing of the beginning of a year. Tu Bshevat has a disagreement between Hillel and Shammai.  Rabbi Eliezer says the first of Tishrei and Rabbi Yeshua says first of Nisan.

We are going to use gathering, the bouquet, and kneading to see how to blend time.

Talking about different reference points we see years versus months. Rashi points this out. years go by the sun and the months go by the moon. When Reb Eliezer and Yeshua are arguing they are talking about years and months.  Typically we go by the months, the moon. We reflect the light of the moon and we reflect His Light in the world. We are His light in the darkness. Olam haze, a world of divine concealment, Hashem brings light to the world, therefore we go by the months.

By the holidays, we go by the years, the sun.  while fundamentaly we relate to the moon, there are aspects of both.  If we go by birthdays, we go by the moon.  There is a leap year because of the gap between the lunar and solar cycles.

Expand it to ruchnius, how do we see it from a lens of gathering? Is there a cycle of the sun and the moon, the years and the months, to reconcile where they can be together like a bouquet?  What I am saying is based on a peirush on eitz chaim.  He has a fascinating explanation that gives a dynamic flow.

A human being, in Mishnah, has 248 limbs and 365 sinews that keep everything together. Another level on the 248 and 365 correspond to the male and female dimensions of our makeup. The 248 positive influences exerting themselves in this world, exerting divine influence, the zachor part, mashpia.  The 365 correspond to the negative commandments, the shomor, guarding parts, the protective female parts.  Rabbi Chober says each has a part in fixing up the nefesh.  Drawing vitality through the commandments give strength to the male and the 365 givrs strength to the female.  The positive fulfillment is important but the protective keeps everything else out and keeps everything else in. it preserves the divine within. Rabbi Chober says they are not two separate categories, they work together.  The 248 is the positive influence into the world and the 365 is the protective quality around us, be careful, there are pitfalls and traps and don’t fall away from spiritual pursuits.  When they work together, the bouquet, we push out the negative forces and refine within ourselves our own mixture of good and evil within us.  The 248 and 365 have an intimate partnership of guarding against and expressing.  They are together.  We expand our mind to the togetherness of the male and female, they have a dual role. The male emanates chesed and the female comes to create a protective shelter to keep out evil and allows the male to remove the evil. 

The sun and moon too are bound up with each other. Rashi says one reason we have 365 sinews is corresponding to the days of the year.  Yet the 365, the sun, is the male and the chodesh is the female.  It seemingly does not fit. But they have to work together as one divine unit. While we have the light of the sun emanating and the moon reflecting, the moon is klal Yisrael, that is nisan, that female part is our people in reality.  We also have an exuding part relative to Hashem.  relative to ourselves we emanate and receive.  We have to blend both together. The 248 limbs, the male, are the positive commandments, how we reveal something divine in this world, and that is coupled with the 365 refraining, the female, the protective, and like the bouquet, there is a true sense of togetherness in the mitzvahs.

The lunar is infused into the solar and vice versa.

The Shechina will reflect Hashem.  when we see the big picture of mitzvahs, there seems separateness but see that they operate with togetherness, male and female.  It is the same with Tishrei and Nisan.  Months and years means there is male and female parts f time, relative to Hashem.  but to ourselves, we emanate and we blend both together.  It allows the female to come together, the lights emanate and there is a strong protective quality to keep the negative forces out. then we are in the bouquet level, working together, not separate. They work in a divine partnership.  It is the same thing, not one or the other. There are different cycles in different ways.

 The moon is reflective. Our true light comes only from Him, we have no originating light. Yet when we are toiling, we feel that inner light and how to emanate it.  the two teach us the dual forces, sun and moon, the starting points of the year, and while Klal is the receiving, we also emanate and we have to blend both. That comes into the realm of 248 and 365 and reconcile that split.  Dual forces within us correspond to emanating and protective, putting them together while separate in partnership.

the intimate feel between the male and female, emanating and receiving, and the way to harmonize the in our avoda comes when we do not polarize the mitzvahs.  There is no split. 

It can look like Tishre and Nisan disagree. But there are two operating systems. We want to blend both ad receive and emanate, working together, to feel a teamship.  They flow into each other. We light two candles fri night and havdala is one. The male and female are always coupled together and we put them together.

In the realm of kneading, blending flour and water, if you add them it is 613.  Why call it taryag.  When you  couple it, that is kneading. There is no distinguishment between emanating and retracting, to one unit.  Just by calling it 613?  If you add up these, it comes to 10, a unit of wholeness 1. On the one hand each mitzvah is an expression of Hashem’s name and we put into male and female, the sun and the moon. There are two starting points and we bring them together. We see the solar and lunar are working together. 613 blends it together like one dough, taryag mitzvahs. That is the language of kneading.  10 is the completion of something. It comes to 1. The whole package gives us a complete understanding of the totality of how everything comes together. 

The taanayim look at the different divine dimensions of time. 

Klal Yisrael has aspects of receiving and emanating, a light to the nations. 

We take these two forces and bring them together, even at the starting point of the year.  That is the male and female part of the year, one divine unit. We see to be complete, we want to twin up all the mitzvahs, blend them together, and when they join together,we work towards divine union. That shelamos brings us reality every year.

As we start Adar, closing up the year, the female part of the year, and we start a whole new part of the year. When you see the split of the mitzvahs and how they become one, Hashem’s world comes back to His unity.

We can look at ourselves in a unified way that is not compartmentalized.

We are not feeling fragmented or split.  When a whole year starts, we need to be sensitive to both. There is no contradiction.  We have sensitivity to time, and how we befriend it, we come to have larger perspectives. These compliment and blend and unify and that is inner tranquility, making whole and more complete that Hashem’s world becomes one.

Q&A: Simcha: Ribui Bracha / transitions to aliya

MOTHER NATURE
Relating to Space 2-14-22 Purim Katan

It is Purim Koton, 30 days before Purim.

How do we relate to and fix and orient with space, emotionally and practically?We are using the Melachos of gathering and kneading.

Things become more revealed now in space.

We are in gathering and kneading, in space.

A quick review: there is the process of tikkun, correction, fixing soul, in time and through space. The root is the soul, the intermediary is through time and in space. Space is like the third trimester where things come to full expression materially, length within height,and width….

The challenge is how do we relate to this physical world? 

As it relates to Purim Koton, 30 days before Purim, let’s relate to Purim according to space.

It is equisite.

How is your sense of space. Orderly, cluttering? 

How do you relate to objects for a mitzvah? How do you relate to tevah, the physical world. There is tension between the nefesh elokis and the nefesh behama, a dynamic tension. 

Mother Nature

Nature is one word, mother, the external way of looking at space, mother nature, mother earth, getting down to the ground, birth, renewal.  Euphimisticaly, it is tied to the female dimension, something coming to full actualization.  Is it realy just about mother nature?

Go a little deeper. There is a physical (according to michtav eliahu), mother nature. All her wonder and gloriousness in the world, all her majesty.  Mother Nature, I want to ask heartfeltly, are you the source of your own existence and she says great question.  NO. I am not the origin of my own existence.  As great as she is, and we are giving her all the accolades, and she says she is not her own source. My Jewish name is olam, world, and world means existence.  There is a secret in olam, to hide, to conceal.  For everyone who praises mother nature or sees hurricanes, fires, earthquakes and has awe, mother nature has no independent existence, appointed by Hashem.  Earth is veiled.  Who earth is to hide and conceal. The internal reality is power is only a reflection of Hashem, the creator. All the powers of the earth are all His.

Mother nature is concealing Hashem and there is an internal thread of divine light pulsating through it, enclothed in the physicality and to the outside world it is called mother nature.  This is the core tension between the animal and divine soul.  our job is to break through the outer form and say despite how beautiful it is the Borei Olam enclothed and hidden, asking us to come seek Hashem out and find Him and have a sense of closeness for having been sought out and found. That is nefesh elokis. When we remove the veil, the concealment, of the infinite reality in a finite form, that is what Purim is coming to do.

How do we relate to it? this tension is what we are dealing with.  Michtam Eliahu and World Mask discuss this. There are five levels of looking at the natural. The lowest is pure physicality that has no understanding of anything divine, and then the proportions go up until the highest level, no physicality purely divine. We are unmasking the mask of nature, unveiling the veil of nature, taking concealment that wants to say there is no spirituality to look behind that and see the internal aspect of A-F-A-R where space is, see the inner Elokus, see the inner sparks in everything and it is there we unmask nature.

As you get closer to ruchnius, the external dimension shrinks. We want to shrink the physical and awaken the internal part, unmasking the mask of nature, unveiling the concealment of Hashem’s divine reality. That is what Purim is all about.

It is in the second trimester because the fetus is recognizable. We redefine our orientation to physicality.  We are learning the inner mechanics of the bais hamikdosh and the place of divine service. How do we look at our own relation to the world.

Ask yourself – shall we just have a good time?

Our theme all day is to unveil Hashem, going to some aspect of the natural world, uncover it, connect it back and draw down light. How do you relate to mother nature.

The whole lower world is built into Torah and when you bring all this down, we see this world is a veil. That is where the power of evil comes.  We can live with Hashem’s divine reality, subjugate the evil.  No independent reality. That comes from the power of purim . the day is so luminescent that we can see through teva. It is a bright flashlight over a thin sheet. That is the kedusha of purim.

Purim is 30 days before Pesach where we extend that to our own nature. Our elements can be seen as mother nature. Our core middos and individualized capacities is all rooted in how we view our own ARMA. Same within ourselves, we can call ourselves a G-dly being or human, about Him or about me.

The concealment is meant to trick us up and awaken a deep yearning to peel back the veils and discover who our nature is, go into yourselves and peel back your consciousness and how you relate to space. Peel that away and come inside to see AFAR, where is the inner divinity, the name of Hashem, and how is that expressed in divine attributes and how is that expressed in our life purpose.

If we have big egos, people take up much space. The more humble the less room we take up.

Purim Koton comes to say physicality is an enclothement of Divine Oneness in a natural way that we are to unveil and let shine. We do that in the special realm. Develop the senses to see inwardly. Don’t look at things but into things, don’t just look with the outer ear and the message. Listen to the spiritual reality of someone else’s soul, what is it saying? It is a divine message.

Thank Hashem for the Arizal over 500 years ago that he could be attuned to the messages in every rock and stone.

We can develop an inner ear, the reality of the physical world.  Same with taste, if we taste, we give the sweetness of the taste back to Him. What we want to do is use AFAR to get back to the inner G-dly being to choose and unveil our own humanness and see we are divine beings. Be willing to unmask the veils.

60 days before Pesach be free to be our ultimate self to bring ourselves to the geula.

How we releate to ourselves veiled or unveiled matters.

The more we uplift enclothements, the world will appear revealed. We want divinity on the ground, relate to everything in a soul way, then through time, and then through space. That brings togetherness, order and all the physical things we otherwise get caught in. those are counterfeit spatial relationships, when we look only at the external.

We want to join with space, with mother nature, to make definitive statement that nature is a veiled place with Hashem’s infinite reality enclothed in it. We want to challenge what gets in the way. Every barrier must be breached.

In the weeks to come, develop a more intimate divine oriented relationship with Hashem. to feel Him and bring out His ultimate glory.

Seek out the spatial element and how you see it in time.

“B’SEDER”: RELATING TO SPACE

Developing a divine consciousness in our own space…
It will parallel our inner space

2-21-22

Today we will talk about more physical, order, what does order and cleanliness mean in our own lives and marriages. We will hear core principles and get a bigger understanding of orderliness and cleanliness. Then lets see where we relate to it.

Each week we will pick a complementary topic. We will be off next week and resume in two weeks.

We started to get into how to bring down the consciousness of soul through time into space. That is how we make a soul correction, to go from separateness to togetherness and then unified. That is the koach of gathering and kneading.

We are talking today about physical space from a few angles.

To make it experientially real, our physical space, our indoors. Let’s say people are in a dorm and have four roommates, from a young age they become mindful of physical space in relation to others. Lets me mindful of space. My space versus your space. People are protective and territorial about their space. For one person it is called organized, for another it is disarray.  People like their space a certain way. Is it conditioning? Is it who we are? Or does their space not work for them and maybe they don’t know how to use space.

When it comes to marriage and shared space, there are many things that come up. Is space just about space or is it a manifestation of one’s soul through time that comes into space.

What are my orientations, patterns, and what does space mean to me?

Some come from hyperclean homes and others from chaotic homes, both physically and emotionally. As we orient to this, where is the soul component and how does it relate to space.

The basis today and the practical application can be shown by our greeting, how are you, ma shelomeich.  Beseder means in order. That asks the question does being in order mean fine? What does the word seder really mean and how does that mean fine?

Bseder means order. Things are going according to plan. Lined up in a good place.  We go to the real meaning, order, and by whose standard?  If you look at the word seder, samech daled reish.  Samech corresponds to sod, daled to drash and reish to remez,. This is like pardes, the four dimensions of torah.

How does it help to show a hint to pardes in the word seder. Just like we said, the four elements fire wind water and earth are in order of shem havaya, yud k vav k, the books say the upper three are the male emanations and the earth is the female, it has nothing of its own. There is an order of shem havaya. All is built from His Name. the name corresponds to the four elements.

If we look at pardes, the four levels of toray sod is the yud, reish is the hei, homiletical is the vav water, and the final hei is pshat. Pardes corresponds to shem havaya  and the elements. Seder is the order and structure and creation, sod remes, homiletic and drash, just as earth is the receiving, the upper three give to it. Pshat corresponds to earth, the physicality.

Seder means the higher realms of fire wind and water coming to earth that comes to a physical structure, and a spiritual structure from fire wind water, sod remez druz into pshat.  The pshat is the fundamental base way of understanding. The pshat reflects from above and has nothing of its own.

That is what space means. That is why there is no pshat in seder.  Once space takes on an order, a structure and that corresponds to something divine in itself reflecting something higher, then the phshat level is reconfigured to something with order. Seder means sod remes and drash create order. There is an external part of physicality, and an internal penimi part. It sounds logical but when you develop the soul part, there is a physical order. Each vessel, how it is defined and created, who interacted with it, for what purpose and the structure of the Bais HaMikdosh is the ultimate structure for the world.

All of this has a higher order in the physical world reflecting a higher order. We say seder meaning there is a higher order that is coming into the spatial realm. The spatial is not just about physical objects. It is a sensitivity to physical things that have a spiritual purpose that we have them in order to use them to serve Hashem. how do we relate spatially? Is it chaotic? 

The higher order of soul coming through the middle order of time to the lower order of space. The seder is a hint to pardes, sod remes drash, and in the physicality of itself it does not have to be mentioned.  When you give order to physicality, it is an expression of the home or bais hamikdosh. Like a table is keneged the altar. It is our personal misbeach offering our own personal korbon to Hashem.  we are eating for and with Hashem.

The nature of that which is physical in actuality is not. Physicality is nekeva, it comes from time and divinity.  The details and spatial relationships are all the divine part of space itself. When we say things are bseder, we are saying that when someone says how are you, and I say bseder, we say my life into space is in aligned with a divine order, through time, into physicality and the physicality is itself spiritual object with a spiritual function to serve hashem and in so doing we activate the spiritual realm in the physical by how we relate to it.  if you want to call it ohr ein sof, we are reworking the order of this world. It is a higher order divine world in every way. When we say bseder, we are thinking how it parallesl pardes, and afar and shem havaya. I am fine when I am in order, from soul through time into space and then I can truly say I am fine because my being is brought into alignment. What objects do we own do I really need it spatially.  How do we use it?

The spatial realm then takes on a divine quality. We relate to  physicality and order differently.  What do we have, what do we do with them, how do we position them, how do we engage in them. We have the object, we position them, we manage them. Pshat and physical space have nothing of their own.  It is spirituality enclothed in physical form.

Understand when we talk about the order of physical things, it is pshat in relation to the other three. From top down there is no true reality to physicality.  We can have a divine consciousness for our own space. And that parallels the clarity of mind.  Do we have a cluttered mind? Am I preoccupied?  Is my mind chaotic? Am I select about what I bring into my mind?  If we say bseder, we mean my internal world is revealed in my outer world. The outside or lack thereof manifests as a lack of integration inside. Sometimes people feel safe in chaos because that is their inner world. If the outer world looks chaotic and we have so much floating in the mind and it is not organized, and we can’t associate things together, then physical space will be chaotic.

Outside order can play out in a person’s life and home and how it relates to their internal order. When we reference pardes, arma, shem havaya, we see that the lower order is meant to reflect higher order. What iwe are trying to create a healthy sense of clarity and focus of how things are mapped, and also in our heart, our emotions, then when we declutter we are trying to bring outer order to be orderly.  If we want a clean home, do we want a clean heart?

It is the opportunity to relate to things. When we say beseder, good. But if we are beseder, our inner world and outer world, then what needs to be discarded…push out what is disorderly and bring you back to that mind state where we ultimately physically be a makom for klal Yisrael. The alignment of shem havaya all the way to pshat, it is not really physical. As we relate to it more, we feel the divinity in space and how the Torah askes us to run our homes. What we bring into the home and what we don’t allow.  The divine consciousness and inner sanctity of the home is tightening up your own inner world.  We want to say bseder. Our life is bseder, true divine spiritual alignment

That is the introduction to see the physical structure of our space.

It is not that we are neat freaks. What is that saying about our soul spiritually.

Adar rishon 20
How to bring down the consciousness of soul from time and space

When it comes to people physical space
A very strong mindful awareness of space
People can get very protective and territorial

Why do we want our space in a particular way
Maybe they don’t know how to relate to their space
When it comes to shared room space

Is space just about space
How is it a manifestation of ones soul
How do I understand what space means to me?

Where is the soul component in the realm of space?

When you greet someone in Israel the answer is Hakol Beseder
meaning “in order”
Does that mean fine?
What does seder really mean?

The real definition means order
And by whose standards

Seder
Somech sod
Daled dras
Reish remez

Reference to Pardes
Where the Pshat?
Why would it help in any possible way

The 4 element fire wind water earth
They are in the order of YKVK
The upper 3 are the male orientation
The earth is the female orientation

If we look at Pardes
4 elements
Chaim havaya
What is seder
The order and structure of creation

Earth is makabel
The upper three are mashpia

The pshat is the earth which is space
Seder means the higher realms of fire, wind and water
Coming down to earth

Taking on the physical structure

The pshat itself is the functioning of the simple understanding of the world

But it only reflects the realities of the above
Perhaps that what space means
There is no peh in the word seder

That structure responds to something divine
The space itself
Pshat level
Is receiving from above
You don’t need the pshat
The sod remez and trash
Once coming into the physical world has order

Sounds logical
There’s a spiritual order to the physical order of the world
The macro structure of the Bais hamikdash
Every part all had a higher order

So when we say bseder
In seder
A higher order
Through soul, through time into space

Its not just about clutter
Its a sensitivity to physical things that have a spiritual purpose
We aren’t about acquiring things
Or holding things that I can’t let go of
It feels very chaotic

Manifestations
Higher order of soul
Through middle order of time
Lower order of space

Pshat doesn’t have to be mentioned
Its aligned
The very nature of physical
Seems to physical
The physicality received
From time to soul

How once object is positioned to another
The divine part of space itself

“bSeder”
We are really saying
My life in soul time and into space
Are aligned to the divine order

The physicality is not just physical
Its a Dakar ruchni
To allow us to serve HKBH
We activate through the pshat
How we relate to the higher order
To be mamshich
The higher light into the physical world

We are reordering the world
bseder
Im fine when my life is in order
When its built into hashems reality
When that consciousness is brought to the spacial realm
Where does it belong

What starts to happen
The spacial space takes on a divine quality
No ones root soul is the same
There are different ways of creating rhythmic ordering your space
How do engage with them on the Pshat level?
Having objects, positioning them,
Physical space has nothing of its own
The final endpoint of spirituality unclothed in physical form

Physical level in relation to the other 3
We are trying to develop a divine consciousness in our own space
It will parallel our inner space
Do I have a mind preoccupied?
Is my mind chaotic or does it have a higher order

Makom – Converting our space to be a Place He dwells in

March 7, 2022

Aloneness > Togetherness > to Oneness

Another aspect of space. The main point is we want to internalize ein od milvado. We live in a world of pirud so how do we bridge it?  aloneness > togetherness > to one. Togetherness is a bridging point. The two aspects of gathering (maamer) and kneading (Laash), represents two dimensions of togetherness. The bouquet is together with separateness and if I am feeling alone, then go to a first degree of together.  Kneading bridges upwards to oneness.  The main thing is to get from existential alone-ness to existential oneness.

 We want to do this in space.  

Today we will get into the word – when a person goes to a shiva house we say the phrase before leaving, may Hashem give comfort to the mourners ….it Makom means the place. Also in the hagadda we say baruch haMakom baruch hu. It is an expression of a name of Hashem. Makom. The Place. The simple way to do it is to say He is a place. If we call Him a place, we go towards anthromorphism so that cannot be what Chazal is telling us

Arizal says that haMakom means – just like a woman who is expecting, b’sha tova, in a sense she is a Makom for carrying the child, life within life. Her whole existence, her Makom is a place in which this whole new being is born into reality until it is actualized in birth. She is the child’s whole existence.  So too Hashem. He is the Makom. All finite existence is alive within His infinite reality, the place he holds space within finite existence.

Makom or HaMakom does not mean a physical limitation in space. It is teaching us that He is the ultimate space in which all finite existence is.  it is Shem havaya, the ultimate name, Shem havaya. Yud K vav K, square it, 100, 25, 36, 25 = 186 which is the gematria of Makom. Hashem doubles His Name that enclothes Infinite reality into its finite form. The word Makom is a created reality where all existence takes place.

We want to get from aloneness to oneness, we have to convert our space to be a Place He dwells in. both in negative forms of space, the lack of order, all on the tzur me ra. But on ase tov, each caring (keren/corner) we have in physical space is to perform a specific mitzvah in practical service. That physical object is a tool to do a mitzvah.  Mem tzadi vav hei מצוה corresponds to shem havaya.  There are many ways Hashem assigns His Name.  In at-bash, mem tzadi מצ become yud k – a mitzvah done with the right intent and purpose correctly with kavanna, then the intent and purpose and action bring a revelation of Hashem. Every physical object can be a way to reveal Him. It is all for revelation.  It is all meant to be used for a mitzvah. That object is to turn our space into a place to serve Hashem. When we do it holistically, just like fire wind water and earth, that physical space is a place to reveal His light. That is what Makom is for.

He enclothes within the physical realm. Our job is to emulate His ways. Just like He is the Makom. We want to make space for Him to exist in this world. Our daled amos that we walk in is our divine space, the space we reveal Kavod shemayim. Then our existence creates Makom, spiritual space. 

Where is the reference of our divine space?
Halachos. 

The daled amos of halachos refer to yud k vav k.We define our physical reality as we define space.  We have to imagine we are the center point of a physical space where we are Makom of divine space. So empty out the ego. The paradox is in anochius. We want to emulate Him, create Makom, an entry point for Him and empty everything out, healthy bitul, and then in the place where I am not, You can be… and I want to manifest Your Light.

We want our physical presence to be a Makom to be a place.  I want to be committed to empty out the ani to go to ayin. The self orientation to the revelation of Hashem. 

When someone dies, there is a profound sense of loss. Hashem is concealed but always present. The word Makom references Havaya in a concealed form. Even in a place of grief we feel Your presence.  A person is not existing but has moved somewhere else. Hashem holds space for all our emotions and hardships and questions. I don’t understand why. Our hearts are ripped open. Hashem carries the space.  We surround ourselves with other people and He carries us through. Then everything feels so dark and bleak, there is no existence, it feels like it is over, there is no comfort. We say “HaMakom”. There is life. It continues. You are part of His world. We continue on and move forward to be a Makom of His presence in this world.

Could we do that in this world? How we relate to space we understand, when we are learning or praying. But in the physical and time and space realm, spatial relationships, it is easy to get caught up in how things look. The Gdly part goes into concealment, the ego is bigger and we get caught up, whether peace or war, and it is so easy to fall out of divine space, that we are Makom in this world. We have to be mindful that He is with us forever.

A mourner comes in contact with death but there is a purpose in living. We have to be a place for living, for bringing divine consciousness to our space, and interact with the physical portion of life. Bring out Hashem through a mitzvah. The physical objects are clothed but spatially they are really divine. That is togetherness and higher, kneaded together.

When we relate to the world in a spiritual way the world conforms to spiritual truth.

Hamakem yirachaim, leading to blessings. There is no place even in darkness, Hashem may be more hidden but still presence. We have to relate to Him as the ultimate.  We are finite light contained within infinite light. Understand our existence and the global existence, every experience. We become part of that Makom. 

We are part of Makom.  We create it in  the world. We have permanence within ourselves but bring it with us in this world. Our divine space for shem havaya around us is the way to relate to physical space.

In Vayikra we will see how to do the avoda, to come closer to Shechina.  It is a continuation of Makom in this world, we light up the darkness. The world has tremendous light.  To the extent we see ourselves as Makom, we are drawn to the world as a place of abundance, not to collect or what I am because that is anochius, but rather I am nothing, look at His existence, feel it?  feel the space around you and bring people into that space. Come into my space and feel His presence. It is His existence. Everything. When we experience that, it is Hashem is. pure existence. That is the reality of Makom, of what we are trying to emulate.

All the afflictions in the hagadda, baruch haMakom baruch hu, blessed is His place, he threw us in to bring us to a greater place of correction and He brought us out.  early on in the hagadda, we sing this, to praise Him as the source of all, the broken sefira, and the rectification. We praise Him as the source of all blessings.

The word Makom and how it relates to space.

Space exudes divine presence, like bais hamikdosh and that is what our soul yearns for.

How do I create space when I am busy, with all I have to take care of. How do I create Makom for His presence. The more I correct and bring His presence into this world, my own daled amos, my own unique space, how much am I aware of and how much do I bring in and what do I keep out, what do I bring in and push out? how do I use a Makom so that it is more portable so it comes with me when I go shopping? The daled amos within me.  My private domain coming into the public domain. Sometimes we have to stay away from things.  Sensitivity to space bring time and soul to bring out a Gdly existence, the kedusha of Makom. We want to emulate that and we want to bring out His reality in this world through the four elements

The more we work on the elements, we create more Makom for Hashem.

Space is really a soul thing embedded in time.  

This is what Chazal meant as ultimate blessing in the seder. The perception is that it is a physical world. True perception is that everything is only an outer garment to Hashem’s pure existence, that is everywhere at all times.

We praise the Shechina and the darkness.

To bring it into a moment to moment level, that is where Makom is. loftly living on the ground. How you relate to space. Get a taste for what this means and to bring His presence into the physical world. The outer appearance seems one way but it is ultimately divine space. The soul realizes that and becomes the vehicle for true expression.

We should be zocheh to relate as part of Him, emulate Him and create space for other people’s existence. We are coming to know ourselves.

BISHUL
Cooking and Baking
May 16

Bishul.
What is the end product of Cooking & Baking?
Jun 13,2022

Bishul.
What is the end product of cooking and baking?
why does this close the first section?
what is the meaning of the showbread?

These are lofty ideas. The Bais hamikdosh was lofty yet it is very grounded because we are to relate to it and bring it into our homes. When we came back from the festival. It has to be important.

What was the bread? It was an expression of parnassah.

To have blessing for toil, it has to sustain us. The lechem on the simple level (next week we will look at bentching and tie it in practically) the role of the lechem in the temple was a blessing for Klal Yisrael.

There were 12 showbreads two columns of six.

They were breads with unique quality of perpetuating their freshness symbolizing the drawing down of sustenance for the Jewish people.

The twelve correspond within soul time and space. Everything originates in the soul, it comes down in the middle part, time, and the physical space is the three dimensions we know. Twelve on the level of soul are the tribes. The temple was not just a place to gather but a place where blessing is drawn down. Twelve tribes means blessing for each, as in Naso. There was a prince who is the leader of the tribe. They each brought the korbon for their tribe. It might look competitive in nature but each was precious and tied to their spiritual root.

In preparing for Shavuous, every Jew counts and has a special place within the Jewish people. Therefore you have a unique portion to reveal. That is true on the Shevet level. Each had its own unique character, mission and perspective. Each showbread was to draw down the sustenance for that tribe. That is soul.

In time, we know the basic unit is a moment.  One year is based on 12 months, the dimension of time of the 12 showbreads. When we talk about Sheim Havaya, His transcendent name mapped into the creation, the time itself is based on the animation of yud k vav k, each month has its own combination of letters. There are 12 and each corresponds to each month.  However it is, each week is animated by the letter of that name for each month. There is a divine eternal part. We relate to time quantitatively, 29 or 30 or 31 days, 24 hours.  But if we think of the timeless part, the showbreads brought that down. These are not physical props for the temple. It is the map of creation. Time has that function.

 On space, it is Israel.

The land was sectioned off for each tribe. Which tribe got which section. It is not just physical land. Not just keeping the land intertribal. The land is far greater. We see that each land was sectioned off for each tribe to reflect their essence, destiny and role for Klal Yisrael.  Yes Israel has many climates. But each tribe had to be in a particular area, and it is significant for their divine mission.

The tribe of Binyamin, beloved of Hashem. Yud daled yud daled, two hands two opposite things connecting together. The bais hamikdosh connected the higher and lower worlds, ultimately. The true intermediary, and that was his role, from the bracha of Yaakov Aveinu, that portion of land was far more than dweeling there, it was where it is necessary for them to fulfill their mission. Each part for each tribe.  The showbread acknowledge from the higher to the lower world, and each Shevet has its own land, its own zone, for its mission.

Why was it constantly fresh?
Hashem is constantly renewing relationship from soul through time to space. 

We originally talked about cooking as changing a substance from fire.  A constant state of renewal. Hashem is continuously renewing creation with goodness every moment, the world is constantly fresh.  It is constantly being recreated, like the showbreads and that meant hashem’s relationship with each tribe is continued through soul time and space, sustenance, for their divine mission.

Now a basic question.  How did we all get along? Imagine 12 siblings who are totally different. We have to educate according to its ways. How do we regulate time?  In space, people are territorial.  12 siblings sharing a small space, Israel, the size of California. We have lofty spiritual natures. We have to work through it. the beautiful answer to this is that if ultimately the tribes were not meant to get along and all there was is intratribal, how do we bridge that?

The Alschich says from Megillas Rus, there are 10 generations from Yehuda and Tamar to Dovid. In the 7th generation he brings an answer. From Yehuda and Tamar and Peretz, that is the continuation of the princes. Each prince was focusing on the internal tribe, its own system. When it came to Salmon, something changed within Klal Israel (Boaz’s father).  It transitioned from the prince being the head of the tribe but to a king itself. Malchus came from Salmon, the father of Boaz.

What is the malchus about. To make a king, all theJews have to come to Israel, the king is appointed and we make the Bais hamikdosh. Why is the Bais hamikdosh tied to malchus and ingathering?

Each prince had tribal unity, this person is a true representative of the actual tribe, an advocate to bring the korbonos. But Hashem is saying 12 tribes are 12 showbreads, two cases of 6. There was a sense of advocacy within each tribe and our identity came from the tribe. But that was not enough. Hashem says you have to be the true conveyor of the blessing. Ultimately the tribes have to link up and become one reality, which  is what Klal Yisrael grew into.

The malchus, the king, was the shpitz of humility, with the totality of all the tribes, interwoven into one reality, Bnei Yisrael.

That is what malchus beis Dovid is.
He had to go to a higher level of divine consciousness, not just what is your mission and land, what role and what position, but there is a shift in the 6th generation from the tribes to a new reality where there would be an actual king, a king to blend all tribes.  The king had to fold all the tribes together into one reality.

When the Jews coalesced, then the temple could be built and the Shechina could rest there, it is a manifestation of the unity of the tribes.  Yes there are 12 showbreads for each tribe, in soul time and space. But a higher level is to take the prince and shift it into malchus.  We had king Dovid. Dovid Hamelech was a singular person who came from Adom to take all those intratribal dynamic  and connect and unify them. This allowed the Shechina to dwell in the temple, where we become one klal and that is where we fulfill our divine mission.

We started from planting to here, 11 melachos. Now we have cooking.

The showbreads are the ultimate blessing, unique tribes in soul time and space, what did Hashem set up the world for? The temple in truth was a spiritual reality that had external clothing but it was a mapping of the higher world. The showbread is the reality of klal Yisrael unified, one whole unit…..

We see in Bereshis, the 12 tribes are born with their mission and their ability to coalesce.

What is called bread is something not to just enjoy. The reality of bread and sustenance is we connect ourselves to Hashem. all there is is Hashem. we exist within His reality, we are meant to do all the Melachos until we get to this challah.  The purpose of the challah in the temple, the tribes were the conduit and inner makeup of the Jewish people, coalescing, the temple was that unifying place.

The Bais hamikdosh was the ultimate place of unification. They did not lose their differences, they became complementary and unified, the reality of Klal Yisrael. That is exquisite. The showbreads show we are all separate, radically different. Comes Yerushalayim and the temple the showbreads are the place to say we are one reality, we coalesce around the Shechina and all our differences blend. When we see we are all built as one, unified through Hashem and the ingathering, that is when the Shechina can dwell. That is the conduit for physical blessing. It tells us that the first 11 melachos are.

The 6th generation shifted from intratribal to intertribal connectedness. The wholeness of that shifted with Salmon.

We see this reality of shelamos can only come through the malchus. We have to own our own kingship. We have to understand our own divine essence and regal-ness, our kedusha.  Live as a divine being in how we look and act. We are prince and princesses. See ourselves as divine beings, princes of the king. When we see how that is connected to everyone else, interwoven, one people even with our differences in time and space but it is one cycle of the year, one Jewish people.

If you remember that we started with kneading of flour and water coming together as one, bound, cooking cooks it in. the end result of two opposites blending and cooking is symbolic of unification of the Jewish people in soul, time and space. 12 parts of Israel. This is the exquisiteness of lechem.  What all of this represents in the temple changes the way we look at bread. This is the transformation of ourselves how we fully actualize ourselves in ourselves and between others, becoming more complete, reclaiming our own majesty, the dynasty of Dovid HaMelech.

It is not just about learning Torah, discovering inner divinity.  It is joining and coalescing as one people in soul time and space. The dynasty of Dovid Hamelech is represented in bread, transformed inside and out. we are a different being. The ground was transformed from an empty barren land to bread.

Hamotzei lechem min Haaretz is really coming from heaven.  

Hashem is the one who transforms all our efforts into bread. It is all one reality. That is what the showbread is. if we eat it as the ultimate food, it is the only torah required after bracha, the others are rabbinic.  It is a torah commandment. The reality of bread for healing and elevation is there. View the awesomeness of the showbread to work towards internal wholeness. Take the bread and lift it up.

Let’s take lessons from the showbread and see it reflects the divine reality of Klal Yisrael in time and space. And in so seeing, want the temple back. The reality of how we would live would  change. This is what this melacha is teaching us. Take it to heart.

Al Netilas Yadaim
Jun 20,2022