The Hakafot draw down Keter

The Hakafot of Simchat Torah draw down a light greater than the lights revealed on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. This is the light of Keter—the crown of all crowns—which rises beyond every other spiritual light.

Despite the greatness of the Hakafot, they are not an obligation. They are a minhag.

This is precisely what enables them to draw down such a great light. Were the Hakafot established as an obligation, the intensity of their light would be too great for us to receive. Because they come through minhag, the light can descend until we are able to become kelim for it.

Minhag reaches into a place deeper than revealed obligation. It emerges from the hidden ratzon / will of Klal Yisrael and allows the light of Keter to enter without overwhelming the vessels.

The sod of dancing with the Torah

Shemini Atzeret is a day on which the greatest tzadikim labor to draw the Geulah closer.

The yichud that began on Yom Kippur reaches its completion on Shemini Atzeret. The tzadikim seek to complete it as a zivug pnim—an inner yichud—with the fifth point.

Our dancing with the Torah emerges from this shoresh.

When we are zocheh to dance properly with the Torah, we awaken the possibility of Mashiach’s arrival. We dance until the body itself begins to absorb the light of Torah.

This is the tikkun of the fifth point: not only that the mind should understand Torah or the heart should love Torah, but that the physical body itself should become illuminated by the light of Elokut.

The body that appeared to be the furthest point from spiritual revelation / gilui becomes a keli for the Torah.

Why we jump

The tzadikim teach that dancing before the Sefer Torah has the power to bring forgiveness for all of a person’s sins.

Shemini Atzeret is the time of the wedding and yichud with Hashem. Through this yichud, the sin of Adam HaRishon is repaired.

This is why we jump during the dancing.

When we jump, we lift our feet from the earth. We testify with our bodies that the complete tikkun cannot be produced through our strength alone. Hashem Himself must raise us.

We bring our desire, our movement, and our joy. Yet the power of elevation comes only from Hashem.

After vidui on Yom Kippur, we say:

אֱלֹהַי, עַד שֶׁלֹּא נוֹצַרְתִּי אֵינִי כְדַאי; וְעַכְשָׁו שֶׁנּוֹצַרְתִּי כְּאִלּוּ לֹא נוֹצַרְתִּי. עָפָר אֲנִי בְּחַיַּי, קַל וָחֹמֶר בְּמִיתָתִי.
My God, before I was formed I was unworthy, and now that I have been formed, it is as though I had not been formed. I am dust during my life, and all the more so after my death.
—Tefilla following vidui on Yom Kippur

Our jumping expresses this bittul.

We cannot lift ourselves into the complete tikkun. Yet when we surrender the illusion that we can repair ourselves alone, Hashem raises us.

The second Hakafot on Motza’ei Yom Tov

Rabbi Chaim Vital records the practice of the Arizal:

וְרָאִיתִי לְמוֹרִי ז״ל שֶׁהָיָה נִזְהָר מְאֹד בַּמִּנְהָג הַזֶּה לְהַקִּיף אֶת סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה, וּלְרַקֵּד וּלְשׁוֹרֵר בְּכָל כֹּחוֹ לִפְנֵי סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה.
I saw that my teacher, of blessed memory, was extremely careful with this practice: to encircle the Sefer Torah and to dance and sing before it with all his strength.
—Rabbi Chaim Vital, Sha’ar HaKavvanot, Derushei Chag HaSukkot, Derush 9

The Arizal performed this avodah on the night following Yom Tov, after Ma’ariv. This is the shoresh of the second Hakafot.

When the Yamim Nora’im have passed, Sukkot has ended, and Simchat Torah itself is gone, one final path remains through which we can hold on to everything we received.

We awaken ourselves again.

We once more encircle the Torah. We rejoice with greater intensity. Through this renewed movement, we ask Hashem to awaken within us the power to remain attached to Him.

This is the light of Mashiach, which reveals Elokut within the lowest places and transforms what appeared ordinary and trivial into kedushah.

The second Hakafot draw the kedushah of Yom Tov into the weekdays that follow.

In one respect, this possesses a quality that Yom Tov itself does not possess. On Yom Tov, holiness is revealed within a time already sanctified. After Yom Tov, the lower level itself is elevated. The mundane weekday becomes a vessel for revelation / gilui Elokut.

Even if a person feels that she was not sufficiently awakened throughout the Yamim Nora’im—even if the entire season seemed like an ordinary weekday to her—she can now transform that very experience by dancing again with the Torah.

What felt like weekday can still become kedushah.

Further Teachings of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah

The seal is completed through tefilla

During Tishrei, the tikkun is accomplished through tefilla, which corresponds to Malchut. The tikkun is sealed on Yom Kippur, and on Shemini Atzeret the seal is again completed through Malchut and tefilla.

The manner in which we daven and perform the avodah of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Shemini Atzeret shapes our tefillot and avodat Hashem throughout the coming year.

Within the hidden chambers of the heart, we must enter the depth of the yichudim.

Through the outer seal of Hoshana Rabbah, we can enter Simchat Torah and the inner seal.

The concealment before Shemini Atzeret

Before the great yichud of HaKadosh Baruch Hu and the Shechinah on Shemini Atzeret, the kallah covers her eyes.

The eyes of the neshamot of Klal Yisrael become covered. Each neshamah encounters concealment, vulnerability, and embarrassment immediately before Hashem reveals Himself to her in yichud.

The yichud can take place only in this way.

If a person received the lights without barriers, challenges, or concealment—without her eyes being covered—she would materialize the light. She might imagine that she had already grasped the light of Hashem.

Hashem therefore conceals the light before revealing it.

The concealment teaches us that we have no true comprehension of Hashem’s revelation / gilui. Only through surrendering the illusion that we grasp the light can we become kelim for the light of yichud on Shemini Atzeret.

The covered eyes of the kallah are not an absence of connection. They prepare her for a connection deeper than sight.

The world of sha’ashu’im

The Arizal teaches that on Simchat Torah, the name of HaVaYaH shines through the sod of the twenty-four eyes. This name corresponds to the world of sha’ashu’im / שַׁעֲשׁוּעִים—the innermost delight of Torah.

We must hold on to this light and not lose it, chas veshalom.

After the great yichud of Simchat Torah, however, there is a danger described as a spiritual miscarriage.

A person without da’at can lose what was given to her. She receives a new power but does not know how to carry it into life. She cannot enter the lights of Torah, and the new level does not come to full birth.

A woman of da’at receives this birth carefully.

She recognizes that every masechet contains a distinct light capable of purifying her through a unique form of devekut. This recognition awakens within her a longing to learn every part of Torah.

She wants to encounter the many colors of revelation / gilui Elokut within Torah. She longs for the oneg of Torah and for the devekut associated with the level of Yechidah.

Receiving the Torah is not completed when the light enters us. It is completed when we carry, guard, and give birth to what we received.

The closed mem and the beautiful eyes of David

The tzadik possesses the ability to close his eyes to the apparent reality of this world. He enters the protection of the closed final mem / ם and becomes open to the complete level of David HaMelech, who possessed beautiful eyes:

וַיִּשְׁלַח וַיְבִיאֵהוּ, וְהוּא אַדְמוֹנִי עִם יְפֵה עֵינַיִם וְטוֹב רֹאִי; וַיֹּאמֶר ה׳: קוּם מְשָׁחֵהוּ, כִּי זֶה הוּא.
He sent and brought him, and he was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a pleasing appearance. Hashem said: “Rise and anoint him, for this is he.”
—I Shmuel 16:12

Beautiful eyes are eyes capable of seeing beyond the apparent separateness of this world. They perceive the upper worlds and the unity concealed within Torah.

David HaMelech is connected with the Written Torah and Oral Torah, corresponding to Rachel and Leah, and with the twenty-four books of Tanakh. These twenty-four sefarim correspond to the twenty-four eyes of the name HaVaYaH that shine on Shemini Atzeret.

The twenty-four books are:

• The five books of Torah: Bereshit, Shemot, Vayikra, Bamidbar, and Devarim.

• The eight books of Nevi’im: Yehoshua, Shoftim, Shmuel, Melachim, Yeshayahu, Yirmiyahu, Yechezkel, and Trei Asar.

• The eleven books of Ketuvim: Tehillim, Mishlei, Iyov, Shir HaShirim, Rut, Eichah, Kohelet, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nechemyah, and Divrei HaYamim.

The Torah opens herself to the true tzadik. The Torah herself davens that her hidden dimensions be revealed to him, because the tzadik is a merkavah for the shoresh of Torah.

This is the sod of the twenty-four eyes.

Torah testifies to our true level

We must become integrated into kedushah until Torah herself can testify to our true level.

The Arizal and Baal HaSulam teach that a person must continually examine herself: How much Torah have I truly reached? How deeply has Torah entered me?

If a woman finds that she is not comprehending Torah, she must examine whether she is moving in the true direction. She must ask Hashem:

דֶּרֶךְ שֶׁקֶר הָסֵר מִמֶּנִּי, וְתוֹרָתְךָ חָנֵּנִי.
Remove from me the way of falsehood, and graciously grant me Your Torah.
—Tehillim 119:29

The deepest falsehood is distance from Elokut and Torah.

Torah is the testimony of our true level. The word edut / עֵדוּת—testimony—is bound to da’at. Torah reveals where we truly stand because Torah measures not the image we hold of ourselves, but how deeply our lives have become vessels for Hashem’s ratzon / will.

Torah becomes revealed to one who joins herself to the simple, doubled, tripled, and quadrupled song: the song that elevates all of Creation toward Elokut and forms a heart entirely dedicated to the Creator.

Seeing only Elokut

Through attaching herself to Hashem and refusing to be stopped by the obstacles in her path, a person becomes connected to the light of the true tzadikim and to the light of Mashiach.

She begins to see that the world is Elokut.

She receives a true heart, and that heart opens correctly to Torah.

Simchat Torah reveals that no obstacle in the world can separate us from devekut in Hashem. This is the ruach of Mashiach: that the light of Elokut should be drawn into Creation through the quadrupled song upon which the Geulah depends.

Each person can become connected to this song and this devekut. She can become attached to Torah and recognize that everything is Elokut—that Hashem is both Memale and Sovev, filling all worlds and surrounding all worlds.

Through the integration of Chesed and Gevurah, a person reaches da’at. Her mochin open, and she becomes capable of new perception.

She sees revelation / gilui Elokut. She merits true chiddushei Torah and true mochin. Elokut becomes revealed within the lower realms.

Longing for the kedushah of the true tzadik

This becomes possible through connection to the true tzadik, whose defining quality is kedushah.

The true tzadik is not imprinted by the externality of this world. His senses and limbs are sanctified, and his entire being has become a vessel for Torah.

If a person does not yet possess a connection to this kedushah, she must awaken her ratzon / will and kisufin / כִּסּוּפִין / desire for the true tzadik.

This longing itself begins to open the eyes.

The conclusion of the Torah states:

וּלְכֹל הַיָּד הַחֲזָקָה, וּלְכֹל הַמּוֹרָא הַגָּדוֹל, אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה מֹשֶׁה לְעֵינֵי כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל.
And for all the mighty hand and all the great awe that Moshe performed before the eyes of all Yisrael.
—Devarim 34:12

The Torah immediately begins again:

בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
—Bereshit 1:1

The eyes of all Yisrael are joined to Bereshit.

Through ratzon and longing for the kedushah of the true tzadik, a person receives holy eyes. These eyes can close themselves to the apparent finality of spiritual failure and open themselves to the perpetual renewal of Creation.

Bedtime Shma / Keriat Shema al HaMitah on the night of Shemini Atzeret

Toras Chacham teaches that through Keriat Shema al HaMitah / קְרִיאַת שְׁמַע עַל הַמִּטָּה on the night of Shemini Atzeret, we enter the sod of Yichud Cheik / יִחוּד חֵיק.

Before the complete yichud of Shemini Atzeret can be revealed, the neshamah must become a keli / כְּלִי capable of containing its light.

This is the avodah of Yichud Cheik: allowing an inward, receptive space to be formed within us.

The inner meaning of Yichud Cheik / יִחוּד חֵיק

The word cheik / חֵיק means an inner bosom—a protected place in which something precious can be gathered, held, and carried close.

Yichud Cheik forms such a place within the neshamah. Hashem creates an inner receptivity within us so that the great yichud can be contained rather than passing over us as a light too intense to receive.

Throughout the day, consciousness extends outward. We think, speak, act, choose, and attempt to direct our lives. At night, and especially through Keriat Shema al HaMitah, we release this outward movement and gather consciousness back toward its shoresh / שֹׁרֶשׁ.

We close our eyes and declare:

שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל, ה׳ אֱלֹהֵינוּ, ה׳ אֶחָד.
Hear, Yisrael: Hashem is our God; Hashem is One.
—Devarim 6:4

This is not only a declaration of emunah. It is an act of hachzarat hakol laShoresh / הַחְזָרַת הַכֹּל לַשֹּׁרֶשׁ—the return of everything to its Source.

All the fragmented thoughts of the day, all the places in which we experienced ourselves as separate, and all the movements of ratzon / will are gathered into Hashem Echad / ה׳ אֶחָד.

We then entrust the neshamah to Hashem:

בְּיָדְךָ אַפְקִיד רוּחִי; פָּדִיתָ אוֹתִי, ה׳ אֵל אֱמֶת.
Into Your hand I entrust my spirit; You have redeemed me, Hashem, God of truth.
—Tehillim 31:6

The word afkid / אַפְקִיד comes from pikadon / פִּקָּדוֹן—a deposit entrusted for safekeeping.

At night, we place the neshamah into the hands of Hashem as a sacred pikadon. This surrender is not disappearance. It is hitkalelut / הִתְכַּלְלוּת—integration within the Source.

On the night of Shemini Atzeret, this surrender prepares us for the yichud of the coming day.

Gathering the lights of Tishrei inward

Throughout Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Hoshana Rabbah, we receive many orot / אוֹרוֹת—lights.

Yet a light that is not received within a proper keli can remain external. It may be experienced as inspiration without becoming integrated into the person.

Yichud Cheik gathers these orot into the pnimiyut / פְּנִימִיּוּת of the neshamah.

The light is no longer only makif / encompassing. It begins to become or penimi / אוֹר פְּנִימִי—an inward light received according to the capacity of the vessel.

The movement of Tishrei is therefore precise:

·       Rosh Hashanah establishes Malchut / מַלְכוּת.

·       Yom Kippur purifies and seals the inner dimensions.

·       Sukkot surrounds us with the makifim / מַקִּיפִים.

·       Hoshana Rabbah completes the outer seal.

·       Shemini Atzeret gathers everything into the intimate yichud.

Keriat Shema al HaMitah prepares the inner cheik in which all these lights can rest.

MaH deMaH / מ״ה דְּמ״ה

Yichud Cheik prepares us for the great yichud of Shemini Atzeret—the level of MaH deMaH / מ״ה דְּמ״ה, MaH within MaH.

This is also called Shem MaH HaChadash / שֵׁם מ״ה הֶחָדָשׁ—the new name of MaH. Its revelation / gilui prepares the world for the Geulah.

MaH is not a name containing forty-five letters. It is the name HaVaYaH written with its milui alfin / מִלּוּי אַלְפִין, whose numerical value is forty-five:

יו״ד ה״א וא״ו ה״א
Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh written with its alef-filling; together, its letters have the numerical value of forty-five.
—The shem MaH / שֵׁם מ״ה

The word mah / מַה also means “what?” It expresses the bittul of a self that does not claim independent existence before Hashem. Moshe and Aharon expressed this level when they said:

וְנַחְנוּ מָה, כִּי תַלִּינוּ עָלֵינוּ.
And what are we, that you should complain against us?
—Shemot 16:7

Ve’nachnu mah / וְנַחְנוּ מָה does not express worthlessness. It is the transparent awareness that all koach / כֹּחַ, all life, and all existence flow continuously from Hashem.

MaH therefore corresponds to bittul / בִּטּוּל and to the power of tikkun / תִּקּוּן.

From shevirah to tikkun

Shem MaH HaChadash is the light of Olam HaTikkun / עוֹלַם הַתִּקּוּן that emerges after Shevirat HaKelim / שְׁבִירַת הַכֵּלִים—the shattering of the vessels.

In Olam HaTohu / עוֹלַם הַתֹּהוּ, the lights were immense, but the vessels could not contain them. Each middah existed with overwhelming intensity and without sufficient integration with the others. The vessels shattered, and sparks descended into the lower worlds.

Shem MaH HaChadash carries the power of tikkun because it introduces bittul and hitkalelut. Each force no longer insists upon existing alone. It becomes capable of joining with the other middot within a greater yichud.

The purpose is not to extinguish the individual light. It is to create a vessel broad enough for the lights to dwell together.

This is also the avodah of the neshamah.

Our fragmented desires, fears, memories, and spiritual experiences cannot be forced into unity through intensity alone. They require the bittul of MaH—the willingness to allow each part to find its proper place within Hashem’s greater yichud.

MaH deMaH is the innermost point of this bittul.

At the first level of MaH, I surrender my ratzon / will to Hashem.

At the level of MaH deMaH, I surrender even my understanding of what that surrender is supposed to look like.

I do not demand that the yichud appear according to the form I imagined. I allow Hashem to reveal the form of tikkun.

This is a deeper ayin / אַיִן—not emptiness, but transparent receptivity to the ratzon of the Ein Sof / Infinite Light.

Choshech as the formation of a keli

The difficult tests we encounter during times of choshech / darkness form the receptive space of Yichud Cheik.

They hollow out the vessel so that it can contain a greater light. When a woman enters a difficult or dark period, she must not conclude that devekut is unavailable to her. This may be the very moment in which Hashem is enlarging her capacity to receive.

Her avodah is to bind herself to Hashem even more deeply. If she does not recognize that the choshech can become an opening through which she holds more firmly to Hashem’s light, the opening may pass without becoming a keli.

We must develop the ratzon for the light of Hashem to be revealed even when the sun appears to have set. The night is not outside the yichud. The night is where the capacity for a deeper yichud is formed.

Yichud achor / יִחוּד אָחוֹר and yichud pnim / יִחוּד פְּנִים

Binding oneself to Hashem during concealment is called yichud achor / יִחוּד אָחוֹר—a yichud from behind. The connection exists, but it is indirect. A person does not experience it as immediate, face-to-face closeness.

A revealed and inward connection is called yichud pnim / יִחוּד פְּנִים—a face-to-face yichud.

Even during yichud achor, we must long for yichud pnim. We can receive oneg from the knowledge that Hashem is preparing us to become kelim for His or pashut / אוֹר פָּשׁוּט—His undifferentiated light.

The concealment is not the desired end. Yet even before the concealment is removed, the longing for yichud pnim creates an intimate bond with Hashem. The kisufin / כִּסּוּפִין / desire become part of the yichud.

The ascending and descending angels

In Yaakov’s dream, the malachim ascend and descend upon the ladder:

וַיַּחֲלֹם, וְהִנֵּה סֻלָּם מֻצָּב אַרְצָה וְרֹאשׁוֹ מַגִּיעַ הַשָּׁמָיְמָה; וְהִנֵּה מַלְאֲכֵי אֱלֹהִים עֹלִים וְיֹרְדִים בּוֹ.
He dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set upon the earth with its top reaching toward heaven; and behold, angels of God were ascending and descending upon it.
—Bereshit 28:12

The malachim are external relative to the neshamot of Klal Yisrael, which possess a more inward shoresh.

The external dimension experiences ascent and descent. When light is present, a person feels that she is rising. When the light disappears, she feels that she is falling.

Hashem desires that we rise beyond dependence upon these alternating states.

Yichud Cheik enables a constant inner ascent through the levels of Nefesh, Ruach, and Neshamah / נֶפֶשׁ, רוּחַ וּנְשָׁמָה.

Even when no light is felt, a person can make herself into a keli.

During choshech, Chokhmah may be perceived only through achor. A person does not experience immediate intimacy with Hashem, yet she remains attached to Him within the suffering.

She lovingly accepts the darkness, but her avodah goes beyond acceptance and bittul. She strengthens the connection itself.

She stops measuring her relationship with Hashem according to spiritual ascents and descents. Her bond becomes a continuous inward ascent.

Devekut within day and night

Yichud Cheik is the ability to receive oneg from devekut with Hashem at every level—even within concealment.

We remain in relationship not only during the “day,” when Hashem’s light and kindness are revealed, but also during the “night,” when His kindness is concealed.

During the day, the connection is supported by revelation / gilui. During the night, the connection is sustained by emunah.

This does not make concealment equal to revelation. We still yearn for the face-to-face light of yichud pnim. Yet our bond with Hashem is no longer dependent upon our present ability to feel that light.

The neshamah learns to recognize that even yichud achor is a form of yichud. Even the hidden face belongs to Hashem.

From Hoshana Rabbah to Shemini Atzeret

The beginning of this process is Hoshana Rabbah. On Hoshana Rabbah, the outer seal is repaired and purified. Everything is elevated toward lishmah / לִשְׁמָהּ—solely for Hashem. We enter devekut etzem / דְּבֵקוּת עֶצֶם—an intrinsic connection with Hashem expressed through speech without da’at: the cry of “Hosha Na!”

On Shemini Atzeret, this becomes the yichud of MaH deMaH and speech with da’at.

The cry that emerged beyond understanding becomes inwardly integrated. What was expressed through peshitut on Hoshana Rabbah becomes a vessel for da’at on Shemini Atzeret.

When we can enter devekut within every situation and at every time—whether we experience revelation / gilui or concealment—we reveal what it means to serve Hashem lishmah.

Through this avodah, we awaken the complete Geulah.

Shabbat Bereshit: When we all dance together

The 7th wing

The Ziditchover teaches that on Shabbat Bereshit, everyone dances together.

Tosafot brings a teaching that the malachim possess six wings. Each wing corresponds to one of the six weekdays and is used to sing shirah on that day.

When Shabbat arrives, the malachim say that they have no seventh wing with which to sing. HaKadosh Baruch Hu answers that He has another wing on earth—Klal Yisrael—who sing before Him on Shabbat.

This is alluded to in the pasuk:

מִכְּנַף הָאָרֶץ זְמִרֹת שָׁמַעְנוּ, צְבִי לַצַּדִּיק; וָאֹמַר רָזִי לִי רָזִי לִי, אוֹי לִי; בֹּגְדִים בָּגָדוּ, וּבֶגֶד בּוֹגְדִים בָּגָדוּ.
From the wing of the earth we have heard songs: “Glory to the righteous.” But I said: “My secret is mine, my secret is mine; woe is me. Traitors have betrayed; with treachery the traitors have betrayed.”
—Yeshayahu 24:16; see Tosafot, Sanhedrin 37b

During an ordinary Shabbat, Klal Yisrael becomes the seventh wing and sings the shirah that completes the song of the six weekdays.

Shabbat Bereshit contains an additional integration. Because the malachim were created on the second day of Creation, the first day stands beyond their ordinary sixfold cycle. On Shabbat Bereshit, that missing beginning is gathered into the completion.

The malachim and Klal Yisrael can therefore sing and dance together as one.

The shirah of the upper worlds joins the shirah of the Jewish neshamah.

Chash / חַשׁ and mal / מַל

This teaching opens the sod of the two modes of avodah represented by the Chashmalim / חַשְׁמַלִּים.

The word Chashmal / חַשְׁמַל contains two movements:

·       Chash / חַשׁ—silence.

·       Mal / מַל—speech.

Chazal describe the Chashmalim:

עִתִּים חָשׁוֹת, עִתִּים מְמַלְּלוֹת.
At times they are silent; at times they speak.
—Talmud Bavli, Chagigah 13b

Chash represents the inner avodah of silence. This is the contemplation of the holy names of Hashem, corresponding to Chokhmah, bittul, and Atzilut / אֲצִילוּת—the upper shoresh from which the sefirot are drawn.

This is the level of Shabbat Kodesh, when Klal Yisrael sings the shirah.

Mal represents the outward avodah of speech and activity. It includes:

·       Kabbalat ol / קַבָּלַת עֹל—the acceptance of our responsibilities toward Hashem—corresponding to Malchut.

·       Love and awe of Hashem, corresponding to Chesed and Gevurah.

·       Devekut with Hashem, corresponding to Tiferet.

·       Hitbonenut / הִתְבּוֹנְנוּת in Elokut, corresponding to Binah.

These forms of avodah correspond to the lower worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah / בְּרִיאָה, יְצִירָה וַעֲשִׂיָּה—the three worlds known together as BiYA / בִּי״עָא.

These are the worlds that form the shoresh of the malachim and of the shirah sung during the weekdays.

Silence that becomes speech

Chash and mal are not opposing paths.

Silence gathers the light inward.

Speech reveals the light outward.

Without chash, speech can become disconnected from its shoresh. Without mal, the concealed light never enters the created world.

The complete avodah requires both.

We enter silence so that our speech can emerge from bittul.

We speak so that the light held within silence can become revealed below.

The movement of Chashmal is therefore the movement of ratzo vashov / רָצוֹא וָשׁוֹב—running toward the Source and returning to reveal the light within Creation.

One avodah

On Shabbat Bereshit, these two forms of avodah become one.

The avodah of Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah joins with the avodah of Atzilut. Silence and speech, inward contemplation and embodied service, unite within the name HaVaYaH.

The four letters reveal the complete structure of this avodah:

·       The final heh / ה corresponds to hitbodedut and tefilla.

·       The vav / ו corresponds to Torah.

·       The first heh / ה corresponds to hitbonenut in Elokut.

·       The yud / י corresponds to yichudim—the joining of the holy names of Hashem together with the consciousness of devekut.

The name is read from yud to the final heh, as light descends from the concealed point of Chokhmah into revealed Malchut.

Our avodah can also rise from the final heh toward the yud: from tefilla and lived experience, through Torah and hitbonenut, toward yichud and bittul.

On Shabbat Bereshit, the ascending and descending movements become one.

The yud enters the heh.

Atzilut enters BiYA.

Chash enters mal.

Silence becomes speech, and speech returns to silence.

The upper worlds enter the lower worlds. The malachim and Klal Yisrael sing together.

The Torah with which we danced on Simchat Torah begins to enter the ordinary movement of the year.

The light is no longer held only within Yom Tov. It begins to accompany us into Bereshit—into the renewed avodah of Creation.

The cycle begins again, but we do not return to the same beginning. We return carrying the lights of Tishrei within us.

Yichud Cheik formed the inner vessel.

MaH deMaH brought the light of tikkun. Shabbat Bereshit now carries that tikkun into time.

Chash and mal become Chashmal. The inner and outer avodah become one.

Everything returns to Hashem Echad.

Mekorot

·       The teachings of the tzadikim concerning the light of Keter drawn through the Hakafot.

·       Rabbi Chaim Vital, Sha’ar HaKavvanot: the Arizal’s care in encircling the Sefer Torah and dancing and singing before it with all his strength.

·       The tefilla following vidui on Yom Kippur: “I am dust during my life.”

·       The Arizal: the twenty-four eyes of the name HaVaYaH on Shemini Atzeret.

·       I Shmuel 16:12: David HaMelech’s beautiful eyes.

·       Tehillim 119:29: “Remove from me the way of falsehood.”

·       Devarim 34:12 and Bereshit 1:1: joining the conclusion and beginning of the Torah.

·       Toras Chacham: Yichud Cheik / יִחוּד חֵיק during Keriat Shema al HaMitah on the night of Shemini Atzeret.

·       Devarim 6:4: the return of multiplicity to Hashem Echad.

·       Tehillim 31:6: entrusting the ruach to Hashem as a pikadon.

·       Shemot 16:7: Ve’nachnu mah and the bittul of MaH.

·       Yeshayahu 54:7: the gathering of the scattered within the rachamim of the Geulah.

·       Bereshit 28:12: the ascending and descending malachim of Yaakov’s ladder.

·       Tosafot, Sanhedrin 37b: the six wings of the malachim and the shirah of Klal Yisrael on Shabbat.

·       Yeshayahu 24:16: “From the wing of the earth we have heard songs.”

·       Talmud Bavli, Chagigah 13b: Chashmal as alternating silence and speech.

·       The Ziditchover: on Shabbat Bereshit, Klal Yisrael and the malachim dance together.