Nachal novea; makor chochma -
A flowing river; the source of wisdom (Mish. 18:4)
The Jews experienced the revelation of Hashem (G-d) at Mount Sinai, His great miracles in Egypt, and the splitting of the Red Sea. It is amazing that after all this, they could suddenly construct a Golden Calf and worship it as a god. Sure, it was in a moment of panic when they thought that their leader, Moshe (Moses) had died during his ascent to Heaven to receive the Torah. But what really happened? How could they have fallen so low? Rav Noson explains:
Hashem did not stretch forth His hand to harm the elders because He did
not want to mar the joy of the giving of the Torah. Their punishment was
deferred until later. [They were blameworthy, because they succumbed to
the temptation to gaze at Hashem's light on a level far beyond them.
Hashem had specifically warned them not to do this. The elders incurred
punishment because they violated Hashem's will directly in front of
their Master's face, as it were. They did not have enough of an anchor
to prevent them from going beyond the permissible limits and so they
fell into error. (Rashi)]
The lower elements of the people, particularly the eirev rav (mixed
multitude of converts), reacted even more drastically to Hashem's great
light. They, too, wrongfully gazed beyond their limits and lacked an
anchor to prevent it. The sudden deluge of ethereal light drove their
bodies so far away from the spiritual source, that it nourished and
magnified their lust for physicality, and threw their thought processes
out of balance.
The holy Ari says that if it wasn't for the lungs, the entire body would
be incinerated by the heart's excessive passion, from both its right and
left sides. The heart's right side resonates with an excessive passion
to come close to Hashem and the left side burns with an excessive
appetite for the pleasures of this world. There is a rule that items
which share a common number contain the same spiritual energies. For
instance, the five books of the Torah affect a person spiritually much
like the five lobes of the lungs physically, in that both work to
prevent the body from overheating. When the Jews saw the awesome
revelations at Mount Sinai, the right side of their heart's passions
were maximally aroused with excessive desire for Hashem. In turn, the
left side of their heart's passion for pleasure was totally enflamed. It
was this excessive desire for pleasure that influenced the Jews to
worship the Golden Calf, as explained above.
When someone who has sinned wants to repent, his desire to return knows
no bounds. As mentioned above, such a sudden desire for good can result
in very strong attacks from the forces of evil, which would ultimately
prevent the sinner from repenting. However, the sinner who had a share
in the Mishkan, who stored the spiritual energies of his heart within it
before his sin at the time of the Mishkan's construction, could draw
upon these stored energies and connect them with all the other stored
energies of desire for Hashem, much like drawing money from a mutual
fund. The Mishkan protected those energies from spilling over to the
forces of evil, thus denying them strengthening nourishment. This
inhibited the forces of evil's attempts to overwhelm the penitent with
disillusionment, in order to prevent him from doing repentance. Rav
Noson says that we can clearly see how the Mishkan (and Temple) was a
vital apparatus that enabled one to return to Hashem and achieve full
repentance.
Rav Noson says that when a person desires to repent, there is a tendency
to go to extremes in order to quickly repair all the spiritual damage
that he has caused, and to quickly be reunited with Hashem. The penitent
is even willing to torture himself with excessive fasting and other
forms of deprivation in order to rectify all that he has done wrong.
Actually, this is what is truly needed to accomplish true repentance,
however, it is the extremely rare individual who can withstand such a
regimen. Therefore, Rabbi Nachman says that the great Tzaddikim (saints)
and their students have paved the way to true repentance. All that is
necessary after confession and regret, in order to fully rectify one's
sins and to achieve true repentance is to be confronted with the very
same impure thoughts that led one to sin in the first place and to
withstand the temptation to repeat the sin--this is true repentance.
Today, the penitent can activate the spiritual energies of the Mishkan
and the Temple to prevent extremism, by focusing his thoughts on the
sanctity of the synagogue.
The essence of the Mishkan stands as an eternal spiritual structure that
enables even the worst of sinners to return to Hashem. This shows us how
much love and understanding Hashem has for His creatures and that He
desires everyone to come close to Him. Therefore, He provided countless
means through which to accomplish this. All we must do is take the first
step.
After the wedding, the young man continued to study the Torah day and
night, as he had done before. He didn't pay any attention to the mundane
world, even as much as a hair's breadth. The young man spiritually
elevated himself from level to level until he was worthy of being
visited by a heavenly magid, an angel sent to teach him deep secrets of
the Torah. Every night this angel would teach him the most awesome and
deep secrets. The young scholar felt that since he was worthy of such a
precious gift, it wouldn't be right to tell anyone, and he kept it
secret.
One night as they were learning, the magid instructed the young man that
it would be necessary for him to commit a certain severe sin, which
incurred the penalty of exercision (kareis). The magid promised him that
if he would commit this sin, he would be able to create such great
rectifications, that it would cause the Messiah to come soon after the
sin was committed. The young man felt that this was too heavy a burden
to take upon himself. On the one hand, he was commanded to sin by an
angel of Hashem. Yet on the other hand, how could he commit such a
grevious sin. He decided to consult his righteous wife and told her the
entire story. She had the same misgivings and didn't know what to say.
She decided to consult with her holy father and told him the entire
story.
From what his daughter described, it seemed to her father that this
angel came from the side of impurity. He immediately called for his
son-in-law and gave him the following instructions, "Every angel has the
four letter Name of Hashem engraved on his forehead. These letters
appear bright and shine with light on the foreheads of holy angels, but
appear black and dark on the foreheads of angels from the side of
impurity. If you see that this angel is from the side of impurity, which
I suspect he his, then run away from him. I will give you some kamiyas,
with holy Names written on them, to protect you from his wrath, for when
he sees you trying to escape, he will surely try to harm you."
That night, as they learned as usual, the young scholar gazed at the
forehead of the magid, and sure enough, as his holy father-in-law had
suspected, the letters engraved on the angel's forehead were black and
dark. The angel then realized that the young man had discovered his true
identity and immediately tried to attack him. The young man was now in
grave danger, but through Hashem's mercy, the kamiyas that his
father-in-law had given him protected him and he was saved. The reason
why the young scholar had been subjected to this ordeal was that he had
once committed a certain sin which had not been rectified. That sin made
him vulnerable to the attack. (O'tzar Yirat Sha'my'yim)
In preparation to the receive the Torah, Hashem through Moshe, warned
the people not to come too close to Hashem's great light, for their
bodies would be unable to tolerate it and they would die. Moshe was
instructed to set up physical boundaries to prevent the people from
coming too close, as the verse says, "Hashem said to Moshe, 'Descend,
warn the people, lest they break through to Hashem to see, and a
multitude of them will fall.' Moshe said to Hashem, 'The people cannot
ascend Mount Sinai, for You have warned us, saying, 'Bind the Mountain
[with boundary markers] and sanctify it.'" (Exodus 19:21, 23) Although
the Jews complied with every detail of Hashem's command, the revelation
at Sinai was nevertheless more than their bodies could tolerate, as the
verse says, "Against the great men of the Children of Israel, He
(Hashem) did not stretch out his hand--[at the giving of the Torah] they
gazed at Hashem, [as] they ate and drank." (Exodus 24:11) The phrase,
"He did not stretch out his hand(" implies that [the elders] deserved to
die immediately. They sinned [at the revelation of Hashem's light at
Mount Sinai] by irreverently indulging in food and drink. [From this, we
see that the divine manifestation was even more than the elders were
able to tolerate. The fact that they indulged in physicality in the face
of such awesome spirituality was a sign that they were spiritually far
lower than the level that Hashem's revelation necessitated. So instead
of their bodies basking in Hashem's aura, the intense light repelled
their bodies, compelling them to retreat to materialism, to eating and
drinking. Even within the safe boundaries that they had set, the
encounter with Hashem's brilliance was overwhelming].
The forces of evil are nourished by extremes. When we absorb more light
than we are able to, the excess spills over onto the side of evil,
nourishing them, making them grow strong enough to overwhelm us. This
can be compared to trying to pour a gallon of water into an eight ounce
cup. The flood of holy energy strengthened the forces of evil to the
point where they overwhelmed the simpler people, confusing them. This
aroused within them an uncontrollable thirst for base behavior, which
was expressed through worshipping the Golden Calf, as the Talmud says,
"Rav Yehudah said in Rav's name, 'The children of Israel knew that the
idols were non-entities, but they engaged in idolatry only so they might
openly engage in immoral behavior to satisfy their desires." (Talmud:
Sanhedrin 63b)
Rav Noson says that the incident of the Golden Calf teaches us that
there is a delicate balance between the the soul's yearning to come
close to Hashem and the body's desire to satiate its urges. For example,
the sudden arousal of an extreme, burning desire to come close to Hashem
is likely to cause great amounts of light to spill over to and
strengthen the side of evil. The result is severe confusion, as
mentioned above. Additionally, the forces of evil are nourished when a
person passionately attempts to fight the confusing thoughts with which
the forces of evil assail him. The evil forces will take one's passion
for holiness, and convert it into a passion to fulfill his bodily urges.
Quite often, after experiencing a strong spiritual awakening, an
individual suddenly experiences strong physical desires. Describing
this, Rabbi Nachman quoted, "They [extremists] rise to the heavens
[because of their heart's excessive desire for spirituality], they
descend to the depths, their soul melts away because of trouble
[i.e.this sort of behavior greatly nourishes the forces of evil,
enabling them to throw the extremists down to the depths]." (Psalms
107:26)
The sin of worshipping the Golden Calf incorporated every sin in the
entire Torah. Moshe was commanded to construct the Mishkan as a
rectification for it. The Mishkan was built from the burning desire to
come close to Hashem contained within the heart of every Jew. The
unbridled flood of spiritual energies that were aroused at the giving of
the Torah were harnessed by confining them to the physical bounds of the
structure and vessels of the Mishkan. It was the precision in the sizes,
measurements, and dimensions of the Mishkan's construction and equipment
that gave it the power to rectify a sin which occurred due to a lack of
limitation and moderation. Thus, the potentially harmful and boundless
desire for Hashem that was contained in the heart of every Jew, which
influenced them to worship the Golden Calf, was transferred to a safer
domain, as the verse says, "Every man whose [limitless passion for
Hashem burned within his] heart [which] inspired him [to come close to
Hashem] came; and everyone whose spirit motivated him [to come close to
Hashem] brought a donation to Hashem for the work of the Tent of the
Meeting, for all its labor and for the sacred vestments." [The items
that each individual donated to construct the Mishkan contained and
harnessed the boundless spiritual energies that was in their hearts.]
(Exodus 35:21) This ensured that the sin of the Golden Calf would never
happen again. The Rambam (Maimonides) says that complete repentance is
achieved when, after confession and regret, the path of sin is abandoned
and never repeated again. Thus, the Mishkan enabled the Jews to achieve
complete forgiveness for the sin of the Golden Calf.
Physicality reflects spirituality. The lavish materials that the Jews
contributed to the Mishkan's construction reflected the different types
of priceless and precious goodness found within each Jew's heart. The
Mishkan was adorned and constructed with the most extravagant materials
to demonstrate and awaken us to the fact that even the slightest point
of good found within each Jewish heart is more precious than all the
silver, gold and gems in the world. This awareness is meant to encourage
even the worst sinner to return to Hashem, even if he has fallen so low
that he only has one point of good remaining within him. By looking at
the precious materials used to build the Mishkan, the sinner is
encouraged, for he realizes that, despite his spiritual lowliness, his
remaining good point is as precious to Hashem as the precious materials
used to build the Mishkan. For the Jewish nation had fallen to this
level itself, when the people worshipped the Golden Calf. Despite this,
from the little bit of good that still remained in their hearts, they
donated the valuable materials that reflected those few, precious points
of good that still remained within them, and from this, they built a
Mishkan, a residence for Hashem, where He would be close to them.
Heaven assigns a person physical work which is most suited and closely
related to his soul. It was Moshe, the Tzaddik HaEmes (the leading saint
of the generation) who was chosen to build the Mishkan. This indicates
that Moshe's soul was strongly associated with the spiritual energies of
the structure. That association was the ability to set bounds, providing
the proper means through which the infinite light of Hashem could be
channeled in a safe way. Whatever is recorded in the Torah applies for
all time. Therefore, Rav Noson says that Moshe constructing the Mishkan
teaches us that it is the job of the Tzaddik HaEmes of every generation
to channel the infinite light of Hashem, so that it can be safely
absorbed and digested by the people of his generation. This is
accomplished partly through his teachings and spiritual guidance that
encourage moderate behavior.
If the Jews had not committed the sins of the Golden Calf and the spies
evil report (cf. Numbers 14), they would have been able to enter the
land of Israel and build the Temple soon after receiving the Torah at
Mount Sinai. Because of these two sins, the Jews were condemned to
wander in the desert for forty years and the construction of the Temple
was delayed for over four hundred years. In Hashem's mercy, He provided
the Jews with the Mishkan, which possessed almost the same sanctity as
the Temple. They were able to transport the Mishkan with them wherever
they traveled, even in the desert. The desert is the domain of the
forces of evil. The presence of the Mishkan in the desert enabled the
Jews to neutralize the forces of evil found there. The Mishkan (and
later the Temple) became the spiritual storehouse of the souls of all
Israel, because its construction incorporated all the various types of
spiritual energies of desire to come close to Hashem contained in the
hearts of all Israel, as explained above. Containing these within the
bounds of the Mishkan's structure prevented a Jew from expressing his
love for Hashem in an extreme way. Anyone who connected himself to it by
donating money, doing physical work towards its construction, or
focusing his heart and thoughts on it, would avail himself of the
spiritual energies of moderation. Extremism, as mentioned above,
attracts strong attacks from the forces of evil, the intent of which is
to throw the extremist down.
That Moshe constructed the Mishkan in the barren wastelands of the
desert gave the Jews the ability to construct similar such structures
wherever they would be, even in the exile. Therefore, even after the
destruction of the Mishkan and Temple, their awesome power still remains
with us, helping us attain complete repentance. Part of the incredible
power of the Mishkan and Temple was transferred to the synagogue, as the
verse says, "Although I (Hashem) have removed them (the Jews) far off
[from the land of Israel and the Temple] among the nations, and though I
have scattered them among the countries, yet I have been for them a
small sanctuary in the countries where they came [I have given them
synagogues, secondary to My Sanctuary. (Targum) The manifestation of the
Divine Presence in the Temple turned the Temple into a sanctuary. Even
in the darkest exile, the Jew can find Hashem through communal prayer in
the synagogue, because communal prayer (prayer within a quorum of ten
Jews) draws the Divine Presence to its midst, very similar to that which
occurred in the Temple. The Talmud teaches, "Hashem said, 'Everyone who
studies the Torah, busies himself with kindness, and takes part in
communal prayer, is considered by Me as though he had redeemed Me and My
children from among the nations."' (Talmud: Berachos 8a)]." (Ezekiel
11:16)
The Mixed Multitude instigated the Jews' sin, influencing their lower
elements to worship the Golden Calf, as the verse says, "They said,
'These are your gods O Israel, which have brought you up out of the land
of Egypt." (Exodus 32:8) That it was the Mixed Multitude who made this
statement is evidenced by the word "your gods". They were outsiders who
had recently joined the fold, but their commitment was not complete, for
they said, "your gods" and not "our gods". Rav Noson explains why the
Mixed Multitude and secularists have difficulty in perceiving Hashem.
They want to know everything immediately, therefore they try to explain
the functions of the universe based on the logic of their current
understanding. They lack the patience to perfect their minds and
perceptions through spiritual and character development. Such gradual
development conditions the mind to perceive and understand that which is
normally beyond the human realm. When secularists try to perceive
advanced spiritual concepts, they access strong spiritual light, and
because they lack the necessary spiritual development to properly expand
the intellect, they don't have the containers to store it. As mentioned
above, spillover of the light nourishes the evil forces, inviting their
attacks. In many cases, these attacks influence even the most brilliant
people to come to extreme and erroneous conclusions. This is evident by
the chaotic conditions of the modern world which is greatly influenced
by the thinking of modern philosophers who have no energetic framework.
Rav Noson says that those people who bring the energies of their
intellect to within the bounds of the Torah, through study, fulfillment
of the commandments, and character development are likely to be saved
from going to extremes. For the Torah guides the intellect to come to
the right conclusions and its moderating energies protect one from the
attacks from the force of evil. Therefore, the Torah, with its rules,
bounds, and limits, functions much like the Mishkan did, and we can use
its powers to avoid damaging extremism. (Lekutai Halachot: Orach Chaim:
Hilchot Tefelat Mincha 7:8-11, 15)
Lofty spiritual experiences, that are far beyond one's level, can lead
to great confusion and cause one to fall to the depths of sin(A very
great Tzaddik and Torah scholar had just married off his righteous and
talented daughter to a unique young Torah scholar. The groom was a
person who removed himself from the material world, studying the Torah
day and night, concerned only with serving Hashem. It was a perfect
match. The Tzaddik was extremely happy and thanked Hashem for his great
fortune in marrying off his precious daughter to such an outstanding
young man.