ChukatS
A T A N M E A N S W E L LAdapted from a
discourse of Rabbi Shneur Zalman, "the Alter Rebbe" by Rabbi Yossi
Marcus And
Moses made a serpent of copper and placed it on a pole. And it happened that if
the serpent bit a man he would look at the serpent of copper and live (Numbers
21:9). [As
a punishment for complaining against G-d and Moses the Israelites were punished
by an attack of fiery serpents. Many Israelites died. The survivors came to Moses
and asked him to pray for them, which he did. G-d then told him to make a fiery
serpent and place it on a pole and that anyone who was bitten can look at it and
be healed. And so it was.] The Mishna (Rosh Hashanah 29a)
comments on this event with the following: “When the people of Israel gazed heavenward
and subjugated their hearts to their Father in heaven [then
they were healed; if not, they died. I.e., the Israelites were not healed by gazing
upon the serpent but by gazing heavenward toward their Father in heaven. In the
words of the Mishna: “Does a serpent cause death or life?”] What,
then, is the need for the serpent at all? The verse should have said, “and if
the serpent had bitten [a man he should] gaze heavenward?” Furthermore:
What is this concept of gazing upward? In fact we are told the contrary (Yevamot
105b): During prayer “the eyes should be trained downward and the heart upward.” Satan
Means Well The explanation of the matter is as follows: The severe
energies of judgment are sweetened by their source. And the source and vitality
of all negativity and judgment—Heaven forefend—is goodness, as in the Zohar’s
metaphor of the harlot and the prince. The harlot’s hope and desire is that the
prince should not listen to her, in which case she derives greater pleasure since
she will be beloved to the king [who hires her to tempt the prince in the first place
and demonstrate his son’s virtue]. But if she would indeed seduce the prince
and conquer him, the will of the king would not be fulfilled at all. This
is what our sages meant by “The intentions of Satan and Peninah were for the sake
of Heaven.” [This statement of Rabbi Levi
(Bava Batra 16a) refers to Satan’s treatment of Job and to Peninah’s harassment
of Chana, her barren co-wife. When
Satan saw that G-d was partial to Job, he said to himself, “G-d forbid that He
should forget the mercy of Abraham.” [I.e., the mercy shown to Israel in the merit of Abraham.] He therefore set out to demonstrate
Job’s imperfection. (Interestingly, the Talmud adds that when one of the sages
taught this teaching in the town of Papunia, Satan came and kissed
his foot in appreciation.) Similarly,
Peninah vexed Chana repeatedly to make her fret over her childlessness. Her intention
was to motivate Chana to beseech G-d for a child (which she ultimately did and
bore a son who would become known as Samuel the prophet.) See I Samuel 1:6.] The
explanation of the matter is that the root of evil—that which gives it life—is
goodness. As the Zohar says, “Can there be a servant who rebels against his master?”
Now in truth there are many servants who wish to rebel. But this is true only
of servants of flesh and blood, whose life-force is separate from their masters.
But in regard to the [celestial] servants
of G-d who receive their life-force from him—how can such a servant stand in opposition
to the very source of his life? To explain this paradox, the Zohar offers the
metaphor of the harlot and the prince. This is what gives life to all evil.
Their root above is goodness. Yet when it descends below through the chain of
worlds it becomes true and absolute evil, both in worldly and heavenly matters
[i.e., physical suffering and spiritual debilitation]. So
when a person suffers some misfortune—Heaven forefend—he should not judge by the
sight of his eyes and consider it evil. Rather, he should realize that in truth
its source is goodness, since from G-d no evil can emerge, only absolute goodness.
But this goodness is not apparent because it does not descend to the lower world
and remains above. (See Book of Beinonim chapter 26 and Iggeret Hakodesh
chapter 11, lishaskilcha binah.) Similarly, our sages comment
on the words tov me’od (very good)—tov (good) refers
to the angel of life; me’od (very) refers to the angel of death,
who is very good in the sense of infinite goodness without limit and boundary.
But this goodness is not revealed or grasped on the physical plane [and
because of its infinity finds expression in what appears to us as misfortune.] This
idea is expressed in the words (Psalms 118:18) Y-H [the Divine Name pronounced colloquially as kah]
has stricken me. This Name is the beginning of the full Name [Y-H-V-H], i.e., the beginning of its revelation.
This represents that fact that it has not yet reached a state of revelation and
its goodness is not perceptible. [Thus it appears
as if I am being stricken with evil by G-d, when in fact this “evil” only appears
so because its source of goodness Y-H—not revealed]. This
is also the idea of Nachum Ish Gam Zu, who [who when confronted with apparent calamity] would
say “gam zu l’tovah” (“this too is for the good”).
He would meditate upon the truth that the root of evil is goodness. He would thereby
elevate the event to its root, to the place of nothingness (ayin),
and there he was able to effect changes as in the statement of Rabbi Chanina ben
Dosa, “He who tells oil to burn [can tell vinegar
to burn].” [Taanit 25a: One
Friday evening at twilight, Rabbi Chanina noticed that his daughter was sad. He
said to her, “My daughter, why are you said?” She replied, “I mistook a container
of vinegar for a container of oil and used it to light the Shabbat light.” He
said to her, “My daughter, what does it bother you? He who tells oil to burn can
tell vinegar to burn.” The lamp continued to burn for all of the Shabbat.] Soul
Descent Similarly in the matter of the descent of the soul into this
world. We know that its primary purpose is to cleave to its Creator with love
and awe. This bonding occurs primarily during prayer. Now, before its descent
into this world and after it leaves the body, the soul certainly experiences this
bond in a far more internal way. But while it is in this world, it is impeded
by the body. Because of its coarseness, the body forces the soul to partake in
bodily pleasures despite the fact that the soul had no desire in this. For its
source is a part of G-d and its desire is to cleave to its Creator in ever greater
measure. This is the idea of the prayer of a soul clothed in a body. Within
the body, the soul suffers. Its desire is to cleave to its Creator and the body
does not permit it. This is similar to the exile of the divine presence, which
is forced to give life even to the wicked; so too the soul is forced to give life
to the body. The soul’s intention is not for itself but rather to raise the body
from the earth. It must refine the body, like silver in the hand of the silversmith.
Whatever possesses a greater degree of mixture must be refined and heated by a
greater fire. So too the soul must refine the body from the evil inclination and
bring it to its source as in the metaphor of the prince and the harlot. When the
admixture of evil is abundant, the soul must separate the evil through a large
and strong fire of prayer. That is why there was no need for fiery prayer
in the First Temple era, since the level of evil was low. Indeed in the First
Temple era, they would not pray at all.
But in the second temple they began instituting prayer, albeit brief, in accordance
with the need for fire and the mixture of evil within them. We need to pray
more and more with great fire. Each descending generation must pray with greater
fire. The abundance of negativity that has entered us and which increases with
each generation must be separated through a strong fire in prayer. One must refine
the evil that is within and bring it to its source. This is achieved by realizing
that its life-force comes for the Holy One blessed is He, since without Him it
could not exist. It follows that there is essentially no evil at all. Nochum
Ish Gam Zu Similarly in regard to the sufferings of this world: When
one thinks of the above idea, all perpetrators of iniquity are scattered, as occurred
with Nachum Ish Gam Zu. Indeed all the tzadikim were like this. The distinction
of Nachum Ish Gam Zu was his ability to change manifest reality so that it would
appear good in actuality—in the physical sense. He is therefore called gam
zu, also this, meaning that he was able to bring the goodness to manifest
reality. (The word zu, “this,” is associated with the “revealed world,”
alma d’itgalya [Tzemach Tzedek’s gloss].) By contrast, the other tzadikim
would be unable to draw the matter down to the manifest level; the goodness would
remain unapparent. This is the idea of the copper serpent, which was to
be placed on the pole and raised high so that the people would gaze upward. This
was meant to emphasize that the serpent is not separate from Divinity. Such an
assumption would mean that it is actual evil and that it remains evil. Rather,
the Israelites should see the serpent as it is raised upward to its root and realize
that it is not detached from Him, indeed its life-force is from Him. If so, no
evil descends from Above. It was therefore made of copper since it changes into
many colors through the “nothingness.” [Similarly, on the level of “nothingness” which precedes “somethingness”
(yesh), all is interchangeable.]
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