Trumah: Chapter 85

Match-making is as difficult before the Holy One, blessed be He, as splitting the Red Sea

Synopsis

When the Red Sea parted, we learn, some people were saved and some were killed. Someone dies and there is weeping, yet his wife is given to another and there is singing. And sometimes a wicked person gets a good woman. Rabbi Shimon says here that there are concealed secrets in all this; nonetheless, it is all according to the law. He then tells us that 'before the Holy One' refers to Malchut; these things are difficult for Her because they are not under Her authority; she receives everything from the Holy One. Rabbi Shimon next questions the meaning of, "And that soul will be cut off from before Me," and decides that it means that the soul will be cut off from all the delights of the world to come, which is Binah. Then we read of Jonah: "And Yonah rose to flee to Tarshish from before the Creator," and, "for the men knew that he had fled from before the Creator." How is it possible to flee from God? Rabbi Shimon explains that this means Jonah was afraid to be in the Holy Land so that the spirit of prophecy should not come upon him. He then speaks of the role of the Shechinah, who dwells in the Holy Land, and who rested on King David before he said, "Yud Hei Vav Hei is my shepherd; I shall not want." When the Shechinah receives food above for all the worlds, all the angels delight and awaken and raise their wings to cover their faces when She comes to deliver their food to them, so that they do not gaze upon Her. There are three companies of worshipping angels, we are told, who fit into each other like the tendons in the standing boards of acacia in the tabernacle.

Rabbi Shimon next discusses, "For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and its gain than fine gold," and, "He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters." "He restores my soul," we learn, means the soul of David, which is Malchut, who wishes to amend his level properly. The righteous will rest in the world to come with these "still waters" that are drawn and emerge from Eden.

Relevance

Here we see that there is an underlying and hidden, yet lawful, reason for life and death, good and evil, grieving and rejoicing. We are told that these things are not hard for the Holy One but they are hard for Malchut, and from this we see that it is only because our understanding is so much lower than God's that we have difficulty accepting the seeming inequities of the world. This difficulty is ultimately caused by the existence of time. Kabbalah defines time as the distance between cause and effect.

It is the separation between action and reaction; the measurement between conduct and recompense; the space between deed and dividend; and the chasm between crime and consequence. Because of time's existence, we believe mistakenly that goodness goes unrewarded, that evil goes unpunished, and that life lacks true justice. The world appears chaotic and random; when in reality, there is an exquisite and elegant order, the law of cause and effect, beneath the turmoil. Through David, we correct the sins of our past, rectifying and restoring all Malchut. All the waters of earth become still and the green pastures upon our earth welcome us as the Light of the Shechinah reaches her maximum intensity.