Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Nigleh and Nistar

http://www.moshiach.ru/pic/old-chossid-pic-by-kaspinov.jpg

From Frierdiker Rebbe’s Kuntres Limmud Ha’Chassidus:


* * *
An example from the laws of sacrifices: “When a man will bring of you an offering to G-d...” The text should preferably have read, “When a man of you will bring.” The interpretation is, “When a man will bring” (note: the Hebrew yakriv also implies “approach”)—i.e., when one desires to approach the service of G-d, “of you an offering to G-d”—the initial step must be “of you,” of yourselves, the idea of approach and sacrifice being the offering of one’s abilities and faculties to Him.    
          Parenthetically, Reb Alter Yechiel, a Liozna teacher, once told my great-uncle Rabbi Boruch Sholom that he had taught Talmud to the Mitteler Rebbe on a profound level when his pupil was a lad of ten. Reb Alter Yechiel once asked him the meaning of the quoted verse with the observation noted. the Mitteler Rebbe replied, “When a man brings of you—when one offers to G-d all he has, then he is an offering to G-d (Havayeh)—higher than the nature He has endowed in time and space. This person is not merely an offering to Elokim, symbolic of Nature.”
          In civil law we find, “Two grasping a talit,” a garment, [each one claims, “I found it,” each one claims, “It is all mine”]. Talit refers to encompassing light, the spark of good implanted within material objects. When two grasp a talit, i.e. both perform a mitzvah with a physical object, they release and clarify the spark of good imprisoned within that object. They redeem the spark from “exile” in matter, and elevate the matter itself from its intrinsic crassness, since the material object was an instrument for fulfilling the Divine plan of creation.
          Now, the souls of the two who performed the mitzvah, upon their ascent to the True World, seize the talit, the spark that had been in the physical object, the material having already been purified and the spark elevated through the performance of the mitzvah. “One says, I found it”; he insists that his efforts redeemed the spark. The other claims that it was through his endeavors that the material became purified, and that he transformed it into a vehicle for G-dliness. Each demands, “It is all mine.” The ensuing discussion concerns the manner of purification to determine the reward due each disputant.
          In the laws of Shabbat we find the principles of the private and public domain [in which carrying is permitted or prohibited]. According to the inner interpretation they correspond to the Four Worlds: the private domain—Atzilut; the public domain—Briya, Yetzira, Asiya.

No comments: