Last week we used Parashat Behukotai at the conclusion of Sefer Vayikra as our basis for understanding the three different perceptory dimensions and the three Forefathers. Today we will understand these concepts on a second, more advanced level.

We will also deal with Lag ba-Omer which we recently experienced, as well as Yom Yerushalayim which we will soon celebrate; and we will also touch on Hag ha-Shavu’ot – the Festival of Shavu’ot.

Last week we spoke of one aspect of Yerushalayim as the city which “is united together,” (Tehillim 122:3). We discussed the earthly Jerusalem as well as the supernal Jerusalem, and we mentioned how it is at Har ha-Moriyah that Ya’akov dreams of the ladder and the gateway to the Heavens, representing the bond between God and His nation.

This week we will speak about a different, second dimension of Yerushalayim – we will examine the city that turns all of Yisra’el into friends. What is the significance of a city that makes everyone friends?

First, let us open with Lag ba’Omer. There are many questions that can be posed with regard to the great happiness, celebrations, and festive commemoration that take place on Lag ba-Omer. How are we to understand these?

Today we primarily celebrate the anniversary of the passing of Rabi Shimon bar Yohai, his hilulah – the public thanksgiving celebrations on the anniversary of his death. The Hida (Rav Hayyim Yosef David Azulai, 1724-1806) writes that on Lag ba-Omer it was customary to hold a hilulah in commemoration of Rabi Shimon bar Yohai, yet then the Hida retracts this statement. The Lithuanian Jewish communities and their Rabbis question the suitability of the anniversary of a great sage’s death and a day of celebration and a hilulah. One of the Lithuanian sages, the ‘Shem Aryeh’ offers a reason that the Hassidim would certainly not like – we celebrate this day because Rabi Shimon bar Yohai was able to die a natural death, and had managed to avoid the evil clutches of the Romans who pursued him desiring to execute him.

However there are earlier sources as to the celebrations that take place on Lag ba-Omer. The Gemara recounts that in this time-period, between Pesah and Shavu’ot, twelve-thousand students of Rabi Akiva died for they did not treat each other with respect. The Me’iri in his commentary to the Gemara writes in the name of the Ge’onim that on Lag ba-Omer the students ceased dying.

In the light of this commentary I would like to pose two questions:

1. Do we ever celebrate the end of a plague?

2. The Gemara states that Rabi Akiva’s students died during the entire period from Pesah until Shavu’ot. Thus there are those who explain that from Lag ba-Omer the number of students who died diminished until on Shavu’ot the plague ceased completely. If this is the case – there is no justification at all for celebrating Lag ba-Omer, for the plague continued afterwards!

The Gemara states that after the plague which had smitten Rabi Akiva’s students the world was desolate, void of Torah. We must recall that the plague of deaths ocurred a short time prior to the days of the destruction of the Second Temple, and after the failed Bar Kokhba revolt against the Romans. During that period of despair and destruction Rabi Akiva had establishes a new generation of students who were to continue his teachings and perpetuate the Torah. He teaches the five most famous of his students, and conveys on them the semikhah – the ordination that stemmed from Mosheh Rabbenu and God Himself when Mosheh had been ordained as the religious leader of the Jews by God. The five students who are to continue the Torah on to the next generations are: Rabi Me’ir, Rabi Yehudah, Rabi Yosi, Rabi Nehemyah and Rabi Shimon bar Yohai.

There are in fact sources which speak of Lag ba-Omer as the day of their semikhah, the day when these five students received their ordination from Rabi Akiva. Now, if we consider all these reasons together we will note something quite fascinating: On the day that the plague smiting his students ceases, Rabi Akiva finds it apt to bestow semikhah upon his five most illustrious students, who will then continue forward with his teachings. And all this occurs on the same day that the Torat ha-Nistar, the Hidden Torah, (i.e. mystical, Kabbalistic teachings) are revealed to Rabi Shimon bar Yohai. Rabi Akiva transforms this day of mourning, this day of the plague into a day of semikhah, of continuing the Rabbinic tradition started with Mosheh, and thereby into a day of great joy.

It is still unclear as to why we are to celebrate – and have bonfires – on such a day.

I think that Lag ba-Omer commemorates two separate events. I see the great bonfire as one huge yahrzeit (yearly commemoration candle lit on the anniversary of the death of a loved one) candle which serves to remind us of the terrible plague and its cause. This reminds us to contemplate the deaths of twenty-four thousand of Rabi Akiva’s students who did not show respect for one another. We are to reflect on a plague which struck at the twelve-thousand pairs of students, symbolizing the twelve tribes of Yisra’el, those twelve-thousand havrutot (study partners) who were unable to sit together in study and correctly honor one another.

Were these not the students of the great leader and teacher, Rabi Akiva? Rabi Akiva who taught love of one’s wife more than any other, who loved his wife Rahel, married her, and then progressed with her from the straw storage-house until he purchased the “Yerushalayim shel Zahav” (“Jerusalem of Gold”) necklace, learning Torah all the while because of her? Rabi Akiva, who loved his land and his people more than any other, who would say:

“‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ (Vayikra 19:18) – this is a great principle of the Torah?”

(Yalkut Shimoni, Kedoshim 613, s.v. ve-ahavta et. al.)

Rabi Akiva who believed in God with unbending faith, who desired to sacrifice his life for Torah, saying:

“All my days I would fret over this verse ‘“with all your soul,” (Devarim 6:5) – even if He takes your life,’ (Midrash Tanhuma, Ki Tavo 2, s.v. va-yedaber et. al.) saying: ‘When will this occur to me and I will (then be able to) fulfill it?’”

(Berakhot 61b et. al.)

It was this great Rabi Akiva whose twenty-four thousand students died because they did not act with respect to one another!

Rabi Akiva, who taught us to perceive the fox walking through the Holy of Holies as not only a sign of the exile and destruction, but also as an omen of the redemption. It is this sage who did not merely leave us a yahrzeit candle, but from the world that had been destroyed by the plague he ignited an entire new world, a world of rectification of “sin’at hinam” – “baseless hatred” – through his five elite disciples who were to continue his Torah.

It is imperative to examine what has transpired here and understand it well. The greatest disciples of the greatest sage of the Mishnah – upon whose school of thought the entire Oral Torah is based, “they are all in accordance with Rabi Akiva’s (approach),” (Sanhedrin 86a) – it is the disciples of this sage who do not treat each other with the greatest respect to such an extent that they are liable of death?

We must also understand that the Second Temple was destroyed due to sin’at hinam and has yet to be rebuilt. We must understand that without the existence of the Temple the existence of the entire world is merely an outer facade, for it is void of its soul and inner content which sustains it and lends its actions and deeds import and significance, as we mentioned last week.

We all remember the final two-thirds of Rabi Akiva’s life while we ignore the first third. This third has been erased as one erases the final third of a prison sentence for good behavior. We allow ourselves to think of Rabi Akiva in romantic terms – as a shepherd meandering through the plains of Spain or South America. As a child, I drew Rabi Akiva as a shepherd herding his flocks a large distance from the city, sitting on a rock, playing a flute. This is a pretty drawing, but it is simply not true. Rabi Akiva was the shepherd of all the flocks of his master, Kalba Savu’a. Rabi Akiva, as overseer of Kalba Savu’a’s entire house, sat in Yerushalayim managing his master’s large estate. Kalba Savu’a – who fed all the poor of Yerushalayim, the poor leaving his house fully satiated – it was this man who Rabi Akiva served, serving as the managing director for all that was Kalba Savu’a’s.

This was the Golden Age of Yerushalayim economically and spiritually. It was the age of the great Tanna’im (Sages of the Mishnah) like Rabi Elazar ben Arakh, and an era of wealth, as Megillat Eikhah states:

“Dear children of Zion who are compared to fine gold.”

(Eikhah 4:2)

Thus, when Rabi Akiva himself gains wealth, he purchases Rahel, the daughter of Kalba Savu’a, the “Yerushalayim shel Zahav.” At that time Rabi Akiva was seated at the main junction of Yerushalayim of the Tanna’im and the wealthy, yet he did not enter the Beit Midrash, the study hall. In these first forty years of his life he even says:

“Whosoever shall give me a Talmid Hakham (Torah Sage) – I shall bite him as a donkey (bites.)”

(Pesahim 49b)

Specifically “as a donkey” and not as a dog whose bite heals completely. When Rabi Akiva then began to study Torah, he studied for her, for Rahel his wife.

Rabi Akiva was not a “tinok she-nishbah” – a Jewish child taken into captivity at a very young age – a shepherd who comes from Spain or South America knowing nothing about Judaism. He lived in Yerushalayim, he saw and understood everything, and everyone around him, yet with his great qualities he intentionally chose not to take part in the Beit Midrash, in the study of Torah.

What does it mean “to judge favorably?” And what does it mean “to judge unfavorably?”

To judge someone meritoriously is very difficult. We are accustomed to understand that to judge someone favorably means to say: ‘What can you do, he is so pathetic, he disturbed me by mistake, it was not his intention to do so.’

This is not to judge him meritoriously! This is simply not judging him unfavorably. Indeed not judging someone unfavorably is also very difficult, and it is a most positive quality that one should toil to acquire; however judging someone favorably is a much more difficult, loftier attribute to achieve.

Not judging someone unfavorably is to say that the poor person’s car broke down and therefore it is parked directly blocking my driveway.

Judging someone favorably – this means saying that he parked in my parking in order to do me a favor and bring me the food while it is still warm.

I was reminded of these examples when I saw the story in the Gemara of the laborer who toiled for his master for three years before asking for his due wages. This laborer approaches his master on erev Yom Kippur, the day preceding Yom Kippur, to request his due financial remuneration for three years of labor.

His master tells him: ‘I have none.’

He then says: ‘In that case, give me fruit (produce) to the value of my salary.’

His master responded: ‘I have none.’

The laborer said: ‘In that case, give me land (to the value of my salary).’

His master responded: ‘I have none.’

The laborer said: ‘In that case, give me your livestock.’

His master responded: ‘I have none.’

The laborer said: ‘In that case, give me your pillows and cushions (i.e. textiles).’

His master responded: ‘I have none.’

The laborer left his master’s home frustrated and bitterly disappointed.

After the Festival of Sukkot his master appeared at his home with three donkeys laden with every possible valuable, then they sat together to eat. At the end of the meal his master gave him his wages, and he then asked the laborer a question.

‘I have a question for you,’ he said. ‘What did you say to yourself when I told you that I have no money?’

The laborer answered: ‘In my heart I said that possibly you had come across a very low-cost investment in which you had invested your every penny.’

He further asked him: ‘What did you say in your heart when I told you I had no land?”

The laborer said: ‘In my heart I said that possibly you had leased all your fields.’

He asked him again: ‘What did you say in your heart when I told you I had no pillows and cushions?’

The laborer said: ‘In my heart I said that possibly you had dedicated all your possessions to God.’

The master said: ‘That is what occurred. I have a son, Hurkenos is his name, who had moved away from Torah. I dedicated all my possessions to God in order that Hurkenos would return to his study (of Torah), and I had forgotten that I had yet to pay your wages – yet I was unable to break my vow. After the festival (of Sukkot) I went to the Sages in the south (of Israel) who absolved me of my vow, and I have thus come to pay you your wages. However I could not believe that there is anyone in the world who judges others favorably, and just as you have judged me favorably so too may God judge me favorably.’

(Cf. Shabbat 127b)

Rav Ahai Ga’on (She’ilta 40) records the whole discussion in the Gemara and explains that the master was Eli’ezer ben Hurkenos, and the son was his grandson, Hurkenos, and the laborer was Rabi Akiva before he turned to a life of Torah.

The Hatam Sofer asks: “How can such a great person say ‘Whosoever shall give me a Talmid Hakham – I shall bite him as a donkey?’ Where does he acquire such a hatred for Torah Sages?”

This is the same Rabi Akiva who enters the Beit Mikdash to study Torah at the behest of his wife. This is the same Rabi Akiva who teaches: “‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ – this is a great principle of the Torah?”

This is the selfsame Rabi Akiva who loses twenty-four thousand students in a horrendous plague. In the era of the Second Temple, a period replete with Torah and mizvot and gemilut hasadim (benevolent deeds) which is also plagued by sin’at hinam which then leads to the destruction of the Temple.

Rabi Akiva holds the keys to Kalba Savu’a’s estate and fortune, and finds himself in the central junction of the Yerushalayim of Torah and mizvot and gemilut hasadim. He is an incredible personality of great worth, yet remains unconnected to the Torah. Rahel chooses him as her groom for he is a modest man of the finest integrity, yet her father, the wealthiest man in Yerushalayim disinherits them and refuses to have anything to with them for he desires a man of Torah – not simply a man of integrity – to be his daughter’s husband.

After twenty-four years of Torah study, Rabi Akiva returns to his home, and Kalba Savu’a voids his vow of disinheritance – for he had no idea that Rabi Akiva could become a tremendous Talmid Hakham, and he declares that had Rabi Akiva known only one verse or only one Mishnah he would never distanced him from his property and house. This is astounding, and must be explained.

In my opinion, Rabi Akiva actively chose never to enter a Beit Midrash – where only Torah is studied, in depth, and there is never a chance to deal with the other simpler aspects of life – during his first forty years of life. It is this Beit Midrash which gives rise to twenty-four thousand sages, twelve-thousand havrutot who do not know how to treat each other with respect. “‘Ve-et vahev be-sufah,’ ‘and Vahev in Sufah,’ (Bemidbar 21:14) – in the beginning they are as enemies in study, yet in the end they conclude in love,” (when read as ‘va-hev be-sofah’ it indicates ‘and love at the end.’ Cf Kiddushin 30b.)

In some sources it states that Rabi Akiva’s twelve-thousand students were the first set of the Tablets of the Covenant, while his five illustrious students were the second set of the Tablets of the Covenant. Just as Mosheh Rabbenu conveyed the Written Torah during his one-hundred and twenty year life, so too Rabi Akiva conveyed the Oral Torah. And just as with Mosheh Rabbenu the first set of Tablets carved by God’s hand were destroyed, and the second Tablets were carved by his own hand, so too with Rabi Akiva and his twenty-four thousand students. The first set of Tablets were greater than the five disciples who remained, yet withstanding their greatness they were unable to treat each other with respect, and thus they were wiped out by a plague.

Yet it is still difficult to understand how the greatest of Rabi Akiva’s students were liable of death, being wiped out by a plague!

In order to understand this we must recall what we said last week regarding the Mishnah in Pirkei Avot:

“Consider three things and you will never sin.”

(Avot 3:1)

Consider the three dimensions of the world, the three forefathers and the three Regalim – Pilgrimage Festivals.

We spoke of the three forefathers, Avraham who came into a world of idolatry wherein one cannot behold God and the Infinite. Avraham uplifts the world by revealing the Infinite that pervades the world, by revealing God, the Master of the Universe to the world. He is unable to do this, however, in Ur Casdim and in Haran owing to the filth and impurity of idolatry which is rampant there.

Avraham thus goes to Erez Yisra’el to Har ha-Moriyah, and it is there that he calls in God’s name. Avraham terms God ‘mountain’ as the verse states: “In the Mount of God it shall be seen,” (Bereshit 22:14). Everybody can see the mountain and its peak from down below, and it is impossible to say that their world has not been affected. In the beginning they merely perceived a mountain, just as Avraham’s own servants did not perceive anything out of the ordinary. Avraham and Yizhak, on the other hand, saw and identified the mountain from afar, for God’s presence had descended upon the mountain. Therefore Avraham leaves his male servants behind with the donkey.

However after the Akeidah (The “Binding” of Yizhak), and after Avraham calls out in the name of God, the entire world recognizes the unique location, the Har ha-Moriyah – the “Mountain which teaches” of God, the Master of the Universe, despite the fact that they term Him by other appellations. At this stage the world is transformed from a one-dimensional place into one of two dimensions; from a world solely of human beings to a world with God’s presence as well. What Avraham does is defined as ‘hesed’ – ‘loving kindness’ – you simply have to look at him atop the mountain, and he and God will bestow benevolence and kindness, hesed, upon you.

Yizhak goes out to “converse in the field,” (Bereshit 24:63), in the region of the Akeidah, at Har ha-Moriyah. Yizhak digs wells in the fields, his entire life is spent in the field. He sends his son Esav out into the field to hunt game. The field represents gevurah – might and heroism. One must clear the stones and rocks from the field in order that the field can benefit from the rains and give forth its produce. One must first act in order to receive God’s benevolence. This is no longer the benevolence of hesed but rather the might and heroic struggle of gevurah, surmounting and prevailing in the field. This is the gevurah of Yizhak who was heroically bound on the altar by his father.

However both Avraham and Yizhak allow man to remain in his place below, from there beholding God above – Who is beyond a thick curtain above, neither approaching nor bonding with man below.

Ya’akov knows the history of his family, he grows up amidst the stories of Har ha-Moriyah. He knows that this location is termed “mountain” and “field” by his father and grandfather. This location is the seat of his aspirations and yearnings – yet he goes to sleep there? How is this possible?

From Ya’akov’s words on waking – after his dream – we will understand everything. He awakens and says:

“Indeed God is present in this place, and I did not know (it).”

(Bereshit 28:16)

Did he not know that God had revealed Himself to Avraham and Yizhak on this very spot? Did Ya’akov not know what all of us learn in kindergarten?

Ya’akov builds a three-dimensional world. Ya’akov takes the two perspectives of the mountain and its hesed, and the field and its gevurah, and he employs them simultaneously, rendering a three-dimensional perspective. Together with his quality of ‘tiferet’ – ‘splendor’ – Ya’akov forms the impressive IMAX experience, a three-dimensional world that includes God and His house, a house with an entrance and exit. Ya’akov links all of humanity to the Creator of the Universe through a ladder upon which angels ascend and descend, and he also constructs a dwelling-place for God in the lower worlds. This dwelling-place is rooted on earth, amidst humanity, no longer is God held behind a distant veil.

The Shalosh Regalim – Three Pilgrimage Festivals – correspond to the three Forefathers. Avraham, who was visited by the angels on Pesah, Yizhak corresponds to Shavu’ot, and Ya’akov consructed Sukkot, (“Booths.”)

God passed over our homes when we were at the lowest of the forty-nine levels of impurity. He did us a great hesed when He took us out from amidst another nation just as we were to slip into the fiftieth level of impurity, this would have hearkened the end of our nation, for we would then never have been able to leave Egypt. On Pesah we recall that we are worthless through the hamez (leaven), the ‘bread of affliction,’ and the mazot – which was the sum-total of our deeds in Egypt prior to the redemption. To God this is the festival of Pesah – ‘Passover’ – yet for us it is the festival of mazot.

The Festival of Shavu’ot is reached after counting fifty-days, seven weeks. Our count begins in the field with the harvesting of the barley for the unleavened Omer sacrifice, and then ends with a leavened sacrifice of fine wheat. The Giving of the Torah was experienced on the seventh day of Sivan when we were in fact prepared for it on the sixth of Sivan. Shavu’ot is the festival of the second-dimension: from above and from below corresponding to the attribute of gevurah, therefore God does not dictate how we are to celebrate it. We define the nature of the day, thus we may celebrate with cheesecake and blintzes.

God constructed Sukkot for us in the desert with the clouds of glory, and today we build our own Sukkot. We eat, drink, read, and sleep in the Sukkah – our entire lives our moved into the Sukkah. A Sukkah is a home, a temporary home of the “zila de-mehimnuta” – the “shade of the faith” – God’s abode in the lower worlds.

“God desired to have an abode in the lower (worlds).”

(Midrash Tanhuma, Naso 16 et. al.)

The Gemara states:

“One must certainly live in Erez Yisra’el even in a city with a majority of non-Jews rather than live in the Diaspora even in a city with a majority of Jews; for whomever lives in Erez Yisra’el is comparable to one who has a God, and whomever lives in the Diaspora is comparable to one who has no God.”

(Ketubot 110b)

And the Rambam brings this as the Halakhah, (Hilkhot Melakhim 5:12).

This seems to be heresy – however in light of our current understanding it is quite clear to comprehend. Whoever lives in the Diaspora is comparable to one who has no God, to one whose land, economy, army, and whose entire personal and national existence has no connection to God. And he who lives in Erez Yisra’el but then moves to the Diaspora feels as one who saw a film in a three-dimensional IMAX theater which he then saw in a regular two-dimensional theater. The movie that he now sees cannot compare to his previous experience, and it no longer holds any meaning for him.

“Is comparable to one who has a God” – for this is to touch God’s abode, to feel it and sense it, God’s abode in Erez Yisra’el. Hazal compared Erez Yisra’el to a Sukkah, for just as in a Sukkah everything we do – our eating, drinking, reading, talking, and sleeping – are mizvot, the same is true of Erez Yisra’el. And just as a Sukkah has to be constructed anew, and not made from that which has already been constructed, the same can be said of Erez Yisra’el where nothing is pre-fabricated or pre-constructed. In Erez Yisra’el one must eat gravel and build everything slowly stage after stage, as the Vilna Ga’on said to his disciples.

Now we may assail one further level of understanding. Last week we mentioned the House of the God of Ya’akov; God has a house, “there is God in this place” and “this is the gateway to the heavens.”

“For Torah shall go forth from Zion, and the word of God from Jerusalem.”

(Yeshayahu 2:3)

“Zion” is the point which marks (‘ziyyun’) the perfect calibration point of the supernal Jerusalem with the earthly Jerusalem which are in complete unison with each other. “A settled place for You to abide in forever,” (Melachim I, 8:13,) from where the word of God emanates, Torah going forth to the entire world.

When the third dimension is present, something essential is present that does not exist in two dimensions. When we see a movie in two dimensions, we primarily don’t want our vision to be obscured or the soundtrack to be inaudible, yet the other viewers’ behavior is of no consequence as long as they do not disturb our viewing. All that matters is the viewer and the content on the screen. So too, sometimes Esav and Ya’akov, and Yishma’el and Yizhak must part ways in order that Ya’akov can build his House of God. However the three-dimensional film has everyone’s participation in it, and there is no possibility for anyone to be excluded – for then the film will cease. When you enter a home not only do you relate to and bond with others, but there are also new rules.

When Esav decides to make a hole in his boat on Har Se’ir thus drowning, I can offer him assistance and aid, and I can send him a letter of condolences. However, if everyone enters the same house and suddenly someone makes a hole in the boat – we all drown together. The third dimension adds depth, at home I am not alone, and when I make an abode for God in the lower world I must include everyone, all the members of the household in the house that I am building.

“All Yisra’el are responsible for one another.”

(Shevu’ot 39a)

Hazal explain this concept with the metaphor of the boat, that one may make a hole in a boat in the world of two dimensions, but not in the home which is part of the three-dimensional world.

In my opinion, Sefer Bereshit is divided into two sections. The first section is a description of the one dimensional world which is transformed into a two-dimensional world. A one-dimensional world which has no concept of God’s existence, which drowns in the flood, and builds the Tower of Babel into the sky – because there is no God. Then Avraham causes the bond between man and God to become manifest, from above, to below – the hesed, God’s benevolence to man. And then Yizhak reveals the bond that is initiated down below, on earth – the gevurah of man.

The first section of Sefer Bereshit reveals a world which slowly has God projected onto a screen from afar, and we are to learn to know him, and to keep idolatry and idolaters at a distance. In a life of one dimension without God we must ensure that God’s existence can become manifest and that this is not impeded by anything. This section ends when Yizhak sends Ya’akov away, painfully separating him from his brother, Esav, just as Avraham had done to him and Yishma’el, and just as God had separated between Avraham and Lot and between Shem, Ham, and Yefet in order to have the world allow the continuing revelation of God.

The second section of Sefer Bereshit reveals the three-dimensional world that becomes manifest. After Ya’akov returns from Haran he builds a home, which at his entering Erez Yisra’el becomes a perfect union of the children of Leah, Rahel, Zilpah, and Bilhah. In this, the second section of Bereshit, there is another attempt to separate between the ‘Ya’akovs’ and the ‘Esavs.’ Will the separation be on pleasant terms as friends, distancing Yosef in such a manner; or will there be a need to send him as far as possible, selling him to Egypt, in order to halt the dreams that so affected all the brothers? However the conclusion is that there are twelve paths to God and twelve rooms in God’s house, therefore each brother is necessary – as is his fellow – and it is impossible to survive without any brother, or room, in the house.

Now we may understand why on Pesah, which corresponds to Avraham, we sit around the table and only those who joined together for the bringing of the Pascal Sacrifice are allowed to partake of it – the family comes together, external participants detract from festive meal.

On Sukkot, however, everyone is together as one: all four species, all of Am Yisra’el, “every citizen of Yisra’el must sit in Sukkot,” (Vayikra 23:42).

One may not separate any aspect from the nation just as one may not separate any of the four species, for then one separates God’s name.

When Ya’akov builds a house he establishes the following as unchangeable fact: The house will have twelve rooms and twelve partners, and no-one my separate or distance another from this home. When God desires to create an abode in the lower worlds, He desires that I transform my home and my neighbor’s home into a dwelling place for Him in this world. If I consider only my home fit for God’s abode, then God’s abode in this world becomes limited to only one home, and is nothing more than a small suite within the nation; as opposed to an abode with twelve different tribes, rooms, and floors.

“The world depends on three things:

on Torah (study) – hesed, from above to below

on the service (of the sacrifices) – gevurah, from below to above

and on benevolent deeds – tiferet, the union.

(Avot 1:2)

It is upon these three supports that God’s abode in this world rests, and these are its pillars.

At first glance it seems that the concept of: “All Yisra’el are responsible for one another” applies most to the Diaspora and not Erez Yisra’el. However according to the teaching of Hazal on the following verse we see that this is not true.

The verse states:

“The secret things are to God our Lord; but that which is revealed is to us and to our children forever, to do all the words of this Torah.”

(Devarim 29:28)

Rashi comments in the following manner:

Should you say: ‘How can we be responsible for an individual who may sin?’ When you were in the Diaspora each was responsible for the revealed issues within his community, yet now that you enter Erez Yisra’el you are all partners and you are responsible for one another. Thus you will also be punished for hidden issues for it is in this manner that you will keep the combined boat of Am Yisra’el from sinking.

Your partnership is one of brotherhood and unity, and ultimate respect for each other. A home without brotherhood and mutual responsibility can never endure. A home full of sin’at hinam cannot hold the third dimension of a bond with God, and the house – the Beit Mikdash – must then be destroyed. Specifically the students of Rabi Akiva who are involved in the communication with and relating to God are at the greatest risk of forgetting the concern for those in the side rooms. This could not endure.

“The Tanna teaches us that man must consider ‘three things’ in general, not merely the three things listed in our Mishnah. In other words, a person may think that he must only hold two matters dear: he himself, and God, Whom he serves. We tell him that he must consider a third concept also, the reality of the world whereby he serves his Creator. The purpose of the creation of the world and the purpose of the descent of the soul downward is in order to make this lower world an abode for Him, may He be blessed.

And the third aspect affects the perfection of the two (others), God, so to speak, and man who serves (Him.) For ‘God desired to have an abode in the lower (worlds),’ (Midrash Tanhuma, Naso 16) is ‘this is all man and the purpose of his creation and his descent into this world,’ (ibid.) This means that it was for this service that the soul descended, which is a tremendous descent ‘from a high mountain to a deep pit.’”

(Elucidations on Pirkei Avot, the Lubavitcher Rebbe.)

This could most probably happen to the students of Rabi Akiva who were involved in transforming themselves into an “abode” that one would achieve such an understanding in Torah that someone who understood differently was no less than a heretic! I am certain that they performed acts of gemilut hasadim, and that they were great sages among the generation of the Second Temple, yet sin’at hinam prevailed amongst them. However one must create this abode from one’s surrounds, despite what may first seem like a descent, for if it affects the rest of the world, transforming the whole environment into an abode, then it is impossible to even commit a single sin.

“This is ‘Consider three things;’ in addition to a person making himself an ‘abode’ for God, through this he reveals the light of his soul, he must make the world an ‘abode,’ and by this he will attain personal perfection – even though there is a momentary descent – such that the supernal will be activated in him such that he will never sin, he will not even come to the possibility of sinning.

Another explanation: ‘And it was on the day when Mosheh concluded’ –

Rebi says: ‘Whenever it states “And it was” - it is a new issue.

Rabi Shimon bar Yohai says: ‘Whenever it states “And it was” - a matter which was ceased for a long time is recovered to its original state.’

As the verse states: ‘I have come into My garden, My sister, My bride; I have gathered My myrrh with My spice; I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey; I have drunk My wine with My milk. Eat, O friends; drink, drink deeply, O loved ones.’ (Shir ha-Shirim 5:1) The moment God created the world He desired that He should have an abode in the lower worlds just as He has in the upper worlds. He called to Adam and commanded him “from all the trees of the garden you may eat, (yet) from the Tree of Knowledge of good and bad do not eat,” (Bereshit 2:16,17). And (Adam) transgressed His command.”

(ibid.)

Have you ever considered the word “command” – “zivui?”

It signifies a Divine directive from God to man, and it also signifies a “zevet” – a “team.”

It seems that the second explanation indicates that the mizvah – the commandment – brings the third dimension through us relating to it, as well as it relating to us. It is impossible to live the mizvah on one’s own, and when there is a command in the two-dimensional world it is difficult to see the connection between us and the Divine Commander. However when God commands us in the Garden of Eden, in a three-dimensional world, what to eat and what not to eat – every single act of eating is a mizvah just as in Erez Yisra’el, or in a Sukkah which are akin to the Garden of Eden, a type of reality before the fist sin of Adam.

This dimension broke down, and we left the Garden of Eden, when the two-dimensions no longer worked in unison. The team broke down when God asked Avraham: “Did you eat?” and the first things Adam answers is “The woman whom you gave to me…” (Bereshit 3:12). Only afterwards he admits that he ate. There is no third dimension without the two. God is no longer in the lower worlds; when the team, “Man and woman,” falls apart God slowly distances Himself.

“God said to him: ‘I thus desire, just as I have an abode in the supernal (worlds), so too I will have (an abode) in the lower (worlds.) One thing I commanded you, and you did not adhere to it.’ Immediately God removed his Presence to the heavens. Where (is the source for this?) As it states: ‘And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day,’ (Bereshit 3:8). And since they disobeyed His command, He removed His Presence to the first firmament.

Kayin then killed Hevel, immediately He removed His Presence from the first firmament to the second firmament..

The generation of Enosh came forth and worshipped idols, as the verse states: ‘Then (men) began to call in the name of God,’ (ibid 4:26), and He removed His Presence from the second (firmament) to the third (firmament.)

The generation of the Flood came forth, and it states of them: ‘They say to God, Depart from us,’ (Iyov 21:14), immediately He removed His Presence from the third firmament to the fourth.

The generation of the Dispersion came forth and they said: ‘Not everything is from Him, let Him keep the upper worlds, and let Him give us the lower worlds.’ What did they say? ‘Let us build ourselves a city, (Bereshit 11:4); and what did God do to them? ‘He scattered them from there,’ (ibid v. 8), He then removed His Presence from the fourth firmament to the fifth.

The Sedomites came forth, what does it state of them? ‘And the people of Sedom were evil and terrible sinners to God,’ (ibid. 13:13.) They were ‘evil’ to one another and ‘sinners’ in sexual promiscuity, ‘to God’ in idolatry, ‘terrible’ in murder. Immediately He removed His Presence from the fifth firmament to the sixth.

The Phillistines came forth and angered God, He immediately removed His Presence from the sixth firmament to the seventh.

God said: ‘I created seven firmaments and until now the evil have stood (firm and existed.)’ What did God do? He folded all the generations of the wicked and set up Avraham our Forefather.

Since Avraham came forth and performed good deeds, immediately God descended from the seventh firmament to the sixth.

Yizhak came forth and bared his neck on the altar, and God descended from the sixth firmament to the fifth.

Ya’akov came forth, and God descended from the fifth firmament to the fourth.

Levi came forth and his deeds were beautiful, and God descended from the fourth firmament to the third.

Kehat came forth, and God descended from the third firmament to the second.

Amram came forth and he lowered Him from the second to the first firmament.

Mosheh came forth and lowered God’s Presence, when? When the Mishkan was erected, God said: ‘I have come into My garden into that which I desired.’ This is the verse ‘And it was on the day when Mosheh concluded;’ from here Rabi Shimon bar Yohai said: ‘“And it was” refers to a matter which was ceased for a long time and is then recovered to its original state.’”

(Midrash Tanhuma, Naso 24)

“I have come into My garden” – when we speak of “And I will walk among you,” (Vayikra 26:12) which we all yearn for, we are speaking of the elements of the thirds dimension, the element among us, between man and his fellow, and the element between us and God. “The built-up Yerushalayim is like a that is united together,” which unites the above with the below and makes all of Yisra’el friends.

Translated by Sholem Hurwitz.

Copyright Keren Yishai/Rav M. Elon