HaBerakhah Cycle Two Deuteronomy 33:1 to 34:12

HaBerakhah

In HaBerakhah we learn about the essence of God, the reshimu. We begin to see that this reshimu is the manifestation of love.

On the level of story, we are at the end of a long saga of trials and tribulations as the Israelites seek the Promised Land. Yes, even the scroll has to close somewhere. That’s one interpretation.

However, something else is going on, something important. This is what I think. We are being shown where we are now this moment on the road to human consciousness….and we are being given at least three road signs. The only challenge is that they are in the esoteric language of tzimtzum. To read them we have to leave the story behind.

What is tzimtzum? Quick and simplified, God creates the world. But if God is still expanded, we can’t live in it. After all, God says to Moses that no man can see His face (and live). So, God contracts to allow for earthly realities. It sounds complicated but isn’t. Imagine our lungs. When we breathe in they expand. They take up more space. When we breathe out they contract. But they are still the same lungs. They do the same thing. They have the same name.
Same with God. He does the same thing whether contracted or expanded, whether we recognize Him or not (Kohelet).

Zalman, the first Lubivitcher rebbe, sees the very act of God revealing Himself in words and letters as an act of tzimtzum. This means that Torah (as well) is God contracted. Imagine that Torah is everywhere, the letters floating down the river, in our homes, in the sky. It’s as if the scroll is the very vacuum to suck in the lines, allowing them to both expand and contract.

Even a person can manifest tzimtzum. And we do. A teacher, for example, has to conceal a level of understanding in order to be understood by new students. The concealing emanates an energy…a residue…and through it the music of the teachings can echo. This essence is called the reshimu.

Tzimtzum is usually visualized as a small dot in the middle of ten concentric circles. The energy is usually so great that a small ray (kav) shoots out towards the boundaries. Here are some questions. How strong is the center (the cord) of the ray? How far has it gotten?

How far has Moses gotten? He has climbed Mt Nebo, has been shown, in 360 degrees, the lands of Gilead, Nephtali, Ephraim and Manassah and more. We see Moses in one spot. From that center his vision goes out like spokes on a wheel all around. He creates the construct of tzimtzum through his very being. He is the stored up energy holding the constriction and concealment of God. Here, I believe, there is a kav represented by the seeing of each land. There is more than one kav. And the energy going out goes back to him ten fold. The final gift from Moses therefore is that he creates a way to reveal more of God into our individual realities...and into a world that has grown since creation and honestly needs more revealing. Later, when he dies we don’t need to know the burial place. That’s because his neshama…his spirit…is right here for eternity on this mountain top marking the very motion of consciousness.

The blessings as well show us the energy that has been concealed by God…and the movement towards a revealing. Blessings in Torah on the story level are pretty direct. In Genesis when Jacob is dying he brings all twelve sons to his bedside. There are long poetic descriptions of each and what they might or might not experience. The order is by age. Reuben is first. Benjamin last. At this point we can almost see twelve concentric circles. Joseph (closest to being a tzaddick) is at the center guarded by Benjamin, the wolf.

Now, let’s look at the blessings in HaBerakhah. Reuben gets a blessing in reverse. He will live and not die and suffer with numbered ranks. Simeon (the family of Korach) has been swallowed by the earth. Ah, we can think, there are now ten sons beings blessed, ten concentric circles (balanced with the ten generations between Abraham and Noah, the ten trials of Abraham, etc.). But what has happened? It is no longer in order by age. Joseph and Benjamin have moved from the center out to the third and fourth circles! This is the rush from the inside-out, the necessary expansion. It’s a relief to know that after forty years of wandering and the exodus from Egypt we have accomplished something practical!

It’s a relief seeing the light that develops as we study Torah. Ah…could tzimtzum have been here the whole time? While we were measuring and organizing materials for the mishkan, preparing the fire offerings in Vayikra, believing gossip about giants….is God expanding this moment from one point out to the rest of the universe? Why? Because it is natural. Because as we open, there is more room for God. And as God expands, the darkness can be squeezed out. No, we haven’t reached the outer circles yet. Messianic consciousness is here and not here, just within reach. Love though is real as can be.

When Moses dies, love is written all over him. His eyes have not dimmed. His body is still moist. The reshimu remains, the stuff which we drink like water, which we yearn for and breathe. New students all of us, this love is how we bring in the brilliance of the prophet even today. This reshimu is love manifested. As Rumi says…You may not see him but Moses is still alive…

So, may the expansion within Torah bring us closer to Bereshit each year. May we learn to contract but not so much that the essence of God is beyond the reach of our students, teachers, lovers and friends. May we feel the neshama of Moses on the mountain. And may we also create an essence that is strong and palpable to gift to God… remembering that evolution means nurturing the strength, vision, compassion and gentleness found at our divine center.