[Avodah] Kedushah, Ahavah and Yir'ah

[Micha Berger]

>From this week's Shabbat BeShabbato:

: Date: Mon, 12 May 2008 12:09:22 +0200
: From: Shabbat BeShabbato <shabbat.beshabbato at gmail.com>
: Subject: Shabbat-B'Shabbato ? Parshat Behar
: To: dan at zomet.org

:         No 1222: 12 Iyar 5768 (17 May 2008)

...
: TO SEE G-D'S GOODNESS
: What is Holiness? - by Rabbi Yehoshua Shapira, Rosh Yeshivat Ramat Gan

: Question: Before we fulfill a mitzva, we recite a blessing with the phrase,
: "He who sanctified us with His mitzvot and commanded us..." What is the
: simple meaning of the concept of holiness? In what way do we become holy
: when we fulfill a Divine mitzva?

: Answer: The link between humanity and the Creator always consists of two
: elements ? love and fear. As our sages have said, a bird has two wings, and
: without them both it cannot fly properly. These two elements are intertwined
: and always appear together, and each one complements and balances the other.
: The need for balance stems from the contradiction that faces us because of
: the complex relationship between us and the Almighty.

: On one hand, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not Mine"
: [Yeshayahu 55:8]. In the Zohar it is written that "Thought cannot grasp Him"
: ? Human knowledge and understanding cannot begin to understand the greatness
: of His actions, and certainly not the essence of His being. There is no way
: to grasp, to think about, to understand, or to form a link to something that
: is innately beyond the concepts and definitions of humanity. And this is the
: reason that the presence of G-d brings great fear to an understanding and
: sensitive soul. On the other hand, since G-d truly loves us, and since He
: wants to do good for all the creatures, He approaches very close to us and
: is available to us whenever we need Him ? "G-d is close to anybody who calls
: out to Him" [Tehillim 145:18].

: The same idea is true of the concept of holiness. Love and fear complement
: each other. From the point of view of fear, sanctity is seen as an action of
: separation and division: "'For I am holy' [Vayikra 21:8] ? My holiness is
: greater than yours" [Vayikra Rabba 24]. But on the other hand, "You shall be
: holy, for I am holy" [19:2] implies that the Almighty's holiness is relevant
: for the service performed by man, and He calls out for man to be attached to
: Him and to act like He does.

: The first rabbi of Chabad, the author of the Tanya, explains the text of the
: blessings for a mitzva as follows: He who sanctified us with His mitzvot ?
: this can be compared to a man who marries a woman, saying to her, "You are
: sanctified to me," meaning to be attached, uniquely linked, and in close
: contact. (Compare "kidushin" of the marriage ceremony to "kid'shanu," You
: have made us holy, in the text of the blessings.) Every mitzva plays the
: same role as a wedding ring by which the Almighty brings our souls closer to
: Him and lets us enter "the innermost room, where no slave or minister is
: allowed." And even though the body is linked to this true unity, it is only
: in such a way that man maintains the ultimate choice. In truth, with every
: mitzva a person becomes attached to the Almighty in a way that is different
: from any other link in this world. Even the link between a man and a woman
: doesn't represent this ultimate attachment, which explains why Shir Hashirim
: remains a mere parable of the close link with the Almighty.

: Our sages have taught us that there is no real reward for performing a
: mitzva in this world. The Chassidim explain this as follows: If we put on
: one side of a balance all the pleasures and desires of this world, both
: physical and spiritual, even including the achievements of all the righteous
: people since the day of creation until this very day ? this will not be
: sufficient to pay the reward for observing a single mitzva as it will be
: performed in the world to come. This wonderful future joy will stem from
: being truly joined together with the Almighty, as it were being drawn into
: the "body of the king."

: However, there are two sides to this coin, and they both appear at the same
: time. Together with the supreme feeling of close attachment to the Almighty
: there is an understanding - as part of a feeling of deep sanctity - of the
: great qualitative difference between man and the Creator. The closer we come
: to Him, the more sharply do we become aware that the very possibility of
: becoming attached to a being who is beyond every human limit is a true
: wonder in itself.

: Thus, to be holy is to experience an approach to G-d that cannot be matched
: by any other feeling. It refers to a person whose soul perceives its life in
: this world through the spiritual joy that stems from performing the mitzvot.
: But at the same time, the soul recoils from its great distance to Divine
: heights and perfection as compared to the lowly and lacking earthly reality.
: Those who sanctify G-d's name can reconcile the fact that the Almighty is at
: one and the same time infinitely far above us and also infinitesimally close
: to us.

: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
: SHABBAT-ZOMET is an extract from SHABBAT-B'SHABBATO, a weekly bulletin
: distributed free of charge in hundreds of synagogues in Israel. It is
: published by the Zomet Institute of Alon Shevut, Israel, under the auspices
: of the National Religious Party.
: Translated by: Moshe Goldberg

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