A thought on פרשת ראה
"...asher Anochi metzaveh eschem ha'yom..."
"...that I command you (this) day..." (11:27)
In a recent Parsha Thoughts email (Devarim 1:10), we learned about how Moshe identifies us as "days". We are, in the Divine system, the earthly counterpart of the angels above, who serve the celestial function of filling the seven facets of the cosmos with praise of HaShem. The world below also has its empty space void of spirituality and consciousness of the Divine. Each one of us Jews can fill some of that void through our own spiritual efforts. In that sense, we are "days". In one of seven ways we can bring "daylight" to earth and to humanity. This was the Recanati's interpretation of that verse in parshas Devarim.
Now, you will remember a consistent theme of the Recanati. He has taught us how this world below parallels the higher realm. What we do here is reflected back to us from Above. What takes place above is, in turn, intended for us to resonate. This week the Recanati takes us higher, further and deeper into this theme.
As we have learned before, the Holy Tongue must be understood multidimensionally. When we look at the verse cited above from this week's parsha, we can translate it as I have done, leaving the word "this" in parentheses. There is no "this" in the Hebrew phrase, but we understand it to mean "that I command you this day." A literal translation, however, is "that I command you the day." Now, we might think that this is just another reference or allusion to the thought from Devarim, that once again HaShem is calling us His "days." We could interpret or even translate the phrase as "that I command you days." It is a bit hard to do that, however, since the word eschem is you-plural, and the word ha'yom is singular. That would force us to translate the phrase as "all of you day" which is not grammatical.
This is where the Recanati takes us a step above.
We call HaShem by a number of names, but what does He "call" Himself? The Recanati observes from our verse that HaShem who commands us is also a "Day." The phrase is meant to be understood as "that I, the Day, command you." We know that in our limited dualistic minds, we are wired to perceive things in polarities. We label things as good, and we therefore label other things as bad. We label things as light and thus others as dark. We capture this duality with the celestial illusion of daytime and nighttime. It is the lighting and darkening of the sky which helps us, or forces us, to envision the entire cosmos from an anthrocentric perspective. This leads us to experience Divine acts as either "good" or "bad" and gives us our human attributional concepts of rachamaim and din, compassion and justice. That is our perception and that is our experience.
The Recanati has taught us over and again that the Divine reality Above is Oneness. HaShem above is One and that One is entirely Kindness and Compassion. All of the midos which we attribute to HaShem are in reality the single essence of Rachamim.
This is what Moshe tells us in our verse. Anochi HaYom - I am HaShem the Day. All that which I command you is "daylight." It is from a source of brightness and light and good, all of those things which we associate with "day" as compared with that which is symbolized by "night" and darkness and din. Bracha, Klalla, both of which are described in the parsha, are from the "Day", not from the night. In HaShem's world, surpassing the solar system and the celestial energies, there is no night. It is always day. This is why the Torah refers to Him as "I am the Day."
So now, when we learned earlier of our mission and identity as the seven Pious Days of the mortal world, and we understood these as paralleling the angelic "day" functions, we now see that there is a third strata in the parallel. We are meant to be "days", the angels serve as "days" and HaShem is understood as the Supreme and singular "Day." In that sense, we are following in His way at a more profound level. Just as He is compared to a day, we are meant to serve as His this-worldly "days."
As a postscript, the Recanati ponders how HaShem "refers" to Himself as a "Day" yet we do not seem to call Him by that reference. If this is an attribute or a frame of reference, how is it that we do not call Him by this "name?"
The answer, the Recanati discovers for us, is that we do! Look at the verse in Tehillim 5:4. Dovid HaMelech proclaims, "...HaShem boker Tishma koli..." - HaShem, in the morning You will hear my voice. Now, that is one way to translate the words. The Recanati suggests that the deeper message given us by this phrase is "HaShem Boker... "It is HaShem Who is "Morning" who hears my voice!" King Dovid captured the sod, the secret here, and exulted in the vision that HaShem "is" the Day and when we acknowledge Him with our fullest consciousness, He is the beginning of days, the daybreak, the purest and fullest sign that even from "darkness" there is an emerging light. Dovid envisioned HaShem's "Day" attribute as "daylight piercing the dark," which is what boker signifies in Hebrew.
By now, you are probably in a daze, but what a Day for a daydream...
Good Shabbos. D Fox
"...that I command you (this) day..." (11:27)
In a recent Parsha Thoughts email (Devarim 1:10), we learned about how Moshe identifies us as "days". We are, in the Divine system, the earthly counterpart of the angels above, who serve the celestial function of filling the seven facets of the cosmos with praise of HaShem. The world below also has its empty space void of spirituality and consciousness of the Divine. Each one of us Jews can fill some of that void through our own spiritual efforts. In that sense, we are "days". In one of seven ways we can bring "daylight" to earth and to humanity. This was the Recanati's interpretation of that verse in parshas Devarim.
Now, you will remember a consistent theme of the Recanati. He has taught us how this world below parallels the higher realm. What we do here is reflected back to us from Above. What takes place above is, in turn, intended for us to resonate. This week the Recanati takes us higher, further and deeper into this theme.
As we have learned before, the Holy Tongue must be understood multidimensionally. When we look at the verse cited above from this week's parsha, we can translate it as I have done, leaving the word "this" in parentheses. There is no "this" in the Hebrew phrase, but we understand it to mean "that I command you this day." A literal translation, however, is "that I command you the day." Now, we might think that this is just another reference or allusion to the thought from Devarim, that once again HaShem is calling us His "days." We could interpret or even translate the phrase as "that I command you days." It is a bit hard to do that, however, since the word eschem is you-plural, and the word ha'yom is singular. That would force us to translate the phrase as "all of you day" which is not grammatical.
This is where the Recanati takes us a step above.
We call HaShem by a number of names, but what does He "call" Himself? The Recanati observes from our verse that HaShem who commands us is also a "Day." The phrase is meant to be understood as "that I, the Day, command you." We know that in our limited dualistic minds, we are wired to perceive things in polarities. We label things as good, and we therefore label other things as bad. We label things as light and thus others as dark. We capture this duality with the celestial illusion of daytime and nighttime. It is the lighting and darkening of the sky which helps us, or forces us, to envision the entire cosmos from an anthrocentric perspective. This leads us to experience Divine acts as either "good" or "bad" and gives us our human attributional concepts of rachamaim and din, compassion and justice. That is our perception and that is our experience.
The Recanati has taught us over and again that the Divine reality Above is Oneness. HaShem above is One and that One is entirely Kindness and Compassion. All of the midos which we attribute to HaShem are in reality the single essence of Rachamim.
This is what Moshe tells us in our verse. Anochi HaYom - I am HaShem the Day. All that which I command you is "daylight." It is from a source of brightness and light and good, all of those things which we associate with "day" as compared with that which is symbolized by "night" and darkness and din. Bracha, Klalla, both of which are described in the parsha, are from the "Day", not from the night. In HaShem's world, surpassing the solar system and the celestial energies, there is no night. It is always day. This is why the Torah refers to Him as "I am the Day."
So now, when we learned earlier of our mission and identity as the seven Pious Days of the mortal world, and we understood these as paralleling the angelic "day" functions, we now see that there is a third strata in the parallel. We are meant to be "days", the angels serve as "days" and HaShem is understood as the Supreme and singular "Day." In that sense, we are following in His way at a more profound level. Just as He is compared to a day, we are meant to serve as His this-worldly "days."
As a postscript, the Recanati ponders how HaShem "refers" to Himself as a "Day" yet we do not seem to call Him by that reference. If this is an attribute or a frame of reference, how is it that we do not call Him by this "name?"
The answer, the Recanati discovers for us, is that we do! Look at the verse in Tehillim 5:4. Dovid HaMelech proclaims, "...HaShem boker Tishma koli..." - HaShem, in the morning You will hear my voice. Now, that is one way to translate the words. The Recanati suggests that the deeper message given us by this phrase is "HaShem Boker... "It is HaShem Who is "Morning" who hears my voice!" King Dovid captured the sod, the secret here, and exulted in the vision that HaShem "is" the Day and when we acknowledge Him with our fullest consciousness, He is the beginning of days, the daybreak, the purest and fullest sign that even from "darkness" there is an emerging light. Dovid envisioned HaShem's "Day" attribute as "daylight piercing the dark," which is what boker signifies in Hebrew.
By now, you are probably in a daze, but what a Day for a daydream...
Good Shabbos. D Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 12:11 AM
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