Song of Songs states: ‘I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride’
The Previous Rebbe in his discourse quotes the Midrash which explains that the ‘Garden’ is the place where the Shechinah was originally. However, due to negative events (such as eating from the Tree of Knowledge, and Cain killing Abel), the Shechinah withdrew from the world, ascending to the seventh Firmament.
Then came seven Tzaddikim, who one by one drew the Shechinah back to the world. Moses who was the seventh – and all sevenths are precious – succeeded in the final step, and drew the Shechinah into our physical world, in that he built the Sanctuary and there the Shechinah was revealed in the Holy of Holies.
In general, this is the task of Tzaddikim: to draw the Shechinah into the world. And this is actually the task of every single Jew, since ‘Your people are all Tzaddikim’. Each individual is empowered to do this by Moses: the original Moses, who succeeded in revealing the Shechinah in the Sanctuary; and also the Moses who is in every generation, and also the Moses who is within every single Jew.
Therefore the task of each individual is to create a Sanctuary for the Divine, a concept which includes the idea that the Divine dwells within each person, as it says ‘Make for Me a Sanctuary, and I will dwell in them’, not in it, the Sanctuary alone, but in them, also in each individual.
This is achieved by transforming darkness to light, meaning the darkness and negativity of the world, which is transformed to light by the individual dedicatedly observing the laws of the Torah, which often needs great self-restraint.
This is also hinted at in the word for the planks of the Sanctuary. Keresh (קרש) is a plank, but a word with the same letters, sheker (שקר) means falsehood. One’s task is to transform the falsehood of the world into the planks of the sacred Sanctuary. For ‘world’, עלם (olam) relates to the concept העלם (he-elem), concealment. Each person should strive to take the falsehood of the world which conceals the Divine, and transform it into a Sanctuary for the Divine.
The Previous Rebbe’s Discourse Continues
The Previous Rebbe’s discourse continues with the idea that the Jewish people who have this task are called ‘Tzivot Hashem’, the ‘armies of the Divine’. This term implies that they are dedicated servants of G-d, ready to sacrifice their lives for Him. The Jewish people are also called ‘children of G-d’, and the Zohar (quoted in Tanya) describes a child as totally dedicated to his parents, and ready to give up his life for them. Indeed, the idea of readiness for self-sacrifice is integral to the concept of an ‘army’.
The King’s Hidden Treasure
The Previous Rebbe’s discourse then presents the image of a King who is fighting a desperate battle, which is so vitally important that the King opens his most private treasure store and squanders its precious contents, which have been gathered by generations of his ancestors, and have never been used or revealed before. He gives these precious treasures, by means of the officers, to the ordinary soldiers, to help them in their task.
The discourse explains that this hidden treasure is what the Sages term ‘the treasure of Fear of Heaven’, of which it is said ‘all is in the hands of Heaven, except for Fear of Heaven’.
All this applies particularly to the generation at the ‘heels of the Messiah’, when readiness for self-sacrifice is particularly strong. The self-sacrifice in that (or this) generation is not only in the face of physical threat, but also in facing mockery and scorn.
Chassidic teachings state that when Moses saw into the future, to the generation of the ‘heels of the Messiah’, and he saw this readiness for self-sacrifice, he felt humble. Because the Mesirat Nefesh of that generation is so intense, the Redemption which they will bring about, and the third Temple which will be built, will be permanent, unlike the previous Temples.
The Supernal Treasure
Now, in order to explain the nature of the supernal ‘Treasure’ which is uniquely being revealed and given over by the officers to the soldiers, the original discourse in Chapter 15 quotes the Tikkunei Zohar, which states that ‘the radiance of the Ein Sof extends higher and higher without end, and lower and lower without limit’.
This upper dimension, higher and higher without end, is the ‘Treasure’. The discourse explains that while the famous kabbalistic book Tree of Life begins with depicting the Tzimtzum, the contraction or veiling of the Divine radiance so as to give room, so to speak, for the worlds to be created, in fact there were several levels of Tzimtzum prior to that. All this explains how utterly exalted the ’Treasure’ is, which is given into the hands of each individual Jew, to help him or her to fulfil their task.
The discourse goes into great detail explaining the different levels of Tzimtzum, from the very highest level, and then down, down, concealing the Divine radiance, which enables our world to exist as a material world. And then the discourse declares that this veiling should not be thought of as a ‘lack’, or deficiency. On the contrary: it has a positive purpose to create our physical world. And this world itself is real, as the beginning of the Torah states: In the beginning G-d created Heaven and Earth, yet at the same time the very Essence of the Divine is revealed in our world, even at its very lowest level.
That is why a simple person, or a child, can be aware of G-d, not just as an idea, but truly aware of the Essence of the Divine, beyond all the subtle teachings of the Kabbalah.
And it is in this world, with all its darkness and concealment of the Divine, that we are able to draw the Essence of the Divine Presence back into the world. We do this, in particular, through our service of G-d in daily life, keeping the laws of the Torah which often involves self-restraint and self control, refining our inner selves.
Through this we tangibly reveal the Essence of the Divine Presence in the world, with the true and complete Redemption by Moshiach, swiftly in our days.
