The Zohar tells us that on the last day of his life Rabbi Shimon began speaking (literally ‘opened’) and said ‘I am to my beloved, and His love is for me’ – all the days that I am bonded in this world, I am tied in one knot with the Holy One, and therefore now His love is for me’. The text continues ‘I would always look at this verse “my Soul rejoices with G-d” but now this verse is completely fulfilled. Because my Soul is one with Him, is in flame with Him, cleaves to Him..’. This means that all his life Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was bonded to G-d, and ‘bonded’ means that there are two separate things which are being joined. But now, on the day of his passing away, he has reached a higher level, that he has become one with the Divine, as he said ‘my Soul is one with him’.
While Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (Rashby) only reached this level of unity on the day of his passing, he stated that ‘I would always look at this verse’, meaning that all his life he yearned for this level of closeness to the Divine. Indeed, the Sages say ‘that level which a person is thinking of, there he is completely’. Hence we can say that to some extent he was at this level during his lifetime, but on his last day in this world he achieved it fully.
Further, one could say that this was the inward dimension of his relationship with the Divine during his lifetime, and on the day of his passing that inwardness was revealed, as happens with many people.
Torah teachings provide a number of different terms for the connection that a person might have with Hashem. Devekut, cleaving, means being separate, but cleaving to G-d, like a belt fits round a person’s waist. This is on an external level. More intimate is hitkashrut, being ‘bonded’, like two things tied together, which is on an inner level. These two levels relate to the Korbanot, the Temple offerings, which bring a person close to G-d as in devekut, and Ketoret, incense, which is a deeper level of being bonded. (Note that the word Ketoret relates to the Aramaic word for a knot.)
When the closeness is external, as in devekut, cleaving the relationship might loosen or fade, G-d forbid. But if it is internal, hitkasherut, bonding – then it is permanent.
The effect of the offerings and the incense is to cause a flow from the Divine to the individual and the Jewish people as a whole. The response to the Offerings, is the flow of Mitzvot, which connect with a person on an apparently external level, because the Mitzva is something which is generally carried out externally. But the response to the Incense is Torah, which enters us in an inward way, enabling a deeper connection with the Divine.
Now the Zohar states ‘there are three knots, connected one with the other: the Holy One, Torah and the Jewish people’.
There are two modes in which Torah enters our world from the Divine. One is that is goes through the steps in the ‘downchaining of worlds’, and in this mode, the essence of the Jew connects with the revealed aspect of Torah, and the essence of Torah connects with the revealed aspect of the Divine, beyond which is the hidden aspect of the inwardness of the Divine. In this mode there are several steps between the individual Jew studying Torah and the way his or her inwardness connects with the inwardness of the Divine.
But another mode regarding the Torah is that it is beyond the downchaining of the worlds. This means that when the Jew connects with G-d through the Torah, the connection comes about through the Essence of the Torah which is not limited by the downchaining of worlds, it is beyond them. In this mode, the revealed, outer aspect of the Jew connects with the hidden aspect of G-d, without any intermediary. This means that when one studies Torah with one’s normal mind and understanding, which is one’s external aspect, one connects with the Essence of the Torah and through that also with the Essence of the Divine.
There is an even higher level. Because we have been speaking of the levels at which there are ‘three knots’, meaning a joining of separate entities. But there is another formulation ‘the Jewish people, Torah and the Holy One are’. What this means is that the Jew connects with G-d not only through the Torah (and the Mitzvot which the Torah teaches), but also simply connecting directly with G-d. This is hinted at in the formulation quoted earlier from the Zohar which says ‘there are three knots, connected one with the other: the Holy One, Torah and the Jewish people’. When you think into it, you see there should be only two knots: one connecting the Jew with the Torah, and the other connecting the Torah with G-d. The fact that the Zohar says ‘three knots’ indicates that there is another knot, joining the Jew and the Jewish people to G-d, independent of the Torah, through their Essence.
This bond of the Jew with the Divine is higher than the Torah, and because of this the Jew is able to draw G-dliness into the Torah, as we see the idea that King David joined the Torah with G-d. This means that in addition to the idea that Torah is the Wisdom of G-d, the Jew can draw into the Torah the Essence of G-d, which is where he or she is rooted.
The idea that a Jew is joined to the Essence of the Divine through study of Torah, is generally concealed. The study of Revealed Torah – Mishnah, Talmud, Halachah – does not reveal this Divine bond (which is actually there in a hidden way). But when one studies the inner dimension of Torah, Chassidic teachings, that bond with the Essence becomes overt and explicit.
Now even though the levels to which Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai aspired and eventually achieved, to be ‘bonded’ with G-d, to be ‘one with G-d’, are infinitely exalted, the text of the Zohar says that he ‘opened’. This means he opened the path for every Jew to have some intimation of these exalted levels of intimate connection with G-d. Especially when we study the inner dimension of Torah, which comes from Rashby’s own teachings.
Further, Moshiach promised the Baal Shem Tov that through this study, Moshiach will come, as indeed it says in the Zohar, that Elijah the Prophet said to Rashby ‘with this book of yours (the Zohar) the Jewish people will go out of Exile, with Rachamim (mercy)’.
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